Page 82 of All Bets Are Off

“I trust you,” he said in a soft voice when it became apparent I wasn’t going to say anything. “I trust you with everything I have.”

“Good, because I have an idea.”

Zach’s eyes went back to the sign. “You want to get high?”

“I was thinking we could get some indica, maybe a few gummies, whatever else strikes your fancy. Then we could hit up the camping goods store.”

That did it. Realization sparked in his eyes. “You want to go camping.”

“It’s the only way we can be certain we’ll be alone. Just you, me, a cooler, some pot, and a beautiful desert sky. We can do whatever we want?—”

“You better mean each other when you say that,” Zach groused.

“We can sleep in. We can talk. We can do whatever we want in the moment. All we really need is two sleeping bags, a tent, some food—I’m voting for Popeyes—a cooler, and forty-eight hours of us.”

Zach pressed his lips together, debating. “I’ve never been camping,” he said finally. He almost looked embarrassed.

“Well, I have. We’re not going to be roughing it. I thought we would go over to Lake Mead. There are designated campgrounds there. They have bathroom facilities so we don’t have to worry about that. Nobody will know us over there, though.”

Zach studied me for a long time. “If I tell you I’m afraid to camp, will you laugh at me?”

“No. I will protect you, though.”

“See, that makes me want to laugh at myself.” He drummed his fingers on his knee. “Basically you’re saying you want to get stoned and eat s’mores.”

Oh, I hadn’t even thought about that. “S’mores!” I raised my fist in the air.

He laughed, and it deflated a lot of the tension we were both feeling. “Fine. We’ll go camping. I want a decent tent, though.”

“Okay, but that’s going to be expensive.”

“I don’t care. I want a decent tent, one of those sleeping bags designed for two people, and an air mattress.”

“Wow, that’s really roughing it,” I drawled.

He ignored me. “I want good liquor, a cooler full of ice, whatever pot we can scrounge up, and s’mores. I also want a lot of sex.”

“Dude, we’re seriously going to spend the entire weekend talking about what you want to take camping instead of actually going camping.”

He grinned, and whatever happened with his father an hour before was already a memory. “I like this idea, Livvie. It will be a first for me.”

“So, you’re on board?”

“I’m on board.” He leaned in and pressed a hard kiss to my mouth. “Let’s do this. Let’s have some fun.”

I grinned. “Let’s dream,” I agreed.

He shot me a confused look. “I don’t know what that means.”

“You will,” I promised. “You’ll see when we get out there.”

“Then let’s do it. Although, what are we going to tell your brother?”

“I thought we would just leave him a note.”

“You don’t think that’s going to irritate him?”

“Isn’t there a Taylor Swift concert in town this weekend? He’s going to be too busy with her fans to worry about us.”

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