Page 83 of All Bets Are Off

Zach brightened considerably. “You’re a freaking genius. Has anybody ever told you that?”

“No. It’s always nice to hear, though.”

He kissed me again. “This is going to be great.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I warned. “We still need to pitch a tent.”

His lips swished.

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” I intoned.

He laughed. “Come on, baby.” He shoved out and headed toward the dispensary. “Adventure awaits.”

I laughed as I followed him. This was the Zach I wanted to see every single day. This was the Zach who could be happy.

Which Zach would he ultimately become, though? The jury was still out on that one.

20

TWENTY

“Ican’t believe you did this.”

Olivia grunted as she carried some of the loot I’d purchased at the camping store toward the lot we’d rented for the weekend.

I might have gone a little overboard at the store. I had no idea there were so many things you could buy to make camping fun. I’d gone for a big tent with a skylight—who knew?—as well as the promised air mattress, pillows, a deluxe sleeping bag, two coolers, prongs to roast marshmallows, and several lanterns. All in all, I spent a bunch of money. The way Olivia laughed as I kept adding stuff to the cart told me it would be worth it.

The campground had people spread out in every direction. One lot over, they had a huge inflatable alien, and I could smell the scent of pot wafting over even though there was no breeze.

“They’re going to be fun,” I noted, inclining my chin in their direction.

She looked over and shrugged. “Aliens, dude. What are you going to do?”

I laughed and dropped my haul on the ground. “You start working on the tent. You’re the expert. I’ll get everything else.”

By the time I finished carrying everything over, I expected Olivia to have the tent out of the bag and nothing else done. I was shocked when it looked to already be up. “What the…?” I stopped and stared.

Her laugh, again so warm and amazing, ran through me like a bolt of sunshine. “It’s not that hard. We still have to anchor it.”

I watched her work with the mallet she’d insisted was necessary even though I had no idea why and she had the tent anchored to the ground in three minutes.

“That was impressive,” I said as I straightened. “I mean … really freaking impressive. I thought you only went camping a few times as a kid.”

“I said I camped when I was a kid,” she clarified. “I’ve been camping since. Tallulah and I went through a faze where we camped all the time as teenagers.”

“I can’t imagine Tallulah camping.”

“She found out it was a great place to meet men.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And just how many men did you meet when you were camping?”

She did a little hip shimmy. “Why? Are you jealous?”

Was I? Hell yeah. All those feelings I’d managed to shove to the side when I was younger had not only roared back, but they’d also grown in scope. Over the years I’d asked Rex about Olivia from time to time—what she was doing, who she was dating—and he’d answered my questions. I’d been nonchalant when bringing her up, so Rex never gave me a lot of details. I found I wanted them now.

“Let’s eat.” I pointed toward the Popeyes chicken we’d collected on our way off the strip. We’d both agreed, as much as we wanted to be authentic, neither one of us was up for cooking over an open fire. S’mores were one thing. Chicken and eggs were another. We would go into town for breakfast and dinner and be authentic otherwise.

“Yay!” Olivia happily danced over to the picnic table and sat on one side.

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