Page 10 of Savage

“Not this one but I used to have one just like it. It shouldn’t take us more than about fifteen minutes to get it up and staked. I pulled it out of the box and added a couple of things to the bag before they loaded it for me.” He bent to one knee, unzipped the bag, and started pulling things out, lining them up on the ground. “You ever tent camped?” He glanced up at her, a curious look on his face.

“Yeah, we used to do it all the time growing up, but it’s been a few years.” She was surprised he hadn’t asked sooner, like maybe when they’d been at the store and he’d been tossing things into the cart, telling her they’d need this or that. She hadn’t said anything because she’d mostly agreed, and he didn’t seem to mind the expense, and the few things she didn’t think they had to have, would make the experience a little more comfortable, and she appreciated that he was thinking not just about what she would need, but what would make her feel better.

It only took them about ten minutes to get the tent set up.

“Do you want to finish staking it down or go get some of our gear?” Savage asked, flipping the rubber mallet he’d pulled from the tent bag in one hand.

Donna looked at the tent then back toward the trailer that had hauled all the gear. She didn’t mind the walk, but between here and there were a bunch of tents and men and she’d rather not walk through them alone, at least until she had to.

“I’ll do the stakes, if you don’t mind getting our stuff,” she offered.

“No problem.” He handed her the mallet, turned toward where they’d parked the vehicles and left at a jog.

She was glad to see he had that much energy, but wasn’t sure she could have done the same, though she wasn’t sure why she was so tired. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention to the stakes on the tent. She’d just finished with the ones on the tent itself and started on the cords that lead to the rain cover when he came back, a backpack slung over each shoulder, both sleeping bags in one hand, and something else, she wasn’t sure what was in his other.

“How’s it going? Need help?” he asked as he approached.

“I’m good.” She hurried around to the front, opened the zipper, and stepped back so he could set things inside rather than on the ground. He put things inside, then toed out of his boots before stepping inside in just his socks. She blinked at his boots sitting just outside the door, then went back to staking out the tie-downs.

“There, that was the last one,” she said as she finished and pushed herself to her feet again.

“Good. Do you want to step in here and make sure this looks all right to you?”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Donna said as she made her way back to the doorway. Ducking her head she looked inside and found him on his knees in the middle of the space, a sleeping mat unrolled on either side of the door.

“Which end do you think we should put our heads?” he looked up at her, meeting her gaze. “I prefer feet to the door but I’m not sure it’s just little higher on this side.” He motioned toward the door. “And which side do you want?”

“I don’t know.” She kicked her running shoes off and left them beside his as she stepped inside. “How do you sleep?”

He frowned for a moment. “On my back, usually, why?”

“Because I sleep on my side, usually on my left side if I’m given a choice. And I was just thinking about if I’d rather face the middle or the tent wall. I don’t have a huge preference, so I was going to give you the choice.”

“But you do have a preference?”

She lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “A small one. I’d rather face the middle, but I’m good either way.”

“Then you take this one.” He lifted the sleeping bag he’d bought for her and dropped it on the bedroll to the right of the door, before tossing his own onto the other. “I recommend getting the place organized so if you don’t make it back before dark, you can do everything you need to with just a minimal amount of light. Though I do recommend waiting to unroll your sleeping bag until later.” He glanced over at where her bag lay on top of the mat he’d already unrolled. “Or maybe go ahead and open it up, then reroll it at least partly so nothing crawls in but you.”

Donna stared at him for a moment then blinked slowly as his words processed. Nothing crawls into her bed but her? She shuddered at the idea of bugs or other creatures in her sleeping bag. He was right though about making sure everything was in place for later. She knelt on her sleeping pad and took care of the few things she had.

13

Savageknewhehadto say something before they finished in the tent and went back out to join the others. He didn’t know how she would take what he had to say but it had to be said.

“Hey, I need to talk to you a minute,” he said, stopping what he was doing and sitting on his sleeping mat, facing her side of the tent.

“Sure, what is it?” She kept moving, putting things away, but didn’t look at him.

“It’s kind of serious, can you sit a minute?”

Donna looked at him, frowned, then did as he asked, still holding a package of socks in one hand.

“What is it?” she asked, her hands fumbling with the socks, belying her nerves.

“I wanted to talk to you for a minute about tonight.”

She stared at him with wide eyes but didn’t say anything.

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