Page 21 of Honeysuckle
“Don’t ever touch me again,” I said as he walked past me.
“Keep hiking,” he responded, after a long, measured breath. “We have two hours left before we pop out on the other side back at camp. It’ll be dark soon.”
TUCKER
Therewasafiregoing when we wandered back into camp. Josh trailed behind me, silent after our argument. I know I handled it badly, the anger that had sparked up had been vicious and unpredictable but…
Ella had saved Cael in so many ways the rest of us couldn’t have. If she hadn’t shown up at Harbor, Cael wouldn’t be here today. It was dramatic, a stretch, but deep down we all knew that Cael had been on a path that would have ended with a funeral none of us ever wanted to have.
Ella was our sister and she didn’t deserve a lick of the venom that had dripped from Josh. That was a breaking point, but it had also shown something about Josh that I hadn’t expected. He had cracked today on the hike, his disdain for families ran deep, almost like he believed his life was worse than anyone else. And maybe it was, but I needed to find out why.
It wasn’t Arlo that had triggered him, which is what I would have assumed.
No… It wasSilas.
I watched as he wandered over to the fire, grabbed food, and secluded himself on his bed roll, away from the rest of the team. Today had gone terribly, what started as an exercise to help him understand that the guys were people and not just players had completely backfired.
Two steps forward, two steps back.
I grabbed a bowl of stew, staring down at the unevenly cut vegetables and sighed,they had left Todd in charge again. I settled down between Van and Cael on a log away from the rest of the team.
“I’m glad it went terribly. That’ll teach you to make us hike,” Cael was quick to joke but quicker to silence when he saw my jaw tighten. “That bad?”
“He insulted Ella and I shoved him against a tree…” I exhaled a shaky, frustrated breath.
Van giggled, which sounded odd from a man his size, but it was definitely a giggle because Cael leaned forward around me to stare at him in bewilderment.
“What? Sounds like he deserved it. He’s not even bruised…” Van extended his bowl in Josh’s direction and grumbled.
“The problem is, I’m the captain. I shouldn’t have snapped like that but—” I shoved food in my mouth and scowled. “This tastes like lake water.”
Both Van and Cael looked at each other before choosing not to tell me the truth about where the water came from.
“Josh can handle it, being roughed up a bit.” Cael set his bowl down between his feet and chose the bun in his lap to fill his stomach. “And if he went after Ella he earned it, but that’s not you. Try leading him to the carrot without hitting him with the stick?”
“What…” I turned to Cael, feeling like an idiot.
“He means try a softer approach,” Van said.
“I am trying, but he has all these preconceived ideas about us as people and it’s frustrating to think he believes them. The rumors, the gossip... We aren’t the stories the news outlets run.” I set my bowl next to my feet.
“If telling him isn’t working, figure out how toshowhim we aren’t,” Van suggested in a surprising turn of events.
“Show him?” I asked.
“Yeah, actions speak louder than words, right? So show him who we are,” Van said with a shrug, tipping the rest of the stew into his mouth. I grimaced at the dribbled liquid on his chin. “You gonna finish that?” He asked, pointing to mine. I shook my head.
“How do Ishowhim when any time I try to include him in crap, the rest of the team cracks jokes and starts fights?” I said, knowing how defeated and pathetically whiny I sounded.
“You’re the captain, man.” Van shrugged as he finished his second bowl.
“And you’re a garbage disposal,” Cael teased. “Neither are helpful additives to this conversation. Let’s just get through this canoe trip without any war games?” He suggested.
“I don’t know. At this point I’m thinking about chucking the captain title at anyone who’ll take it and drowning myself in the lake,” I said.
“Oh, dramatic. You could come back as a serial killer and haunt the Hornets for all of eternity. This canoe trip will be legendary.” Cael grinned.
“Ha, ha.”
