Page 57 of Love in Tandem
“What does that mean?”
A bolt of lightning sliced through the sky. Zach flinched the same moment Charlotte heard the horrific crack. He grabbed Charlotte’s hand and pulled her after him, dragging her as fast as he could in the mud before he tackled her to the ground and covered her body. The ground shook with a heavy thud.
Charlotte buried her face in Zach’s neck, his weight covering the length of her.
After a moment, he lifted his face and started running his fingers over the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her wet hair. “You okay? You didn’t hit your head, did you? Can you breathe? Did I knock the wind out of you?”
Oh, he’d knocked the wind out of her all right. She and Ben had dated for years, planned to marry. And she couldn’t think of a single time they argued the way she and Zach did. Not even when Ben had called off their wedding.
Why did the thought of arguing with Zach thrill her more than keeping the peace with Ben ever had? She dipped her gaze to his mouth. Maybe because the thought of making up with Zach after every argument lit a blaze in her stomach faster than the lightning bolt in the sky.
“Charlotte, you okay?” Zach’s thumb brushed her cheek. “Say something.”
“What was that?” she managed to squeeze out.
“Lightning must have hit one of the trees. You sure you’re okay?” He leaned up on his elbows, his hands braced on each side of her face as he looked the length of her body over as well as he could with their legs entangled. “You don’t look okay. You look—”
“Kiss me.”
Zach’s head snapped up, his eyes locked on hers.
Charlotte slipped one hand around his neck and gripped the front of his wet shirt with her other. “You promised me one kiss if I asked. I’m asking.”
His lips parted and his arms began to shake. She lifted her face closer to his.
“Charlotte, I’m not so sure—”
She closed the distance between them and silenced his words.
His lips were cold and tasted like rain. “Charlotte, what—”
She chased his lips a second time. This time they were warmer. Softer. Slower to pull away. “Charlotte, are you—”
She silenced him a third time. He balanced on his elbows, not touching her except for his lips, which scalded her skin as they moved from her mouth to her jaw, her neck, back to her lips. Then his arms were beneath her, rolling them over so she was on top of him.
They remained that way a long time. Long enough for the storm to pass. The rain to slow. Charlotte didn’t know how long they might have continued if a beam of light hadn’t hit them. If a throat hadn’t cleared.
Charlotte startled, falling off Zach. He caught her with an arm and leaned forward on his other elbow, breathing hard and squinting against the harsh beam of light.
Whoever held the flashlight appeared to be shuffling back and forth on his feet, probably not sure what to say to a couple of people who got their kicks making out in mud piles. “Um, I just came down to check . . . It looked like a tree might have . . . Some other campers said they saw you two come down this way . . . so just wanted to . . .” He cleared his throat again. “Everybody doing okay?”
Zach climbed to his feet and offered Charlotte a hand up. “We’re doing okay. Right, Charlotte? We’re doing okay?”
They were both coated head to toe in muck, their tent flattened into a muddy pancake. “Yep. Doing okay.”
The park ranger cleared his throat. “Okay, well . . .” His flashlight grazed over their campsite. “Hopefully the worst of the storm is over. Even so, you, uh, might want to consider moving to higher ground or . . .” He sighed. “Aw, you guys don’t stand a chance of getting dried out tonight. And we don’t have any open cabins. Tell you what, why don’t you come stay with me? I live with my mom. She won’t mind. Except—” He aimed his flashlight to the ground where they’d been rolling around like a couple of pigs on their honeymoon. “You can’t be doing any of that.”
Charlotte giggled and slapped a muddy palm over her mouth. She couldn’t help it. It was either that or start crying. What had her life become? Covered in mud, kissing her ex-fiancé’s brother like a crazed hormonal teenager, about to stay the night with a stranger and his mother.
What would Sophia think? What would her parents think? What would her entire town think? Oh, she knew exactly what they’d think. They’d think canoodling was her thing, not cardio.
Charlotte collapsed to the ground in hysterics.
Zach appreciated the hospitality, he did. It’s not every day a stranger takes you into their home and provides you with food and dry clothes. He just wished the food were something other than pork and sauerkraut and the clothes something other than costumes from a stage production of A Christmas Carol.
Zach tugged at the collar of his Ebenezer Scrooge nightgown. He’d politely declined the matching nightcap. Charlotte had enough to giggle about from across the kitchen table as it was. In fact, she hadn’t stopped giggling since the park ranger had discovered them at the campgrounds together.
For a minute, Zach thought she was having some sort of weird laughing panic attack when she’d collapsed in a muddy puddle, cackling her head off for a solid five minutes before Zach managed to get her back on her feet again.
