Page 31 of Love in Tandem
She played with the end of her braid and chewed on her lip. “So we’re still going through with that, are we?”
He fought to hold his grin in check. “We wouldn’t want anybody thinking what we said the other night wasn’t true, would we? But hey, don’t worry. I think by the end of Wednesday, you’ll discover you don’t hate camping as much as you think. Stick with me and you may discover you adore it.”
“I find that about as likely as you adoring fundraisers.”
Good point. Zach patted her arm. “Let’s just take it one day at a time, how about that?” He’d wait until tonight before confessing he had no intention of making her camp out with him for two nights. In fact, it’d be better if she didn’t. The only reason he intended to camp out for a couple of nights was to avoid everything. His mom. This town. The memory of that kiss. “Have your parents decided about the time-share yet?”
“They have.” She stopped chewing her lip, a genuine smile lifting the corners. “And they’re flying down there Wednesday afternoon. Seems once they embraced the idea, they couldn’t pack fast enough. Plus they found an amazing deal on a flight.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Me too. I mean, it is the reason I’m doing this.” She motioned to the van. “I’m still not really sure why you’re making me do this though. Was there seriously nobody else in the world you could get to go on this canoe trip?”
“Is there seriously nobody else in the world you can get to help with your fundraisers?”
“Touché.” Charlotte slurped coffee out of her thermos. “Let’s get this over with. And by the way, because you’ve tacked on extra days to this already horrific expedition, I think it only fair to warn you I felt the need to come up with something equally horrifying to compensate for the mental and emotional turmoil this trip is sure to cost me until my dying day and apply it to you in equal shares in regard to my fundraising endeavors.”
Zach shook his head. “That’s a lot of words to unpack at six in the morning. Not sure I followed all of it.”
“I’m going to make you pay.”
“That I follow.” Zach slipped a worn Chicago Cubs ball cap out from his back pocket and tugged it over his head. “Pretty sure making me spend countless hours selling baked goods and doing car washes will be payment enough.”
Charlotte scoffed. “I need big bucks, not pennies. This year I’m thinking outside the box.”
“How far outside the box?”
“Pig kissing.”
He opened the passenger side door for her. “That idea is totally inside the box. Nobody wants to see that.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure people are always happy to pay good money to see a handsome man smooch a pig. Or wait.” She snapped her fingers. “Maybe we give them an option. They can pay said handsome man to either kiss the pig or kiss them.”
“Am I said handsome man? I can’t tell whether to be flattered or scared.”
“It’d be like a pig-kissing booth.”
“Scared. I should definitely be scared.”
“Now you know how I feel about camping.”
“Pretty sure we’re not going to run into any pigs out in the woods.”
“Yeah, but we may run into spiders.”
“And are you planning to kiss them?”
“I’d rather kiss a pig.”
“Well then, maybe you should be the one in the pig-kissing booth.”
Charlotte smiled at him, and he smiled back. And they might have gone on smiling at each other for a while longer if Rick hadn’t walked over, looking down at his phone.
“Uh, guys?” Rick turned the screen to face them. He had the online newspaper site pulled up. Zach had just spotted his name when Rick said, “You’re seriously going to try doing this couples challenge?”
ARE YOU NUTS?
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
