Page 45 of Love in Tandem
Stomach stuffed with greasy pizza, thirst quenched with orange soda, Charlotte-approved sleeping arrangements made, Zach looked to the dark sky, allowing himself to take his first deep breath of the day. Seventy-five miles. Not bad. Especially considering how neither of them were functioning at full capacity.
After all the craziness of the wedding, the stress of her mom’s health, and rushing to get everything prepared for this challenge, he didn’t imagine Charlotte had been getting much sleep. He sure hadn’t. The memory of their kiss at the wedding reception still kept him awake at odd hours, if he was being honest.
But hopefully tonight neither of them would think about anything except sleep. Then maybe tomorrow they’d both have more energy. The harder they pushed it now, the less pressure they’d have later. And the sooner Zach could get away from Charlotte and these weird feelings. The sooner he could get to California.
The parking lot lights from the bar blotted out any possible stargazing, but the night remained clear. He wouldn’t have to spend his first night on the trail getting drenched, so that was a plus.
While Charlotte had gone back into the bar to use the bathroom once more before they settled in for the night, Zach made quick work of setting up the tent. Now the soft swoosh of footsteps in the grass announced her return.
Clutching a small toiletries kit against her chest, she paused and looked at his sleeping bag spread across the ground outside the tent. Then looked at the tent. Back to his sleeping bag. “You’re not sleeping there, are you?”
“Well, yeah. Unless you want me to sleep on those picnic benches three blocks over.”
“I want you to sleep in there.” She pointed at the tent. “Next to me.”
Well, this was certainly unexpected. And certainly not recommended. Not for a man trying to battle weird feelings some might label as attraction. He scrubbed his face, searching for an excuse. Any excuse. “I can’t. Rick said—”
“I don’t care what Rick said. Rick’s not here. But you know who is here? A bar full of Willies who’ve been drinking away their inhibitions all night long. No way I’m sleeping in that tent all by myself.”
“But wouldn’t it make more sense for me to sleep outside the tent then? If anybody tried to bother you, they’d have to get past me first.”
“What if they tried bothering you? Huh? Did you ever think of that? What if they quietly slit your throat and I had no idea, because you’re outside the tent and I’m inside the tent? We should have brought a gun.”
“Your mom told me about the pepper spray incident with the park ranger. I don’t even want to imagine you with a gun. Now get inside the tent and go to sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We need to cover a lot of ground.”
“I’m only getting in the tent if you do. That’s the deal.”
“I don’t recall making any deals about this. The only deals I recall—”
“I don’t care what deals we made before we left home. Back there we were on our turf. Now we’re on their turf.” She jabbed her thumb at the bar. “People do crazy things on their turf. Like slit people’s throats. Please, I’m begging you. Sleep next to me. I’m not going to sleep at all unless someone’s between me and that zipper.”
Zach rubbed his forehead. She was being ridiculous. But honestly, he was so tired he didn’t care where he slept. Inside the tent, outside the tent, it didn’t matter.
Okay, the scales definitely tipped toward the sleeping-inside-the-tent-right-next-to-Charlotte option. Especially when she whispered, “Please, Zach.”
Her quiet plea barely registered over the country music leaking out from the walls of the bar. But it was loud enough for him to know he’d do just about anything for her when she used that soft tone. “Fine. If you think it’ll make you more comfortable.”
“So much more comfortable.” She was already tugging his sleeping bag inside the tent next to hers. “See?” She gave it a pat as she settled on top of her bag. “Isn’t that better?”
Much better. Which made it much worse. Zach scrubbed a palm down his face again, this time trying to scrub away thoughts of Charlotte lying next to him. For the second time that day, he prayed he wasn’t making a mistake.
“I’m going to use the bathroom.” Maybe a few extra minutes to get a hold of himself and think of all the reasons he shouldn’t be attracted to Charlotte and take advantage of this opportunity to have the length of his body lying next to the length of hers would do him some good.
After stalling as long as he reasonably could, Zach climbed inside, zipping the tent closed behind him. It took effort not to bump into her as he situated himself into his sleeping bag. “Don’t you want to get in your sleeping bag?” Zach asked. “The night’s cooling off.”
Honky-tonk music continued to drift from the bar. “Nah, I’ll get too warm,” Charlotte mumbled, right before a yawn snatched her words. The fabric of her sleeping bag rustled as she stretched, then moaned. “I feel like this has been the longest day of my life.”
Yeah, well, Zach already felt like this was turning into the longest night of his life. And here he’d been counting on a good night’s rest.
The heat of her body radiated next to him in the close quarters as if she were pressed directly against his side. It sure would be helpful if she climbed into her sleeping bag. “You sure you won’t get cold?”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured.
He cleared his throat and turned onto his side, facing away from her. “So tomorrow I’m thinking we get up and eat breakfast, then pack and hit the road no later than eight o’clock. We’re probably going to be up against a lot of hills again. So the more time we give ourselves, the better. It’d be great if we do sixty miles. That’d take some of the pressure off the next day. Especially since I heard something about rain. Maybe we should go for another seventy miles tomorrow. That sound okay?”
He waited for a response. When he didn’t hear one, he rolled over to face her. Well, he tried rolling over to face her. Little rascal had scooched over to the edge of her bag, curling her body into him.
The steady sound of her breaths told him everything he needed to know. She was dead asleep. And he was definitely in for a long night.
