Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
23
TILLY
My face scrunches as Chloe and I stand by the lake, watching Zeph shamefully attempt to pitch his tent. It’s a hot mess. Tent pegs are flying across the shore, the little window is upside down, and the door is somewhere . . .
“See, this is what happens when you take a rich kid out of his natural habitat,” I tell Chloe, seeing that she’s just as stumped as I am.
“Has he . . . wait.” She pauses as she looks over the tent, taking a few steps to the right to see around the other side of it. “Shit. He’s literally trapped himself in there. There’s no door.”
Zephyr groans and grunts, getting frustrated with himself. “How the fuck did you do this?” he calls through the doorless tent, standing to his full height inside of it, his head bulging at the top.
My gaze sails across the lake to my pristine tent, put up in under twenty minutes to absolute perfection. “I read the instructions.”
“I’m a man. I don’t need instructions.”
Chloe rolls her eyes and starts setting up a few camping chairs by the firepit that was left here from the previous campers. “There’s no way I’m sleeping in there with him. I’m going to freeze.”
“Uh-uh,” I say, shaking my head. “Don’t even think about it. This whole stupid camping out in the wilderness thing was your brilliant idea, so you can suffer the consequences and deal with the cold tent with Zeph while I’m toasty warm in mine. You can survive off each other’s body heat if you have to.”
“Fuck it,” Zephyr says a moment later, lifting the whole tent off the ground and pushing it up and over his head until it crumbles in a messy heap beside him. “We’re sleeping in the car.”
I let out a sigh and glance back at Chloe. “Are you sure this is really the guy for you? If you just gave me a chance, I’m sure I could find someone better.”
“Hey! I heard that, you stuffed ham sandwich.”
“You were meant to, one-pump chump.”
Zeph gasps, his eyes wide. “Excuse you?”
“Oh, you know. You showed up fast and left even faster. Came with that limited-time energy. I just never imagined it could have possibly been that limited. Didn’t even get a chance for my ramen to cook the whole way through.”
Chloe laughs. “Yeah, definitely a sprinter, not a marathon runner.”
Zeph looks between us both, his jaw hanging open in horror, clearly not enjoying being the target of our teasing, but what the hell did he expect on a trip like this? We’re obviously not going to tease each other. He’s prime candidate number one. “What the fuck is going on here? You’re both fucking liars. I’ve fucked you both for hours on end.”
I glance at Chloe. “I’d sneeze, and it’d be over.”
“Better not blink,” she laughs. “You’ll miss it.”
Zeph shakes his head. He clearly knows we’re fucking with him. Being with Zeph was wild and exotic, and it sure as hell lasted longer than just a few minutes. He could thoroughly satisfy any woman, but picking on him is too good of an opportunity to pass up. And to be completely honest, it’s going a long way in making me feel better.
“You know,” Chloe says a moment later, her gaze skimming over Zeph before returning to me. “I’d get rid of him if I could, but there’s just something so charming about him. I’m obsessed. Besides, you get it. You know all about that trick he can do with his fingers.”
“Oh, I know all about that trick,” I tell her, remembering the exact moment he discovered how to do it. “You can thank his daddy for that. I was there when he learned it.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Zeph groans, storming toward us and bailing on the tent entirely. “Can we not have one night without you assholes talking about violating my dad?”
I shake my head. “Sorry, but you’re asking for the impossible there. When someone fucks as good as your dad does, it’s basically guaranteed that it will be talked about—in great descriptive detail. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it also requires diagrams.”
“Ooh. Diagrams?” Chloe asks.
Zeph stands up and strides over to Chloe, gripping the armrests of her camping chair and leaning down into her. “I hate you both,” he tells her before swiping his lips over hers in a swift kiss and making her cheeks flush the brightest shade of pink, bringing a stupid smile to my face.
Zeph turns his attention back to the tent, and I let out a breath. “Stop thinking so hard,” I tell him, getting to my feet and striding toward the jumbled tent. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
Twenty minutes later, the three of us sit around the blazing firepit as the sun begins its descent. It took a minute, a few tears, and an almost black eye for Chloe, but the three of us eventually managed to fix the mess that Zeph had created with their tent, and now two pretty orange tents stand together, only one of them looks a little worse for wear.