We arrived at Mount San Jacinto a couple hours ago, and the second our feet hit the dirt, we started setting up for the weekend.
I helped Brady unload the barbecue and ice chests from the back of his truck while Mason and Chase got to work on the tents. Cameron and Ari grabbed the rakes they brought and started clearing out the brush, piling it up at the edge of the campsite. The girls popped up a couple tables, and just as Brady and I got the propane tanks hooked up and headed to help with the rest of the tents, Ari intercepted me.
“Noah will start on the food.” She looks to me with a proud grin, tugging me toward the bins stacked near the road.
“The things inside this bad boy are all you’ve got to work with, Chef Riley.” She lifts the top one, pushing it into my arms. “Think you can make some magic?”
My hands lock around it, but she doesn’t let go. “I haven’t seen what’s in it yet…”
“The magic is in the man, not his tools.”
“I hardcore disagree.” Cam skips by, snagging the smaller container to the side.
Ari laughs, looking to me as she steps back, and together, we walk the bins down into the campsite. We drop them at the edge of the tables, pushing the one we don’t need yet beneath it, and she leaves me to dig through them, while she shuffles left to turn on the grill.
Cameron slips over, tying down plastic tablecloths, and then pauses to watch while I do what I can with the seasoning available.
“Okay, Noah.” She grins at the foil pan, setting some napkins beside me before she walks away.
It’s not too much later when I’m pulling the first few of the chicken legs from the flame, right as several sets of headlights reach the camp from the road above. And just like that, it’s a party.
Beers are passed around, more tents are popped up, and by the time everyone has arrived and eaten, there’s still a tin full of meat for people to come back to later.
The sun went down an hour ago and the fire’s burning high.
I sit back, watching the others chat and laugh for several minutes, realizing this is the first time in a long-ass time I’ve stepped away from life.
Damn if I didn’t need it, and I don’t believe for a second Ari didn’t know it.
She knew and I didn’t.
When she told me she was going camping this weekend, I tried not to think about it, when, in reality, it was all I could think about.
Her leaving.
Him being there…
A frown pulls at my brows, but I shake it off.
I didn’t expect her to ask me to come, not even a little bit, so when she did, I didn’t care to think past the fact that she wanted me here.
Because what matters outside of that?
Not a damn thing.
Ari laughs at something someone says, smiling as she swipes the hair from her face, and I can’t help but grin.
Sneaking away a moment, I head to my truck, using an old water bottle to rinse my hands and grab the hoodie from the front seat, pulling it on. Despite Ari’s offer to share her tent, that I’m almost positive Cameron is also sleeping in, I brought the one I won in a raffle at last year’s Award Gala. It had never been opened but was nice and easy to set up. It’s a pop-up style, designed for the bed of my truck. It took two minutes to open and tie down, and I brought my mattress pad from home for a bed.
Locking the cab once more, I head back to the campgrounds, and as step back into the campsite my eyes immediately find her.
She’s in the back of Brady’s truck now, singing and dancing around with Cameron and a couple others I don’t know. The crazy girl’s in shorts and a T-shirt, her shoes kicked off somewhere. Her hair is up in a ponytail, the tips brushing over her back where her top’s lifted a bit. She’s relaxed, in her element, laughing and swaying to the beat, a half-drunk Corona in her hand.
Sensing me near, she finds me over her shoulder.
She spins instantly, her body facing me now, a big, beautiful smile on her soft lips, but she doesn’t stop dancing. Her hips continue to sway as she beckons me with the crock of her finger, a gleam in her October eyes.
I make my way to her, slow and deliberate.
I want her to feel me coming.
I want her body to heat all over in anticipation.
I know it will.
Once I’m in reach, her soft little hand stretches out, asking for mine.
When I make her wait an extra second, her chin dips all shy-like, and if the glow of the fire wasn’t lighting her up, I’d get to witness the way she flushes pink for me.
I hop up into the bed of Brady’s truck, a smirk pulling at my lips as I take her hand in mind, but I don’t have to haul her to me. She steps in on her own and without a moment’s hesitation.
A little hazy from the beer and a half she’s treated herself to, she looks up at me, and I lift my thumb, freeing her bottom lip from her teeth. A closed mouth giggle works its way up her throat, and she pushes up on her toes, her hands loosely locking behind my neck.
“For the record,” she repeats my earlier words with a smile. “You can kiss me anywhere you want.”
I lift a brow at her playful words, but we both know what she means.
I can kiss her when I feel like it, no matter where we are, no matter who is around, and this girl… she’ll kiss me right back.
Unable to wait any longer, I push my hood off my head and dip down, covering her lips with my own.
She smiles against my mouth, her grip tightening. Her heavy inhale has me pulling back, but not before I press my teeth into her lower lip. She chuckles, opening her eyes to meet mine.
“Anymore and this would turn into something nobody else gets to see.” I press my thumb to her throat, my pulse jumping at the wild beat of hers.
Ari grins and starts rolling her hips again, so I follow her lead, bringing my hands down until they’re tucked into the back pockets of her shorts.
We’re dancing to the upbeat music, perfect for the bonfire, but I’m not even hearing it.
She mustn’t either, because her chin falls to my chest then, her soft whispers reaching my ear as she sings to herself, but the lyrics coming from her don’t match the ones from the speakers.
She’s listening to that internal jukebox of hers, singing along to the song looping in her mind, Luke Bryan’s Play It Again, and I couldn’t agree more.
I want to relive the night with her ten times over, and then do it again. And again. It’s simple and small, but it’s perfect.
She is perfect.
Ari pulls back, so she can look up at me, the golden flecks in her eyes catching against the moonlight and reflecting against my own. It may as well be only her and me up here.
She’s all I see.
My Juliet.
