“It’s nice to meet you both in person. I’m Everly; we’ve been in touch a few times over email and on the phone.” I let go of her hand and take Oliver’s when he holds it out.
“Everly, I don’t know why I thought you’d be much older,” Lauren says; then she looks around, and a second later, her eyes land on the girl standing a few feet away from everyone. “Ozzie, come here!” she shouts, and Maverick tenses next to me.
Ozzie looks less than happy about being summoned, and as she gets closer, I realize that she’s not a girl but a woman my age or just a couple of years younger.
“Yes?” Ozzie raises a brow, and Lauren’s smile slips ever so slightly.
“I just wanted you to tell them about the sleeping situation,” she says, and Ozzie lets out a long breath.
“Lauren, I already told you it’s fine. I’ll stay with Jake; it’s not a big deal.”
“Please stop calling me Lauren; I’m your mom, and you said he makes you uncomfortable,” she reminds her quietly, and Oliver frowns.
“This whole thing makes me uncomfortable.” She looks around. “But who knows? Maybe Jake won’t even show up.”
“Of course he’ll show up.” Oliver sighs.
“He didn’t make it on the bus this morning.”
“He was up late, working.”
“I’m sure,” she mumbles, rolling her eyes at Oliver, and he looks like he’s going to say something, but before he can open his mouth, I cut in.
“I’m sure we can work something out.” I glance between Blake and Maverick quickly, hoping I’m not overstepping but also not caring if I am. No way would I want to share a tent with a man who made me uncomfortable. “If you’re not comfortable sharing a tent, we will give you your own.”
“Babe.” Blake rests his hand against my lower back, and I turn to him. “We don’t have enough tents for that.”
“We don’t?” I frown at him, and his eyes drop to my mouth, making my pulse race.
“I’ll bunk with Jake,” Maverick says, and Ozzie looks up at him, and when her eyes widen, I can only guess that she didn’t notice him before. Maybe she didn’t; Maverick tends to blend in with the background when he doesn’t want to be seen.
“Oh my.” She shakes her head while her cheeks turn a pretty shade of pink. “T . . . that’s not necessary. It’s really not a big deal.”
“Then it won’t be a big deal that you take my tent,” he says; then he looks at the other couples gathered around. “Let’s all head inside. We have breakfast set up, and while you eat, we can go over the schedule for the next few days.” Then, seeming a lot like Blake, he turns without another word and heads up the steps. I watch him go inside and then look at Ozzie, who’s wearing a look of confusion and embarrassment.
“Come on, honey.” Lauren takes her arm and leads her inside, with Oliver and the rest of the group following suit.
“Was that weird?” I turn to ask Blake, and he pulls his gaze off the door and drops his eyes to me.
“Yeah.”
“I thought so,” I mumble. “How do we not have enough tents?”
“This is the largest group we’ve had at one time. We figured that the five we have on hand would be more than enough. I hadn’t thought about ordering more.”
“Right. I’ll put in an order tomorrow. We should have at least a couple extra in case one of them breaks or something,” I say, and he smiles like he thinks I’m being funny. “What?”
“Tents don’t normally break, baby.”
“Fine—rips or whatever.” I roll my eyes at him and head up the steps to the lodge door, ignoring his laughter and just how much I like him calling me babe and baby.
When we make it to the main room, I see that everyone’s started helping themselves to food and drinks, so I go to the television on the wall and grab the remote. Over the last week, whenever I had a minute of free time, I worked on putting together a slide show of pictures that guests have taken while on retreats or guided tours with the guys. I added music, figuring that—if nothing else—it would be good background noise when people were visiting the lodge. When I press play, the first image that comes up is a photo Cybil took, one of the many photos I noticed on the walls of her and Tanner’s house. A beautiful view of a valley and waterfall, with the sky above changing from darkness to dusk.
“Did you do this?” Blake asks, coming to stand next to me.
“I did.” I tip my head back and smile up at him. “Do you like it?”
“Yeah.” His gaze wanders over my face; then his eyes catch on my mouth, and my stomach dips as heat pings between us. I swear I feel him get closer, but the moment is broken when someone shouts.