Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
“Well, thank God you knew about it. At least we can get out of the rain.” My teeth chatter a bit. The sudden cool breeze, darkness, and rain-soaked clothes have turned a mild summer day into something quite cold. “What’s next?”
“We wait here for a bit until the creek empties out and it’s safe to use the bridge again.”
“How long should that take?”
“Probably twelve hours or so. It’ll clear out by morning if this is like the storms before it.”
I glare at him. “So we’re staying here all night?”
He nods. “There’s a bigger bridge that won’t have been overrun, but it’s eight miles to the north. I’m assuming you don’t want to make that trip in the pouring rain, or the dead of night when the storm stops.”
I sulk, letting out a breath. “I’m freezing cold already.”
“I can fix that.” Red gets up, and pokes his head out the hole. There’s a nearby bush and he starts snapping twigs and branches off it, tossing them into an ashy circle between us. When there’s enough kindling and he’s shaken some of it dry, he comes back in.
I cross my arms. “This is where Red Rough proves he can rough it, huh?”
“My dad took us camping a lot as a kid, and taught us a lot. How to find shelter, how to start a fire, find food, and a lot of other things. He was always an advocate for knowing what to do when you’re deprived of the luxuries of modern life.”
I smirk. “This is where you start to rub two sticks together, huh?”
He pulls a lighter out of his jeans pocket. “No need.”
“Isn’t that cutting corners, Mr. Rough and Red-y?”
He matches my expression before leaning in and stealing another kiss from me. Its warmth makes me gasp, and it’s appreciated in more than one way.
“Would seeing me rub sticks together make you happier, Annie? Or do you just want the fire?”
“Fire, please.”
He flicks the lighter, and gets the tiny bonfire going. He pokes and teases it to get it burning to a decent strength, enough to warm up our cave but not enough to be overwhelming.
Red unbuttons his flannel and then lays it flat on the ground next to the fire, revealing his bare chest beneath. His muscles are firm and impressive, and I can’t help but keep my eyes on him and his physique. He’s got a fine layer of hair on his chest, no forest, but enough to let me know that he’s sure as hell a man’s man.
He looks my way. “You should at least take off that sweater. It’s not doing a very good job of keeping you warm when it’s soaking wet.”
I blush and nod, realizing he’s right. I pull it up and over my head, and lay it down next to his shirt. I still have my T-shirt on, and as I sit back down, I can’t help but notice Red is staring at me intensely. I look down at my shirt, and see that it’s doing a poor job of hiding my tits.
My blushing mechanism is getting quite the workout today, because I blush harder than I ever have before. I feel compelled to say something, but there’s part of me that wants him to look. Part of me thinks maybe I should just dry my T-shirt too, not to mention my jeans and my panties.
Soon I get a hold of myself, and sit with knees to my chest, as Red tends to the fire. We sit and listen to the sounds of the storm outside. It’s soothing and kinda nice to listen to when you’re not in the middle of it.
After a while, I start picking at the pail of blackberries. It must be six hours since we ate lunch.
The rain’s intensity stops after a little longer waiting, declining to a drizzle at most.
“That’s our chance,” Red says.
“To head back?”
He shakes his head. “I told you, the river is going to be flooded until the morning at least. I don’t think we should subsist entirely on blackberries, as good as they are. We should be able to nab a rabbit around here.”
I raise an eyebrow, skeptical of what he’s saying, but I trust him enough to go with it.
He offers me his hand. “Come along. And bring the pail. We’ll need it to get dinner.”
7
RED
Stepping back out into the forest after the storm is always quite the experience. The scent of it all is magical, and watching Annie, it’s clear she agrees. Not more magical than the sight of her in that wet shirt, but I guess it’s all relative, really.
We are under-equipped for proper hunting, to be perfectly honest. I’ve got a knife, a lighter, the things I always carry with me. Dad showed me the basics of firing a rifle, and both a bow and crossbow, teaching my brother and I to hunt deer. He also showed us how to do spear fishing. None of those things involve a knife and a lighter, but improvising was the next survival element he emphasized.