Less than a year later…

She never should have agreed to come on this trip, she realized as she turned over onto her side and blinked away another tear as she listened to the Bradford boys talking and laughing around the fire.

At least if she’d stayed home she’d be able to lounge around in her pajamas, eating junk food and watching Lifetime movies while she wallowed in self-pity. Instead, she was stuck on this trip, forcing herself to smile and laugh at jokes while pretending that she wasn’t dying inside. Maybe she should just tell them that she wasn’t feeling well and get a ride into town, she thought even as she dismissed the idea. She didn’t want to talk about it and if she told them that she wasn’t feeling good, they’d gang up on her until she told them what was going on.

Sighing, she rolled over onto her other side, trying to find a comfortable position on the old, lumpy sleeping bag that Darrin had dug out of his parents’ garage. After a few more turns, groans and sighs, she decided to steal Darrin’s sleeping bag and use it as a mattress. Sitting up, she reached over to do just that when she heard a twig snap close by.

“I’m fine,” she muttered as she grabbed her sleeping bag and threw it on top of his.

“Then come out and join us,” Darrin said as he unzipped the large net window at the back of the tent.

“No,” she simply said as she sat on top of her mattress, laid back and closed her eyes.

“You want to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, not exactly surprising her that he’d realized that something was wrong, but she’d kind of been hoping that he’d just assumed that she was upset about Malcolm.

“No,” she said, rolling over onto her side, facing away from him and hoping that he’d just take the hint and go away.

“I know that you’re not upset about that prick, so tell me what’s going on?” he asked just as she registered the feel of his fingertips tracing a line down her neck, leaving a path of goose bumps behind.

“He wasn’t a prick,” she admitted with a grumble.

Malcolm had been a nice guy, sweet, kind, considerate and had apparently been falling in love with her, something that she’d warned him against. Unfortunately he hadn’t listened. While she’d been hoping for something casual to pass the time, he’d been imagining a life together filled with children, puppies and a white picket fence.

“Maybe not, but he wasn’t the right guy for you,” he said softly as he continued caressing her cheek.

Hating the way that she reacted to him, she reached up and brushed away his touch. “I’m tired, Darrin,” she said, pointedly closing her eyes, hoping that he’d just leave her alone so that she could continue to wallow in self-pity.

“I see,” he murmured.

“Good. Then go away.”

“I will...just as soon as you complete the dare I just gave you,” he murmured, sounding thoughtful as she lay there, frowning and wondering what he was talking about.

“You didn’t dare me,” she pointed out as she rolled over onto her back.

“I didn’t dare you to go skinny dipping?” he asked, sounding thoughtful as she immediately sat up and headed for the tent flaps, all while praying that she made it in time before he could dare her to take a dip in the ice cold lake that she’d been avoiding since they’d arrived earlier this afternoon.

She’d just managed to grab hold of the zipper standing between her and freedom when the large bastard sealed her fate with four simple words, “I double dare you.”

*-*-*-*

“You. Bastard!”

“How’s the water?” he asked, shooting her a smile and a wink as he threw another log on the fire.

“I hate you!” she hissed as she continued to slowly make her way into the ice-cold lake as he took his time setting up their mini camp.

“You love me and you know it,” he reminded her as he walked over to the fallen log and grabbed the rolled up sleeping bag that he’d hidden earlier.

“Hate! I hate you!” she snapped around chattering teeth.

“That’s just the freezing cold water talking, sweetheart,” he said as he rolled out the sleeping bag in front of the roaring fire.

“No, this is,” she bit out, sounding triumphant and letting him know that he was about to get a taste of his own medicine, but he’d been expecting it. “I double dare you to get your ass in here.”

“I see,” he muttered, making sure to sound appropriately put out as he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his clothes.

“I hope you freeze your balls off, you sick bastard!” she hissed through a clenched jaw as he tossed his boxers aside and stepped into the cold lake.

“Shit,” he hissed as he forced himself to keep going, wishing that he’d come up with something else to help take her mind off that asshole.

“This was a dumb dare,” she muttered as he joined her.

He chuckled as he reached for her, pleased when she wrapped her arms around him and held on, most likely trying to steal the last of his body heat, but at the moment he didn’t care. “I’d imagined this going a little bit differently,” he admitted, deciding that telling her that he’d actually planned a romantic midnight picnic for two by the lake probably wouldn’t be in his best interest, not when the admission would cause her to shove him away and storm off.

“You lose your dare privileges for two weeks for this bullshit,” she announced as she wrapped her legs around him and tightened her hold around his shoulders.

“Fine,” he said, deciding not to argue, not when she was in his arms like this.

“And you’re doing my laundry for a month after this,” she informed him as she buried her face against his shoulder.

“Will it count if I drop it off at a Laundromat?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder before he could stop himself.

“It depends,” she mumbled against his shoulder.

“On what?” he asked, closing his eyes as he prayed for control.

“On whether or not you’re willing to splurge for the good softener,” she mumbled, making him chuckle as he tightened his arms around her.

“You’re a greedy little thing,” he said distractedly as he moved back in the water, needing to do something to take his mind off of just how good it felt to have her in his arms like this.

“You already knew this,” she muttered as she reached up and gently trailed her fingers through his hair.

He sighed heavily as he kissed her shoulder. “True,” he agreed, closing his eyes as he moved through the water, enjoying the fact that he could hold her like this without worrying about some prick trying to come between them.

This time he wasn’t going to wait for the right time to tell her how he felt. This time he was going to tell her that he loved her before some other asshole could come into the picture and force him to wait again. He couldn’t stomach the idea of sitting back and watching as some other asshole held her when he knew with every fiber of his being that he was supposed to be the one holding her in his arms. He swallowed hard, dreading her reaction even as excitement tore through him.

“I need to tell you something,” he said even though he had absolutely no idea how to tell her that he was in love with her, not after all this time.

She shifted in his arms and sighed heavily. “If it’s something that’s going to depress me, I’d rather you kept it to yourself.”

“It’s not depressing,” he promised her, although he was pretty sure that he would find it depressing if she rejected him.

“Okay,” she said, pulling back so that she could look up at him as her fingers continued to toy with his hair, “tell me.”

He opened his mouth to tell her that he loved her, that he wanted to be with her, wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, to have children with her, but he couldn’t find the right words. He’d practiced this in his head a hundred times a day for years, but now that he had her in his arms and another asshole was out of the picture, he couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to say to make her take a risk on him, on them.

“What is it?” she asked, shifting her hand away from the back of his head so that she could cup his jaw. “Darrin? Are you okay?”

“I…,” he started to say only to end up shaking his head with regret, because no matter what he said or did, he was going to fuck this up and probably lose her.

So instead, he kissed the top of her head and told himself that this wasn’t the right time.