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I was exhausted, but when I looked at my watch it was only 8:00 o'clock. "I know it's early, but we'll be up before sunrise tomorrow," Chance said. "I'll bank the fire. If you need to make a trip, he nodded his head toward the woods, take the flashlight with you."
I made my trip behind some bushes at the edge of the forest. When I got back, Chance was standing outside the tent. He held up the flap, so I could crawl inside. "Your pack's in there. If there's anything you need to do in private, now's your chance. I'll wait out here until your settled in your sleeping bag."
When I crawled inside, my new purple sleeping bag was spread out next to a well-worn orange one. I opened up the pack trying to decide what clothes to sleep in. I traded my jeans for yoga pants and pulled my fleece off over my head. It was warmer in the tent than I expected. "I'm all set, I think," I said.
"Stay in the tent. I'll be back in a few minutes," he said. I assumed he was walking off to take care of his nightly visit to the bushes.
A few minutes later, he called out, "I'm coming in." He opened the tent flap and crawled in. He sat on his sleeping bag and pulled off his boots. He turned off his flashlight and tucked it into a net bag hanging from the tent pole on his side. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a beat-up metal box labeled "first aid." He opened it and pulled out several items, laying them beside him. "We need to make sure you don't have any blisters. Take your socks off," he said.
As soon as I pulled off one sock, Chance reached for my foot and pulled it into his lap. I shivered at the contact. "Are you cold?" he asked.
"I'm fine. I've been cold since I got to Wilkins’ Gap. Do you people even know what summer is?" I was babbling, mystified by the way my body reacted to Chance's touch. He opened an alcohol pad and cleaned the bottom of my foot. "This one looks good. Let's see the other one," he said, putting the clean foot back on my sleeping bag and taking the other into his lap. Involuntarily, I shivered again, and I saw Chance look at me. He knew he was causing my body to react, and he smirked.
I had one small blister on my right foot that Chance doctored and bandaged. As he tended to my foot, he explained we needed to care for it, so it didn't get worse as we'd be hiking more miles each day.
I tried not to stare at Chance, but there was nowhere else to look. He stripped down to his t-shirt and jeans before crawling into his sleeping bag. A couple of minutes later, the jeans came out. This is what I meant when I said sharing a tent would be too intimate.
I scooted down into my bag. "Good night, Chance. Thanks for not killing me today." As he reached to turn off the small lamp, he said, "Back at you, City Girl."
As expected, I had trouble falling asleep. I was physically exhausted, but it was too early and too quiet. It was only a few minutes before I heard Chance snoring lightly. Rather than annoying, I found it was just enough noise to allow me to get to sleep.
XXX
I felt something tickling my ear and brushed at it without waking up. When it happened again, I woke up a little more. "Wake up, Everly," Chance said. "We need to get moving."
"Fudge," I said louder than I intended. As I feared, I was snuggled up against Chance with my head on his chest.
"What's that?" he asked.
I rolled over and pushed myself up to a sitting position. It seems my body is determined to get friendlier with Chance than I think is a good idea. "Sorry. I was just talking to myself."
Not being a morning person, I did what Chance said. He got dressed and repacked his gear in his backpack before he opened the tent flap. He set his pack outside and climbed out. "Get dressed and pack up your gear. I'll make breakfast."
By the time, I managed to get myself dressed and stuffed my gear back in my pack, Chance had coffee and breakfast ready. "I know you don't love coffee, but I didn't have any tea bags. We could just eat granola or protein bars but it's nice to have something hot while we have the fire."
I didn't argue. I drank the coffee and ate breakfast from a foil pouch. It made the breakfasts we serve at Hairy's seem like gourmet fare. "Maybe I'll branch out from the cafe and find a way to make better food for backpackers," I said.
"If you can figure out a way to make it packable, my clients would be interested," Chance said. "Is the food side of the business your area of interest?"
"I'm not sure. I'm happy managing the cafe, but I'm always looking for ways to expand."
"It's the same for me with the guided hunting trips. I don't want to do anything different, but if I can add something to the services I currently offer, that's a plus."
It was odd to talk to Chance like a fellow business owner. I guess I never realized that was something we had in common even though our businesses couldn't be more different. It took only a few minutes for Chance to clean up our campsite and get us back on the trail.