Chapter 19 #3
We made our way there. The deep snow would have been up to my waist if I didn’t have the snowshoes.
Four or five giant boulders were nestled in the snow, standing at least three times Trey’s height.
He inspected them all, then picked one that sat at an angle, creating a clear area at its base.
I slid down to it and dug out some of the snow to clear a little more space.
Trey cut some wood, both of us working quietly, and soon I had a larger space cleared out and Trey had wood for a campfire.
He peeled off strips of a log with a large knife to make a small pile of kindling.
“So I’m guessin’ you don’t have a bedroll,” Trey said.
I flushed slightly. “No.”
He smiled slightly down at the wood. “Lemme guess, you were planning on surviving the cold out of pure stubbornness?”
“I woulda been fine,” I grumbled.
“Sure,” he teased, “if by fine you mean frozen to death.”
“I have a blanket. And I know how to build a fire.”
“Then why am I doin’ all the work?” He lifted his head, grinning at me.
“Isn’t this why you came?” I arched one eyebrow. “To help?”
His grin widened. “You actually accepting help for once?”
“I accept help all the time!”
He laughed out loud. “That’s the most ridiculous lie you’ve told yet.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a couple of skinny sticks to break into pieces as he coaxed a spark into a fire. He’d taken off his gloves and placed them on the ground beside him as he fed small pieces of wood into the fire.
“Gimme your gloves,” I said.
He handed them over, and I put them on my sticks and stuck them in the snow close to the fire so they could dry out.
“Thanks.” He looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered, and my heart skipped.
I did the same thing with my gloves, then warmed my fingers over the flames as he built up the fire.
After a while, he had me take over. I fed the flames and watched as Trey stabbed some pieces of wood into the snow on the sides of the rock to create makeshift walls that blocked the wind and gave us at least some protection from predators.
The heat bounced off the rock that leaned over us, making a nice warm bubble.
Trey broke a larger piece of wood using two trees as leverage. The loud crack made me jump.
“Sorry!” he called, smiling.
An answering smile curled around my lips.
Things felt…different between us. Maybe because we were outside the hold.
Maybe because I’d been honest with him about the danger, and he’d stayed.
Maybe because he’d told me he loved me. Or maybe Trey had gotten into my heart and put down roots a long time ago.
I couldn’t deny I was so glad he came. Godsdamnit, I liked him so much it terrified me.
He’d taken off his coat and the sweater under it as he worked, leaving him in a T-shirt as he built up a small woodpile, and I couldn’t help but admire him, the muscles in his arms as he pushed the logs until they broke, the way his wavy brown hair fell against his face.
Gods, I wanted to kiss him again and run my fingers through that hair. Why hadn’t I done that the first time?
He glanced over and caught me staring, one side of his mouth lifting in a slight smirk.
My face warmed and I concentrated on the fire.
I’d cleared enough room at the bottom of the rock for both of us.
I glanced at Trey’s bedroll. He would try to make me take it, I’d bet anything.
I glanced at our little shelter again. How were we gonna do this?
I sure as hell wasn’t gonna take his bedroll and make him sleep in the cold.
What was the point of pushing him away? He knew about the danger. He was here. He’d been honest about how he felt. Was he right, and only my fear stood between us?
My heart pounded, but gods, I didn’t want to fight this anymore.
“I’ll be right back!” Trey called, unaware of the mental battle I waged.
I listened to his boots crunching away. I wasn’t sure if it was a testament to Trey’s persistence or to how weak my defenses had become that we’d only been out here for a day and I’d given up.
Don’t—
No, Wolf, I snapped. No, I’m making my own damn decisions.
I heard Trey returning and my heart fluttered. He came around the side of his makeshift walls carrying an armful of large rocks. He looked amused at my confusion as he crouched and placed four rocks into the fire.
“You makin’ rocks for dinner?” I couldn’t help asking.
“No, smartass.” He chuckled. “I’m heating up rocks so we can dry out our boots.”
“How do you know all this shit?” I asked, impressed again.
“Part of the training to join the Safeguard. The Vault is pretty isolated, so members of the Safeguard crews gotta be able to survive the elements when we’re traveling on missions.”
I remembered him saying he and Mac had trained hard to join. “Why the Safeguard?” I asked.
“We wanted to get outside the walls, see what else was out there.” He paused.
“Well, that was my motivation, anyway.” Pain flashed across his face.
“Mac was forced to join the guards super young. Madame wanted to keep a close eye on him after what his dad did. He worked his way up from the inside. He had a much more brutal training experience than I did. He used to come home covered in blood from the other guards beating on him. But Mac”—he hesitated—“he eventually established himself as someone people didn’t want to mess with, and he worked his ass off to move up through the ranks.
He impressed Madame enough that she offered him the position of her second, so he woulda been one under Sax.
That’s when he asked if he could start a Safeguard crew instead, which was a few steps down in power, but she let him. ”
Guilt pricked me that I hadn’t bothered to learn any of this while at the Vault. I’d made assumptions about all of them, but probably the most about Mac.
We ate another small meal in silence and drank the last of our water. Trey had a small metal pot that he put over the fire and filled with snow to melt and boil so we could refill our bottles.
“You can have the bedroll,” Trey said predictably.
“No.” I had to suppress a grin.
“If you think I’m gonna sleep in it and watch you—”
“Let’s sleep together.”
He gaped at me. The shock on his face made one corner of my mouth curl up in amusement.
“What?” he asked in a choked voice.
“Let’s sleep together,” I repeated. My amused smirk grew, and his gaze darted to my mouth.
“You and me?”
“No, me and that other dumbass who tagged along.”
He crossed his arms. “Are you gonna run off again in the morning?”
I winced, but I deserved that. “Didn’t work to get rid of you the first time, did it?”
He glared, but his eyes sparkled now. “I knew that’s what you were doin’.”
“And you call me stubborn.” I rolled my eyes.
He stared at me like he wanted to read every thought in my head. “ ’Kay, I’m gonna need you to be real clear, Bones. Are you sayin’ you want to share a bedroll just to keep warm, or do you want to share a bedroll to be with me?”
He was giving me an out, though I could see how desperately he hoped I wouldn’t take it. My eyes burned again, and I took a slow, steady breath.
“I want to be with you,” I said.
He shifted closer. “I know I already said this, but just in case there’s any confusion, I want to be with you too. I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time now.”
The last of my defenses crumbled. Every single one of those damn flowers in my chest bloomed all at once.
“I’m sorry I made you wait,” I whispered.
His cool hand cradled the side of my face, his thumb brushing gently over my lips. “I’d wait a thousand years for you.”
“You’d be long dead in a thousand years,” I said dryly, though my heart pounded.
“It’d still be worth it,” he whispered, and then he kissed me.