17. Carter

Iswipe my hands down my face in frustration. It’s been two weeks since I started digging into the source of our database issue, and I’m no closer to finding a solution than I was when took the project on. What’s worse is I have other projects that need my attention. I’ve been working longer hours just to get everything done, and I’m going crazy. I shouldn’t even be in my office on a Saturday morning, but here I am anyway.

Sam and I haven’t gotten to spend much time together despite trying our best to make our schedules line up.

I miss him.

Which, of course, makes me feel silly. We’ve only been seeing each other for a few weeks. The idea of me missing him seems preposterous, but I can’t deny how I feel.

I turn my phone off of Do Not Disturb to find a text from Sam.

Sam

I’m on my way to your house. Pack a bag, baby. I’m kidnapping you.

I frown. What’s he talking about? Kidnapping me?

A knock on my door has me sprinting out of my office. Sam stands on my front step with a giant smile on his face.

“Hi, you got a bag ready?”

I move out of the doorway. “No, I only just saw your text. What am I packing for?”

Sam walks to my bedroom, and I blindly follow behind him. “It’s a surprise. All you need is some sturdy boots—tennis shoes will work if you don’t have boots—and some comfortable shorts and T-shirts. Your toothbrush might be a good idea, too.”

Without asking questions, I grab a bag from my closet, and Sam helps me put things inside. I grab a couple more toiletries besides my toothbrush and put them in my bag. I walk out to find Sam holding up a black jock strap.

Heat flushes my cheeks instantly.

“What do we have here?” Sam grins at me. I yank my underwear out of his hands and push it back into my drawer.

“None of your business. And if you don’t tease me about it right now, I might think about wearing it for you one day.”

Sam mimes zipping his lips. “If you don’t follow through on that promise, you can bet your tight ass I’ll get revenge.”

I laugh. “Understood.”

We finish adding clothes to the bag together until Sam declares it perfect. He loops the strap of my duffle over his shoulder and starts back for the door. “Let’s get on the road.”

“Wait, where are we going? And aren’t you tired? You just finished a shift.” Despite not having my questions answered, I grab the container of blueberry muffins I made last night and a to-go cup of coffee before following Sam out to his black truck.

He’s driving away from my house when he finally answers. “We had a quiet night, so I managed some sleep last night. After I got home this morning, I decided we both needed some time together, away from our hectic lives.”

“What if I’d have been busy this weekend?” I argue just because.

“You’d have protested a little harder before we left.” Sam winks at me.

I tilt my head in agreement. “And you’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be happy with me. However, I think it’s exactly what we need.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “If you know I’m not going to like it, then why the hell are we going?”

“Because you’ve been working so damn hard, and a couple of days away will be just the thing to recharge your battery.”

I hum. “You might have a point. But I reserve the right to be grumpy about wherever we’re going.”

Sam laughs. “Fair enough. Now, are you planning on sharing those muffins, or are they just for you?”

“I’m not sure you deserve one. You made fun of my undergarments, and you’re taking me somewhere I won’t want to be.”

He holds his finger up. “Technically, I refrained from making fun of you because I’m willing to do just about anything to see you in them.”

For just a second, I’m distracted by Sam. His worn jeans and hiking boots give him that sexy, rugged, outdoorsy guy look. He’s got one hand on the steering wheel, and to top it all off, his baseball cap is on backward. I want to lick him. In all the places. Everywhere.

“If you don’t quit looking at me like that, I’m going to have to pull this truck over.”

I shiver at his roughened voice. “What? I can’t look at you?”

“Not as if you want to eat me.”

I laugh. “I might’ve been thinking about licking certain parts of you.”

“Jesus,” Sam whispers. He lifts to adjust the crotch area of his jeans. A bolt of satisfaction hits my belly, and I’m suddenly very grateful he took the initiative to get me away from my computer.

The rest of the two-hour drive is spent in either comfortable silence, with the radio playing in the background, or talking about the most random topics that come to mind.

Then Sam is pulling into a state park, and I start to get uneasy. We’re not about to do what I think we’re doing… right?

“Sam…?”

He parks in front of the main building of the park and then turns to me. “Just… give me a day. Please? If you want to go home by sunset, I’ll do whatever it takes to get us there. Okay?”

I sigh. “Sunset. And I still get to be crabby if I want to be.”

“I can handle it, baby.” His grin would melt a glacier, and I find myself unable to be angry with him. That doesn’t mean I’m going to have a good time, though.

He gets out to check us in—or whatever the hell you do when you spend the night on the ground. No one would consider me outdoorsy by any standard. One look at me and you’d guess I preferred video games and computer shit. Both would be true, and I don’t mind that I look like the stereotypical nerd.

Hell, Chase used to laugh any time I’d try to do anything handy around my house. He used to say I looked ridiculous carrying around a drill. It didn’t seem to matter how many things I was capable of fixing. He still acted surprised that I knew how to use power tools.

So, camping and hiking and whatnot just isn’t my cup of tea. I’m happy behind my computer. It’s what I know.

Sam comes back to the truck and sets some paperwork on the dash. He pulls out of the parking lot to drive further into the park. Then we’re parking at a bare camping area. There’s a wooden picnic table and a small circle of stones for a campfire. And that’s it.

We get out of the truck. The trees surrounding our campsite provide a great amount of shade and privacy. It’s as if we’re the only ones in the whole park right now.

Sam starts to pull supplies from the back of his truck. Each thing is placed in a certain area, and I stand there like an idiot because I have no idea what I should be doing right now.

I finally get tired of watching him work while I’m completely useless. “Do you need help with something? I feel ridiculous just standing here.”

“You wanna help me get the tent up? Since this isn’t really your scene, I don’t mind getting everything together.”

“No, I want to help. Where do you want me?” I fake my confidence, hoping he doesn’t see through me. Based on Sam’s grin, I’m not sure I’m doing a great job of convincing him.

He puts me to work, pulling out all the supplies for the tent. I lay everything out in careful order. With no idea how to put it together, I go through some of our other stuff. We’ve got a cooler, a few reusable grocery bags filled with food, a plastic tote of an odd assortment of things I can’t name, and a huge box filled with sleeping bags and things.

It seems like Sam brought everything we could need to camp. Is this something he does regularly? What if he wants to take me camping all the time? What if I hate it, and then he starts spending his weekends camping without me? And then he meets some sexy, outdoorsy guy on the trails and cheats on me with him ‘cause the hot camping guy knows how to do this and I don’t?

Dammit, stop spinning!

“Carter, do you mind giving me a hand?” Sam’s question makes me realize I’ve just been staring at the trees for who knows how long.

“Oh, sure. Sorry. What can I do?”

Sam directs me on what he needs me to hold while he gets the tent up. I mess it up about six times, and each time, he patiently waits for me to fix it. Once the tent is up, I blink at it. It’s like a whole building or something.

No, that’s stupid. It’s a tent, not a building.

But there’s like a covered porch area. And two sides branch out from the middle.

“It’s huge.”

“That’s what she said,” Sam murmurs, and I laugh.

“This can’t be a tent just for two people.”

He comes over to stand next to me while I continue to gawk at the tent. “Technically, it’s a tent for a family. I bought it years ago for a camping trip I was gonna take with some friends, but then the weather turned, and we never went. I thought it would be a better option than the one-person tent I own.”

“You sayin’ you don’t want to cuddle with me?” I joke.

“Oh, no. We’ll be cuddling. I just wanted to make sure you had plenty of space to spread out if you needed it. Plus, I bought a battery-operated air mattress so you wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground, and it wouldn’t have fit in my other tent.”

He walks off, leaving me standing there, speechless. He did all of this to make sure I was as comfortable as possible.

I turn to follow him. “Hey, wait. How fast can we blow up that air mattress?”