Chapter 38 Colton

CHAPTER 38

Colton

I SHIFT AND tuck Riley closer to my side. She settles her head on my shoulder and sighs. "Can we just stay here forever and never go back?"

Her voice is teasing, but there's a hint of seriousness in her eyes.

"You can't avoid your problems forever."

"I know," she says, linking our fingers together. My thumb traces circles on the back of her hand. "But I like this part of the excursion best."

"Me too."

"Don't tell my parents, but I'm glad they made us go on this Oregon Trail adventure."

I kiss the top of her head and whisper, "My lips are sealed."

Riley shivers and I wish I'd been more prepared for a night in the prairie. Back at Fort Bellows, my sleeping bag and foam pad are wrapped in a tight roll, completely useless to us now. It would have made for a more comfortable evening, especially now that the dampness is seeping up through the ground and settling over us from the air.

In the distance, a coyote howls. Riley tenses. "That sounds a bit too close for comfort."

"Sound travels pretty far out here at night. But I don't think the coyote will mess with us, not this time of year. There are plenty of smaller animals out here for them to eat."

A chorus of yips and barks echoes across the prairie. "It sounds like there's a whole pack of them," she says.

"It's probably just two or three. They don't form large packs like wolves or anything."

Riley presses her hand on my chest and leans over me, her hair cascading down to brush over my cheek. "Wait…do we have to worry about wolves, too?"

"We should always worry about wolves," I say, reaching up to brush the hair out of her face.

Her eyes go wide. "How worried?"

"Well, even though they're not endangered anymore, I don't think we should stop conservation efforts. Wolves are an important predator in the food chain."

Riley shakes her head and gives me a playful smack on the chest. "Not funny."

"Not funny at all. Without wolves, the prairie would be overrun with deer, and that really messes with the local ecosystem."

"Colton Walker," she says with an exasperated sigh. "Are there any animals on the prairie that pose us a threat?"

"Besides the bison?"

She nods.

"That depends," I say.

"On what?"

"How you feel about Jake?"

"Jake?" Riley narrows her eyes. "Do you seriously consider him a threat?"

I shrug. "He might be under the impression that we're competing for your attention."

"How's that even possible? I think I've made it pretty clear I'm not interested in him. It's not even a competition."

My heart soars. "It is to him. Once he found out I was interested in you—"

"Have you been crushing on me this whole time?" she asks with a smirk.

"Not the whole time," I admit. It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment that I started falling for her.

"Fair enough. I didn't like you very much at first, either."

"Ouch," I say, laying a hand over my heart.

"Please." She rolls her eyes. "You thought I was a spoiled Prairie Princess."

She has a point.

"It wasn't fair for me to make that assumption."

"And I assumed you were an inflexible, know-it-all jerk with no sense of humor."

I force my mouth into a playful scowl. "I think irksome was the term you used."

"We were both wrong." She leans forward and kisses me softly. "I'm glad."

Her smile falters. She takes a deep breath, as if she's going to tell me something, but the coyotes howl again, reminding me that I can't just lie here kissing Riley all night, as much as I'd like to. "I should tend the fire," I say, easing my arm out from under her.

"Will it help keep them away?"

"I don't think so. But it will keep the chill away. It'll get even colder out here before the sun comes up."

Riley watches me as I toss a few handfuls of sticks and branches on the coals. Although she gathered quite a bit, at the rate it's burning, it won't be enough to get us through the night.

I grab a small hatchet from my saddlebag and slide it into my belt loop. "I think I saw a dead tree over by the edge of the creek. Would you mind helping me drag it over?"

"I'll grab my flashlight," she says.

When I wake a few hours later at dawn, sore and cold, Riley's curled up against me, her face buried in my shirt. My arm tingles with pins and needles. I try not to jostle her awake as I shift, hoping to find a more comfortable position that doesn't involve stones poking into my back. She shivers and I tuck the aluminum blanket tighter around her shoulders.

Chance flicks his tail and puffs out a greeting. Thankfully, he and I have spent enough nights on the prairie that he's used to being out in the elements. Still, yesterday's run was taxing on him, and I'm sure he'd like something more filling to munch on than prairie grass and an apple. When I checked him over yesterday, it didn't look like he'd torn any ligaments or gotten hurt, but I might have missed something. We'll have to take it slow on our way back to Fort Bellows and then Mack can give him a more thorough checkup.

Riley stirs and opens her eyes. She blinks up at me. "Morning," she says, letting her forehead flop against my chest.

"Morning."

"This is going to sound screwy, but that was the best night's sleep I've had since leaving California."

"Seriously?" I ask, brushing the hair back from her face with the tips of my fingers.

"Seriously. I have this thing where I have trouble sleeping anywhere that's not my own bed. It usually takes me hours to fall asleep." Riley stretches like a cat beside me and then sits up.

Right then, my stomach lets out a low, hollow rumble.

"Do you have a monster in there?" Riley pokes me in the belly.

I grab her hand and weave my fingers through hers. "No, but I'm starved."

"Do you have anything else to eat in that saddlebag of yours?" Riley asks as she stands. The dawn is still dark gray and it's hard to make her out in the dimness. A moment later, coals spark as she stirs them up with our poker stick before tossing on some kindling to get the fire going again.

"I have a little more hot cocoa mix and not much else." My joints creak as I stand. I shake my legs out and twist my torso to stretch.

"Cocoa's not a bad way to start the day, although I could really go for a venti triple shot caramel macchiato," she says.

"Prairie Princesses," I tease. "I'll buy you a venti shot triple caramel maraschino when we get back."

Riley grins at me. "First off, it's a date. And secondly, let me do the ordering when we get to the coffee shop, because what you just said"—she shakes her head—"makes no sense. A twenty-shot caramel cherry isn't a thing."

"It could be a thing. We could make it a thing."

"That can never be a thing."

"It could be our thing," I say, grinning back.

Riley walks over to her backpack and pulls open the zipper. "I have six protein bars, four packets of peanut butter, and a handful of honey packets I nabbed at the hotel breakfast. Oh, and two MREs."

"You have MREs?" I ask, surprised and impressed by her again. Out of the two of us, she was way more prepared for our predicament than I was. And here I was, thinking she was a complete greenhorn when we first met.

"It was a total impulse purchase. I spotted them in the checkout line at Ranch & Rustler, displayed next to giant tubs of udder cream and travel sized cans of WD-40. I wasn't entirely sure what the food situation was going to be like on the excursion, so I grabbed a few to make sure I wouldn't starve. I wish I'd tossed more than two in my backpack yesterday. I have a bunch more in my luggage back at the fort."

"You're pretty awesome," I say, wrapping my arms aroundher.

"You're not so bad yourself," she replies.