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“You work on boats much?” Matt asked when I was close enough.

“No, not
a lot
,” I admitted
as
Shawn was back
ing the trailer down the launch
. “B
ut I have before. Something wrong?”

“Yeah, w
e’re gonna pull it out and see.
It’s not running good
.
”

Matt continued to t
alk about the boat and describe
what was giving them trouble. I went down the list of possibilities as Chris left the dock to
ease
the boat
onto the trailer. Matt hopped down into the water to crank the nose up, and clipped the line on to secure it. He whistled to the Tahoe and Shawn eased the trailer out of the water. Chris looked a little perturbed, and I
assumed
he was bugged about having a potential problem with his engine
.

I walked with Matt up to the cabin
where Shawn had parked
, and we
approached the boat. I didn’t want to take a look at it until Chris wanted me to,
but
the second I got there he was already
discussing it with me
. I could tell he knew quite a lot about boats, particularly
his
boat
and exactly how it was supposed to run
.
But he admitted that he wasn’t too keen on actually working on it. He seemed a little hesitant, but he finally asked if I could look it over.

Matt was more mechanically inclined than Chris,
but
the three of us
ended up spending
a good chunk of time cleaning
out the fuel system.
While we worked we also talked, and
I learned a little more about the two of them and their group of friends as a whole. Matt was really easy to talk to and we
had a lot
in common. Chris was a little reserved at first, but he eventually loosened up and he was conversing right along with us. When we finally h
ad everything put back together it was beginning to get dark.

“Do you mind if I
put in a fuel filter
tomorrow
?
” I asked Chris.

“Uh, no, I guess not,” he replied.
“But you don’t have to spend your day working.”

“
Nah, it’s easy.
It’ll save you from having to do all of this again. Tomorrow you can take
the boat
out, run it for a bit, and then we’ll
see if
she’s all good
.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“
What time was Josh coming up here?” I asked Matt.

“
Sometime before
noon.”

I
pulled my phone out
and asked,
“Do you guys get cell service out here?”

“Go stand on the dock,” Matt replied.

I made my way down the dock and stood on the very end until I got a signal. I found Lou’s home number and he answered on the second ring. I put in my order and he promised he’d have it ready first thing in the morning
for
when
ever
Josh came by.
Chris gave Josh a call and told him to stop by Lou’s garage b
efore he came up in the morning, a
nd then he thanked me for helping him out.

It was a small step toward friendship, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

We spent the rest of the night sitting around the campfire. Jayden brought up a bunch of food already prepared to eat for that night
, and t
he cooler was stocked with the items she needed for preparing
the
other meal
she was in charge of.
She
warned me about eating any of Shawn’s food, claiming that he put all kinds of weird stuff in it sometimes.

Jayden
had
pulled out her guitar from the truck and Shawn had his as well. They joked about singing campfire songs, but Shawn was the only one that really claimed to know any.

“
Ninety-nine Bottles of B
eer
isn’t a campfire song,” Cali told him.

“Says who?” he protested. “You don’t know the kind of camps my
parents shipped me off to. Boy S
couts
was
rough.”

“You were a Boy S
cout?” she
snorted
. “Did you wear the uniform?”

He laughed. “Sure. Can’t you picture me in the uniform with the little shorts and the knee socks?”

“Yeah, trying to light your scout leader’s tent on fire,” J
ayden said, and e
veryone laughed.

They did play some good music together
.
They liked to play a lot of classic rock,
but they also played a lot of current stuff, and some of Cali’s eighties requests
. J
ayden begged Shawn to do “
Iris
,”
telling me that
it
was one of her favorites for Shawn
. He agreed
only
if she did “
Dare You To Move
.
”
Both were
incredible,
and they were amazing at accompanying one another, b
ut since
Jayden
was the most
beautiful
thing I’d ever seen, I was completely mesmerized by her
.
I don’t care if that sounds pathetic, but what can I say?

When it was close to midnight
everyone gradually parted to separa
te tents.

“When did you do all this?” I asked, checking out the bed that was already put together in the tent.

“When you were working on the boat,” she mumbled through her toothbrush outside. I heard her spit in the bushes and rinse her mouth with
bottled
water. “Your stuff’s on the left in the corner.”

“Yeah, I
found
it. Thanks.”
I grabbed my own toothbrush and joined her outside.
By
then
she was
sitting in a camp chair with her head resting back, looking at the sky
, so I turned off the flashlight
.

“This is my favorite part about being out of the city,” she said. “I love the night sky so much better.”

I could
barely
see her in the dark, but I pictured her
blue-green
eyes staring at the sky.
When I was done brushing my teeth,
I returned to the tent, grabbed the extra blanket off of the bed, and took her hand to
make
her stand. She didn’t say anything
,
but when she stood I could tell she was smiling. We walked out into the open where there was a grassy field and I spread the blanket out.

“It’s much better when you can look at the sky with your really handsome boyfriend,” I told her.

With a laugh she said, “I’ll agree with that.”

I pulled her against me as we laid ourselves on the blanket,
and
then
wrapped the other half of the blanket over
us to keep her warm
.

“Mmm,” she said, “I could probably sleep here.”

“Not yet. You have to
talk to me about the constellations
.”

“I don’t really kn
ow any.
There’s the Big Dipper.
The North Star.
”

I looked at
them
for a moment before pointing out
Ursa
Major and
Ursa
Minor
…and
Draco
…and
Sagittarius
.
Then I showed her Cepheus and Cassiopeia.

“Okay,” she laughed. “I’m impressed. How do you know so much about astronomy?”

“Hmm, well… I used to sleep out in my backyard a lot when I was a kid—to stay away from my dad,
usually
. It was intriguing to me
that a
ll the people in the history o
f the world have been under this
sky.
I always wondered what was out there so…one day I went to the library and decided I would learn what other people had learned
over time
. There’s a lot,” I chuckled. 

She was quiet for a moment before she finally
murmured
, “Tell me more.”

I talked for a few minutes and paused, expecting her to be asleep
because she was so quiet
, but she would ask another question and I would talk a few
more
minutes. We continued this pattern for probably a half an hour. When she was quiet
again
I asked if she was sleeping.

“No, I was just thinking about astrology. You know we’re both Libras, right?”

I nodded with a smile. “Yeah.
” I showed her where Libra was in the night sky.
“
Are you wondering if we’re compatible?” I teased.

She laughed. “Oh, I already know we are. I don’t need to rely on
synastry
to know that.”

“Hmm. But in case you
are
wondering…Libras are very compatible with one another.” I turned my body so I could kiss her. “And…we’re both ruled by Venus.”

She smiled against my lips. “Mmm, so that’s the secret behind our relationship,” she murmured. As we kissed, she slid her hands up my shirt and I jolted.

“
Brr
! You’re hands are
freezing
!” I laughed.

“I know,” she continued to smile. “
So be a man and let me keep them there so I can warm up
.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

I woke up at six the next morning and
stared at the wall of the tent.
I knew I hadn’t slept much. Jayden was currently pressed up against my back with her arms sandwiched between us, but she had pretty much been in every position possible throughout the night to keep warm. I waited for a few minutes because I knew she would move again, and
sure
enough she turned over to face the other way with her back
to
mine.

I flipped over and pulled her close to me.

“Mmm,” she said softly, burrowing against me.

“I’m sorry you’re so cold,” I told her.

“Hmm? I’m not cold.”

“You’re not? You’ve been moving all night long. I thought maybe you couldn’t keep warm.”

“Oh,” she
laughed softly
. “
I don’t sleep very well when I camp.
And
I think I’ve been having weird dreams all night
.
Just now I was dreaming tha
t I was in a golf tournament;
Tiger Woods announced that a tie would be determined by a motocross race. I was pretty excited.”

“I’m sure you were,
”
I laughed.

She was quiet for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry I kept you up all night.”

“Oh no, you didn’t
,” I smiled, kissing the side of her head.
“I was just worried you were cold.”

“I was actually very warm against you
r hot body
. I probably kept moving to to
ast the other side
.
”

We stayed how we were for another twenty minutes
, talking quietly about the previous day. Finally
she said, “I have to pee really bad but I don’t want to
get up
.”

“Well, I’d rather not be
in
the bed with you if you decide you can’t hold it any longer.”

I felt her
silent
laugh
.
When
she slid away from me and stoo
d,
I felt an immediate change in temperature.
“
Brr
,
I guess I’ll go bother Cali
then, so I can use the bathroom. Wanna see what she looks like without makeup on?” she asked with a big smile.

“Will I turn to stone?”

She laughed out loud. “I’m gonna tell her you said that.”

She put on a hooded sweatshirt
over her long-sleeved shirt
and slipped her shoes on at the tent door. When she was gone, I
stretched
back with my arms behind my head and thought about how lucky I was. When I had been working on the boat (when Chris was out of earshot) Matt told me how much Jayden always talked about me. He said Stacie was convinced that I was the perfect guy for
her
and she was happy that Jayden had finally found somebody worthy enough t
o be with her. I
t did sort of feel like an honored position.