Page 41 of Things I Read About

He squats down and pulls at a part, sighing. “Yeah. It’s done.”

“Nate,” I screech. “What are we going to do?”

“Hey. I’ll just call someone to come get us, it’s fine.” He reaches into his coat and mutters, “It’s just going to be expensive.” I watch his face fall as he looks down at his phone in his hand.

“There’s no service here?”

He looks up at me. “No, but it won’t be a long walk until we find some.”

“Okay. Okay.” I say, sounding just as panicked as I feel.

He walks up to me and puts his hand on my thigh. His long fingers cover up a huge section of it.

“Sally.” He bends down to catch my line of sight. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m a marine. If I had to, I could keep us alive out here for days.”

“Days?”

“But that won’t happen. If nothing else, some satellite will spot your suit.” He grins at me. I try to shove him but he’s immovable. He puts his helmet back on and takes some of his stuff out of the storage compartment, including a water bottle and a few chocolate bars. He zips them inside my backpack, then hands the backpack to me. “Put this on then climb onto my back. I can move faster carrying you that way.”

“Okay.” I do as he says, wrapping myself around him as he squats in front of me. He’s so tall and broad I feel like I’m riding a bear. I’m also wrapped up in his scent and painfully close to his thick neck and soft buzzed hair.

It’s weird that this is my second piggyback ride in as many days.

I smile, realizing just how crazy this little experiment has been. “You’re a little bigger than Evan.”

He stops walking. “I am a hell of a lot bigger than him.” I laugh and he starts walking again. We’re moving uphill and making surprisingly good time. Nate seems to grow more tense.

“I can walk if you need a break; we can just slow down.”

“I don’t need a break, Sally,” he says, checking his phone and looking around. “We’re losing light. I don’t want us out here at night. All I have on me is a knife.”

“You have a knife?”

He chuckles. “A little switch blade I keep in my back pocket.”

Itskat him. “I was told, one should not keep things in one’s back pocket.”

His reply is deep, menacing. “No one in their right mind would try to lift anything off me.”

My limbs tighten my hold on him of their own volition. Just as my eyes follow a drip of sweat down the back of his neck.

He stops and sets me down by a tree so I can lean against it.

Did he feel me grip onto him? And didn’t like it?

I start to blush and try to focus my energy away from my face, a trick Sadie taught me. I focus on my toes, which are freezing.

Nate taps his phone and bring it to his ear. “Dammit.” He puts his hand back down. “I have a bar but it’s not enough to get a call out.”

Oh no. Crap! crapcrapcrap

“Nate,” I whisper.

“Just let me think a second.”

“No, Nate.” I grab his arm.

He looks up and sees my face, then looks over his shoulder.