I couldn't believe the mess we were in, the mess I put us in. Sure, I was mad at him; he should not have said the things he did. But, I should not have ran off like that. He was my trail guide and we were in an area I was nowhere near familiar with. It was dumb and reckless.

Not to mention, completely out of my character. I wasn't sure what had gotten into me lately. He was absolutely infuriating, that was for certain. I could not explain the feeling he provoked in me. And now, I had to be stuck with him in literally a life or death situation. Like it or not, we were in it together.

We walked for awhile in quiet solitude. I was lost in my thoughts, and I am sure he was too. Either that, or he did not care to talk to me. It was probably the latter. The silence soon became too much to bear when the racing thoughts turned unpleasant.

"So, what's the plan here?" I asked, dodging a tree branch from its' potential assault on my face.

"Exactly what we're doing. Walking."

I rolled my eyes at his annoyingly insouciant answer.

"I mean, how long do you think we are going to have to walk before we see anything recognizeable?"

"Well, the ride up was about 10 miles. Your little adventure probably added another mile or so, and then counting in our little moose escape, I would say we've got about eleven and a half miles of walking. Completely doable. Of course, that would be if we knew where we were. If we're going in the wrong direction, then who knows."

"But what about a search party? Don't you guys have people to come looking if we don't show back up?" I came to a stop, suddenly hopeful. He matched my halt and faced me.

"That depends. No one's going to be looking for me until mid-morning. My parents don't exactly check up on me to do my job. I'm sure my mom will assume I finished the ride and went home. My dad will assume I'm in bed or out. So, Grace, that leaves--"

"Mark." I finished.

"Exactly. Will Mark notice you're not there?"

"Of course!" I insisted. "I'm sure he'll be wondering where I am at when it's late, and I am still not back."

"Great. Then it's up to Mark to help find us. Nothing to worry about there, I'm sure." He scoffed and walked ahead of me. I immaturely stuck my tongue out behind his back and followed. He was such a pain. Mark would notice. Of course he would. Right?

The longer we walked, the thirstier and hungrier I became. My stomach soon groaned in protest, thinking of the promised dinner it would no longer see. Rubbing my belly, I quickly remembered I had packed a couple of granola bars in my shoulder bag. I unzipped my bag and went to reach for one when I saw my phone.

"Of course!" I ran up to Colt and grabbed him on the shoulder. He turned around looking startled. I waved my phone in his face, grinning from ear to ear. I guess he was denser than I thought, because he stared back at me blankly.

"Colt! My phone. I have a phone! We can call someone! I can't believe I did not think of it before."

He pushed my arm down away from his face looking completely annoyed. For someone who was just rescued, I did not understand his problem. I was starting to think he was cursed with resting bitch face.

"Grace, you are aware this isn't the city, right?"

I jerked my head back in confusion.

"Um yeah. I am very well aware considering a moose run is not exactly my typical day. Hence the excitement over a phone to get us out of this dangerous wilderness!"

"Well then proceed to call for help. While you're at it, order us a pizza. I'm starving." He stood there with his arms crossed as he waited.

I swiped my phone and unlocked it, getting ready to dial Mark's number, but the call would not go through.

No signal. Wonderful.

I should have thought about the fact that there would be no cell towers. His city comment pissed me off even more.

I looked up to see Colt eyeing me with a smirk on his stupid, perfectly sculpted face.

"So...did they say how long until the pizza was here?" He mocked.

"You know what, just for that, I'm not going to share one of my granola bars with you."

I threw my useless phone in my bag and grabbed a bar. He stood there with a cocked eyebrow, watching as I unwrapped it slowly. I took a bite and moaned in pleasure, fully aware of how juvenile I was being. A part of me cared, but only a teeny, tiny part.

He kept his dark gaze locked on mine as I finished the bite and smiled, feigning innocence. I went to take another bite, but just as I did, he swiftly leaned down. He placed his mouth over the top of my granola bar, his full lips grazing the tips of my finger, and took a giant bite.

I watched in shock as he chewed, making the same moaning sounds I had done. Did my moans sound quite as delicious?

When he finished chewing, he grinned and turned to keep walking, leaving me with my jaw dropped.

Ugh! He was infuriating!

I prayed we were close to finding our way out of the mess we stumbled in. I was not sure how much longer I could take being around him.

***

The sun was starting to go down, and it did not seem like we were any closer out of the mountains than we were when we started walking. I started getting nervous. It would soon be dark, and that meant less visibility for us to walk, and even more less visibility to see any threats. The reality we would be camping out for the night hit hard.

As if reading my mind, Colt spoke up.

"We should start accepting that we aren't making it out of here tonight. It's getting dark, and we are going to be sitting ducks if we don't find a good place to camp out."

"Okay." I sighed. As unhappy as I was with the situation, there was nothing that could be done about it. "What kind of spot should we look for?"

"I don't know. I haven't exactly had experience in this situation. I'm thinking something higher off the ground. Like if we can find a slope on a hill and lean up against a tree. Staying higher up is best just in case of a heavy rain, although I doubt we will have to worry about that. But the tree can offer some protection."

"Okay, I'll start keeping an eye out for something like that."

We walked slower now, exhaustion from the days events taking its' toll on the both of us. We both scoured the wooded area for a suitable spot, until Colt found a large pine tree; the trunk was wide enough to lean against and be somewhat hidden from anything behind.

"Alright, this will do. We need to make a shelter. Let's see if we can find a large tree branch or a few and pile some debris on it to keep us covered."

We searched the area for some large branches and were luckily able to find two decent sized ones. I watched as Colt dragged each one to the tree to set them against the trunk. He had rolled up the sleeves of his blue button up shirt, and I couldn't help but notice how it stayed taut to his chest with each movement, highlighting his muscles underneath. There was no doubt his body was sculpted from a life of hard work. His muscular biceps flexed as he heaved each branch against the trunk. He wiped his palms against his very well-fitting wranglers and glanced up at me.

"You gonna help me out, or just stand there and check me out?" He smirked.

Heat flushed my cheeks in both embarrassment and annoyance.

"I am not checking you out, thank you very much! What is it I'm supposed to do?" I folded my arms against my chest, frustrated he was right. I had been checking him out, and it was more than obvious. I hated his stupid good-looking self.

"For starters, you can quit lying to yourself. When you've done that, you can start piling some leaves and twigs on top of these two branches. It'll help clamoflauge us."

I ignored his first comment, and started collecting the debris we needed for the shelter. We both piled it on top, having to experiment a couple times on placement, until it was decently covered. When we finished, the sun had made its' final descent below the horizon.

I looked toward him as he gestured for me to crawl inside. I bent down and inched my way into the small space. Colt followed, but as I tried to move to make room, we butted heads.

"Ow!" I winced and rubbed the sore spot on my forehead. He didn't seem phased by the hit. "I knew you were hard headed."

He chuckled. "You wanting me to kiss it better?"

"What!? No! I'm perfectly fine now."

He chuckled again and shook his head. "I'm just kidding. Relax."

We were both leaning against the tree, our bodies touching from the forced close proximity. I tried keeping my distance as best I could, but it was almost pointless. Colt closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree. I untied my ponytail and did the same. A few minutes into the silence, I jumped at his voice.

"Where are you from?"

"What?" I looked over to him and he was peering at me with a raised brow.

"You know, like where do you reside at? What state?"

"I know what you meant, you just surprised me is all. You haven't exactly been the conversational type so far."

"Yeah, well might as well make some sort of conversation seeing as how we are stuck out here together."

"True. I live in Chicago."

"Is it as windy as they make it out to be?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Wow, you joke. I wasn't sure." I teased. "It's no more windy than the rest of the states. It's busy though. Too busy, really."

"That why you came out here?" His stare was intense, as if he was searching for something. I wasn't sure what, however, and maybe he wasn't either.

"Partially...I definitely needed things to quiet down for a bit. Things were just getting too loud, you know?"

His eyes narrowed and roamed my face. Whatever he was searching for, I felt as if he found it.

I'm not sure if the threats they face in the wilderness are more likely to kill them than they are eachother 😂

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