Chapter 3

Colby’s turn:

When Mom and Mizz Sam got back to the camp, when I saw Mom’s face I knew something was up. Mom confirmed it when she took me outside so Cole and Mizz Sam could talk.

We went to the chairs set up under the shade nearby.

“So what’s going on? Mom?” I asked.

“Sam’s telling Cole that they’re divorced.”

“Seriously? I mean, I know they’ve talked about it...”

“Unless Cole throws a fit, it’s a done deal.”

“Since when?”

“Friday she got the papers. All signed and recorded.”

“Then why would she come camping with ‘im? I mean, that’s kinda cruel, don’t’cha think?”

“Sometimes I don’t know what goes on in that girl’s head, baby. We’ve been friends for years. I thought when she married Cole that she was settling down, but apparently not. She’s got another guy already.”

“So she’s telling him now? And then we’re going home?”

Mom shook her head. “She wants to stay another night. Campfire ‘n’ stuff that you wanted.”

“And you think Cole’s gonna ... I dunno. What do you think he’ll do?”

“You know Cole as well as I do, baby. What do you think?”

“If he thinks it’s about what I want, he’ll do it. Cole’s ... he’s been my best friend for a long time.”

“I know, dear. He’s my friend, too, but I’ve known Sam longer. Sometimes I don’t understand ‘er. I mean, I have my own whacko moments, but she passes me up.”

“I know,” I said, waltzing into swampy ground. “Cole’s like the kinda guy I wanna marry.”

Mom actually smiled when I said that. “You always were kinda hung up over ‘im. Now he’s free, darlin’.”

“Yeah, I can just see the look on Mizz Sam’s face.”

“Sam’s got nothing to say. I mean, I KNOW the guy she’s been doin’. Cole’d be a pretty good son-in-law...”

“Mom, you’re sayin’...”

“Make sure it’s what YOU want, baby. Supposed to be permanent, not that I’m any example, though.”

“Mom, you did your best.”

“I just never found the right one, honey. You think Cole would...”

“We talk about everything. We talked like ‘what if’ before, Mom. He thought he was too old and I was too young.”

“He might change his mind, baby.”

I smiled just a little. “He might.”

About that time, Cole came out the door, his expression neutral. Mom herded me past him and into the trailer.

“It’s done,” Mizz Sam said tersely.

“Any kick?” Mom asked.

Mom turned to me. “Give us some time to talk, baby.”

There. That’s my excuse. I was out the door in a flash. Caught Cole pulling a colorful bag out of one of the trailer’s outside storage bins.

“Wanna talk?”

“Among other things,” he said.

“What are you doing?”

“Ain’t gonna sleep in the same bed as her tonight. I guess she’s stayin’. Something about the bonfire we’d been planning.”

“Can I carry something?”

“That box there. Got an air mattress and an inflator.”

I grabbed the stuff. We walked a little distance from the trailer, stopped at a flat patch in front of his cousin’s cabin. In a few minutes we had the little dome set up, mostly screen, a concession to the insects – deer flies in the daytime, mosquitoes at night. This was a refuge from those. Next step was to inflate the mattress. It was big and thick and like the label said, queen sized. Took up a majority of space in the tent.

“There’s a rain fly that goes over the tent. It’s waterproof, mostly, but tonight we don’t have rain in the forecast, so I just wanna lay here and look at the stars.”

“Are you avoiding the obvious subject, baby?” Brave me. He’s got major turmoil happening in his life and I’m adding to it, probably, by calling him ‘baby’. But he IS. Mine. My baby. Unless the shock of this whole mess in his life breaks things.

“Testing the mattress,” he said as he flopped back onto it. “Now, I’m ‘baby’?”

“If you want to be.”

“I would rather be your baby than anything else.”

“Not just right now?”

“Especially right now.”

“It meant something, you know. All the stuff we did. You set me free and I flew right into your arms.”

“You’re worried that this changes things, aren’t you?” he asked me.

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Doesn’t. Not a bit. I’m free.”

“You’re free. There’s a whole world full of women, Cole.”

“None of ‘em is my Colby.”

“You say that now. We’re out in the middle of the woods and the choices are me, your ex, and my mom.”

“You know, kiddo, I have a very strong urge right now to roll you on your back and smother you with kisses.”

“And I’m sure that seeing an event like that would disturb my mom. Your ex would figure that it was a sign of something that has been going on for a long time.”

“Still wanna do it.”

“The divorce is FINAL?”

“I have a copy. Final.”

I let myself smile. Smirk, actually. Mom chides me about it. Cole thinks it’s charming. “So we could, like, walk back into the trailer, strip, and make love right there and there’s nothing she could do about it?”

“Except stand there and critique us on the effort.”

“Oh, I’m thinking it would be no effort at all.” I smiled. “I’m sore, you know...”

“Thought you had a little hitch in your step.”

“Wouldn’t stop me, though. I love you, you know.”

“I love YOU, you know. We need to go get started with our bonfire.”

“You do that. What are you sleeping in? Sleeping bag?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll get it for you.”

“And my pillow. Got the blue pillowcase.”

“I’ll get ‘em.”

We both exited the tent. As I walked off, I looked back at the tent. You really couldn’t see much through that screen.

I walked into the trailer. Mom and Mizz Sam eyed me. “He needs his pillow and a sleeping bag. He’s fixing the stuff for the fire.”

“Oh.” Mizz Sam was kind of terse.

Mom arched an eyebrow slightly. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah. I guess. Guys don’t talk about feelings much. I asked. He said he’s okay.” I said that as I made a show of rummaging through a couple of storage nooks in the trailer. Found the one with a couple of sleeping bags. “Which one is his?” I asked Mizz Sam.

“Well, I don’t know. We never used ‘em,” she replied.

I grabbed both of them. AND his pillow. “He can choose,” I said. “I’m gonna help him with the firewood.” And out the door I went. I tossed the stuff on the mattress inside the tent.

“Brought two sleeping bags,” I said. “And your pillow.”

“Two bags?”

“Yeah. Didn’t know which one you wanted.”

“That’s great. I can spread one out and use the other as a blanket.”

“I shoulda brought my pillow.”

“Lovely as that thought is, seems like a good way to create a mess.”

“Just me tryin’ to comfort my friend.”

“You’re walkin’ funny and I’m dehydrated. We pretty much comforted the daylights out of each other,” he chuckled.

“Preview of coming events,” I countered. “Dehydrated? I’m gonna go get us a beer.”

“Us?”

“I’m eighteen. It’s not like I’m tryin’ to buy one. I’ll be back.”

The shadows were getting long, twilight. I got back, handing him a bottle as he lit the little pyramid of wood.

The fire was going brightly when Mom and Mizz Sam showed up with a tray of weenies, buns, condiments and marshmallows.

I made a point of asking if they wanted something to drink. “Me ‘n’ Cole need a beer.”

“You don’t drink,” Mom stated.

“I’m eighteen, Mom. Me ‘n’ Cole each had one. I’m getting us another.”

“Wine coolers are in the fridge,” Mizz Sam said.

“I’ll be back.”

The weenie and marshmallow roast was a bit more somber than I expected. I guess Mizz Sam’s news threw a damp blanket over things. There were three logs carved up as benches around the fire ring. When Cole sat down, I knew I had a choice between sitting with him or Mom. Mizz Sam sat on Mom’s bench. That left me choice of a bench to myself – kinda lonely – or sit with Cole. Plenty of room on the bench. Not like we’d be rubbing hips.

I noticed his bottle was empty. I collected it, headed back to the trailer, returned. Passed wine coolers to Mom and Mizz Sam, made a bit of a show of giving Cole his beer, took a sip of mine.

“Colby, that’s THREE!”

“I know, Mom. I’m not driving or anything...” I sat down next to Cole a little closer this time.

The fire was waning, mostly just a warm glow, when Mizz Sam stood up. “I’m going inside.”

Mom stood, too.

Brave me. “I’m gonna sit out here for a while and watch the fire.”

As they were stepping into the trailer I told Cole, “I’m glad you wore longer shorts this evening. I couldn’t’ve handled that thing peeking out at me.”

He smiled. “You.”

“I can blame the beer.”

“Me, too,” he said. He ran a couple of fingers up a pants leg, drawing it up, showing me that purple plum I’d enjoyed so much today.

“Don’t you tempt me, love. I’ll kneel right here and do you...”

“I’m just THIS close to asking you,” Cole chuckled.

“If we ever get our time together, your problem won’t be getting me to do you, it’ll be getting me to stop.”

“You thing! You’re making me break out in a sweat.”

“And get hard, too.” I giggled, reached over and grabbed the burgeoning lump in his shorts.

“They’re gonna see you.”

“Only if they look at exactly the right time,” I teased. “And you know what?”

“What?”

“I don’t care. I love you. I want you. She’s done with you and her life’s poorer for it.”

More small talk, each of us happily teasing the other a bit, then backing off, talking about the future. Our future.

The fire now was mostly coals, their red glow lending an intimate aura to the scene. How’d we get this close? He turned his head, kissed me, then slid his lips down my neck. I sighed.