Chance’s eyebrows shot up. “Pets? You think we’re going to find a hotel in the middle of nowhere that accepts goats?”
“What choice do we have?”
“He’s staying in the car tonight, Aubrey.”
“He most certainly is not.” I folded my arms over my chest. “He cannot stay locked in a car overnight.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” I was angry he was ready to leave the goat in the car without so much as a blink of an eye. “Because what if he gets scared?”
“Then he’ll faint.” Chance chuckled.
“That’s not funny.”
“Sure it is. Come on, Aubrey. Lighten up. Your being uptight is what got us into this mess in the first place.”
I had no idea where it came from; the confession just blurted itself from my lips, “I pleasure myself. Okay? Does that make you happy to hear?”
Chance grinned. “As a matter of fact, it does.” He shrugged. “I pleasure myself too, Aubrey. In fact, the next time I rub one out, I’m going to picture you.”
He did not just say that? I was appalled. But also sort of turned on. I opened my mouth to say something back to him, then closed it. Then opened it.
Chance glanced over at me and then back to the road. “Well, well, well. Aubrey, babe. Whatta ya know. You fancy me pleasuring myself to your pretty face.”
“I do not.”
“You do, too.”
“I do not.” I totally do.
Surprisingly, Chance let it drop. He pulled off to the side of the road into a parking lot of what looked like a nicer version of Wal-Mart. It was an oversized warehouse of a store, only the front had a stone façade. Cabela’s The World’s Foremost Outfitters.
“What are we stopping for?”
“Supplies.” He parked the car. “I’ll be out in ten minutes. You can stay with Billy the Kid so no one steals him.”
I was outside the car stretching when Chance returned, both of his arms filled with bags. I bent at the waist, finishing a rotation of stretches and leaned to my right to greet him.
“What is all that?”
He didn’t respond for a minute. I bobbed up and down slightly, leaning into my bend and then looked up at his face to find what had made him quiet. He was looking right down my shirt. It wasn’t his fault; I was basically putting it on display right before his eyes. My shirt gaped in the front giving him an eyeful of my cleavage. I stopped bouncing. Eventually, his eyes lifted and found mine watching him. Our eyes locked. I knew that look. I’d seen it before. In the mirror after I’d gotten a look at his ass.
He shook his head and blinked a few times. “Gear.”
“What kind of gear?”
“Tent, lantern, kindling wood, sleeping bags.” He shrugged. “Basic camping supplies.”
“For what?”
“Camping.”
“You’re going camping?”
He shook his head and shoved the bags wherever he could find any free space. The trunk and backseat were packed to the brim when I started this trip. And now I had an extra passenger, a goat…and apparently camping gear. “We’re going camping.”
“Ummm…I don’t camp.”
“Then Curry over here.” He pointed to the backseat. “Is sleeping in the car.” Chance closed the trunk, and his hands went to his hips. “What’s it going to be, Aubrey? Camping or he sleeps in the car alone.”
Apparently I was going camping. There’s a first time for everything.
Chapter Five
“I take it you’ve done this before?” We’d only been at the campsite for a half hour, and Chance had already started a fire and was almost done pitching the first tent.
“Every summer with my family. My dad took my sister and I camping every year in the Outback. Best memories of my life. It wasn’t fake camping like this, either.”
“Fake?”
“No numbered campsites, bathrooms and security. We did real camping. What about you? What soured you to camping?”
“Nothing. I’ve just never done it before.” Chance finished putting up the first tent and stepped back, admiring his handywork. “That tent’s huge.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” he snickered.
I shook my head. “Why did you buy such big tents?”
“Damn it!” Chance yelled as he swatted a mosquito from his face. The boisterous sudden rant scared poor Esmerelda Snowflake, and she froze in place and proceeded to tip over and faint. We got a good laugh over that one.