Of course, it didn’t deter her.It was more like waving a big juicy pork chop in front of a ravenous rottweiler.“Ooh, that definitely sounds like something I want to hear more about.Would Jackson know?I bet I can get him to tell me if I ask really nicely.”
“Jackson knows better than to rat me out.I know where his bodies are buried.The worst thing he’ll share is the time I fell asleep on the couch during movie night, and the guys painted my nails pink and drew a dick on my forehead.”
A pair of lines formed in the space between her eyebrows.“Why would they do that to you?”
“It’s one of the rules of movie night.No fights, no crying, no bogarting the beer, no smoking inside the house, and whoever falls asleep first is fair game to the whims of the rest of the group.”
The lines deepened.“Again, why?These are friends, right?People who supposedly like you?”
“Of course they like me.”He and the guys had been doing movie nights for so long, he’d forgotten how the rules came about.“It’s a guy thing.Blame it on testosterone.”
Finished with her meal bar, she handed him the wrapper.“And when exactly did the toenail painting and dick drawing take place?”
“Uh…February, I think.”He tucked the wrapper in his ruck.“No, wait, it was March.”
“Of this year?”
“Yeah.”Usually, he was better at staying awake so that shit didn’t happen to him.But it had been a long, stressful week, he hadn’t slept well the night before, and three or four beers had been more than enough to put him out like a light.
Sloane shook her head.“So what are your plans, now that you’ve had time to think about it?”
“There hasn’t been time; we’ve been talking.No, you have it,” he said when she tried to hand him the bottle with the last of the water in it.
“Then what’s the first thing to pop into your head?”
He watched as she drank the last of the water, watched her throat muscles move when she swallowed, and a few ideas sprang to mind.Filthy, raunchy, sweaty ideas.If he told her about them, she’d have every right to slap the shit out of him.“Why is this so important to you?”
“It’s not.I’m just trying to make conversation that doesn’t have anything to do with the group of armed men who are hunting us for fun and profit in the middle of freaking nowhere.Or the fact we might freeze, or starve, or fall off a cliff, or get mauled by a bear.”
Shit, now he felt like an ass.He’d utilized similar tactics in the past, minor distractions to take the edge off of stressful situations.The least he could do was play along.“Well, the pizza sounds pretty good.So does the shower.Beyond that, I just want to sleep.Maybe I’ll play a littleDemon Scourge 2whenever I finally wake up.”
Her eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.“I didn’t know you liked video games.”
“Contrary to what you might think, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”He walked to the water’s edge and filled the water bottle.“It’s my fourth favorite way to relax.”
She raised an eyebrow.“Dare I ask about the top three?”
“If I told you, you’d call me a pig.”He laughed when she chucked another pebble at him, and it bounced off his chest.“I take it you play?”
Her nod of acknowledgment came as no surprise.As a member of the Nerd Herd, he’d assumed she was a gamer, though he hadn’t put any thought into what kinds of games she preferred.
He dropped purification tablets into the bottle, screwed the cap back on, and placed the bottle back in his ruck.
“How far into the game are you?”she asked.
“Not far.I’m working on the second boss.”He’d been trying to kill that bastard for the better part of a week.He’d come close a few times, but he’d yet to discover the right combination of weapons and tactics to kill that particular demon.
“Oh yeah, he was a pain,” Sloane said.“Once I ran out of ammo, I switched to the ax with the silver handle to finish him off.The next one isn’t as bad.”
Well, that explained things.He had an ax in his arsenal, but not the one with a silver handle.He’d have to go back and search for it in the areas he’d already covered.“How far along are you?”
“Oh, I finished that one a couple months ago.I’m playingAltershotnow.”
From what he’d heard, that one was damn near impossible to finish, which meant she enjoyed a challenge.He appreciated that.“How do you like it?”
“It’s tough but fun.If you have an Xbox, you can borrow it when I’m done.”
“Thanks, I’d like that.”He slipped the straps of his rucksack over his shoulders.“It might be awhile before I can get it back to you, though.”
