to inspect their hooves and generally making sure they were in good shape. While he worked, he offered Silver a running commentary of what he was doing and encouraged her to get involved.
After securing the gate of the enclosure and checking the animals had access to water, he turned back to the campsite. “Come on.”
Silver didn’t even mind when he grabbed her hand and towed her up the slope.
“Can we start with the tents?” Silver asked plaintively. “I don’t think I want anything to eat. I’d just like to go to sleep.”
“Sure.” He knelt down and unrolled one of the packs. “Here’s yours. There are instructions on the top.” He glanced over at her, a challenge in his eyes, and she stiffened. “While you do that, I’m going to start the fire.”
* * *
When he came back with some wood, Ben tried not to look directly at Silver who was sitting on the ground puzzling over a pile of poles, a ground sheet, and the tent fabric. Usually, he helped the guests with their tents, but her expectation that they would have a support staff setting everything up for them had made him think that she needed to understand that her participation in all events was not only required, but essential.
He hunkered down beside the two flat stones in the center of the circle and carefully stacked his wood before adding some dried grass to act as an accelerant. The wood was quite dry, so he was confident he’d soon have a decent fire going. He always carried cured wood with sap, which burned easily and kept burning long enough to start a good fire.
“Ouch,” Silver muttered. “This is way more complicated than it looks.”
After making sure that the fire was taking, he went to take a look at what she’d accomplished so far.
“Push that left side pole in further and you’ve got the basic shape,” Ben said. “Then all you have to do is build the sides and the roof structure and you’re good to go.”
She looked over at him. “You don’t think I’m going to be able to do it, do you?”
“No shame if you can’t,” Ben said provocatively. “You can always share mine. It’s also bigger.”
The glare she gave him made his lips twitch, so he turned away, opened up his own tent, and started construction. He set a lantern between them so that she’d be able to get a good look at what he was doing. He also slowed down so that she wouldn’t miss anything.
“I did it!” She squealed and jumped up and down like she’d won a medal or something.
“Go, you.” Ben handed her a canvas bedroll, a pillow, and a sleeping bag. “You can put those inside and then come out and get something to eat.”
She disappeared inside the tent and reversed out, giving Ben a fine view of her jeans-clad ass. She sat back on her knees and looked up at him, her hair in disarray and her cheeks flushed.
“There is one thing . . .”
“What’s that?” Ben asked.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
He extended his hand wide. “Pretty much wherever you want it.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope.” He turned back to his pack and handed her the camp trowel. “Stay two hundred feet from the creek and the camp, and you’re golden.”
While she stomped off with her torch in something of a huff, he set a tripod over the fire with a pot and boiled some of the water from his flask. There were a couple of sandwiches left over from lunch, but they’d definitely need something else.
He pulled out a couple random packs of freeze-dried food and placed them close to the fire. Silver might not be hungry, but he certainly was.
When she came back, he held out a roll of recyclable toilet paper. “I forgot to mention we have all the luxuries.”
She sniffed. “I used my tissues, thanks.”
She definitely wasn’t happy with him, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Either she worked out that things were different out here or she gave up and went home. He’d only had one family bail on him on a trail ride before and that was because the kids had been so obnoxious that the parents had given in to their constant whining and gone back. If it had been up to Ben, he would’ve ignored the complaints and made them follow through, but that was probably because he’d been brought up by a father who didn’t suffer fools gladly and had never let any