to explode from the bucking chute—like he felt right now about Silver Meadows.
He’d given her a five-minute head start and then had taken a roundabout route back to camp, checking on the livestock, cleaning up the remains of their meal, and making sure everything was undercover or packed away in case it rained. He was glad he’d taken the time to do so now as he guessed the mother of all storms was about to break over their heads. She’d disappeared inside her tent by the time he’d gotten back, and he was kind of glad about that. Her wounded expression when he’d suggested that she just wanted what she couldn’t have had unsettled him more than he’d anticipated.
He shifted uneasily in his sleeping bag. Had he totally misjudged her? Or had he hit on the truth, which had finally made her angry enough to walk away from him? There was another crash of thunder and Ben reluctantly sat up. He’d better check that the horses and mules were safe in their temporary shelter, and that everything in the campsite was nailed down.
The lightning was coming so frequently now that he barely needed the torch he’d brought with him. He made sure the livestock wasn’t going anywhere, repacked almost everything under tarps, and hid it in the sheltering trees. He whistled in silent appreciation as a huge fork of lightning lit up the sky followed by a rumble of rolling thunder that sounded like someone bowling a rock down the mouth of the canyon. The air was hot and dense and there was a sense of anticipation, like static shock.
The tents were built to withstand a large amount of rain, and they were well above the line of the creek on solid rock so he didn’t think the campsite would be overwhelmed. He started back, pausing outside Silver’s tent. Should he wake her up? He didn’t want her to panic if the storm suddenly worsened. Knowing that he was probably the last person she wanted to see right now, Ben decided to let her sleep, and retired to his tent to sit and monitor the situation. He switched on his lantern, got a book out of his travel pack, and settled down to read.
* * *
Silver sat bolt upright, her whole body shaking. What the hell was going on? It sounded like she was in the middle of a war zone. Gathering her courage, she crawled toward the sealed opening of her tent and slowly unzipped the door. Lightning flashed right in her eyes and she blinked. It must be the storm that BB had mentioned coming through.
She didn’t like thunderstorms at the best of times, and being stuck in the middle of nowhere with only a flimsy bit of nylon between her and the elements was not reassuring. Thunder rumbled overhead, pinging off the rock walls of the canyon like the rattle of an automatic weapon.
Silver swallowed hard and looked over toward Ben’s tent where she could see a light shining through the side. He was obviously up and aware of what was going on. If he thought they were in any danger, he’d definitely let her know. Even though he might not like her much at the moment, he was too much of a professional not to do his job.
She’d cried when she’d gotten into her sleeping bag, her anger with Ben disappearing as quickly as it had come. Was that really who she was? Someone who was so used to getting her own way that she couldn’t actually believe she couldn’t make it happen? The thing was, if that were the truth, why would she be feeling so hurt? She’d tried to let him see the real her and somehow all he’d seen was the big, demanding, selfish movie star?
She was trying to become a better, more independent person, and she’d already learned so much about herself on the ride—that she was capable, that she could be resourceful, that maybe she would do okay on her own. Maybe her two personas were so intertwined that she could no longer separate them. Maybe Ben was both right and wrong at the same time.
She found her fleece and put it on over her pajamas. There was no way she was going back to sleep now. She unzipped her tent flap, stared out at the black, star-encrusted sky, and tried to pretend she was at a fireworks display rather than watching Mother Nature throw a massive hissy fit.
She counted the