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She and Jules laughed, leering exaggeratedly at each other. Surreptitiously, Erin pulled her phone from her hiking pants and snapped a couple of pictures. A beautiful lake, surrounded by dark green spruce and fir trees, a light green and gold meadow on one end, big red and gray rocks stacked on the other, with three muscular men, water dripping down their chests and underwear plastered to their hips. With Ryan’s right side to them, it was a perfect calendar shot. Not that she’d care about getting his residual arm in the shot; it made him more attractive, not less. But the other women might not feel the same.
"You gotta send me a copy of that. It will keep me warm this winter." Jules pointed at Erin's phone.
"You two will get copies of these, but I don't think I'll let the guys know." Erin snickered. Jules was right; the shot would heat her up, too.
Laura laughed. "Probably a good idea."
They all giggled. The guys waded back to shore, regarding them warily. Tyler put his hands on his hips. "And what are you women whispering about?"
"Oh, nothing." Jules sniggered.
All three of the men snorted. "Yeah, right. That sound is trouble." Dan regarded them with raised brows.
"Trouble for us to know about and you only to wonder at. Brr." Laura shivered exaggeratedly. "I'm putting on something dry." She walked away, presumably to their tent, Dan on her heels. It would probably be a while before they saw the two of them again.
A drop of water rolled down the middle of Erin's back, sending a shiver down her spine. She needed dry clothes, too. Erin grabbed her things, following the narrow trail to their tent site. Ryan was right behind her.
Erin ducked into the tent to grab her clothes bag, plunked at the head of her sleeping bag as a pillow. She pulled out clean underwear and her sleep camisole, then realized Ryan was also gathering clothes on his side of the tent. Hmm. She really didn't want to get naked in front of him. Except she sort of did, but no.
Crouched on the other side of their sleeping bags, he met her eyes, then scanned down. Erin clutched her clothes to her chest and turned away, shivering, but not from cold. She'd go behind the trees.
Ryan said, "Erin?"
"Yeah?" She didn't turn back.
"I'll go over behind these trees and give you some privacy. I won't look."
"Thanks." Footsteps crackled through the pine straw. She glanced back but saw nothing, so she wriggled out of her wet things, dried off, and put on her hiking pants, a T-shirt, and a lightweight sweater, hopefully hiding her lack of a bra. She had another one, but her shoulders needed a break from straps of all kinds. It was still a little warm for the sweater, but the sun would drop behind the trees soon, cooling off the air quickly.
Erin announced, "I'm done." She hung her wet things on tree branches to dry. Good thing she always brought an extra set of undies. A branch broke, and Erin turned. Ryan hung a pair of boxer briefs on a branch. But clearly, he wasn't chilly at all. He wore only the same silky shorts he'd worn last night, displaying his muscular chest.
Ooh, sexy. Erin shook her head to clear away the inappropriate thoughts—eight years, employee!—out of her brain and returned to their cook site, Ryan on her heels.
Jules's head snapped up when she spotted him. She looked him up and down, grinning.
Erin cleared her throat. "Do you need some help?"
"Sure. Want to chop veggies? And Ryan, can you go get me water? About half full." Jules handed a pot to him.
Erin sat down, took the bag of vegetables, a knife, and a plastic pot lid and started chopping, using the lid as a cutting board.
"So," Jules said, slowly, "are you and Ryan together?"
"No. He works for me. That would be sexual harassment." If she said it enough, maybe she'd believe it.
"Would you be offended if I...?"
"Nope. Go for it." Never mind she wanted to push the knife into Jules's chest rather than into the veggies. Erin chopped harder. She had no claim on Ryan, other than his working time. Couldn't have a claim. No matter what she wanted or what Deb said.
Erin kept her eyes on the knife as Jules talked to Ryan. Jules flirted with all kinds of innuendo, but he returned his normal one-syllable answers. Erin glanced at them. Jules was smiling up at Ryan, but he was looking at—Erin? Yep. Not looking at Jules at all but at her. Erin smiled at the veggies, then mentally took a hand and hit the back of her own head. She couldn't have him, and he deserved to have somebody. Jules was a nice girl, with a completely different outlook on life. She'd be good for him. But Erin had a slightly guilty sense of satisfaction knowing the younger, prettier, more outgoing girl couldn't get his attention. She finished chopping. "What else?"
"Nothing. It will take about twenty minutes to cook all this, so hang out." Jules shrugged and smiled at Ryan, then glanced over at Erin. "Wander around, fill water bottles, whatever you want."
Message received. "Perfect. Thanks." Erin smiled at Jules and got up. She'd leave them alone.
"Hey, Erin, I want to show you something. Come on." Ryan beckoned from the other side of the site.
Or maybe she wouldn't, since Ryan didn't seem interested. Erin followed when Ryan motioned again, curious. And the view was delightful too. They trod a faint path—the unofficial trail probably circled the entire lake.
