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Even I could tell by the position of the stars and sun, the general way we should go, but I was very uneasy with the fact that we had no idea how long it would take.
Addy caught my hand silently as we walked and squeezed it.
Immediately, I took a deep breath and pushed my thoughts away, concentrating instead on each step.
Sometime around midnight, with the moon illuminating the desert as far as the eye could see, Addy stopped and took the pack from me.
“You're shivering,” he pointed out, and took out a blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders.
I hadn't noticed. I was too distracted by trying to keep going. I was already so tired.
When I felt the warmth of the blanket around me though, it perked me up a little bit.
“Can you keep going?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, pulling the blanket tight around me.
He kissed my forehead and then returned to my side, walking with both of our bags now.
“Do you still like to read?” he asked me.
“Hm? Oh yes. I have a book waiting on my bedside table for me, in fact,” I told him. “I’ve thought about it here and there... I suppose that's the silver lining of going back. I'll finally find out what happened to Sal's brother.”
He laughed.
“Tell me about it?”
And with that masterful distraction, I was lost in retelling Addy the story I had been in the middle of, instead of focusing on our current predicament.
He got roped into my retelling, hanging on my every word, asking questions and eventually speculating how it would end with me.
By the time I was too tired to go on, the moon had somehow moved across the sky and morning was approaching.
I slowed, suddenly hit with exhaustion.
“That should be far enough for tonight,” Addy said and pulled me into a comforting embrace before he set to work setting up our tarp. He took his time tying the sticks together so that we had four that would be long enough to hold it up.
“You did that on purpose, didn't you?”
He glanced at me curiously.
“You didn't care about the book. You just wanted to distract me.”
He shook his head, bemused.
“Well, yes, I don't want this trek to be horrible for you and I thought a distraction would help, but I was genuinely entertained and now I will be thinking about that book until we get to read the rest.”
He finished tying the tarp to the last stick and then came over to me, taking my hands.
“I am interested in everything about you, Lili, even the books you read.”
I practically melted.
“Oh well, I can't be mad at that.”
“Good.”
He pulled me into his arms, kissing me so sweetly it made my teeth hurt.
