Chapter 4. Getting Started

Sage’s POV

The muscles in my stomach clench from the rasp in Ryker’s whisper.

“W-what?” I ask, probably mishearing him. I had to of heard what I’ve been wanting to hear, he wouldn’t say that with Kehlani so close.

I don’t want him to think I’m beautiful. Stop, stop, stop.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” he chuckles, “you look tired, go ahead and take a nap.”

The pancakes I ate have in fact put me into a food coma. Not only do I feel overstuffed, I’m exhausted. I slept good last night so it was definitely the food making my eyes heavy.

“Come on, I don’t bite. Put your head on my shoulder and nap for a while,” his hand finds the back of my head and lowers it to his shoulder.

He smells so good.

Every atom in my body screams for me to back away from him, to be offended even but…it’s so hot and he smells so good, damn he even has a comfortable shoulder.

His finger tips brush against my back, spreading warmth as he moves them around softly. The only thing that is preventing me from feeling his finger tips directly on the skin is the tin fabric of my sundress. His skin brushes against my shoulders, making air force itself into my lungs.

I hope he didn’t hear that…

Admittedly, it feels very relaxing. My eyes feel like boulders and I’ve been stubborn for a while now, wanting to stay awake to feel his touch but my eyes are beginning to betray my wants.

Whispering voices bring me out of a half sleep state. My eyes remain closed but my ears are attuned to the world around me.

“I think she’ll fit in with us perfectly. Did you see the way Karter looked at her? All of them were intrigued by her.”

Kehlani giggles, “she didn’t even know she was the center of attention. I’m happy everyone likes her so far, she means a lot to me…which is why it’s taken me so long to finally introduce her to this life. She’s possibly more innocent than I am.”

I feel Ryker’s chest rise and fall.

What’s so different about this lifestyle?

Before I can hear anything else, the world fades back out.

I dream of being back at my parents’ house, being chewed out for not feeding the chickens and letting my older sister get me dressed for the day. Fawn was always my favorite sibling since we would gang up on the boys, but I was in a bad mood that morning and just wanted to sleep in.

My mom would burst into the room and drag me out of the bed until my head would hit the floor, she hated when I didn’t do my chores. After all, we all had chores we had to keep up with or everyone would be affected.

The RV coming to a stop wakes me up from the jerk forward but two strong hands hold me from falling to the floor.

“I gotcha, pet,” Ryker whispers, sending shivers down my spine, awakening something I’ve never felt inside me.

“Can you check and see if the others are on the grounds yet? I didn’t see Lynn’s car pulling up so I know they aren’t here,” Kehlani asks Ryker a favor to which he nods and leaves the RV.

Kehlani thankfully doesn’t comment of my reddened cheeks as she begins to undo the ties on all the cabinets.

I want to ask her about what’s going on. If her and Ryker are together. What she meant by ‘this life’. Her and I have never kept secrets from each other, she knows all of mine and I thought I knew all of hers. But right now I feel like she’s hiding something from me. I’m afraid to ask because I don’t want to seem like I’m accusing her of anything or trying to flirt with her man if they are in fact together.

“You want a tent or do you want to stay in here with me?” Kehlani asks.

Hmm, if I take the tent, I could have some more privacy. I could also sleep with the zipper open to see the stars.

“I think I want the tent.”

She goes to her bedroom and comes back out dragging a large bag, “one of the guys might have to, ugh,” she struggles to drag it to me, “bring this out.”

I nod, “wanna stay in there with me?”

Her head shakes from side to side, “I prefer it in here, but I might take you up on that offer a couple times just to be with you.”

Giving her a smile, I decide that I want to ask her about Ryker since I’m not able to get him out of my head. I don’t know if I should feel guilty about it or not.

“So, you never told me you had a boyfriend,” I pretend to tease her.

Her movements still but a shy smile crawls on her face, “you promised me that you’d do whatever felt natural, you’d do what you want,” she reminds me.

“Yeah,” I giggle, “what’s that got to do with you having a boyfriend?”

Before she can answer, the doors open revealing a man I haven’t met before. He’s jaw dropping, his spell-binding green eyes pop from his tanned skin; he has to be mixed. He’s tall with a Van Dyke goatee and a nice taper fade to his curly black hair. Man even has a hoop nose ring that fits perfectly in his nostril.

Holy hell.

“Oh! Jericho, this is Sage!” Kehlani exclaims with excitement laced in her voice.

His light green eyes scan me up and down before giving me a sly smirk, “we’re just waiting on Lynn to get here with Karter and Jayce. Corbin has been MIA for a minute but I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” he doesn’t look away from me and for a second, I thought he was talking to me but I don’t know what I’d do with that information.

“Is Joe in a good mood?” Kehlani asks while gauging his reaction which is a small mouth shrug.

I feel like Jericho is putting me under a microscope, the way his eyes settle on me makes my heart speed up.

Instead of standing there awkwardly, I make myself useful and bring the table down between the kitchen seating while they talk.

My hands are a little clammy so the table crashes down and bangs against me knee throwing out a loud knocking sound.

“Shit,” Jericho huffs, sounding closer to me than before.

Kehlani runs to my side and pushes me to sit down on the kitchen seating.

Jericho kneels in front of me, lifting the hem of my dress, my breath hitches at his closeness but he stops when my knee is exposed.

There is a big red splotch on my skin, but nothing too serious.

“Guys, I’m okay,” I nervously laugh.

Jericho’s finger slides against my inner thigh as he brings my dress back down, making my core clench around nothing but air.

Jesus, what the hell is wrong with me?

“Promise you’re okay? I have a first aid kit,” Kehlani states with worry lines on her forehead.

My hand rises against her face, letting my thumb wipe the worry lines right off her face, “I’m good, worst thing that will happen is a bruise.”

She nods and kisses the back of my hand, Jericho whispers something before turning around with his back facing us.

“Oh, before you leave can you grab the tent? It’s heavy,” Kehlani asks him.

His throat clears, “I’ll send Thiago in to help. I have to do something.”

How cryptic.

Once he leaves, Kehalni and I shrug at each other, laughing until the RV door opens again.

Nobody knocks?

A tall tanned man with wavy black hair to his shoulders enters, his eyes are honey brown as they sparkle in the small streaks on sunlight coming through the RV windows.

“Ah, you must be Sage,” his Spanish accent is thick, “I’m Thiago,” he softly takes my hand, placing a small peck on the back of it.

Don’t swoon like a cartoon character. Don’t you dare do it, Sage!

“Nice to meet you,” I give him a confident smile. Although the confidence is fake, nobody can tell the difference between fake and real confidence.

Thiago’s cheek bones are high as he smiles back at me, “this the tent?” He picks it up and slings the heavy bag over his shoulder.

“Hey handsome!” Kehani greets him with a cheeky smile, “help her find a good spot,” she gives him her serious face which consists of her eyebrows being drawn in and her head tilted downwards, “a safe one.”

“Of course,” he wraps his muscular arm around her, showing a vein popping out of his bicep, “I’ll put her close to the others.”

The others? How many others?

“Thank you,” she sings in praise.

Thiago opens his hand to me, “let’s find you a spot, yes?”

His accent makes waves roll through my stomach, once my hand touches his large warm one, it becomes a whole tsunami.

He smells good, like musk and coconut.

We walk out of the RV, the sunlight finally hitting my skin. It’s so warm and slightly muggy but it’s not too bad. At least it doesn’t feel like I’m drowning in humidity.

I see a Jericho setting up a tent and I can’t help but wonder why he left so abruptly. Maybe me being a klutz made him think that I was being annoying?

Shut up, don’t jump to conclusions.

“How’s right here?”

I look around the area, two large trees are on the right. A perfect place for a hammock if you ask me. The lake isn’t closer to me, so if it rains, I would just have to make sure it doesn’t overflow and mess up my stuff.

“I think it’s great,” I smile at him.

He sets the bag on the ground and begins to unpack it.

“Oh, that’s alright,” I kneel down next to him, “I can do it.”

His eyebrow raises, “I can’t help the pretty lady?” I can tell he’s joking but it sounds so sweet with his accent laced in it.

I giggle, “well, if you insist then I’d greatly appreciate it.”

He nods and continues to pull out the bars while I tug the bug mesh out carefully. The bug mesh will probably be the most important thing to keep intact so I don’t get eaten alive by mosquitoes.

My dad used to say that my blood was sweeter than most peoples and that’s why I got bit more than my siblings.

A car stops at the edge of the camp clearing. Lynn’s red jeep parks and her, Karter, and Jayce step out to start unloading it.

“Have you met everyone else?” Thiago questions as he feeds the poles through the tent to give it structure.

“Hmm,” I think, “I think I’ve met everyone. Except Joe but Kehlani was a little worried about me meeting him.”

“I see, Joe is a cabrón most the time, but he means well.”

{bastard}

“Why are y’all friends if he’s so bad?”

He chuckles, “that is something I’ll let you find out for yourself, mi amor.”

I don’t know any Spanish, but I’m pretty sure ‘mi amor’ is a term of endearment?

Footsteps come up behind me, the sound of someone jogging reaches my ears, “your knight in shining armor is here,” Karter breathes as he wraps his arm around my shoulder and tugs me into his body.

A giggle slips out, “yeah, he’s helping me set up my tent,” I joke back, earning a playful scowl from his pretty chestnut colored eyes.

Karter jumps into action, helping Thiago build up my tent while I go back to the RV to retrieve my stuff.

The electric buzz of cicadas fill the air. For me, it’s a very homey sound.

I knock on Kehlani’s door, just in case for some odd reason she’s dancing around naked in there. I don’t know why she would be, it’s not like I’ve ever come across that.

Lynn opens the door and smiles, “miss me already?”

I put my hand over my heart, “oh, so much,” we both laugh as she steps to the side to let me inside.

“Kehlani is in the bathroom,” she informs me.

“That’s alright, I was just coming to get my bags to haul them over to my tent.”

She itches the side of her nose, “you aren’t staying in here with Kehlani?”

I shake my head and curl the hair that is in my face behind my ear, “I figured it’d be nice to be under the stars, you know?”

She nods with a pretty white smile.

Going to the main bedroom, I grab my bags. One piled on top of the other as I tug them into the common area, struggling slightly but hoping nobody will notice.

Kehlani and Lynn are on the couch, talking about a random topic. I think it was something about rabbits.

“Let me help you,” Kehlani stands and takes a bad from me.

Lynn comes along with us back to my tent. Well, the tent Kehlani has let me barrow.

Karter and Thiago have my tent all set up and have even gone out of their way by putting some comfortable things inside of it. I can spot at least two blankets, one is thick and brown and the other is a smaller orange throw blanket that has fringe around the boarders.

“We made it as comfortable as we could for you,” Thiago explains. I find it cute how he struggled a little saying ‘comfortable’.

“This is amazing! Thank you both, ya’ll didn’t have to do all this,” I say gratefully.

To be honest, I didn’t bring anything to cover up with so I’m happy they found something for me.

“Has anyone heard from Corbin yet?” Lynn questions as she looks around the camp.

He should be here by now, from my understanding, he’s the only one that came alone. I’ve met everyone else except for Joe.

As I converse with Lynn, Kehlani, Thiago, and Karter, I notice the man I haven’t yet meet.

Joe.

My stomach whirls with butterflies but it feels like they are frozen and the more I look at him, the more the frozen butterflies flap around.

How the hell am I supposed to get through this trip without embarrassing myself?