Chapter 7

Caught

Dairine stood behind her older sister and Kit, grinning widely, her hands on her hips. The classic you-two-are-so-busted look on her face made Nita feel slightly sick as she made a pathetic attempt to lie her way out of the situation. Why, in all those games of Worst-Case-Scenario she'd played with her family, wasn't there a card titled Your Younger Sibling Catches You Kissing Your Crush?

"Um…h-hey, Dari…! Wh-whatcha doing here? I was just…um…reaching to grab the car keys from behind Kit… and… um…"

Dairine watched Nita stammer her excuse, then, finally, as Nita neared total panic, sighed, "All right… whatever. I won't say anything… this time. Next time…" She trailed off, then, acting as if nothing had happened, said, "You guys are staying here-yes, here, Nita-for the next eight hours. Tomorrow morning, you're outta here and on your way to California. And, guess what? You guys get a whole three weeks in the Golden State… to go wherever."

"And," she added, looking slyly at Nita, "to do whatever you want…", emphasizing the 'do' with a raise of her eyebrows.

Before Nita could do so much as to get up and attempt to deck her, Dairine had smartly retreated back across the campground and into the surrounding copse.

Kit, who had been quiet throughout this whole exchange, stood slowly, saying, "So…how about those s'mores?"

He watched Nita, anxious to see how she responded to this, and was relieved when she moved her gaze back to him, nodding her approval of the idea. "Thanks, Kit."

As he turned, Nita asked, "Hey… where's Ponch?"

For the black dog had vanished from the campsite sometime during the exchange between Nita and Dairine. Kit, puzzled, looked around him, then whistled. "Hey, Ponch! C'mere…"

A dark shape leapt from the bed of Kit's pickup and bounded toward him, a box of graham crackers in his mouth. Kit rolled his eyes and nudged Ponch back toward the fire. "You can't be hungry already…I thought I just fed you!"

Ponch dropped the box of crackers beside Nita and curled up beside her, glancing at his owner over his shoulder. I have a high metabolism.

Nita burst out laughing as Kit buried his face in his hands, muttering, "I told mom not to use big words around him…"

Heaving a huge sigh, he rummaged around in the bed of the pickup for a while, muttering darkly to himself as he somehow managed to pull a bag of jumbo marshmallows and a bar of Hershey's Milk Chocolate out of the bottomless abyss that was his pickup bed. Slamming the tailgate, he took aim, and neatly arced the bag of marshmallows at Nita's back. A few seconds later, he ducked as the bag sailed back over his head, laughing good-naturedly as he retrieved the bag and joined Nita at the campfire. He looked around, then plucked two sticks off the ground, handing one to Nita and opening the bag of marshmallows up. Nita reached over, then promptly leaned back and caught the marshmallow Kit tossed at her forehead, spearing it and holding it over the crackling flames, watching it slowly turn golden. Kit did likewise, then settled back, gazing up into the clear night sky.

"You know," he said softly, watching Emily nibble cautiously at the marshmallow he'd placed in front of her, "I've always wanted to do that."

Nita looked at him, blushing furiously. "Oh. Um… okay…"

Kit looked at her, going red as well. "Yeah, I know it was kinda random… but… well, it's just a really…vivid situation. I mean… well, you know what I mean…"

Thoroughly embarrassed, Nita nodded bemusedly, avoiding Kit's gaze. He shrugged, sighed, then asked, "So… whaddya want to do in California? Anyplace special you wanted to go…?"

Nita absentmindedly watched her marshmallow blacken on one side, then combust and burn. She made an irritated noise and blew it out, then flicked the burnt crust off the sugar puff and popped it into her mouth.

Kit watched the brief, hugely entertaining spectacle of Nita's face as she gagged on the odd taste of burnt marshmallow. He fell over laughing, but quickly stopped when his stick caught fire, the marshmallow having long crisped, caught fire again, and fallen off the stick and into the fire. Kit blew the flame out, then sighed and touched Nita's shoulder gently, a very clear gesture of affection that caused Nita's heart to leap inside her chest. She smiled at him as he stood and grinned back at her. "See you in the morning, Neets."

She watched him walk toward the tent, kick his shoes off, and disappear inside. Her gray eyes stayed on the tent flap for several minutes until she felt an extreme heat very close to her hand.

"Ow!"

The burning stick fell into the campfire, and Nita, having had more than enough experience with the fire for tonight, leaned back and looked at Ponch, who was busy chewing on the graham crackers. She sighed, grinned widely, stroked the silk fur on the dog's head, and retired to the tent, tossing the wizardry equivalent of a bucket of water onto the fire as she slipped into her sleeping bag. She was almost instantly claimed by sleep and sank into dream.