No offense to the guide, but Canaan had had enough exercise for one day. The only vantage point he was truly interested in was one where he could see Renzo naked again as soon as possible. About half the group left with the older guide, while the younger one prepped the fire for s’mores for those remaining. Most of those staying behind moved their camp chairs closer to the fire, seemingly content to hang out chatting, no one in a hurry to head to bed. Darn it.
Canaan had a feeling that Renzo wasn’t going to want to be the first ones to make for their tent, so he tried to be social, listening to more band travel stories. The whole time, though, his mind was less on the band and more on when he could get away with dragging Renzo out of there.
“I’m going to go shower.” Crouching next to Canaan’s chair, Renzo whispered in his ear.
“Oh, maybe I should—”
“No. Stay here. Hang out with your friends. We are not getting busy in a public shower room,” Renzo said sternly. “And yes, I know that’s what you were about to suggest.”
“You know me well.” Canaan sighed, but still laughed. “I guess I can shower when you get back.”
“Good plan.” Renzo’s eyes were dark and hot, as if he too were thinking ahead to tent time and what they might do.
Drifting on dirty thoughts, Canaan watched the fire and loosely listened to the conversation around him. However, something Damian said made him shake the cobwebs from his head, listen more closely.
“Yeah. We should do something special for our anniversary.” Damian laughed. “Four years later this year. We might go back to Munich, where it all began.”
Wait. What the absolute fuck? Canaan had been gone from the band three years and change, but not that close to four years, and Munich had been several stops before Prague on that tour. Several.
“I thought you guys got together after Prague,” he said, trying to not sound petulant.
Damian did a vague wave of his hand. “Oh, you know. That tour runs together for me. So many cities.”
“No, it was definitely Munich.” Eric’s laugh had a sort of fondness to it that made Canaan’s teeth grind together. “Just wasn’t until after Prague that I started drumming for you guys.”
“What the hell?” He directed his words to Damian. “You guys fucked around before I left? Before the band voted?”
Shrugging, Damian settled lower in his chair. “What does it matter? You were gone anyway. You’d made your priorities clear.”
He made priorities sound right up there with kicking puppies as far as bad things went. And Canaan had had enough. Pushing up from his chair, he growled, “Fuck you. It matters to me.”
“Don’t be a baby.” Damian sounded almost bored, and Canaan couldn’t take another minute of this. He stalked away from the fire, away from the campsite. Behind him, he heard someone calling Damian a dick, but it didn’t matter. He needed away from all this bullshit. Speeding up, he headed down the paved path, away from their tents, away from other campsites, away—
“Hey. Wait up.” Footsteps sounded behind him, and for a second, he thought it was Kelly who’d come after him, trying to smooth things over, as was his way. But it was Renzo’s deep voice, not even out of breath trying to keep up with him. Hair still wet from his shower, he had a clean T-shirt and sweatpants on and a placid expression on his face that drove Canaan batty.
“Bug off. I need to be alone for a while.” Canaan wasn’t fit company for anyone right then, and even the possibility of sex wasn’t enough to get him to turn back.
“You didn’t even bring a flashlight. No way am I letting you wander around the forest pissed.”
“Letting?” Canaan whirled on him. “If I want to go for a walk, I will.”
“You do that. But me and the flashlight are coming along.” Renzo waved his flashlight at him.
“You could just give the light to me,” Canaan grumbled.
“I heard the tail end of what happened. You want to talk about it?” Renzo kept his tone reasonable despite Canaan’s attitude.
“Nope.” Spotting a flat rock off the trail, Canaan flung himself down. “Just gonna sit here. I can find my own way back, promise.”
But Renzo ignored him and settled down next to him.
“What are you doing?”
“You need to think. That’s cool. We can just sit until you’re ready to go back. But there are wild animals around here. And other dangers. So ignore me if you want, but I’m not leaving. When you’re ready, I’ll show you a way back to our tent that will avoid the fire pit.”
Canaan only grunted in response, but true to his word, Renzo didn’t push. He simply sat there, next to Canaan, flashlight turned off as the last of the twilight faded. And okay, Renzo was right. It was dark now, glittery stars above them the only interruption in the sea of dark shadows. Canaan lost track of how long they’d been there, but still Renzo, who usually didn’t seem to lack for words, stayed quiet.