Chapter 2
The little walk turned out to be a little over a mile. It would have been a short walk if it wasn’t pitched black, but with all of the flashlights bobbing around, they all seemed to make it there with only her brother Josh’s girlfriend, tripping on an exposed root and falling on her face. Ana had not always gotten along with Alexis, so she tried not to laugh, but seeing her face caked with mud was hard not to react to.
Every time Ana turned around, Mike was walking so close to here that they would touch. She had a strange feeling go over her as their blue eyes met, but she would look away, feeling something akin to shyness wash over her. There was just something in the way that he looked at her, that even in the dark it affected her.
When the large group finally got to the clearing where the camping signs were put up, there were several other tents set up, a few of the occupants poking their heads out with the commotion. Everyone found a place for their tents and Ana was quietly setting up her tent like the others, when she caught Glenn walking over to help Marie. Her tent was still folded from the first time and her friend was looking at the instructions like they were written in Greek. Ana shot her another dirty look. She did not want her friend sleeping with her father’s friends. It would just lead to her getting chewed out and a weird circumstance. That much she was sure of.
Ana went back to her tent and she was then behind from rubber necking what Marie was doing. She sighed as she pulled out the expanding pulls and started to make it into one long piece. “Do you want me to help you?”
She jumped, not paying attention enough to see Mike walking up. His blue eyes always seemed to be sparkling and the way he looked at her made her want to melt. She was not immune to the looks and she looked down to blush. Ana was not usually that girl that needed saving, but when she got around Mike she was at a loss of words and fumbled around a lot more.
“Here I got this.”
The man took the pole from her hand like she shouldn’t be touching them and it peeved her a little bit. Marie was the girly-girl, not her. Mike had the tent up within minutes and she did little else than hand him the stakes to go in the ground. She thanked him and watched him go back to his own tent that was quite a bit larger than the others. Mike and Glenn were splitting the two room tent.
Ana watched him through her opening, his shadow against the vinyl. She saw his shirt come off and the ridges that were even visible in his outline against the tent. Then his outline turned towards her and she slipped back behind her flap, her heart racing. There was so much that Ana wanted to learn, but she was still reluctant to go the next level with a boy, let alone a man. Mike made her feel strange, kind of like her first crush in high school. Ana was older now though and her curiosity was a lot stronger than before.
***
Mike slept fitfully and all he could think about was the young woman that he couldn’t have. His best friend of course had to have a daughter that he would have given his left nut to have had. He tried to remember what Jerry had said about her through the years, but nothing could make him forget how innocently she had looked at him. She acted like a girl surprised by her own body’s response and it made Mike wonder just how innocent she really was.
Morning came earlier for the camp, but even earlier for Mike. He was up and down at the river fishing with Glenn by the time most of the rest of the family was stirring. Mike caught the blonde hair of Ana as she walked into the woods. He figured he knew what she was doing and even though it was going to make him a pervert, he told his companion that he had to piss and took off several yards behind her.
Ana was not paying attention to anything more than her need to relieve herself. She had awoken early in the morning, but had willed herself back to bed because of how dark the woods were. Ana was not afraid of the dark per say, but it was another issue to drop your pants and crouch in a pile of leaves that can’t be inspected. It was one of those times that Ana wished that it could be as easy for her, as it was for a man.
She heard a twig crack and looked around but didn’t see anyone. After she pulled her pants back up, she started to walk back to the small camp and was startled as Mike came around a tree and she almost ran into him. She apologized and kept walking, but looked back behind her as he passed. There was something in his eyes and it made her wonder how long he had been there. How much had he seen?
Mike went back to fishing fifteen minutes later and no one seemed to notice that it took him an exceptionally long time. Jerry and Mike started talking about old fishing trips they had taken as kids, but Mike’s blue eyes met hers several times throughout the conversation. When he looked a certain way at her, her cheeks turned pink and she looked down. She really was that innocent, he thought to himself. He wanted to do what any hot-blooded man would have done. He wanted to exploit it.