“AJ, wake up!” Ty whispered, shaking him.
“What time is it?” he groaned without opening his eyes.
“Almost 5:30.”
“AM?”
“Yup.”
“No way.” He rolled over, pulling his sweatshirt over his head.
Ty frowned and shook him again.
“What could be so important for me to get up at 5:30?” he demanded.
“The sunrise! Don’t you want to see it?”
AJ peeked at her from beneath his makeshift pillow. “Ty, not to be rude, but, you can take your sunrise and stick it where the sun don’t shine!”
Ty’s eyes widened and then she broke out laughing.
AJ smiled. “That was really stupid.”
“Uh huh.”
“But I’m still not getting up.”
“I’ll watch with you,” Ty heard from behind her.
She turned to see Kevin pulling on his boots.
“Great! Let’s go!”
He grabbed his jacket and followed her. “Where exactly are we going?” he asked.
“A secret spot.”
Ty took him up a small hill. “You can see everything from up here.”
“It’s beautiful,” Kevin agreed.
Ty sat down on the ground and patted the spot next to her. “We’re just in time.” Together, they watched the sun rise above the treetops and blaze a burning orange. Nothing was said, they just enjoyed the pure simpleness and beauty of it. Finally Ty broke the silence by sighing.
“I love the outdoors,” she added.
“Me too. I miss Kentucky.”
She glanced at him. “You can take the boy out of Kentucky but you can’t take Kentucky out of the boy, is that it?”
Kevin grinned. “Damn straight.”
“So how come Brian isn’t like you?”
“Brian grew up differently. He spent most of his time in the church choir or in hospitals. I practically lived outside.”
Ty nodded. “I think I read that somewhere.” She pulled her knees up to her chest.
“Think the others will miss us?”
Kevin snorted. “I doubt it. They could probably sleep till noon, after last night.”
Ty shivered.
“Are you cold?”
She shook her head. “No, no, I’m fine.”
Kevin chewed on his lower lip, wondering whether or not he should ask her about last night or not. Curiosity got the better of him. “Ty...” he began.
“You want to know why I broke down and bawled, right?”
He nodded and Ty took a deep breath.
“I once lost a camper,” she said softly.
“You did?”
“Yeah. A little girl, she was six years old. Her family had hired me to take them out, and one night...we just...she...”
Ty stopped talking and started crying. Kevin immediately took her in his arms and held her.
“Shhh, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” he told her.
Ty sniffled. “The parents didn’t blame me, but it was my fault. We search for two days, and then we found her.”
Kevin knew by the way her voice shook that this story didn’t have a happy ending.
“She was dead!” Ty blurted out. “The hospital said she must have fallen and hit her head on a rock. God, I felt so terrible, I still do.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “That’s why Nick’s disappearing freaked me out so much. And then when we found him, he wasn’t moving, and I got so scared!”
Kevin listened and held her. “It’s okay, he’s safe, we all are. You’re not going to lose any of us.”
“Yeah, your fans would kill me.”
Kevin laughed and Ty felt her heart beat faster. She then realized she was in his arms, sitting on a hill, in a very romantic setting. She blushed and tried to move away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, confused.
“I just, um...you...me...uh uh.”
“Why not?”
Ty licked her lips. “Because, you’re famous, and I’m not, and it would just be all wrong. So there.” She stood up and started to walk away from him.
Kevin jumped up and went after her.
“Ty, when this trip is over, I want to see you again.”
“I think AJ does too.” She avoided his gaze and stared at the ground. “Oh look, a snake.”
Kevin’s eyes dropped. In that moment, Ty took off running.
“Dammit,” he muttered.
He caught up with her, grabbed her arm and turned her around. She smacked into his hard chest and stared in shock. And then his lips were on hers, crushing them. When he stopped kissing her and let her go, she almost fell.
“Whoa, that had just a little bit of a dizzying effect there,” she said.
“It was supposed to.”
“Kevin, I like you. But I don’t want to.”
“Why not?” he asked again.
“I’ve been hurt before.”
“So have I.”
“You’re not making this easy.”
“Duh.”
Ty smiled. “We’ll see. How’s that?”
“It works for me.”
“Good. Let’s go back, I want to wake up the others.”
“You’ll just piss them off,” Kevin warned.
“Duh,” she said, echoing him.
When they got back to the campsite, they were surprised to see the other four were awake and in the stream. Their clothes were piled next to a tree.
“Come on in, the water’s freezing!” AJ yelled.
“We all felt the need for a bath,” Brian explained.
Ty giggled as thousands of dirty thoughts flew through her mind. She looked to Kevin.
“Actually, a bath does sound nice,” he said. He started to remove his clothing. Ty yelped out loud and quickly turned around.
“A true lady,” he said, laughing.
Ty waited for the splash that came when Kevin got in the water before facing them.
“Too bad I don’t have a camera!” she called to them.
She knew that millions of girls would kill to be in her place right now! Suddenly, a truly wicked idea came to her as she watched them splash around. Casually, she made her way over to the pile of clothes. Kevin had tossed his there as well. Just as she was almost to them, Brian saw her and yelled, “Hey! What’re you doing?!” She grabbed the pile and made a mad dash for the trees, squealing with delight all the way. She could hear them start to come after her, and then...nothing.
She peeked out from behind a bush and nearly fell over from laughing so hard. All five of them were standing in the stream, the water just above their hips. None of them dared to move any closer to shore.
“You want your clothes?” she taunted. “Come and get ‘em!”
“Ty, that’s not fair!” Nick yelled. “The water’s cold!”
“You know what cold water does to your --”
“Ahhh!” they cried in unison.
“Ty, come on,” Brian pleaded. “Please give us our clothes back.”
“What will you do for me?”
They talked it over.
“We promise to stop complaining about this trip,” Howie said.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“You swear it?”
“Yes!” they screamed.
Ty emerged from her hiding place and dropped their clothes on the sand. She then turned away.
The Boys came out of the water, grabbed their stuff and headed for the safety of the trees. Ty turned just in time to see five nice looking backsides disappear.
She laughed and said, “Ahh, the joys of my job!”
