Handmade With Love by Rachel Bowdler

Author:Rachel Bowdler [Rachel Bowdler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rachel Bowdler
Published: 2022-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

As much as Stevie loved spending time with the twins, she was glad for the peace when it reached their bedtime. A stifling humidity had blanketed the woods over the afternoon, and even as the sun set, it was everywhere: unavoidable and clinging to her like a second layer of skin.

“Remind me why we need a fire again,” she groaned as Levi and Quentin settled behind the flames opposite, cheeks rosy and a sheen of sweat caking their foreheads. Anna sat in a collapsible camp chair adjacent, quiet and unreachable. Stevie didn’t know why, and that bothered her.

“For s’mores!” Levi produced a bag of marshmallows from their backpack and rattled them eagerly.

Her sweet tooth must have been malfunctioning because the thought of feasting on roasted marshmallows on top of the awful tinned dinner they’d eaten made Stevie want to throw up. She swiped her sweaty bangs from her face and rose, seeking reprieve from the unnecessary fire. Not that it was any cooler away from it.

“I’ll pass. Anyone for a swim instead?” The quaint lake was the only thing for miles where Stevie might be able to cool down, and they often ended up swimming in it on days like this, the kids splashing about in inflatable armbands and screaming when their feet touched something slimy. Stevie always ended up going home stinking of a stagnant, algae-infested fishpond, but she’d take that over stale body odour any day.

“You should go, Anna,” Levi suggested, wiggling their eyebrows. “It’s fun.”

Anna glanced at them warily. “Is it clean?”

“It’s fun.” Levi sighed, shooing her away. “Go on. It’ll be getting dark in a bit, and Stevie might get lost on her own.”

A lie. Stevie knew the campsite trails as well as she knew Castell Bay by now. “You’re chicken cooping us again.”

“I am not! Has it ever occurred to you that I might want some alone time with my husband?” Levi laced their fingers through Quentin’s pointedly, taking a bite of charred marshmallow.

“Ugh, fine,” Anna groused, pushing up from her chair. “I know when I’m not wanted.”

Stevie was too sweltering to care either way. She gathered her towels and a fresh set of clothes and wandered down to the lake, not bothering to see if Anna followed. When twigs began to snap behind her, she knew Anna had.

“Should I have gotten a tetanus shot before coming here?” Anna asked as they fell out onto the soggy banks of the lake. The water reflected the mottled purple-grey of the twilit sky, which probably did Anna’s hygiene concerns no favours. Even so, it was beautiful. Peaceful. Still. Surrounded by wild shrubbery and leafy, rustling trees.

“You know, I thought I was uptight.” Finding a relatively dry patch of grass by the shore, Stevie toed off her boots and socks and then shimmied out of her leggings. It left her in only her sweat-stained tunic, which at least fell to the top of her thighs. She didn’t care much for modesty tonight and it was nothing that Anna hadn’t already seen.

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