Page 20 of Slowly, All at Once
“Okay.” He threw a set of truck keys to Cody, saying, “We’ll follow you.”
Cody turned to get in the truck and Jacob headed toward the van. What was happening? Did Jacob want to be near me? Years of no contact followed by years of cordial tolerance could not be erased in a few days. What did I miss? I stared at his retreating back and ran to catch up with him. I quickly climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up as he started the van.
After a quick headcount, Jacob maneuvered the van out into the street and followed Cody.
Jacob looked in the rearview mirror at his guests, “Does anyone have any music preferences?”
Lacking suggestions from his passengers, Jacob handed me his iPhone and gave me his password. “Go ahead and bring up my playlist titled, Camping 2020.”
I took the phone from him, “That’s original.”
He lowered his brow at me before turning his eyes back to the road.
When the indie music filled the van, I took a moment to scroll through his photos. “I’m being nosy. Hope you don’t mind.”
He mumbled almost affectionately, “Can I stop you?”
“Nope.” I smiled sweetly.
All of the photo files were labeled by year and then by his trips. Pictures of winter snowmobiling adventures, whitewater rafting trips, fly-fishing seminars, and family.
He looked sexy and happy in all of them.
While I scrolled through the pictures, Jacob engaged Stephen in a conversation about electric vehicles and the lack of charging stations around the country. I heard something about Tesla and Prius, before my ears buzzed with awareness when I noticed a folder labeled CB.
I opened the folder and saw picture after picture of the two of us. Some of them were selfies taken on the beach in California. Others were just of me with Betty Blue. Our faces shone with young love. The memories burst in my mind like a kaleidoscope of color. Bright. Happy. Undamaged.
Another folder caught my attention. It was labeled 2016 and contained pictures of me at the Olympics. We’d split up after the 2012 Olympics.
I knew the moment he realized I’d seen them. He’d stopped talking.
When I glanced at him, his eyes were pained.
I asked him, “Why?”
“Can we talk about it later?”
“Were you there?” My voice cracked. I was hurt.
“Camille,” he warned.
I put the phone on the dash and looked out the window at the passing landscape. My mind raced with questions.
By the time we reached our first camp site, my head hurt from thinking about how Jacob and I might have made a whole bunch of wrong turns. Mental exhaustion prevented me from engaging in anymore conversation.
As soon as we parked, Jacob jumped out of the truck, announcing to everyone to gather around.
“Alright everyone, this is our campground for the night. We have a pretty easy hike planned for today, after we set up and have a hearty lunch. Tonight, we’ll talk about the river, and what to expect. The first leg is pretty scenic, not too many rapids, and hopefully, we’ll have a moose sighting.”
Everyone oohed and aahed, excited about the possibility of seeing some wildlife.
“We’ll make camp tomorrow night, and then the next day, we’ll get into some pretty challenging rapids.” Jacob smiled, and added, “And that is where the real fun happens.”
After that, it was a flurry of setting up tents and getting everyone settled. I unpacked the food for lunch, setting up lunch meat and cheese, dried fruit, carrot sticks and celery, and chocolate chip cookies on a picnic table in the middle of the campground. A cold pasta salad was at the bottom of the cooler, and I set that up as well.
In the back of the truck were small red and blue camp chairs. I set them up around a camp fire that would be lit later in the evening. I announced, “Lunch is ready.”
The twins ran to the table, arriving first, followed by their dad, the college girls, and finally, Nora.