That Summer Feeling: SUMMER 4EVER [H.S.]

41. Summer Nights

"Why the fuck did we agree to this?"

A quiet laugh escapes from my mouth as I watch Harry struggle with extending the base of our tent on the spot we chose. He's fighting with it, attempting to figure out where the roof is and what side goes down on the even ground. We've been trying to assemble this tent for a good ten minutes now and haven't gotten anywhere near to finishing it.

"Because it's fun," I tell him. I open the small duffel bag filled with the skinny black rods and start taking them out.

He drops the tarp and narrows his eyes at me. "It's going to be freezing tonight, there are a million bugs around, and my back already hurts. Tell me what exactly about this is fun for you?"

I shrug, grinning when his hand suddenly flies in front of his face to shoo away a pesky mosquito. "Well, it's pretty fun watching you try to build this tent."

"I'm glad you're entertained." He picks up the gray nylon canvas and nearly throws it over himself trying to extend it out in front of him, still looking for the side that goes on the floor. He stops and looks around, sighing. His tongue presses along the inside of his cheek. "Huh."

"What?"

"This is a two-person tent but only one person is building it. Interesting..."

I quietly snort to myself and walk toward him after dropping the poles to the ground. "I've been trying to help. You're the one who won't let me read the instructions first."

"Instructions are for people without common sense and instincts. I am a man of this earth, Lacey. I don't need a silly little book to tell me how to— ow, motherfu—"

His hand smacked against the side of his neck. He glances at his palm with furrowed brows, wiping it on his pants after. "Where's the fucking bug spray?"

I walk to the creaky wooden picnic table built nearby us to get the small bottle with a bright orange cap.
"If I had known you were going to be such a diva outdoors—"

"I'm not a diva." Harry takes the bug spray from me with a scowl and begins to dowse the spray all over himself.

I take a few steps back, coughing from the intense amount of chemicals that entered my mouth. I wave my hand in front of my face and quietly laugh at the sight of Harry so distressed by a few bugs that he's practically pouring the bottle over him.

"Are you laughing at me?" He stops spraying as I shake my head. "Then what's so funny?"

"Nothing." I roll my smile into my mouth and walk over to the tent. From what I got to read, the next step is to nail down the corners of the tent into the dirt with a stake to secure it. "Can we finish this already? I want to lay down."

"Tired from all your hard work?" He says with sarcasm.

I stand up, smiling at him. "I'm gonna go see if I can crash with Niall and Bella in their tent instead."

"No, no, no. No need. I got this," Harry quickly came up to me and takes the rubber mallet from my hand. He apologetically smiles at me. "Go on, sit over there and look pretty. I'll finish building it."

"Okay." I smile and place an airy peck on his lips, not fighting him off this time. Worked like a charm.

I sit back on a giant rock laying across from our tent and watch Harry add the stakes in each corner of the tent, unashamedly engrossed in the force he used from his arm to nail the stakes in and the small pants he released after each one. The golden sunlight peeks between the tall pine trees and illuminates Harry as he moves with concentration knitted on his brows. Even with thin perspiration along his hairline and frustrated puffs of air dulling his cheeks, he manages to look pretty.