OverTime 03: Slipping (First 70 Chapters)

Chapter 63: Under the Stars (Lillabit) -- WARNING: Sexual situations

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the delay.  I had a minor health crisis, but am back on my feet and writing again. Enjoy! 

I'd almost drifted off when I startled awake to, "Cooper! Get up here!"

"What?" I asked immediately, even as Benj somehow rolled out of his bedroll right into a crouch, a rifle ready in his hands. "Who?"

I had to flail with my own covers a little, even as he headed in the direction of the path Jacob had climbed to the lookout. "Stay here," warned Benj, over his shoulder. Then he stopped, just before vanishing. "No. Check yer boots and come with me. Could be a distraction."

Go ahead! I wanted to insist, grabbing up my boots and obediently shaking them out before slamming my feet into them. Jacob needs you!

But he didn't go, and I felt like the slowest boot-donner in the west—especially after I had to go back for my gun belt.

At least that, I was able to buckle while hurrying after my friend, even in the middle of the night. Full moons really do make a difference, in a world without electric lights. Benj paused on the steep path several times, reaching down a hand to help me up—how did he and Jacob make it look so easy? Each time, I wanted to push him ahead.

Jacob needed him.

Jacob wouldn't call unless he needed him!

But Benj had a point. Whatever had happened could be a way for Slade Callahan to separate us and catch me alone. So I scrambled as best I could, sometimes using hands and feet, until Benj pulled me over the top onto a flat stone shelf.

The first thing I noticed was Jacob, alive and apparently unhurt, slowly walking the perimeter of the house-sized rock, staring over its edge. I closed my eyes in a moment of relief. No matter what I decided about my own future, I didn't want anything bad happening to him.

I didn't like thinking that me leaving would be something bad happening to him.

When I opened my eyes again, the view in the moonlight took my breath. Wow! I could see across the rugged, rolling landscape for miles!

So why was my husband studying the ground immediately below this big rock, instead?

"Would of said to bring her," he snapped, upon seeing me.

Benj said, "Well pardon me for bein' overly cautious with yer wife."

Something about the way Garrison looked at him, and then at me, before going back to his examination of whatever lay beneath the boulder, gave me a bad feeling, and I didn't know why. It was as if... as if he knew a secret about us and he didn't like it.

"Take watch," he commanded—to Benj, of course. With a spread hand, he indicated a stretch across the other side of the rock. "Don't step here. Look fer tracks come mornin'."

"Somethin' was up here, left tracks?" I could hear the doubt in Benj's voice.

Garrison said, "Yep," and headed for the path back down.

"Anythin' likely to shoot at us?"

"Nope."

I followed my husband until he turned back and pointed. "Stay with Cooper."

"I'd rather stay with you."

Again, something flickered in his shadowed gaze that gave me pause. But he just said, "Suit yerself," and resumed his descent.