Lily sat back with a head shake. “I’m not hearing the part where you get some sleep.”

Chase grinned. “I’m an expert napper.”

“In your Jeep?”

“Sometimes. Mostly, though—”

“A blanket on the ground,” Lily finished.

“You remembered.” Chase registered the odd pleasure over such a small thing that somehow didn’t feel so small.

“I won’t criticize, as I’ve been there myself plenty,” Lily said. “Tell me what’s in store for the kids on this wilderness thing.”

“You mean when I take them out into the woods and plop them down somewhere and tell them I’ll be back for them tomorrow?”

“You’re kidding about that, right?”

“I’m actually kidding about it today, but we are going to do that at some point. It’s called wilderness survival training for a reason, and this camp is designed to impart serious outdoor skills. That’s really clear in all the info provided before campers apply. So it’s part of the experience. It’s why they come here and not somewhere else. We actually teach advanced wilderness skills.”

“You’re really going to leave them out there somewhere?”

“Eventually. Of course, we’re not gonna go very far away. The only real danger is if someone decides to cut out and head back on their own or the occasional predator wanders too close to camp.”

“Occasional and predator do not seem compatible.”

Chase laughed.

Lily shook her head. “I have to say that some of these kids do not look to me like they want to be left out in the woods overnight.”

“True,” Chase said. “There are always a couple who never really absorb the message or who end up here for the summer because their parents think it will be good for them or they just wanted a supervised environment for them for the summer. Those kids tend to resent any part of what we do here.”

“Recipe for revolt,” Lily observed.

“Totally agree. Those are the kids who are probably here under moderate duress.”

Lily quirked a brow. “Are you talking about anyone in particular?”

Chase glanced around to be sure no one was close enough to overhear. “Julia Latoya pretty much confirmed that Giovanna Langford is here because her parents didn’t like her choice of friends and wanted to make sure she was tucked away somewhere remote and secure until they could ship her off to college.”

“I know her father’s a state senator,” Lily said, “and I gather he’s a pretty extreme conservative.”

Chase smiled. “That’s summing it up a little too nicely. He’s anti just about everything that isn’t white, Christian, heterosexual. I suppose if he didn’t have a wife and a daughter, he’d be more vocally anti-woman too.”

“Can’t be fun growing up in that household, especially if there’s security around all the time.”

“No, I’m sure it isn’t.” Chase finished off the last of her food and slid the plate away. “And I feel sorry for the kid that she’s here when she doesn’t want to be, but there are worse places she could be. Worse things that she could be experiencing.”