She stood in the middle of the tent, bent over, her legs spread, using both hands to rub the white paste down her thighs and calves.

Behind her, she heard the tent flap open, and she peeked between her legs to find Millen, his face a mix of shock and fixation.

“Oh. Sorry,” he said, his voice strained. He was turning to leave when Hannah straightened up.

“It’s okay. Just… turn around for a sec.”

She finished applying the last bit of gel and slid under the covers on her cot. “Okay.”

He turned, and she held the tube out to him. “Want some? It helps.”

“No. Thanks, though. I’m too tired.” Millen opened a bottle of ibuprofen and took four.

“Me too,” Hannah said. “I’m too tired to even read.”

“Same here. But I feel like I can’t go to sleep.”

Hannah nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m too keyed up.”

She stared up at the canvas tent. “I know. I’m completely drained, but I can’t quit thinking about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Millen held up his phone, showing Hannah the Audible app with a book pulled up. “I was going to listen to The Nightingale. Haven’t started yet.”

Hannah propped herself up on an elbow, her eyebrows scrunched in surprise.

“What, have you read it?”

“No. But it’s been on my TBR list for a while.”

“What’s a TBR list?”

“A to-be-read list.”

“Oh. I don’t have a list,” Millen said. “I just pick a book and read it.”

That didn’t surprise Hannah one bit, but his choice of books did, and she must have been showing it.

“What?”

“I didn’t, you know, think you would like that kind of book.”

Millen glanced at his phone, scrutinizing the cover. “Wait, what kind of book is it?”

“It’s a… literary-type book.”

He reared back, feigning insult. “I’ll have you know that I’m an extremely literary person. In fact, I’m uber-literarial.”

“All right, Mr. Uber-Literarian, how does this work?”

“Like this.” Millen plugged the white headset into the phone, put an earbud in his left ear, then crouched at the side of Hannah’s cot and placed the other earbud in her right ear. He sat on the floor of the tent and leaned back against the side of her cot, ensuring his head was close enough to hers to allow her to move a bit. He hit a button on his phone, and Hannah heard the words that marked the beginning of so many good reads: This is Audible.

She pulled the earbud from his ear and said, “Don’t be a hero. Come on.”

She slid over in the cot, making room for him. He pulled off his shoes and lay down beside her.