Dinner had been surprisingly easy. Easy, Lee realized as she stared at the ceiling of the tent, because Hunter’s mood had shifted again when she’d returned to help him fix it. Amiable? No, she decided, cautiously stretching her cramped muscles. Amiable was too free a word when applied to Hunter. Moderately friendly was more suitable. Cooperative he hadn’t been at all. He’d spent the evening hours reading by the light of his lamp, while she’d taken out a fresh notepad and begun what would be a journal on her two weeks in Oak Creek Canyon.

She found it helpful to write down her feelings. Lee had often used her manuscript in much the same fashion. She could say what she wanted, feel what she wanted, without ever taking the risk that anyone would read her words. Perhaps it hadn’t worked out precisely that way with her book, since Hunter had read more of her neat double-spaced typing under the steady lamplight, but the journal would be for no one’s eyes but her own.

In any case, she thought, it was to her advantage that he’d been occupied with her manuscript. She hadn’t had to talk to him as the night had grown later, the darkness deeper. While he’d still been reading, she’d been able to crawl into the tent and squeeze herself into a corner. When he’d joined her, much later, it hadn’t been necessary to exchange words in the intimacy of the tent. She’d made certain he’d thought her asleep—though sleep hadn’t come for hours.

In the quiet, she’d listened to him breathe beside her. Quiet, steady. That was the kind of man he was. Lee had lain still, telling herself the closeness meant nothing. But this morning, she saw that her nails, which had begun to grow again, had been gnawed down.

The first night was bound to be the hardest, she told herself and sat up, dragging a hand through her hair. She’d survived it. Her problem now was how to get by him and to the showers, where she could change out of the clothes she’d slept in and fix her hair and face. Cautiously, she crept forward to peek through the tent flap.

He knew she was awake. Hunter had sensed it almost the moment she’d opened her eyes. He’d gotten up early to start coffee, knowing that if he’d had trouble sleeping beside her, he’d never have been able to handle waking with her.