Must-Have Husband

sister with a devilish grin. “But something tells me you’d like to.”
    Connie shook her head and settled back down. “Let’s get some sleep.”
    Within minutes, she heard Linda snoring softly. She’d done it since she was a baby and had never outgrown it. Poor Beau was a saint to put up with that.
    Connie rolled onto her side, watching the flames from the campfire cast shadows across the tent wall. She didn’t see any other movement and couldn’t hear anything, so she decided that Mac must be sleeping as well. And that was a good thing too, because at that precise moment Connie felt nature call. She kicked herself for not going when Linda went earlier, but she hadn’t had the urge. Now that she did, her sister was out cold. After such a long day, it would be unfair to wake her, and she certainly wasn’t going to trouble Mac to be her escort on a potty run. She flushed with embarrassment at the thought.

    Connie crept from the tent and slipped around behind it, going in the opposite direction of the fire. She didn’t dare go too deep in the woods. Goodness knew, she could get lost again. Still, she couldn’t stay too close. What if Mac were to awaken and see her? She’d positively die. Connie glanced over her shoulder, thinking that as long as she kept the light from the campfire in view, she’d be able to make her way back just fine.
    Suddenly, she heard a twig snap. Connie froze in her tracks, her heart beating faster. Leaves rustled nearby and she felt a rush of panic. What if it was a bear? A snake? A coyote? Or worse? She wasn’t sure what could be worse than any of those, unless it was the three of them together. Connie swallowed hard, her eyes darting back toward the camp. Maybe she should make a break for it, run like crazy toward the fire. And wake up Mac? Over something probably silly, like a little forest creature?
    The rustling noises grew louder as a dark shadow loomed near. Wait! It was turning. Moving in her direction! Run, she told her legs, but they stayed in place, like two posts cemented in the earth. Move, move, come on .
    “I’m going to die!” Connie wailed as it broke through the trees.

    “Connie?” Mac raised his flashlight and pointed it in her direction.
    “Mac!” she cried with relief, leaping at him. He dropped the wood he’d gathered in his arms to catch her. “Hang on there. What’s going on?”
    “I thought you were a bear!”
    “Are you hinting that I should shave?” he teased lightly.
    “What?” she asked, looking up at him. She was positively pale, on the verge of collapse.
    “What were you doing in the woods?”
    “I had to…um. Nature was calling.”
    “Is it still?”
    “Huh?” she asked weakly.
    “Did you go, Connie? Relieve yourself, I mean.”
    She shook her head, her chin trembling.
    “Okay, then. Why don’t you go on about your business?”
    “Here?”
    “Yes, here.” He chuckled and straightened her, patting her firmly on the shoulders. “I’ll be over there” —h e nodded toward the edge of the clearing —“s tanding guard.”
    He handed her the flashlight. “Why don’t you keep this. It might help.”
    Mac gathered up the wood he’d dropped and left Connie to her privacy.
    “You won’t go far?” she asked, her voice rising.
    “Just holler if you need me.”

    A few minutes later, Connie hurried back through the trees and scurried past Mac, passing off the flashlight. “Thanks again,” she said quickly, shielding her face with her hand to hide her embarrassment. Her skin felt as hot as those campfire flames right now.
    “Any time!” he called after her as she dashed back in the tent.
    “Where were you?” Linda asked, sitting up.
    Connie sat down beside her, folding her face in her hands.
    “Don’t even ask.”

Chapter Three

    Mac steeled himself against the pain in his ankle as they made their way downhill. He figured he must have landed on it wrong when falling out of that blasted tree. He’d wrapped it last night with the bandage he kept in his first aid kit, hoping that the added support would help. It had worked just fine until he’d started really moving this morning, breaking down his campsite and leading these two city girls down the mountain. Mac was glad they’d happened across his campsite. He didn’t know what might have become of the two of them in the wilderness if they hadn’t had that luck.
    He spotted the lodge just up ahead. They were almost home free. Hank worked part-time as an EMT, so