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The campfire was burning towards embers when the zipper on the tent slid up. In Patrick’s dream, the rustling was a sasquatch emerging from the woods. Yawning himself awake, he propped himself up on an elbow to see not the furry appearance of an urban legend looking for campers to snack on but, backlit by the dying fire behind the open tent flaps, the pajama-clad figure of Bianca crawling in. She zipped it up after her, but Kat was still asleep curled on her side.“What’s wrong?” he whispered. “You need me to chase off a bear?”“I would get Kat for that.”Kat Stratford versus a grizzly? There was probably some money in that kind of thing. “So would I.”“You can go back to sleep,” she said, wiggling under the blanket next to Kat and giving her a shake to wake her up. “I need my sister.”Patrick flopped back down as Kat stirred.“Bianca,” she mumbled half against a pillow, “is your tent on fire?”“No.”“Then go back to it.”“Kat,” Bianca whined. “I need your help.”She launched into a fevered whisper on a very desperate situation. She took off the promise ring Cameron gave her to wash her hands when she was in the woods earlier and now it was missing and Bigfoot was going to steal and pawn it. Or something. She was just loud enough to keep him awake but quiet enough to keep him in a lulled doze.Kat could be a very sympathetic person, eager to render aid to those in need with a passion to help others that was well-documented in volunteer logs and photographs of protest rallies. For her plight, Bianca received a shove full of sisterly compassion towards the tent door and a short, “Get it in the morning.”Patrick grinned in the general safety of the darkness. He wasn’t awake enough yet to openly mock one of the Stratford sisters. That kind of thing could get a guy’s balls sent to the gallows.“Kat!”When it came to wearing a person down with brute-force whining and nagging pleas, Bianca was a queen at no risk of being dethroned. She could not wait. What if wolves ate the ring? She could not wake Cameron to help. How would he feel knowing she took it off and forgot about it for hours? Didn’t Kat care about Bianca being in a healthy relationship with a nice guy? What if this built up into a bigger deal and they broke up and in her heartache, poor judgment and loneliness drove her into the arms of someone like Joey? What kind of in-law did Kat want one day?Patrick was impressed by the sheer amount of determination she could rile up at two o’clock in the morning.“Ugh! Fine!” Kat sat up and threw the blanket back. “Let’s just go. For the record, I’m doing this for Dad. Imagine what would happen to him if he had to spend Thanksgiving across the table from a Joey Donner knockoff.”Bianca squealed in victory. “He’d hemorrhage. Thanks, Kat. The ring is by those rock things where we went to the little girls room earlier.”A.K.A. peed behind a bush.Kat unzipped and stopped at the flap. “Come on.”Bianca fluffed Kat’s pillows in confusion and got comfortable instead of getting up. “I don’t want to go. I’m scared. Who knows what’s out there? Daddy couldn’t survive losing me.”Patrick kept his eyes closed in stubborn hopes of slipping back off even as his mouth turned up into a smile and betrayed him into full awareness.Kat gaped. “But I could die, no problem?”Bianca shrugged. “Trust me, Kat, no matter where you are, you’re the scariest thing there. I think it’s a pheromone thing. You naturally repulse people, and bears have noses too.”“Bianca!”Patrick laughed, sitting up in defeat and pushing his way out of the sleeping bag that Kat had kicked herself out of early on after getting too hot. “Lucky for you, there is no bigger turnon for me than a strong concentration of repulsive pheromones.” She caught him in the shoulder with his balled up jacket, amusing him further as he pushed her forward out of the tent, crawling out after her and saying over his shoulder, “We shall return with your ring, Lady Bianca.”“Thank you, Patrick.”And somehow they were kicked out of their own tent in the middle of the night with Bianca zipping it up after them.“Let’s just wait here until she falls asleep, then roll her into the campfire,” Kat said as she tugged her arms through her jacket and tugged on her shoes.Their boots crunched over the ground as they started off in a reassuringly loud way in the quiet night. It would be easy to hear the sasquatch from his dream lumber towards them with only the little crackle of the fire and crickets for ambient cover.“You should go easier on her,” he said as they left the circle of three tents around the dying fire and stepped into the woods where the thin path to the clearing started that led back out to the road a mile off.“She’s freaking out about a stupid ring and interrupting my sleep. She may not need the restorative power of a full night’s rest, but my powers of patience need a reboot if I’m going to make it through the rest of this weekend.” She pointed at him as she gave the bottom of her flashlight a couple thumps with the heel of her palm to get the beam to stop flickering. “Sleeping outside is fine and I can deal with no showers, but walking past Michael squatting behind a bush has left irreversible scars in my mind.”Patrick chuckled low and didn’t envy the therapy that would cost her. Still, checking Cameron’s wish for a camping trip off the list they had all made together was pushing the summer one step closer to an end, which meant the fall departures were just around the corner. Mandella’s renaissance fair was over (and worth it for the pictures of Cameron and Michael in tights next to Mandella and Bianca in long dresses and braided hair), they’d all waited overnight in line with Michael for the release of the new Apple computer he’d wanted, they’d marched at a women’s rights rally with Kat without any of them getting arrested: the clock was running down on how much time they had left together before everyone scattered to college and left Bianca behind.“She’s not upset about the ring,” he told her, wrapping an arm around her and squeezing her arm. “She’s upset about what the ring means.”Kat tilted her head to look at him as the trees on either side of the path thickened, obscuring the light from the stars further. Her flashlight only illuminated a short distance ahead of them at a time. It wasn’t quite cold enough to see their breath, but the temperature was low enough to keep the beer cool till morning without an ice chest.“What it means?” Kat pondered that, and since sentiment was such a strong suit for her, he wasn’t surprised by her assessment. “That Cameron is a mushy boyfriend, and she shouldn’t attach value for herself or her relationship to an object that symbolizes old world assertions of a woman’s place based on what man claimed ownership over her by sticking a ring on her finger?”“I am going to save so much money not buying you jewelry.”A dry smile was her reply, and he pulled her tighter against his side.He explained, “No. I heard Cameron talking. Bianca’s worried about him going away to college soon. Her sister is already leaving. Those are big changes. Meanwhile, she’s staying put.”Cameron was crazy about her and it was crazy to doubt his attachment, but he didn’t blame her for worrying about what all that distance and change would mean for them going forward. That might have been written on his face, because Kat was watching him in the dim glow of light as they slowly made their way forward.“Are you worried?” she asked.It was always easier to deflect than answer something straight on. “About Bigfoot bursting out of the trees and chasing us? Yes. Good thing we have your pheromones to chase it off.”She jabbed him in the ribs, earning a grunt and a smile. “About me going to Sarah Lawrence in the fall. Are you worried…” She shrugged like it didn’t matter, but of course it did. “…that it’s going to break us up?”He didn’t want to answer, because they’d been carefully not asking or answering that question all summer. Kat was off to New York, and he was staying behind working part-time at the auto shop and taking a couple community college classes in the spring after he got a little money saved. Cameron was in a mooning class of his own, but Patrick wasn’t wild about the idea of his girlfriend flying three thousand miles away.He was saved the trouble of answering when something loud moved in the trees to their right. They both froze in their tracks. With any luck, it was that Bigfoot he’d mentioned, and he would be devoured before Kat got the chance to ask him again.“What was that?” Kat stayed pressed to his side but craned her neck and swept the flashlight towards the noise. Long shadows and silence came back.It was probably nothing.A twig no more than twenty or thirty feet off snapped with a loud pop! too close for comfort.He frowned. The trees felt more like lethal camouflage than they had two seconds ago. “Right. Let’s go over the plan again. If it’s a bear, I mace it. And if it’s, say, a machete-wielding murderer, I throw you in front of me and run, escaping while he slows down to kill you—yes?”Distracted by the slow back-and-forth search with her flashlight, she replied in a hush that wouldn’t attract anything out there, “I’ve always found toxic macho behavior unattractive. Your cowardice is deeply refreshing.”“Thank you. I’ve worked hard to make sure I don’t possess anything that could be confused with heroism.”“Thorough.”The woods went back to silently lurking around them, and they tentatively started forward again.“It’s through here,” Kat said another ways up but paused before stepping into the trees. He moved up behind her and peered around, but there was no sign of trouble.“What’s the matter?” he whispered at her ear. “Afraid of a squirrel?”“Did you know that a squirrel’s front teeth never stop growing?”“Well, now I’m afraid of squirrels. Let’s go back,” he teased, but she caught his arm as he started to turn and pulled him into the woods with her.He caught her hand a few paces in and let her guide him through the trees, trusting her to know where she was going.Kat wasn’t the type to pretend she wasn’t lost if she was. She had three maps of their campsite and interviewed two locals about any changes to the terrain before they had left the parking lot with their gear. She had news clippings on the most recent animal attacks in the area and deemed none of them a serious concern for their weekend in the great outdoors. Patrick, on the other hand, had prepared by shoving a nicotine patch in his duffel bag in case the need for a smoke got to be too much on the excursion and stuffed a zippered pocket full of lighters since he’d seen one too many movies about people freezing to death and wasn’t keen to rely on rubbing sticks together to prevent something from turning purple and falling off.He took the lighter he had stuffed in his pocket and lit it a few times, sliding his fingers through the flickering flame out of habit, in and out, through and through.Kat shot an irritated look at him. “I hate when you do that.”“Why?” he asked, doing it once more before pocketing it. “Does it make you really jealous that you can’t do it?”He didn’t like the burn precisely; he was just unbothered by it from the habit. In public, it told people to back off. On his own or on his own with Kat, it was just something he did without thinking.“No,” she said pointedly. “It’s stupid. You’re hurting yourself. Besides, have you ever heard of forest fires? Only you can prevent them.”“Don’t bring up Smokey Bear in the woods,” he warned. “That’s like saying Bloody Mary in front of a mirror. It summons him.”Another stick, closer this time, broke under the weight of something’s step. They stopped walking, heads twisting towards the noise.“It’s Smokey,” he deadpanned.“Patrick.”He leaned close to her and whispered, “Did you know Smokey Bear’s front teeth never stop growing?”She rolled her eyes over to him. He loved the way exasperation made her eyes go sharp, which was good for him since they tended to go sharpest with him.They listened intently, and he figured they should have brought a camera out there so whoever found their lifeless bodies would have documentation of their last moments. There was another noise, softer, a crunch that could have been a footstep or a bird landing in a tree branch somewhere. Or a horrid beast hunting them in the darkness. The woods at night made the least likely options feel most obvious.He accused her with a pointed finger and a little nod, “See what you did, invoking the curse? Now Bloody Mary is going to burst through that tree hollow and turn us to stone.”“That’s Medusa.”“You summoned Medusa? I can’t take you anywhere.”Eyes sharp as knives, she glared. He grinned.Taking his hand once more, she tugged him along. “Let’s just get the ring and go back.”Suited him just fine.They hadn’t walked ten more feet before the soft crunch from earlier echoed through the woods directly behind them with more intent.Patrick stiffened. “I don’t think that’s a squirrel.”Undeniable footsteps charged in their direction, and Patrick’s mind blanked, thinking bear and bigfoot and I’m going to die wearing long johns. He grabbed Kat’s arm to pull her behind him, but one misstep on a rock that nature clearly placed with the express desire to help the bigfoot-bear fatten up for winter and he found himself sprawled on his ass on the ground with some dry leaves and a prayer for protection.The footsteps ran closer. Kat’s alarmed glance at him cut away quickly, and before he could even attempt to get back up, she had armed herself with the rock that took him down and moved in front of him protectively. The beast emerged from the trees.Kat reared her arm back and with aim as good as it was on the soccer field, she threw the rock and the flashlight right after it. A thwack and a clunk of metal against skull revealed that she nailed her target as the flashlight hit the ground and sent a yellow beam straight out in the opposite direction. The success of her assault was immediately followed by a pained holler.“Ow! Oh, God!”Unless Smokey really was out there, he doubted they had encountered a talking bear. Plus, he recognized that wail of agony from the time their attacker got his foot run over by Michael’s moped.“Cameron?”Kat retrieved the flashlight and aimed it right in his face for confirmation. Not a bear then. Just a battered friend. Patrick laughed, tried not to laugh, and laughed harder.Kat scolded, “I could have killed you.”Cameron’s face was scrunched up as he rubbed the points of impact. “I’m not convinced you didn’t. Did you break my head? I think my head is broken.”She waved him off. “You’re fine.”“You didn’t use your head much anyway,” Patrick said by way of comfort. Cameron was in enough pain to nod in distracted agreement as he rubbed his injury.“Is Bianca with you?”“She fell asleep in our tent while we were talking,” Kat covered for her sister and reached for Patrick to help him up.He brushed the dirt off himself, asking, “What are you doing out here anyway?”Cameron shrugged, sheepish. “Got lost while I was… using the facilities.”A.K.A. pissing behind a bush.“Heard you guys walking around but wasn't sure who or what you were. I didn't want to call out in case you were, you know, a bear or something. So I tried finding you before I got stuck out here alone. Now I’m thinking I should have risked it. I was afraid of a bear when I should have been afraid of Kat.”“Always be afraid of Kats,” Patrick advised as she slipped off without Cameron noticing. He wanted to know what they were doing out there. “The buddy system. Had to take a leak. Safety in numbers.” Patrick slapped Cameron’s chest, and he nodded at him. “Look on the bright side. A concussion is marginally better than a mauling.”“Narrow margin,” Cameron murmured bitterly as Kat reemerged and flashed Patrick the ring behind his back before tucking it away. Mission: accomplished.Still frowning, Cameron started leading them back the way they came after Kat pointed him in the right direction. Patrick wrapped his arm around Kat’s shoulders and slowed down to hang back. He watched her profile in the dim light, beautiful even shadowed and sleepy.She turned narrowed eyes up at him. “What?”A playful confidence rose up inside him as they passed through the trees hiding any number of creepy, crawly creature out there. Three thousand miles didn’t seem all that scary anymore. “I’m not worried about you going off in the fall.”He’d wrestled with it all summer, but all that worry and doubt fell away like the glimpses of moonlight through the treetops.“Oh no?”“And you shouldn’t be worried either,” he assured her.“Is that so?”It was very so.He furrowed his brow at her. “Where else am I going to find a girl who would take on a bear for me?”He squeezed her to his side as her eyes fluttered closed with laughter that was an airy hush from sleepiness.“That’s a good point,” she agreed. “And I guess it would be hard for me to find another guy who falls down right away in a crisis. You’ve elevated uselessness to an art form.”“See? Right there, cowardice and disdain are the only things you need in a lasting relationship.”She smiled up at him, and a rush of affection swelled up in his heart in that corner where Kat had taken up residence. Crooking his arm around her neck, he leaned into a kiss as she tilted her chin up and sealed his own sort of promise against her lips with more weight than any ring could have. It didn’t really matter where they were next year. Love that made a girl fight a bear didn’t move away. He grinned against her lips and kissed her harder. It followed a guy everywhere.