I pulled Rachel gently into my arms and drifted off to sleep with her warmth against me.
When I woke the next morning, the space beside me was empty. Sunlight was already filtering through the gaps in the bamboo walls, warm and bright. I sat up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and stepped outside into the clearing.
Rachel, Maya, and Victoria were sitting together near the remains of the previous night's fire, talking in low voices. The moment Maya noticed me, a faint but unmistakable blush rose to her cheeks.
She quickly looked away, though not before I caught the flicker of residual embarrassment and something softer in her eyes — the memory of everything that had happened under the trees the night before still clearly fresh.
Rachel turned at the sound of my footsteps and smiled, the tension in her shoulders easing the moment she saw I was awake.
