Page 28 of Protecting Josie
As she took it, he saw how dirty her hands were still, even though he’d done his best with the wet wipes the night before. He hated that for her. He wanted to be able to give her a long hot shower. But it would have to wait until they were out of there.
She kept eye contact with Blink and brought the applesauce up to her lips. She squeezed a bit into her mouth…and her eyes widened as the flavors hit her taste buds.
“Good, huh?” he asked with a small smile.
She nodded.
“I can’t wait for you and Remi to meet,” Kevlar said out of the blue. “She has that same sense of…enjoyment and appreciation for the little things in life.”
“We should keep walking,” Tate said, not giving Blink a chance to question Kevlar’s bold statement. As Remi was one of his closest friends, he’d love for Josie to meet her. But he knew nothing about her life in the States and couldn’t make assumptions…even if he wanted to.
She tried to hand the packet of applesauce back to Blink, but he shook his head. “You can eat while we walk,” he said, turning to let her get on his back.
They were both used to him carrying her now, so they set off this time without hesitation.
They all pushed fairly hard as they headed for the mountain peaks Pyro had pointed out. Blink never would’ve chosen them as a good extraction point, but the two pilots knew what their fellow Night Stalkers could and couldn’t do, and if they thought that was the best place to be picked up, he wasn’t going to argue.
After several more hours of tromping through themountains, his legs were throbbing and felt like they weighed eight hundred pounds, but he didn’t utter a word of complaint. He’d learned the hard way that things could always be worse. They’d been walking all day, and while Josie wasn’t a heavy burden, his body had been through hell recently and was finally protesting what he’d asked it to do.
It was late afternoon when Tate finally stopped, looked around, and said, “This’ll do.”
Blink didn’t hesitate to lower Josie to the ground. Then he leaned over and put his hands on his thighs and closed his eyes as he did his best to work through the pain coursing through his body. He was strong. Tough. But he did have his limits, and it seemed as though he’d reached them.
Feeling a hand on his arm, Blink opened his eyes to see Josie standing next to him with a worried look on her face. She took his hand in hers and pulled. Following her, frowning at the way Josie was limping, he sat where she indicated, relieved he was off his feet.
“Forgive me for saying so, but you two look like shit,” Tate said. He wasn’t joking, and wasn’t being mean, he was simply stating a fact.
“Feel like it,” Blink told him.
NowTatelooked worried.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Just had a difficult few days.” He tried to stand again, but he froze in surprise when Josie hissed.
She was glaring at him and frowning. She stabbed a finger down at the ground a couple of times, then pointed at him.
“All right, all right. I’m staying here.”
She nodded, then walked over to the pack Kevlar had just dropped to the ground. She opened and rummaged through itfor a moment before pulling out an MRE. She walked back over to where Blink was sitting and joined him on the ground, where she attempted to open the tough plastic bag.
“I’m kind of scared to give her my knife,” Tate murmured with a chuckle as he held it out to Blink. “If I piss her off, she might use it on me.”
Josie turned her glare on Tate.
Blink simply laughed. “Here, Spirit, let me help.”
She let him cut off the top of the MRE packet, then pulled it back toward herself.
“Enjoy dinner,” Tate said with another laugh, before heading back over to where Pyro and Kevlar sat, opening their MREs.
Meanwhile, Josie had pulled out all the small packets inside the MRE and laid them out next to each other.
“Beef ravioli. One of my favorites,” Blink told her.
He wanted to help, but at the same time, it felt good to be taken care of for once. He didn’t speak as Josie figured out how to use water to heat up the ravioli. She read the packets, seeing what was inside each, before carefully opening one at a time. Before he knew it, using the empty MRE bag as a makeshift platter, she’d made a charcuterie board of sorts with the various food items. The salted caramel marshmallow crisp bar had been torn in half, the breadsticks were laid out to form a perimeter for the food, the cheddar cheese spread was in the middle, and she’d sprinkled the M&Ms in and around everything.
When she got to the fruit punch electrolyte powder, she hesitated, then gestured toward Blink’s pocket. He was confused for a moment, until he remembered. He pulled outthe small metal cup and handed it over. She put a bit of the powder in the cup, then poured in some water.
When the ravioli had finished heating, she put the pouch down with the other food items, then looked up at him and smiled.
