Unlikely Romances book four.

Tamara doesn’t expect to see anyone in the middle of her hiking trip. She certainly doesn’t expect to see anyone and get caught in a storm. She doesn’t expect the guy to be so sure of himself, either, and she doesn’t expect to be in a situation where someone else knows more about hiking and the woods than she does. She certainly doesn’t expect to find herself relying on the arrogant jerk for survival. One thing Tamara absolutely doesn’t expect...falling for Jonah really, really hard.

Here is an excerpt:

“Come on,” Jonah said. “Let’s set up some shelter”.

“We don’t need to,” she said. Damn it, they absolutely needed to. What the hell was going on in her head.

“You’re just being contrary. Why”?

“I am not!” she snapped. God. She absolutely was, and the worst part about it was she had no idea how to answer his question because she had no idea at all why she was being contrary. It didn’t make any sense to her at all.

“We need to find shelter,” he said. “You have to know that”. He stood up and started picking up his things. “Come on, let’s find a place”.

“God,” she replied. “Is this your first time camping”? Again, she couldn’t understand why she behaved the way she did. There was no doubt that he was right. “Fine”, she said. “I better help or you’ll probably get lost”. It had to be the lamest way to pretend she was going along with him for some reason other than being completely wrong. She wanted to go back in time two or three minutes and somehow change that she behaved like an idiot.

“Thanks”, he said. He said it seriously, although she could tell he said it in a way to mollify her. He knew she was wrong and he knew she only said she’d help the way she said it so she could pretend she wasn’t completely wrong from the outset. There was something truly irritating about that but, on the other hand, as long as he was willing to go along with the fiction, she didn’t have to work too hard to keep the fiction going.

He packed things up quickly and she helped, making sure to express her irritation with him the whole time, which made her feel even stupider. The situation was really stupid, and she hated how easy it was to continue acting like a child. She looked at him disdainfully as he pulled a flat cellophane-wrapped package from his backpack. “What the hell is that?” she asked. “What are you doing”?

“It’s a tarp”, he said. “We’ll need it”.

Of course, they would need it. So, she felt even more childish when she said, “Idiot".