“It was a dark and stormy night.”

“Boo!”

Weston looked up and saw Talon standing in front of one of the six big tents they had stationed around the fire pit.

“Did you just boo me?” Weston asked her, looking up from the group of kids in front of her.

“You’re a best-selling author of, like, fifty books now. And you started with, ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’ Yeah, you got booed.”

“Babe,” Emerson said with a laugh. “Get back in the tent and let Weston tell her story.” She pulled on Talon’s hand from her spot kneeling in the tent that they were sharing.

“Zero out of five stars, Wes.” Talon pointed at Weston and allowed her wife to pull her back into the tent.

“She’s entertaining all of the children, Talon,” Emerson mumbled.

“Yeah. So?”

“So, that means we can have, like, five minutes to ourselves. Come here and snuggle with me, Tal.”

Weston rolled her eyes and looked down at six kids who were all eating s’mores Annie had made them before she’d gone off to the bathroom at the end of the campsite. They didn’t seem to care at all how she started her story.

“It was a dark and stormy night,” she continued.

“Wes, really?” Aria said.

Weston turned to see her walking hand in hand with London. They’d gone to the little convenient store to get more supplies since they’d run out of marshmallows earlier than intended.

“What, Aria?”

“That’s so basic. Don’t you, like, write books for a living?”

“There was a ghost in one of them, wasn’t there?” London asked.

“Mama!” Little Bexley held up her s’more.

“Hi, baby,” London said and walked over to her daughter. “Do you have a s’more?”

“Yeah!” Bexley nodded.

“I’m telling the stories, aren’t I?” Weston asked. “Do you want to take over for me, Aria?”

“No, I want to go hang out with my wife by the water. So, have fun.”

Aria walked over to London, who kissed her daughter on the head and took her by the hand.

“Hey, babe,” Annie said and sat down next to Weston on the log.

“Okay. We’re going to try this again,” Weston said when Annie’s hand hit her thigh and squeezed. “It was a dark and-”

“No, Wes…”

Weston grunted and looked up at the red tent that Carmen and Ellie were sticking their heads out of.

“Not great, dude,” Carmen said as Ellie shook her head. 

“Sorry, I’m with Tal and Aria on this one,” Ellie said. “And her.” She nodded toward her wife.

“Maybe don’t start with the setting. Give us some dialogue or a character or something,” Carmen suggested.

“How many books have you published?” Annie asked her through her laughter.

“Mom, this is boring.” Gaby turned her head toward her mothers. “Can we play?”

“It’s almost bedtime, honey,” Ellie told her daughter. “Aunt Weston is supposed to be telling you a scary story. I’m sure she’ll get to the scary part soon.”

“How can I when you all keep interrupting me?”

“Who’s interrupting whom?” Paisley asked.

“Where have you two been?” Carmen asked them.

“We have no kids in this fight,” Trinity said of herself and her wife. “So, we had some adult time by the lake.”

“Adult-” Ellie started. “Really, guys?”

“We were supposed to rent cabins for those of us who don’t own one here, and Wes sprung this little tent experience on us instead. Not exactly a cabin with four solid walls, if you know what I mean. And I traveled for work last week while Trin stayed home, so we…”

“Needed some time together,” Trinity finished.

“Did you go swimming?” Cora asked.

“Yes, that is what we did,” Trinity replied, obviously lying.

“I want to go swimming!” Finley, Talon and Emerson’s daughter spoke.

“No, you don’t,” Emerson and Talon said from inside the tent at the same time.

“And thanks a lot, Trinity,” Talon added.

“No problem,” Trinity replied with a laugh. “We’re going to bed now. So, have fun with your story time, everyone.”

“What story time?” Scarlet asked. “I thought all the kids were going to sleep.”

“So that we could because camping is exhausting,” Dakota said.

“And were you two also swimming?” Weston asked. 

“What? It’s nighttime. Why would we be swimming?” Scarlet asked. 

“She doesn’t mean swimming, babe,” Dakota said and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you so much sometimes.”

“Oh,” Scarlet let out and turned to Weston. “No, we went to take showers in the bathroom. Who went swimming?”

“Guess,” Talon yelled through the tent.

“Paisley, really?” Scarlet said. 

“We were far away, and it was dark. Everything is fine,” Paisley retorted. “We’re going to sleep.”

“And I’m going to tell these kids a story, so, all adults, be quiet.”

“She told you to be quiet,” Cora said to no one in particular.

“Okay. It was a dark and stormy night,” Weston said and paused, waiting for someone to interrupt her again. 

“And?” Dakota said after a minute.

“That’s as far as I’ve gotten,” Weston replied.

“What?” Talon said from the tent. 

“Major letdown,” Paisley noted, winking at Weston. “Night, everyone.”

“That’s it?” Thatcher, Weston and Annie’s son asked.

“I’ll think of something before tomorrow night,” Weston replied.

“Can we go swimming now?” Cora asked.

“Why would you go swimming?” Aria asked as she and London walked back up.

“Here we go again,” Annie whispered into Weston’s ear.