He's not wrong. Cullen's laughter is free and uncomplicated. "I have the feeling that if I do forget, you'll be at the ready to remind me. How is that word pronounced, now? Altass?" The temptation to look at him for the reaction to that is too great. He slits an eye open, his nose wrinkling in the process.

"You know us Southerners and our uncouth tongues." He clicks it against the roof of his mouth once. "You really should settle in and relax a while. It's going to be a very long night and day. The sand has ways of sapping all of the energy out of your legs if you walk in it for too long."