This Summer (18 page)

Dammit
.

I massage the back of my neck and look at the patio where Hadley and Ethan are laughing. I can’t pull her into this. Into my messed up life. She deserves more.

“I talked to Mabel,” I say. “I sent my paychecks to them and whatever extra money I had to her to pay off the lawyer. I just need a couple more weeks to have enough money to pay for the next quarter.”

“It’s fine,” he says. “I took care of it.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.” My tone is harsh towards someone who just shelled out a lot of money for my family. But I can’t help it.

“It’s a loan,” he says calmly. “I already cleared it with Mabel. With the sale of the house you can easily pay me back.”

“Thank you.”

He looks towards the house. “You’ve had a lot of responsibility in your life for only being twenty years old. It’s not a bad thing to accept some help once in a while. Your father is still a good friend of mine and has been for a long time. He would have done the same thing for me.”

I kick the ground with the toe of my shoe. “Doubt it.”

He squeezes my shoulder. “I’ve visited him a few times.”

My head snaps up. “Does Hadley know?”

“No. I respect other people’s privacy. But like I said, he’s been my friend for over twenty-five years. And lately he’s doing much better.”

“Yeah,” I mutter.

“We all have ups and downs. If you are willing to put faith in someone they might surprise you.” He looks over at his family. “It’s something I’ve taught to my kids. That’s probably why Hadley hasn’t asked about you in some time. She always had faith that you would return.”

And with that he turns away from me and heads towards his family. Something I can want but, without letting anyone in, I’ll never have.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Hadley

The coach bus speeds up as we hit the northbound highway toward Camp Henry. Will is in the front of the bus sitting with Tyler while Lily and I claimed the back. She was unconscious before we pulled away from camp. I never understand how she can be dead to the world within minutes of falling asleep.

Lucky her. What I would give for that talent at the moment.

I wish I’d taken the window seat. Instead I keep glancing at the back of Will’s head, thinking—for the thousandth time— about pizza night. It started off well but, as soon as Dad spoke with Will, the tightness in his shoulders returned. And just when he started to relax. It’s obvious something happened but with my tendency to avoid confrontation, especially when it comes to Will, I didn’t ask. And he didn’t hint anything. For over a week, we were the perfect pair of counselors with the least amount of contact with each other.

Will stands up from his seat and I turn my head towards the window, my eyes straining to see what he’s doing.

Wow, I’m hopeless.

Will turns on the DVD player, watching the screen above his seat until it flickers green and some of the kids cheer. Lily mumbles something but remains unconscious. It was easier when she was telling me horrible things about Will and how he isn’t anything like the guy we grew up with. But I know better. I just don’t have the courage to ask. I know he will tell me when he wants to, but the summer is slipping away from us. The open house was a rousing success, at least from where I sat in my room. Waking up to strangers staring into my bedroom wasn’t fun on Sunday morning, so I made it a point to keep my curtains closed for the rest of the week. The realtor came with couples and families each night. Although I did wonder where Will went after work. He stopped walking to work and he left as soon as camp ended each day, his taillights a reminder that I was no longer privy to his whereabouts. Not that I had been for two years, but it at least would have made for polite conversation.

Will turns around and I realize I’m staring at him again. I quickly turn my head.

I focus on a small stain on the chair in front of Lily, but I feel him before I see him. His leg brushes my arm, sending a wave of traitorous tingles through my body. I slide my arm off the rest.

“Did I hit you?” he asks.

“No.” My eyes strain to keep forward.

He hesitates before opening the bathroom door.

When it closes, Lily jumps up from her seat, gasping for air. Her eyes dart around as she sits back in her chair. “Are we there?”

“Nope,” I say.

She grumbles and tucks her sweatshirt under her head again.

Will opens the door and kneels next to my chair. “This overnight camp thing. It seems like it’s going to be fun.”

“It’s a blast,” Lily replies. Her eyes are squinted, still half-asleep. “Especially because most of the Camp Henry staff are super hot.”

“I thought you had a boyfriend?” Will retorts.

This wakes her up. “If you bothered to talk to us, you’d know I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Lily!” I hiss.

“What? It’s the fricken elephant in the room. Will you just get over whatever happened between you two? It’s starting to get super dramatic.”

My skin warms and my hands start to sweat. I love her, but sometimes I wish she would keep her mouth shut. I bore a hole into the seat in front of us with my eyes.

Will stands up and without another word he goes to the front of the bus and sits again.

I elbow Lily in the arm, hard.

“Ow!” she cries. She blinks a few times. “I’m cranky when you wake me up.”

“I didn’t wake you up! You woke up on your own. And you just made it even more awkward.”

“It really can’t get any more awkward.” She pauses thoughtfully. “Well, only if you had sex, then it would be super awkward.” She tucks her head into her arms and closes her eyes again. “Wake me when we get there.”

She’s lightly snoring before I can come up with a good response. With no one to talk to, not that I want Lily to do more talking, I stare up at the Disney movie playing on the screen and immerse myself in another, simpler place.

***

Over an hour later, the sign for Camp Henry appears next to the bus and I start to gather my things. I nudge Lily—gently this time— and she swats at me.

“We’re here.”

She sits up and looks around. One side of her hair sticks straight up. She pops a piece of gum in her mouth and smooths her hair down, using the window as a mirror. Some of the kids are standing on their seats and I calm them down enough to get their feet on the ground. I hold onto the seat in front of me as we rock back and forth as the bus weaves down a dirt path. The thick forest parts and a large still lake spreads out far beyond the border of the camp. There is a small pier with buoys outlining the swimming area. Camp Henry has two sessions each summer and we come on the weekend that there are no other campers. So, as we pull up to the cabins, the counselors are there to greet us with a homemade painted banner. Lily pops up from her seat and pushes by me. She leans over two girls from her group to get a look outside.

“The crop is looking good this year,” she says.

“Oh my God, do you think about anything else other than boys?” one of the girls asks.

“Nope,” Lily replies and turns to me. “Come and take a look.”

I pull my handbag onto my shoulder. “I’ll see them when I get outside.”

“Ugh, you better not be such a prude all weekend. I might just have to find a new best friend,” she teases.

I appease her by looking at the counselors. There’s twelve of them. Six girls and six guys. “The dark haired one is cute.”

“There’s my girl!” she shouts and looks closer. She frowns at my grin. “So not fair.”

I head for the front of the bus and am the first to depart, the warm air kissing my skin. The dark haired kid I pointed out drops his side of the banner and sprints to me. He’s bigger than he was the last time I saw him. He’s lost most of his belly to a tighter and stronger form. He scoops me into a tight embrace and kisses my cheek. Sebastian is one of the lifers at the camp.

“Where’s this Aiden?” he asks, eyes darting to the bus. “Lily has been talking me up about this guy all week.”

“Hello to you too!” I say.

He rolls his eyes and kisses my cheek. “Come on. I talk to you all the time. The summer is wasting. There are no possibilities for me here.”

I look at the bus as Lily exits. She has a fake pout on her lips. “You need a do-over,” she says to me.

“Well hello to you too!” Sebastian repeats my words.

“Hi,” she says.

He pulls her into a hug.

The kids barrel off the bus and the other counselors move to greet them.

I lock eyes with a blond counselor and he grins. A shiver travels across my arms. He’s gorgeous and he probably knows it. But with Will out of the picture I want to have some fun. Even just for the weekend.

The other counselors move into formation as the kids bound off the bus. They are quickly separated into age groups and paired with a Camp Henry counselor.

One of the girls, her name badge reads Brenda, looks to be twelve years old with long mousy brown hair in serious need of a trim. “Are you Hadley?” She shoves a stack of papers at me before I can respond. “Here are your assigned counselors and agendas. Give them to your group. We will begin the welcome ceremony shortly at the main stage.” She turns on her heel and walks away.

“Yes sir!” Lily says with a salute. She takes a packet off the top and skims it. “Sweet. It’s us and Seb this weekend.”

“You know he hates when you call him that.”

“No he doesn’t. Hey Seb!” she calls to him, a few feet away.

“I will hurt you!” he calls back.

She grins. “See? He loves me.”

I look down at the sheet with my and Will’s name next to “Dylan” and “Brenda”. At least I know who Brenda is.

“Oh thank God!” Skye groans as she gets off the second bus along with her group of kids. “Talk about torture,” she moans. She makes her way over to us and I hand her a packet. “Those kids are the devil. Like seriously, do they ever stop talking?”

I give Lily a look and she tells me how she really feels with just one glance. I narrow my eyes to keep her quiet. I pass out the rest of the packets to the other counselors. The bus drivers open the luggage compartments and we take our places by the bus. The kids rush over and grab their bags and run to their assigned cabins. Skye certainly hit the nail on the head with the energy level. But unlike her, I love the excitement. I would drop everything to go back to a time without worries or cares even just for a day.

I shoulder my overnight bag and wait for Lily, Skye and Patrice before finding our assigned cabin. Since there aren’t any additional people outside of our camp, we are bunking together in one of the larger cabins. Lily pulls open the door and lets out a low whistle. “I don’t remember it being this big.”

Three sets of bunk beds fill the corners of the room, each attached to armoires offering more than enough space for storage. In the middle of the room are six computer desks with rolling chairs.

I drop my bags onto the bed closest to the door. “I heard they did some renovations during the off-season.”

“Apparently so,” Skye says, her eyes on her phone. “I just got wifi.”

Lily digs in her purse like a dog for its bone. “Sweet.”

“Phones later,” I say. “Let’s go to the stage.”

“I’m taking this with me,” Lily says.

“Me too!” Skye cheers.

They look at each other warily. It’s the only thing they’ve agreed on all summer.

Patrice slips out of the cabin but I wait for the other girls. We’re the last to arrive at the ceremony. We slip in to the last row unnoticed. The smiling Camp Henry counselors are on the stage. The kids sit in the front few rows of the stadium style seats. I catch Sebastian’s eye and he winks at me. He cups his hands around his mouth and lets out an animalistic sound. The other counselors do the same and then launch into a cheer. The kids clap along to the performance and I can’t help smiling. They run through their camp song as if it’s second nature.

When they are finished, Brenda comes forward and raises her hands in the air to grab the kids’ attention. “Welcome to Camp Henry. We are going to have an awesome time this weekend. Who’s ready to get started?”

The kids scream and clap their hands.

Brenda reads an overview of the weekend’s activities from her clipboard. Dad really went above and beyond this year. My cheeks hurt from smiling at the enthusiastic kids and eager Camp Henry staff.

“Now time to meet our staff!” Brenda calls loudly. She runs through the lineup of counselors and I wonder which one of them is Dylan. “Sebastian!” Brenda calls, and Lily and I cheer and applaud for him. There are only two guys left and one of them is the blond. When Brenda points at him and says “Dylan,” my heart skitters in my chest.

Lily nudges my shoulder. “Nice.”

I suppress a goofy smile and glance at Will. His focus is on the stage.

Brenda finishes up and we break off into our groups. Will walks with me down the steps to our group.

Dylan smirks and holds out his hand to me. “Hey, I’m Dylan.”

I shake it. “Hadley.”

He looks at Will and shakes his hand too.

Brenda looks at our group as if she’s sizing them up. “Let’s head to the cafeteria for a snack before our nature hike!” Brenda turns on her heel toward the entrance of the stage area.

“Are you a new counselor too?” Dylan asks. He walks close enough that our arms brush against each other as we follow the group.

“No,” I say. “I’ve been with the camp for a few years.”

“Sweet. This is my first year. It’s a part of a teaching program at my school.”

“The same school as Sebastian?” Sebastian had spearheaded the summer internship program with his college and the camp.

“Yeah, how do you know Sebastian?”

I swallow. “From this camp,” I say, unsure if that’s what he really meant to ask me.

He nods. Apparently it was. He was gorgeous, but he didn’t seem to catch on that quick.

Dylan holds the door for me as we enter the newly renovated cafeteria.
See Will, not all guys are like Carter
.

Long tables with wooden benches compliment the outdoorsy feel of the room. Several workers wearing hairnets are stationed in the kitchen at the back of the room. A large opening for serving is the main focus for the kids.