This Summer (8 page)

“We did see each other yesterday,” I say under my breath.

“Really?” he scratches his head. “It felt like forever.”

I roll my eyes and he grins. The happy Carter is with us today. Thank goodness. His mood changed a lot during the last few months of our relationship. Whether it was anxiety about moving on after high school or something else, it definitely factored in our breakup.

He glances at the others in the group and indicates for me to follow him. Last year we made it a habit of walking the deck during swimming lessons. I find myself slipping back into that safety net as we make our first lap.

“What were you assigned for the carnival?” he asks. The night before the 4th of July the town puts on a carnival for the surrounding areas. Dad volunteers the summer staff to help out.

“Balloon Darts,” I say. “You?”

A flash of disappointment crosses his face. “Leap Frog. The one where you have to send the frog onto the lily pad, I think.” He leans closer to me as we pass the group. “With Isabelle.”

She’s in the pool now, watching the kids jump in. “Good luck with that,” I say. She’s scowling as she passes out paddle boards, trying not to get any part of her that is above the surface wet.

“She has five siblings,” Carter says. “But she really hates kids.”

“Maybe if you get to know her better?”

Carter sticks his hands in his pockets. “Sounds to me like you are trying to fix me up with someone else, when I only have eyes for one girl.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I say hurriedly. “You’re going to spend a lot of time with her, that’s all.”

He nods a few times, lost in his thoughts. I remember the text and I really hope he doesn’t bring it up.

As if Carter can feel me squirm he excuses himself as soon as we finish our second lap. I turn to the pool, collecting the swirl of emotions and focusing them on the job I’m supposed to be doing. I sit in a nearby chair and spend the rest of the time watching the pool, trying to clear my mind of any of the guys in my life.

But that doesn’t last.

Will walks to the pool’s edge and kneels down.

I sit up straighter. Oliver’s soaked hair pokes up from the lip of the pool followed by a hand.

Will grabs Oliver’s hand and pulls him out of the water looking more like a drowned rat. “We’ll try again tomorrow okay?” he says softly.

Even though it is warm out, Oliver’s teeth chatter. Will tucks the boy against his side and leads him to the bathhouse.

“What a baby!” Gregory calls from the pool.

Oliver turns around, his face ashen.

“Shut up!” Harry splashes Gregory and an all-out splashing war happens. My girls squeal, all except Allison who joins right in on Harry’s side.

I jump up from the chair. “Enough with the splashing. Gregory, it’s not nice to make fun of people.”

Isabelle squeals when her head gets soaked. Heath grabs Gregory, pulling him away from a furious Harry.

I usher the girls from the pool and into the bathhouse. Will comes running out of the boys’ side and helps calm his group.

“God he’s sexy,” I hear Isabelle comment as I walk by with my girls. “It takes a special kind of girl to drive a guy like that out of town.” I look over, meeting her eyes.

My skin prickles but it isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with speculation about Will’s disappearance. “It also takes a special girl to sleep with the whole town,” I mutter loud enough for her to hear.

Carter chuckles from the doorway of the pool office.

“Does she not have her own bed?” Kelli asks innocently.

I press my lips together and guide her into the bathhouse.

I help the girls change and gather their belongings before we meet Will and the boys. Will is kneeling next to Gregory, his mouth twisted in a grimace. Will always had a way with kids and making them look up to him as a big brother more than a counselor. But we both established years ago that our authority was never tested in these instances.

Gregory turns to Oliver, his scowl softening. “Sorry for making fun of you Oliver.”

“Thank you,” Oliver says softly.

The tension between the groups is broken when we announce that we are headed to lunch.

Will and I walk behind the excited kids toward the main building.

“Thanks for helping Oliver,” I say. “I didn’t even see he was having trouble.”

Will shrugs. “His mom took me aside early and let me know that he wasn’t a great swimmer and Heath had enough on his plate with the other kids.”

“I’ll keep a better eye on him too.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says flatly.

“What do you mean?”

He tucks his hands into his pockets. “You don’t have to break off your time with Carter.”

“That’s not going to be an everyday thing.” Was he jealous?

He avoids my eyes. “Isabelle told me that’s all you two did last summer.”

Of course she did. “This year is different.”

“Is it?” he asks.

I meet his eyes and they are thoughtful, expectant maybe? “Well Carter isn’t my co-counselor anymore, so yeah it’s different.”

“It’s hard for me to think of you giving up on anyone. Did something else happen with him?”

“Slow down Harry!” I call and Harry completely stops in his tracks until the others catch up, then he’s off again. I shake my head. “What do you mean? We dated and now were aren’t.”

“How long were you together?”

“Almost a year. We started dating at the end of the summer last year.”

He blinks a few times and goes silent for a couple of seconds.

“Why are you so interested?” I look at him. We used to tell each other everything, so why can’t I tell him about Carter?

I turn the conversation over to him. “I know you, weren’t the best of friends, but did something else happen between you two?” The kids don’t wait for us as we get to the cafeteria door.

His lower lip juts out. “Nothing specific. I just remember he was a—” he pauses and opens the door for me.

I turn around after entering the cafeteria. “A what?”

Will presses his lips together.

“A what?” I repeat.

He clears his throat. “We just didn’t see things the same. I’m surprised you didn’t feel the same.”

The noise of the cafeteria is muted by the roar of my heartbeat in my ears. I’m not surprised with each step forward in our newly-found relationship Will takes three steps back.

He winces. “I didn’t mean that. For all I know you changed him into a better person.” He shakes his head once then goes towards the line.

I stare after him, but Lily’s frantic arm movements catch my attention. She beckons me from the other side of the room.
What the heck just happened?

Two eight year olds dart out in front of me and I freeze, avoiding a collision.

“Thing One, Thing Two,” Lily calls. “No running.”

“They have names,” I say absently. Last year one of the parents had complained about Lily’s nicknames for her kids.

“Are you okay?” Lily ignores my comment. “You look really pale.”

I open my mouth but nothing comes out.

“Did Carter say something to you?” Lily scans the cafeteria. She knows that the pool staff won’t come to the cafeteria until the kids are gone but she is on full attack mode.

“No,” I say.

She arches an eyebrow. “Did Will say something?”

I turn my head and see that he is still in line. “Yes.”

She clenches her jaw and is about to walk past me but I grab her arm. She looks down at my hand, her eyebrows furrowed.

I open my mouth again but words escape me.

“Either you tell me what he said or I’m going to beat it out of him.”

I squeeze her arm tighter. “It’s not bad,” I manage. “Just—it’s nothing. I’m being stupid. I have to go meet with my group,” I say to Lily. “It’s not bad, I promise. I’ll talk to you after camp.”

Lily chomps on a baby carrot from her salad. “You better.”

I muster a smile and walk toward the group. I duck under the rope divider at the end of the line and grab a tray. Will moves to the front of the group where the boys are fighting over ketchup packages. I grab the first thing I see, a plate of chicken fingers and french fries.

We settle at our assigned table and I nibble on a fry. My stomach churns but I manage to eat most of what is in front of me, not that I taste any of it. I attempt to talk with the girls about some pop star they are drooling over, but when I comment on his latest brush with the law, their slack jaws and wide eye stares make me promptly shut my mouth.

“He’s going through a rough time,” Jaclyn says, claiming to be his biggest fan.

I stifle an eye roll and glance at Will, who is timing an eating contest with three of his boys. I can’t help smiling. Why does he still affect me like this? Anytime we ever fought he would do something silly to break the tension. And it still worked. He looks over at me, the corner of his mouth twitches. A kid screams behind us, her shrill cry making me nearly jump off the bench.

I turn to the table behind us where a girl around five years old is crying. Her pink shirt is dripping with milk and another counselor, Patrice, is on her feet racing to the girl.

“Leo, watch the kids,” Patrice says to her husband and co-counselor, leading the girl from the table towards the bathroom. They have been with the camp for almost as many years as Dad, working with the youngest group of kids.

I turn back to my own table. Will helps the boys clean up their trays and they all march to the garbage bins.

I inhale deeply. “Let’s clean up girls.”

I pull the schedule from my pocket as they gather their trays. The next section of their day is the Elective Program. It’s the only part of the summer that is the same among the groups. I catch Lily’s narrowed stare at Will when he walks by her table. He is oblivious but I shoot her a “Stop it!” look when she finally turns to me.

She points to me then back at herself. The Elective Program is one of the massive draws to the camp. The kids are signed up for sports or performing arts clinics coached by professionals in the county. It has the largest budget out of all the programs but it also brings in the most money for the department. Two hours a day is spent on these programs, which gives the counselors a break from the kids, but not much time for relaxing. Dad gives us other tasks to keep us busy.

Will avoids my eyes as we gather the group and head to the gym.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Will

God, what is it about Hadley that makes me want to tell her everything? My whole life I tried to protect her and the second I leave she starts dating Carter. While he was just a spoiled fool who thought he deserved everything, he had the girl. Had being the operative word. Hadley isn’t one to give up on anything that easily, so I do wonder what happened between them. And seeing them at the pool made my blood boil.

I lead our group to the gym, taking several breaths to calm down.

Oliver shuffles to my side while keeping an eye on his exuberant brother.

“What is your Elective?” I ask him.

“Piano,” he says under his breath.

“Nice,” I say honestly.

He looks up at me as he was waiting for the ball to drop.

I grin. “What type of music do you play?”

“Mostly classical, that’s what my teacher likes. But I like to play Billy Joel on my own.”

“You’ll have to play for me sometime.”

His eyes widen. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’m a big fan.”

I pat him on the shoulder and he sprints to his brother, grinning. He whispers something into Harry’s ear and Harry high-fives his brother.

Hadley and Lily careen by me, wrapped in a private conversation. I make my way over to Tyler, his partner Skye nowhere to be found.

“Hey,” I say and Tyler gives me a fist-bump.

“How goes it?” He scans the group in front of him, just as I am.

I lean against the wall next to him. “I forgot how much energy they have.”

Tyler smirks. “You’ll be back in the groove in no time.”

“Are you helping with the carnival set-up?” I ask.

Tyler checks his paper schedule, tucked into his back pocket. “Yup, you?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing like a good sweat mid-day to keep the energy up.”

Mr. Beauman enters the room followed by the Elective instructors, a mix of about a dozen men and women. He quickly introduces the instructors and I take the moment to mull over the pecking order of projects at the house.

“How’s everything going with Hadley?” Tyler asks, still facing forward.

“Fine.”

He swallows and nods his head. “That’s cool.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Is it?”

He turns his head, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Of course. Want to make sure we have a tight group this year.” He presses his lips together and turns his attention to Mr. Beauman.

My eyes find Hadley. She’s watching the kids move toward their instructors as their names are called. First Lily and now Tyler. I look back and forth between the girls and Tyler. Am I missing something? To them it was probably a dick move for skipping town, but did I underestimate the ripple effect? Hadley seems fine with it. Isn’t that all that matters?

In a matter of minutes the kids are following their new instructors out of the gym. A few of the counselors leave as well, onto their assigned tasks, Lily included. Hadley, Tyler and I meet in the middle of the gym. Hadley’s eyes remain on her father who is typing something on his phone.

“Hey there,” Skye greets from behind me.

“Hey.”

She leans against Tyler’s arm. “It’s nice to get a break, huh?”

“Not for long,” Tyler mumbles under his breath.

“All right!” Mr. Beauman says and tilts his head to the side. “Let’s get to work.”

***

We follow him down the hallway toward the back of the building. “This week you will help with the set-up for the carnival,” he instructs without turning around. “The contractor will be here tomorrow with his team to put everything together but we need to bring the game booths out there for him.”

I remember the food carts and rides come the day before the carnival but all the games have been a part of the Parks Department for years. They are constructed each season for that one night.