“So why are you calling me about the girl you don’t want a chance with?”
“I just want to know how to be around her, since we have to work side by side for weeks.” I scratch my jaw, feeling pretty clueless about women right now. “She was pushed up against me yesterday—stop looking at me like that, it was during a team activity—and she was so close to me I could smell her shampoo and, well . . .”
Quickly turning down the volume on my cellphone, I check once again I’m still alone, while JJ does what can only be described as cackle. He eventually calms down and I feel like my entire face is on fire. “It happens to the best of us, buddy. Does she know?”
“Well it was digging into her stomach.” Sighing, I run my hand down my face as I prepare for the cackling again. “When she moved away, she winked at me.”
I count all the way to thirty-three before JJ finally stops laughing. “The real reason you wanted to talk to me.”
“What do I do?”
“You accept that you completely misjudged the situation and you talk to her instead of avoiding her like a dick. You be around her by doing just that, being around her. It’s easy.”
The doors open behind me and I look over my shoulder to spot Xander walking in with the dogs. “I gotta go, but I appreciate you, man. Thanks for hearing me out.”
“Bye lover boy, keep me updated,” JJ says, disconnecting the call.
Now that my phone has service again, my notifications have come through while I’ve been talking to JJ. The last thing in the group chat is a picture of Matty, Bobby and Kris at the beach in Miami and one of Lola, Stassie and Joe on their flight to New York.
I take a video as Trout scrambles up the outer side of the beanbag and slides down into my lap and send it to the chat. I’m about to close my messages when I spot more from someone I was hoping to avoid hearing from.
DAD
How are you?
Did you see my request??
Then a few hours later.
Too good to text back now?
Think you’re better than me do you
Too good for this family
“I’m fucking beat, man,” Xander groans, throwing himself into the giant beanbag beside me, causing me to lock my phone immediately and put it in my pocket. “This sun is a killer.”
It takes me longer to process what he’s said because my heart and brain are racing after seeing the messages from my dad. “Yeah, it’s brutal. Where is everyone?”
He kicks off his sneakers and stretches his legs out fully. “Tanning, I think. I need to cool down before I melt.”
Sharing with Xander has been a great arrangement so far. Other than being very competitive, which I learned yesterday, he’s usually super chill, tidy and seems to have this radar for when to stop before his questions go too far. When he realized Emilia, Aurora and I go to the same college and I shrugged when he asked if we knew each other, mumbling sort of, he didn’t push.
We sit in a comfortable silence, another thing I appreciate, and Xander scrolls on his phone. I’m too scared to get mine out again, so I give Trout all of my attention and think about what JJ said.
“You excited for training?” Xander asks, looking up from his phone.
Even though there are camp nurses, we all have to do basic first aid training at the lake. I’m looking forward to getting in the water, but anything is better than the harness safety training this morning where I spent the majority of my time eye level with Xander’s dick. Don’t even get me started on all the icebreakers, which are now my least favorite thing in the world. “At this point, anything that’s not an icebreaker is a win in my eyes.”
He groans, throwing his head back against the bean bag and Trout jumps at the noise. “Someone should tell them the ice is officially broken. I saw Clay naked this morning by accident, you don’t get more broken than that.”
I was attempting to herd my dog shadows out of our cabin this morning when Xander practically crashed into me looking mortified. “Walked into the wrong cabin,” he spluttered, smothering a horrified scoff with his hand, “wasn’t paying attention. Oh my God.”
“Maybe we need to refreeze the ice a little, in that case,” I joke. “You want me to fill up your water bottle before we head to the lake?”
He nods, handing it over. “Thanks, bro.”
I’m walking toward the water machines when someone turns the corner, crashing into me. Dropping the bottles to the floor, I catch the arms of the person stumbling away, keeping them upright.
“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was go—” Aurora finally looks up after finding her balance. “Oh, hi.”
“Hi.” She moves and that’s when I realize I’m still holding her and her eyes are puffy. “Are you okay?”
“I’m great,” she says immediately, giving me a bright smile that looks entirely pretend. I’ve seen her real smile before, making her smile and laugh is engrained in my brain, but this isn’t it. “Everything is wonderful.”
Everything doesn’t feel wonderful. I pick up the bottles I dropped and take the few seconds without her sad, green eyes looking at me to rack my brain to work out what could be wrong with her. I overheard her say to Maya this morning that she doesn’t like being paired with Clay because she doesn’t like the way he looks at her body when they’re working together.
I also don’t like the way he looks at her body when they work together, or the way his hands stay on her that little bit longer than necessary. But I put that down to jealousy, not substance in my concerns. Aurora and Maya agreed he’s harmless, just annoying, which made me feel better and a little less like I should push him in the lake or into the path of a bear.
“I’m just getting some water for me and Xander.”
“Water is good,” she says far too enthusiastically for the topic of conversation. “Water is, uh, hydrating.”
Tucking the bottles back under my arm, I clear my throat. “Aurora, did something happen?”
“Nothing that I shouldn’t expect at this point. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is peachy,” she says. I’m not sure who she’s working hardest to convince, me or herself. Before I can ask anything else, she takes a big step back, fake smile still in place. “See you at training.”
She’s gone before I even have time to respond.
The solar powered fans pointing toward the six of us as we wait for our instructor are useless in the face of the exceptionally hot afternoon sunshine.
“I can’t live like this,” Xander groans, fanning himself with his hand. “Why couldn’t we have done this inside?”
“How do you think I feel?” Maya says, wafting her Brown Bears staff t-shirt. “We don’t get sun in England.”
“I’m more worried that the resuscitation dummies are going to melt,” I say, nodding toward the pile of plastic.
“Hello, hello. I’m here. Sorry everyone, I’m Jeremy and you should be,” he checks his clipboard, “Alexander, Aurora, Clay, Emilia, Maya and Russ? Yes? Perfect.”
I’m a fan of Jeremy straight away because he immediately complains about how hot it is and moves us and the equipment into the shade. He also doesn’t pick me to do the demonstration, which also scores him points.
Emilia is fully sweating and panting by the time she manages to get Xander into the recovery position, but when she’s done, she sits back and admires her hard work with her hands on her hips, like a proud dad.
“The rest of you pair up and practice, please,” Jeremy announces. “I’ll be watching, please shout up if you’re struggling with anything.”
Clay immediately moves toward Aurora, but I’m closer to her. “Come on,” I say, gesturing toward one of the empty practice mats. “I’ll do you first.”