And yeah, maybe a tiny part of my motivation to help out today is to see Rory.
Xander throws himself onto his bed, narrowly missing Trout who is chewing on one of his socks. “Can I guess what miss sticky fingers stole? Was it a condom by any chance?” I nod and his grin widens. “I’m glad you kids are being safe and I don’t have to give you the birds and the bees talk.”
I’d rather be attacked by birds and bees than have that conversation with Xander. “You know we’re the same age, right?”
“Kids these days . . .” He avoids the shoe I throw at him. “Reflexes of a cat, my guy. But seriously, I’m happy for you. I’m jealous as fuck, but I’m happy. You get to do the whole summer love thing. You’re living the dream.”
“Thanks, man. What’re you doing today?” I ask, changing the subject before he asks me to share too much.
Old habits die hard.
“First thing I’m doing is going back to sleep. Jax decided to tell horror stories before bed, the douchebag. And I know it’s not cool to call a ten-year-old a douchebag, but he really is a bit of a dick. Loads of tears and drama; all very annoying. I won’t ask what you’re doing because I know the answer is hanging around your girl and pretending it’s because you care about team sports.”
I want to correct him and say she’s not my girl, but I like how it sounds. “Pretty much.”
He yawns, tugging the blanket over him and trout, who immediately begins to chew it. “Your secret is safe with me, man.”
By the time I’m showered and heading for breakfast, last night’s rain has disappeared. I’m halfway to the food hall when I hear a “wait up” from behind me.
Freshly showered and now sporting her Brown Bears t-shirt, Aurora smiles as she jogs to catch up to me. Her hand gently brushes past mine, not lingering long enough to be suspicious if anyone was to spot us, but long enough for goosebumps to spread up my arm. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“Hi,” she repeats awkwardly. “I just wanted to say . . . Well I’ve been thinking and, well, I know I made you break the rules last night and I promised I wou—”
“Rory,” I say softly, interrupting her. I stop, moving from her side to in front of her. I’m not used to the look of doubt on her face, or the lack of confidence in her voice. Even when she’s rambling to fill the silence, there’s an air of confidence to it, but right now, she looks like a woman grappling with uncertainty. “You didn’t make me do anything. I went to your cabin, too, remember?”
“I know, but this job is important to you and it’s important to me, I love it here, but I also have the impulse control of a hungry raccoon. I don’t want you to think that the things that are important to you aren’t important to me, when I know they’re important to you. Does that make sense?”
“I think so. I don’t regret it.” Fuck, I want to kiss her. “I promise. I’m trying to relax a little, not be so worried about everything.”
“It would be good for you if you could do that. I think you’ll be happier.”
“So . . .”
How do I say this.
“So . . .” she repeats.
“I like you. Aurora. A lot. I’m really happy last night happened.”
Her mouth opens and closes, then opens again a little, much like a goldfish. She clears her throat and nods, forcing out a croaky “me too.” She clears her throat. “I really like you too.”
“So . . .”
“So . . . we should get breakfast before they send a search party for us,” she says, breaking the odd silence hanging in the air. “I went to explain why I was going to miss flag raising and be late for breakfast before I went for a shower and for some reason Orla was there. I had to lie and say my alarm didn’t go off because the power went off and didn’t charge my phone and I’d be as quick as I could.”
We start walking toward the hall again and I nod with approval. “That’s smart.”
She scoffs. “It wasn’t. Turns out, it came back on two minutes after I left to find you and it was nothing to do with the storm. It was the guy trying to stop the leaky roof issue turning off the wrong switch somewhere.”
“Well, they can’t prove you’re lying.”
“Emilia can, she definitely already knows. She gave me the look.” She sighs heavily as we approach the doors, stopping and turning to me. “I’m sorry, I haven’t had someone tell me they really like me before and it means more than they just like having sex with me. It threw me for a minute. I don’t want to go back to college and not see you every day, Russ. Seeing you is the best part of my day. And if you’re happy to wait and be patient while I work out what that means, then maybe we can have something special.”
Now I’m the one that’s thrown. It feels too easy, too natural to be real life, but it is my real life. “I’d wait forever for you, Aurora.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
AURORA
I’ve had butterflies for days.
At first I thought I was sick but it wasn’t quite nausea, it’s almost like a tingle in my abdomen. It would calm down at night when Emilia and I were in bed, so I thought it was over, but then it’d start again the next day. I questioned if it was an allergy, but I didn’t actually feel sick, just different.
Three days of questioning for me to finally realize it’s butterflies.
“So you’re not dying then?” Emilia croaks, putting the last life jacket back into the storage chest. She’s lost her voice again after a particularly competitive volleyball tournament yesterday. Losing your voice from shouting all day is normal, but it’s not something I’ve suffered. My vocal cords refuse to be silenced, much to Emilia’s disappointment.
We’ve been kayaking this afternoon and had a bit of solitude, well, as much solitude as you can get at camp, and it helped me work out that I have feelings and those feelings are floating around my stomach making me feel weird.
“Not dying. Confirmed.”
“Just malfunctioning over a man, got it.” She doesn’t look at me, so she doesn’t see the finger I’m giving her, but like any good best friend, she knows. “God, you’re so easy to get a rise out of. I like this new you; you’re floating around like an animated woodland creature, it’s super cute.”
“Sorry, did you say something? I can’t hear you.” Looking across the shore, I watch the man in question lifting kayaks and putting them back on the rack with ease. Woodland creature isn’t the worst thing I’ve been called, particularly by Emilia. “I miss Poppy. She balances out how annoying you are.”
“Oh trust me, she’s going to love hearing about this, my little cartoon bunny.” She clears her throat aggressively and starts waving her arms. “Hey, Russ! Could you come help us, please?”
She doesn’t sound like herself when she says it, but it’s just loud enough to capture his attention. Although, I’d bet he has no idea what she said. Putting the final kayak away, he weaves through the campers as Clay leads them away to wash up for dinner. “What are you doing?” I grumble under my breath so he doesn’t hear as he gets closer.
“What’s up?” he says, stopping in front of the two of us.
God, he’s pretty.
Emilia points to the box dramatically. “I really have to use the bathroom. Could you help Rory put the chest back into the storage shed, please?”
“Are you doing okay?” he asks, definitely on behalf of the two of us. “You’re acting odd.”
“You never know who’s listening. You’re welcome.”
“They wouldn’t be able to hear you, even if they tried,” I tease.
It’s her turn to give me the finger as she runs off to follow Clay and, now she’s gone, the butterflies are flapping full force.