“Keep telling yourself that,” Diana said. “You definitely need our help if you want to get him to ask you out.”
“I don’t want anything like that.” I dropped my hands from my hips and tried a calming breath. “I have to go set up for orienteering, Go back and eat some more scrambled eggs or something and don’t worry about this Dev thing.”
“But—” Eliana didn’t seem too happy.
I tried to look both of them in the eye and settled for ping-ponging between them with my best serious face. “Please? This is something personal that I need to deal with on my own.”
Diana crossed her arms and actually made a pouty face. That girl had conniving angel down pat. “Fine, but when you need help, we’ll be here.”
I put one hand on each girls’ shoulders and started guiding them back towards the mess hall.
“Thanks,” I said, trying my best to sound appreciative. “I’ll remember that.”
Dev was already preparing the stones and sticks for the fire pits when I arrived at our clearing. I dropped my bag of compasses on the table and tried to look nonchalant as I collapsed onto the bench and started shuffling through the packets we’d be handing the kids.
He looked up with a sleepy smile. “Where did you disappear to during breakfast? That table was pretty hard to handle on my own.”
I cringed, then pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it at him. “Sorry, I actually found a signal and was checking in with Em.”
“Afraid she’ll send a search and rescue team if she didn’t hear from you for more than a day?”
“Something like that.” I shrugged. “Besides, it couldn’t have been that bad. We definitely won the counselor lottery with our campers. They’re not a lot of trouble.”
“Right, maybe all your girls aren’t.” He stood and sat on the bench next to me and I tried not to notice how hyperaware I’d become of the little bit of air between our arms and legs, my skin buzzing where we were practically touching. “Tanner was acting up last night, so I threatened to kick him out of the cabin. When he called my bluff, I took all his things and threw them out the front door. He tried sleeping outside for about half an hour before coming inside and promising he’d behave.”
I covered my mouth to hide my smile. “What if he hadn’t done that?”
Dev shrugged. His fingers picked at a frayed spot on the knee of his jeans. “I’m sure Forrester would have understood.” I gave him a look that said I wasn’t as sure as he was. He reached over and pulled the packets out of my hands. “So, as payback, how about I take the easy orienteering part this morning and you get down and dirty with the fire building?” he asked, pulling out one of the maps and rotating it to find up.
I reached over and positioned the map for him, careful to grab the sides opposite from his hands. “That would be fair, except for the tiny fact I have no idea how to build a fire.”
“It wasn’t in any of the books you’ve read?” I locked him in a death glare and he stood up, grabbing my arm and pulling me with him. “Just kidding. Part of the reason why they asked me to be a counselor is because I’m a scout and the king of outdoorsyness.” He knelt in front of one of the supply piles and gestured for me to join him. “We have a few minutes. Come learn, little padawan.”
“I still can’t picture you as a scout.” I folded my legs under myself and sat as far from him as I could while still being within reach of the fire pit site.
He didn’t look up from his task of shredding some bark and dry pine needles, but a little dimple appeared in his cheek.
“Mom and Dad like it because it looks good on college applications. I like it because I get to occasionally blow stuff up.” His eyes met mine, like he was checking to see if I was smiling. He reached out with a handful of the shredded stuff. “This is kindling. We’re going to use a bow and drill setup to get some embers going in here.”
“I once read a book where the character used a tinderbox to—” I stopped and bit my lip to keep from spouting any more utter book geekishness. Part of me wished I’d had that tinderbox and, like Scarlet in The Bear’s Daughter, could show off by making a fire in seconds.
“I knew it. What haven’t you read about?” He handed me a few sticks and a rock. One of those things looked like a mini-version of a rough bow. “No tinderboxes. You have to work for your fire here.”
“Okay, Yoda. Teach me,” I said and he failed miserably at hiding his surprise. Touche, geek checkmate. He probably hadn’t expected me to get the padawan reference. “I’ll try my best to learn.”
“‘There is no try. Just do.’” He put the sticks, rock, and bow together in a setup and then came around to cup his hands around mine to teach me the motions. His chest pressed against my back and his chin almost rested on my shoulder. “If people in ancient times could do this, so can you.”
Having Dev this close was actually painful. My heart beat erratically and my fingers moved clumsily, almost dropping the rock/stick setup. Scarlet wouldn’t even blink at a guy when she was focused on a task, but combining my total lack of skill with the unshakeable awareness of Dev behind me made my hands useless. Even with his help, I didn’t get much more than a little bit of smoke and embers that would blow out the second I tried to make them grow into a flame.
“Try again.” Dev’s breath brushed my cheek, starting a different sort of fire across my skin. I fought the irrational urge to turn towards him and, frustrated with his closeness and the whole fire thing, dropped everything and pulled away until I was back standing by the compasses.
I crossed my arms to hide how my hands were shaking. “I guess I’m not as good as people in ancient times. I’ll stick to modern technologies like matches.”
“And bows and compasses?” He shot back. He looked disappointed in me. “You don’t seem like the type to just give up on things, Phoebe.”
I shrugged, adopting a Maeve-like nonchalance. “I guess you don’t know me that well.” The first campers started coming down the path from the mess hall and I picked up one of the compasses. This group was made up of our kids, and some of the girls from my cabin were whispering amongst themselves, looking from me to Dev with frowns. I ignored them and turned back to my co-counselor. “I guess
I’m back on orienteering.”
Dev stared at me for an uncomfortable moment before shaking his head and turning to greet the campers. “Who here wants to learn how to set stuff on fire?”
While the girls were out swimming, I dug through my duffel, pushing aside sweaters and extra socks until my fingers curled around the familiar edges of my notebook. I’d almost chucked it into the lake after my disastrous kiss with Kris, but couldn’t do it, and was thankful I hadn’t. I needed every page of bookish advice I could get if I wanted to survive the rest of camp.
I flipped through, looking for the strongest Maeve and Marissa excerpts I’d pasted inside, and started reading. I’d be a warrior—unafraid, strong, and beautiful and completely immune to any of my old feelings for Dev.
Golden series book 3: Gilded PG 18
Aedan’s lecture the minute she arrived in the training hall was unexpected. “If you want to learn how to fight, you have to get dirty. This will not be like fighting with your bow or magic. You need to be willing to drive a sword into your opponent’s stomach and get covered in his blood. You have to know you can die the instant you step foot on the battlefield.”
She narrowed her eyes at him in her best bored-warrior18 look and twirled the gold-colored sword, trying not to show how heavy it really felt. For an archer, she’d expected to at least have gained a little more upper body strength. “I’m the Harper. You might remember that I fought a horde of goblins and saved both our worlds. I think I can handle a little bit of hand-to-hand combat.”
Moving faster than she could react, Aedan twirled his sword to pin hers down against the floor. A heartbeat and he was just inches from her face, the point of his sgian shimmering millimeters from her carotid artery.
“Can y
ou?” he asked, a hint of an impish grin breaking his formerly stern look.
Maeve shoved aside the little voice in her stupid brain telling her to kiss him and, instead, pulled back from his blade. As Aedan’s grin grew wider, heat replaced her breathlessness from a few seconds before. “You made your point. This isn’t training, this is you stoking your stupid Leprechaun warrior ego at my expense. I’ll get Colm to teach me, instead. He’ll train me properly.” She grabbed her coat and stalked towards the door. “I’m out of here.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Aedan coming at her again with his sword, and she instinctively swung around and blocked his blow, her arms vibrating with the force of the impact. Adrenaline took over and she pulled a page from his book, stepping close so she could disengage her sword and deliver a not-too-gentle tap to his waist while he tried to adjust his reach. “What the hell, Aedan?”
“Interesting. You’re a natural, just like with the bow.” He stepped back, nodding to concede the point, but his smile was full blown. “Now you’re learning.”
She blew air through her lips and tried to slow her insane heartbeat. “If making the Harper die of a heart attack was part of your lesson plan, congrats, you almost did. I can’t learn if you don’t teach me the rules and just mess around.”
His expression grew dead serious. “Rules are good and honorable. But, sometimes, to survive, you need to break them. If it’s a choice between you and your opponent, be as ruthless as your part-goblin blood will allow. And you need to forget that fear exists.”
“Having my Leprechaun warrior jerk of a soon-to-be exboyfriend come at me with weaponry isn’t going to help get rid of any fear, you know.”
He kept going as if she hadn’t said anything. “Fear will paralyse you. You doubt yourself, you’ll die.”
“Cheery.”
“I’ll teach you the rules, but I will also teach you reality. If you only train to the rules, you’ll be tied to the rules. And then you will die.”
“Got it. I get scared, I die. I follow the rules, I die. Any more lectures around that theme, or are you going to stop talking and teach me?”
“Never doubt yourself. Others will, and you need to prove them wrong.” With that, he sheathed his sword and turned towards the exit. “We’ll practice again tomorrow. I suggest you wear a lot of padding19.”
44
“Group eight, welcome to the low ropes course.” Mr. Hamm stood at the center of a pair of ropes that were attached to one tree on one end and then spread into a wide V where they attached to two trees on the other side. “Just like the trust walk, the purpose of the course is to learn teamwork.”
“I’m starting to see a theme,” one of the boys from Dev’s cabin muttered with a barely audible groan and Dev made a shh-ing sign at him.
Ms. Forrester looked up from checking the ropes and nodded. “Yes, there is a theme, Nathan.” She stood and wiped her hands on her cargo pants. “Teamwork is important, and the first exercise is going to teach you how to work with a partner to get to your goal.” She pointed to the ropes. “This is called the wild V. In this exercise, you’ll need to partner up with someone close to your height. You’ll start at this end,” she pointed to the tree with both ropes attached, “and, working with each other for balance, you will try to go as far as possible without falling off the ropes.”
“You need to find a partner who is about your size. Try to partner with someone you really don’t know as well.” As the kids scrambled to grab their friends, Mr. Hamm walked through the group and mixed up the pairs, to the groans of the whole group. Once he was satisfied with the pairs, he stepped back into the middle of the V. “Who wants to go first to demonstrate for the rest of the group?”
“What about Phoebe and Dev?” Eliana grabbed my and Dev’s hands and started pulling us forward. “I think they should demonstrate for us.”
“No, that’s okay.” I shot a death glare at Eliana. “These exercises are for you guys. We already did this back when we were going into sixth grade.” I looked over at Dev for help, but he just shrugged.
“Which is why you’ll be perfect demonstrators,” Diana said, reaching over to poke her partner’s arm until he nodded in reluctant agreement. “See? Even Mark agrees.”
Mr. Hamm nodded thoughtfully and gestured for Dev and me to come to the front with him. “That’s actually a great idea.”
Ms. Forrester gestured at us to get moving towards the narrow end of the rope V. “Don’t worry, Mr. Hamm and I will talk you through the whole thing. And you’ll have spotters.” She nodded at the four kids Mr. Hamm was organizing around the ropes.
“Why don’t you say anything to try and get us out of this?” I whispered to Dev as we made our way to the tree. “You’re good at convincing teachers about anything.”
“It sounds like fun.” Dev looked over at me with an amused grin. “Or don’t you trust me?”
“I don’t trust trust exercises that involve being off the ground, even if it’s only a little bit off the ground.”
“You’re not instilling confidence in the campers,” Dev pointed out, nodding over at my cabin and how they were watching us with wide eyes and huge grins. Little stinking mini-Em wannabes.
“Believe me, my campers don’t need help when it comes to confidence.”
Eliana made a whooping sound and Dev snorted. He nodded at me, conceding how right I was.
“Ready?”
“Not really.” Maeve would hop onto the rope like it was nothing—heck, she’d probably find a way to do this whole ropes course on her own in a way that would make Aedan marvel yet again at her skills. But Maeve was actually athletic. Meanwhile, there was a massive chance I’d break my ankle. I climbed up onto the rope, hugging the tree with my left arm to keep my balance. “Remember, you’re the coordinated one.” Forget that fear exists.
“You’re the one with insane hand-eye coordination.” Dev jumped onto his rope and took my right hand like he was pulling me into a dance. My chest pressed against his and it really was like we were dancing. “It’s okay. I got you,” he said, and his breath tickled my cheek in a way that made a shiver run through my whole body.
Suddenly, breaking my leg or trying to be like Maeve flew to the back of my mind and I had to work on breathing, instead.
“On three, let go of the tree, grab my hand, and start shuffling down the rope.” He tested his balance and wobbled, swinging his body as he tried to balance. “Whoa.” He let go of my hand and tumbled off the rope, but thanks to my death-grip on the trunk and his instinctive grab at my waist to keep me upright, I stayed on my rope. “Sorry, lost my balance,” he said, sounding out of breath. He brushed up close against me, setting every one of my nerves on fire as he stepped back onto his rope and got back into position.
One of the campers let off a wolf-whistle as he took my hand again, and I heard Diana say, “I think he just touched her butt.”
That made me look up at Dev, whose face was growing redder by the second. “I didn’t, um, did I?” he asked, haltingly.
I wanted the ground under us to turn into quicksand so I could jump in and disappear. “No…no, you didn’t.” Ms. Forrester was saying something about balance and planks and working together but neither of us was paying her any attention.
His entire body shifted with a relieved exhale. “Good. Because…” he broke off and cleared his throat before putting on his serious game-face. “Okay, let’s get this over with. On three? One, two,” and with his three, I let go of the tree and fumbled for his other hand as we wobbled like we were trying to balance on jelly.
“Lean into each other,” Mr. Hamm called out.
I choked back a laugh. If we leaned any closer, the kids would have even more stuff to giggle about.
“Lock your arms and keep moving,” Ms. Forrester added as she joined Mr. Hamm in the center of the V to catch us in case we fell.
I fought the urge to lean back and away from the buzz that ran across my skin he closer I came to Dev
and forced myself to lean into him while pushing against his hands. Dev kept his eyes trained on the ground while I split my attention between his face and his feet.
The thirty seconds of moving down the rope took a lifetime. Before we got to the point where we were leaning at over forty-five degree angles to each other, Dev stepped off his rope. He held his grip steady until I was back on solid ground, then quickly let go of my hands. “Let’s stop while we’re ahead,” he said.
“Good idea.”
“See? Easy, right?” Ms. Forrester didn’t seem to notice our awkward shuffling and, without waiting for a response, turned to the campers. “Now, it’s your turn. Any volunteers?”
Mr. Hamm clapped Dev on the shoulder and nodded at me as he passed us. “Good job. Take a break, you two. We’ve got them from here.”
“Thanks.” I picked my way over to a fallen log behind the rope tree and sat, trying to ignore the possibility of crawly things on it. The log was the perfect spot to watch my campers without getting sucked into another demonstration.
Dev followed, looking down at me with a quirky smile. “See? I told you it would be okay. We make a good team.”
Something in my chest warmed at that last line, but I tried not to let it show on my face. “Except for the whole falling thing.”
“I was the one that fell, not you. You’re better at a lot of things than you think you are.”
I picked at a mushroom-y thing growing out of the log. Hopefully it wasn’t something poisonous that would go through my skin and kill me on the spot. “Not fire making.”
“We can work on that,” he said.
“Or I can just carry around matches all the time in case I’m ever stranded in the wilderness without,” a flirty line popped into my head, reminding me to be more like Marissa, and I threw caution to the wind and said it before I could chicken out, “a big strong scout like you.” I fakebatted my eyelashes, and put my hand to my chest in a mock-swoon. Marissa always threw those kind of harmless, cute, funny lines to Dan after they became just friends. Friends could totally flirt-joke with each other.
Bookishly Ever After Page 22
