Sun Kissed (Camp Boyfriend)

by Joanne Rock

  “I wish you’d told me about the dare.” He reached toward my hand and rested his fingers lightly on the place where I’d wrapped the bandana.

  I stared at that—our hands resting side by side but not connected—and wondered if I’d ever get back to normal with Seth. I cared about him so, so much.

  “I’m sorry.” I knew I’d messed up. Knew I’d hurt him when I’d promised not to. “I should have. I was scared you’d think I didn’t really care, that I was like—” I clapped a hand over my mouth, horrified that I was about to bring up his mother.

  Seth tugged my hand away, the slanting sun shading the upper half of his face so I couldn’t read his eyes. “Like my mother. Is that what you were going to say?” His voice cracked at the end, reminding me that for all his maturity, he was still a kid. Maybe a part of him still protected that four-year-old who’d stood at his playschool window, waiting for a mom that would never return. “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.”

  I twined my fingers in his, unwilling to let go. “I don’t.” His fingers tugged free of mine and I sighed. “Okay. Maybe I do. But that has nothing to do with how I feel. With why I kissed you. But you don’t believe me, do you?”

  “How can I when—” He rubbed his hands over his eyes and I peered into the shadows that shrouded them.

  “When you don’t trust anyone?” I finished for him.

  Air exploded from him, then his shoulders collapsed. I wanted to touch him, to take away the pain my words inflicted, but it was the truth and he needed to think about it. We sat in silence, watching the river for several minutes.

  When he spoke at last, I could barely hear him over the rushing water. “I don’t know if I can.”

  For a moment I felt sick. This really was it. We weren’t going to be a couple, or friends, or anything.

  “But Lauren, I believe you about the dare. And if there is anyone I want to trust, it’s you. Can we start with that? I know it’s not much to offer. But it’s all I can guarantee. That, and I—like being with you.” His fingers rubbed a circle on the inside of my wrist where the bandana covered my skin.

  And just like that, my world flipped from bleak to … starlit. Hope burned like Vega in the sky of my heart.

  “I like being with you too.” We broke into cautious smiles and I wiped what could have been water spray off his cheek.

  “I’ve cared about you for a long time, Lauren.” He rested his whole hand on the bandana, his thumb grazing the middle of my palm where the fabric spilled over onto my skin. “This week—one by one—all your friends have told me the same thing about the dare. How it’s a yearly thing. How they were only trying to help.”

  “They did?” It was the first I’d heard of it and it made me want to hug them all. “They probably didn’t mention it because they didn’t want to get my hopes up that you’d understand.”

  I stared at him as the sky darkened and more stars came out, the water gurgling nearby and night bugs chirping. I wished I could preserve this moment like a fossil. Put it in my pocket and pull it out during the lonely Seth-less months. It felt timeless. Perfect. Meant to be.

  “I didn’t. But I think I do now.” His thumb roamed over my hand, an exploratory circle like the first one drawn from a new compass.

  My gaze dipped down to his broad palm coming closer to mine. Closer.

  My chest felt tight with hope and want, but I didn’t trust myself to speak. I’d said all I could about what had happened. It was his turn to tell me how he felt. What he wanted from us.

  “What if we tried again?” he asked softly, turning on the log so that he faced me. “What if we went slowly? Cautiously?”

  With a pang, I thought about those stolen kisses on that hike on Tennent Mountain and wondered if we’d ever be like that again.

  “Would we be more than friends?”

  He nodded. “How about we start by being together through the summer? I’ll be your camp boyfriend.”

  There was a time I would have turned cartwheels and somersaults for that kind of commitment. But I could hear the caution in his voice and I knew we weren’t done working out terms for our future.

  “What happens when camp ends?”

  “We go back to being single.”

  Ouch. There it was. The arrow to my heart. And not the cute, adorable kind that Cupid threw.

  “Not because I don’t want to be with you.” He sounded so serious. So genuine. “But if we’re together, I’ll worry about you back at your own school where every guy is probably in love with you.”

  I almost laughed at the impossibility of that. Seth wasn’t really worried about other guys. He didn’t want to feel the way he did long ago, waiting and wondering if he’d be forgotten, if I’d return to him—to camp. Words alone wouldn’t win his trust. Never letting him down was the only way to prove he could count on me. Believe in us. And since I trusted my own feelings, that would not be a problem.

  He held my hand for real now, softening the sting of his confusing words with the touch I’d been craving.

  “Okay,” I agreed, knowing we could overcome the obstacles. Certain we would figure out our future … together. “I will be the best camp girlfriend you’ve ever had, Seth Reines.”

  “I’d like that.” He smiled for real again, his shoulders easing as he pulled me closer. “Dudes!” Alex’s shrill voice shouted from behind us, making us both jump. “Pizza’s here! Come on before it’s gone!”

  She burst through the brush to find us sitting together, then scrambled back up the hill.

  “Whoops. Awkward. No need to stop doing whatever you were doing. I’ll just try and sneak some pepperoni slices through a bush or something. Er ...” She turned and sprinted away, making us both laugh.

  “Guess we should get going if we want to eat,” I said, even though I didn’t make any move to stand.

  “Guess so.” He gripped my wrists and wrapped them around his neck, pulling me closer. “But we’d better make this official first.”

  My heart skipped beats and tangoed in my chest. But then, I was with the most amazing boy at Camp Juniper Point and he wanted to be my boyfriend.

  For now, that was enough to make my whole life feel just about perfect.

  “Should we put it in writing?” I suggested. “Or pinky swear on it?”

  “No.” He turned serious again, his eyes roaming all over my face. “Technically, I kissed you first after your friends dared you to kiss me.”

  I was already shaking my head. “You can’t hold that against me too!”

  “No. But I wouldn’t want my camp girlfriend to lose Truth or Dare.”

  I tried to glare at him, but I could feel myself caving. “I’ve kissed you first since then.” Facts were facts and I’d promised myself not to mislead him again. Although, I really wanted that kiss.

  “I did save your life today. I deserve a kiss for that.”

  My grip on him tightened, my hands coming around to touch his face.

  “Yes, you did.” I leaned my nose against his and our eyelashes touched as feather soft as a moth’s wings. I closed my eyes and brushed my lips over his.

  Slowly. Cautiously.

  And then Seth was the one kissing me, and it wasn’t one bit slow. I smiled against his lips, liking the direction of this camp boyfriend arrangement.

  I had the feeling this was going to be the most unforgettable summer ever, and it was only just getting started …

  Read more about Lauren and Seth in Camp Boyfriend

  Camp Christmas

  By J.K. Rock

  Copyright © 2016 by Joanne Rock and Karen Rock

  Originally published 2013 by Spencer Hill Press

  Sale of the paperback edition of this book without its cover is unauthorized.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 
; All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  Merry Christmas to our readers who have been so

  wonderfully supportive of the Camp Boyfriend series.

  We are endlessly grateful!

  CAMP CHRISTMAS

  Chapter One

  Hannah

  Worst. Boob job. Ever.

  Missy Watson’s text made my phone vibrate, the pinkcrystal case humming against my palm.

  2 funny tho she just had a baby, I wrote back then hopped off the bus at the base of Whiteface Mountain, home of the highest vertical drop in the East, according to a nearby sign.

  I nearly dropped my phone when our militant gym teacher, Ms. Hanrahan, passed by to do the head count. She was scary on a normal day, but would be murderous if she knew we were talking about her mismatched boobs.

  And who would sleep with her? So gross, added Bella Hopkins, my other bestie. I laugh/snorted—so not cool but totally impossible to stop—until I looked up and caught

  Ms. Hanrahan’s sharp eye. She had made me run ten laps when I’d shown up late to class last week—again—but still, I didn’t want to get on her radar and miss out on our school’s Christmas Eve day trip, a ski club tradition for the locals who attended our elite Lake Placid private school.

  Bwahahahahahaha—Beyotches. Love ya!!! buzzed another text, making me smile. Messages flew among the three of us who ruled Northstar Academy. Not that I took my status for granted. The borders of our circle shifted all the time. You never knew when you’d be on the outside looking in. Lately that seemed more and more like a real possibility for me.

  Northstar was all about image, and since my mother lost her platinum credit card after the divorce, my style was taking a major hit. At any moment someone—probably Missy—would call me out for wearing last year’s ski clothes.

  It was beyond embarrassing, but I couldn’t confide in anyone that the settlement covered my tuition and not much else.

  Even worse, my dad was suing to lower his child support because he was marrying his twenty-something secretary and starting a new family. How cliché could you get? And he wondered why I didn’t take him seriously. Seriously?! Thanks to him, his midlife crisis was now mine.

  I pulled a Thermos out of my pack and gulped the last of my hot chocolate, warding off the chill that shivered through my gut. A new family. One that wouldn’t include me. It shouldn’t matter that my dad would have other kids, but somehow it did.

  As I twisted the cap closed, I noticed that I’d spilled some of the brown liquid on my rich cousin’s hand-me-down ski suit. I rubbed snow on the stain, but it only smeared.

  Awesome. It’s not like I could replace it. Ski season had barely begun, and I’d just taken myself out of the game.

  When I looked up, Missy was pointing and smiling my way, her followers giggling.

  My teeth clenched. I only had a year and a half of school left, but I was determined to stay on top until the end. I couldn’t be poor and unpopular. One of those things was bad enough—two meant I’d be an outcast, and I was already playing the pariah role when it came to my family. I would not let that happen at school, the one place where people paid attention to me. Where I mattered.

  U drink that— not wear it, loser, Missy texted me.

  Ya think?! I texted back and flipped her off, a gesture that made her laugh. I followed the crowd when the chaperones waved us toward the main lodge, feeling relieved. Rule number one of the social jungle: show no fear around popular beasts like Missy. Even if they are your BFFs.

  We’d been in different friend circles until we turned twelve and rumors went around that her mom had gotten pulled over for drunk driving in a school zone. The story was that the cop had to take back the DWI ticket when Missy’s father, a state senator, stepped in. When I found her crying in a bathroom stall, I’d promised to stick up for her when the rest of her friends gossiped about her. True to my word, I’d helped her by being meaner than any of her enemies. I envisioned myself as a sort of bully-warrior, unaware I was just becoming a much better bully myself.

  “Pick up your gear and follow Andre!” Ms. Hanrahan shouted over the noise of other arriving buses and cars that dropped off the skiers and snowboarders for the day. “He’ll pass out lift tickets, a list of everyone’s cellphone numbers, and make arrangements for meeting back here at the end of the day.”

  Andre is HAWT— *so* following him! My cellphone flashed the new message at the top of my screen. I didn’t need to look at the sender to know who was salivating over the college-age chaperone helping out Ms. Hanrahan today—a cute snowboarder, and our lacrosse coach, known for his reputation. Since he was the principal’s son, we’d made up some outrageous rumors, too, but the stuff that was true—ick. Grabbing my ski bag from the pile, I met Bella’s wide gray eyes through the falling snow.

  “Andre is a player,” I warned harmless Bella, wishing like crazy I had her designer ski suit and the matching gloves she pulled on. “Be careful.”

  “Aww!” squealed Missy as she leaned in between us to grab an impractical pink suede ski bag. “How cute of you to care. Are you going to tell her to use protection, too?”

  She fluttered false eyelashes at me. “Because I think our Bella already knows more about having fun than you.”

  Giggles erupted from behind her and I pulled up my scarf to hide the hot red splotches exploding on my cheeks.

  Two other friends—younger hangers-on—gloated at me over Missy’s shoulder. I’d held my own with Missy all year, knowing that I was teetering on the edge of her approval since turning down invites to go places or do things I couldn’t afford. At Northstar, a girl without a clique was a social freak, and I already had way too much “alone time” at home while my mother jet-setted her way through her flavor-of-the-month rich boyfriends. It seemed like a long time ago that I’d helped Missy through a rough time of her own. She used to call me—even last year—when her mom was drinking and her dad was out of town.

  “Is that so?” I slid my goggles into place and cranked my tone to “withering” before saying the words guaranteed to get Missy off my back. “Then I guess she won’t mind having her name added to the list he’s circulating about underage girls he’s been with.”

  “What?” Missy went pale under her bronzer while Ms. Hanrahan shouted for us to hurry up.

  I gave the clique Queen Bee a tight smile before I lied smoothly, “Mom’s new boyfriend is a Fed. He gets all the dirt on town scandals. I just hope you didn’t have enough fun with Andre to make the list. I wonder if a state senator’s daughter would be front page news?”

  Bella and the other girls gathered around Missy and led her away, their visible support making me feel bad just for scaring the crap out of my frenemy. I hadn’t known it would upset her that much. But what choice did I have? Fear and respect were the only languages we spoke.

  A male voice in my ear made me jump.

  “I thought you gave up the mean girl act at camp last summer.”

  Turning slowly, I faced the only boy at Northstar Academy who knew I attended camp in a remote corner of the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina every year.

  “I thought we had a deal never to speak to each other,” I shot back, nudging my bag higher on my shoulder. I didn’t follow my friends since I didn’t want to be seen talking to Julian Berwick.

  “Really?” He grinned, surprising me with a flash of white teeth and humor. “I think a ‘deal’ implies agreement between both parties. You barking at me to keep my mouth shut when we were ten years old doesn’t count.”

  He strode away toward the main lodge, his long legs covering ground in a hurry. What was he, like six-foot-four? He’d been tall and gawky forever. Now, he seemed tall and…built.

  “Wait,” I called, following him toward the building and hoping none of my friends watched from the windows.

  Thankfully, thick holiday wreaths covered most of the windows anyway, the whole place decked out f
or Christmas.

  He stopped. Turned.

  I took a breath, ready to launch into a tirade about keeping his distance. But seeing him through the falling snow, his longish dark bangs half covering one eye, it was like looking at a stranger. When had he quit carrying a dopey fake sword with him everywhere? He’d worn a cape for as long as I’d known him, whether he was with a bunch of rich kids from Manhattan at Northstar or he was at camp with his geekster squad of science-lovers and video game freaks.

  “Where’s your cape?” I asked, sounding like an idiot. I cleared my throat, grateful I had pulled down my goggles earlier, since they hid half my face. “I mean, you’re not trying to turn normal or anything, right? Because I think it’s too late for you to fit in.”

  Why did I feel awkward around Julian of all people? It made no sense. Maybe I was just regretting the showdown with Missy since I’d hoped to have fun on Christmas Eve instead of the endless battle to maintain social status.

  “Same old Hannah.” He heaved a sigh and shook his head. For the first time, I noticed some kind of tattoo on his neck, half hidden by a scarf. “Guess the camp rumors about you had it wrong.”

  He turned to head inside by the time my ears caught up with what he’d said.

  “Excuse me?” I tugged his sleeve to pull him away from the door, away from a red-cheeked family wearing matching wool reindeer sweaters and clutching paper cups of hot cocoa.

  Julian glanced at my hand on his sleeve and frowned. For a second, my gaze darted to where my snowflake-decorated fingernails rested on his wrist just above his black leather glove. Flustered, I let go.

  “If you have more insults in mind, I’m going to leave.” He spoke clearly, as if he was talking to an eight-year-old. “Otherwise, I’m listening.”

  I pulled off my goggles, wanting a better look at this semi-normal-seeming boy who’d taken the place of Julian the Super Nerd. My hair snagged in the hinge though, and I accidentally yanked it. When Julian reached to help free me, I pulled back and tugged out enough strands to hurt.