Sun Kissed (Camp Boyfriend)

by Joanne Rock

  “Oookay. Why does the gazebo make you think I’m lost? It’s perfect. That floor is so level a marble wouldn’t roll.” An exaggeration, maybe. But still.

  “It’s not you, dude.” He shrugged as he laid the wet brush on a fallen leaf from a Bigtooth Aspen tree. “It doesn’t look like something you’d build. You’re a biology freak. A nature lover. But instead of embracing that, you’re trying to make the gazebo some kind of faceless piece of institutional—” He stopped himself suddenly and seemed to think twice about whatever he’d been about to say. “It’s utilitarian.”

  “Not after Trinity gets through with it,” I muttered.

  “Isn’t that a good thing? She’s putting personality into it.”

  “I don’t care about personality,” I shot back, louder than I’d intended. The other guys stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. I lowered my voice. “I want something that will last.”

  For once.

  “The good news is, with you two working on it together, you’re going to get the best of both, right?” Julian set aside his rock to dry in the sun. Then he picked up the paint brush and used the left over paint to sketch some designs on the toes of his sneakers. “It’s gonna last forever, and it’ll be cool, too.”

  Right. Because Trinity was designing a collective art piece for the floor, a mural for the inside of the roof and, last I’d heard, carvings on all the rafters. When would she even have time to do all that? Camp ended in three weeks.

  “Maybe. She is really talented.” I remembered the work in her sketchbook. And although she did a lot of fanciful stuff, I’d have to be blind to deny her creative gift.

  “Damn straight.” Julian frowned at the letters he’d painted— runes, actually— and touched up a couple of places. “I just hope she knows you think so.” He set aside the brush again. “I get the feeling she’s kind of…you know…bummed that you haven’t been more excited about the designs. She’s worked really hard.”

  “She doesn’t need my approval.” What did it matter what I thought?

  “But since you’re friends, she might appreciate knowing you like the work she’s doing. Especially since she spends all her time on it.”

  That surprised me.

  “What do you mean?” I watched a few feet away as Rafe finished up painting a chessboard on his rock.

  “She misses half the activities so she can do research in the computer lab. She’s made a lot of calls to her art teacher for input.” Julian shrugged. “That kind of thing.”

  I hadn’t realized she would put so much of herself into it. I guess I was used to her being the girl with the Ouija board instead of a hard-working artist. Which was kind of ironic, considering I’d lost my ex-girlfriend by not appreciating that she’d changed. Matured.

  And while Trinity wasn’t my girlfriend, she’d been my friend for a long time. She deserved better than being lumped in with my decision to shut everything out. Avoid the world— including her.

  Her beautiful silver eyes came to mind.

  Especially her.

  “Thanks for letting me know.” I held out my fist to Julian and he gave it a bump. “I’d better see what I can do to make that right.”

  Scrambling to my feet, I headed back toward the work site. Professional roofers were going to come in later today to drop off their equipment so they could put the roof on tomorrow, and I wanted to be there to make sure they knew where to set up.

  I almost ran into Trinity.

  She stood on the path in purple sneakers, wearing a T-shirt with a mermaid on it that said, “Water signs do it better.” She held a basket on one arm as she bent to pick a couple of daisies nearby.

  “Hi.” She stuffed the stems of the daisies between some of the slats in the big, woven basket. “I was avoiding the work site so I wouldn’t be in your way, but… here you are.”

  “I was headed back to the gazebo.” The roofers wouldn’t arrive for another hour or so. I had time to fix this awkwardness between Trinity and me. “But I’m glad to see you, actually. Do you have a minute?”

  Delicate blonde eyebrows lifted in twin surprise, reminding me what a jerk I’d been to her lately. Julian was right…I needed to make things right.

  “Well…” Her eyes darted toward the clearing to my left. “It’s the Munchies’ free period, so I thought I’d gather some stuff for the nature exhibit wall.”

  “I’ll help,” I offered, taking the basket off her arm to carry it for her. “But what nature exhibit wall?”

  She smiled a little as she led the way into the clearing and gathered up some pinecones from the forest floor.

  “Mr. Woodrow suggested a camper-created sign outside the gazebo near the Rockbrooke trail head that points out some of the flora and fauna in the area.” She studied some flowers along the edge of the clearing. “I tried studying some of the more obscure plants last night but the names are sort of blurring together for me now.” She picked a purple bloom. “Is this a fringed orchid?”

  She waved it in my direction.

  “That’s a pink turtlehead.” I moved to her side and slid the stem from her fingers. “Maybe you should just tell Mr. Woodrow you’ve got your hands full with the rest of the gazebo plans.”

  “No.” The fierceness in her tone caught me off guard. “I’m not going to back down, Seth. This isn’t just about us. The whole camp is excited about the artwork—”

  “Wait.” I set the basket and the flower down on the ground. My hands cupped her shoulders before I thought about whether or not that was a good idea. “Trinity, that’s not what I meant. I’m happy about your plans.”

  She frowned. Folded her arms across her chest. “Right. I remember how happy you were when you heard your functional gazebo was getting some embellishment.”

  I lowered my hands even though it had felt good to touch her. Hell, maybe that’s why I lowered my hands. I was all mixed up with what this girl made me feel. What she did to me. I wanted to be her friend. I’d always been her friend. But lately, she got under my skin. Challenged me. And made me want to kiss her.

  “But you were right. The gazebo deserves better than I was giving it, and I’m glad you’re making it…special.” I got a little lost when I looked into her expressive eyes.

  “Really?” She sounded skeptical.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  Trinity was the least cynical person I’d ever met. She believed in astrology, for crying out loud.

  “I don’t know you as well as I thought I did, Seth.” She picked up her basket and moved away from me to pick a leaf off a nearby mountain maple tree. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  Dismissed.

  She didn’t need to say it. I felt it for the polite flip-off that it was. I hated knowing that my bad attitude had destroyed any crush she might have had on me. It also might have cost me a good friend.

  Then a tiny voice reminded me that this was exactly what I’d expected if I opened up to her. A heavy weight settled in my chest— a familiar feeling that still hurt.

  “Can I at least help you collect some things?” I tugged on the needles of a red spruce. “I know a thing or two about the local flora and fauna.”

  Massive understatement. I would major in environmental science at school in the fall.

  Distracted, she tucked her dreadlocks behind an ear and dropped a few buckeyes in the basket.

  “No need. I know you’ve got the roofing crew coming today.” She smiled, but it felt like an afterthought. More politeness from a girl who would never just tell me that she was still mad at me for how I’d acted toward her. “But thanks, Seth.”

  She moved through the trees and out of sight, leaving me in the clearing to stare after her like an idiot. I’d alienated a sweet, talented, beautiful girl. A girl who’d shown her heart to me, which had taken guts. Strength. Commitment. I hadn’t just shut out the world— I’d shut my damn eyes and hadn’t appreciated what a gift it was. What a gift she was.

  Trinity m
ight have cured her crush once and for all. Unfortunately, in the process, I was pretty sure she’d passed it to me.

  Chapter Eight

  Trinity

  “Trinity, you’re in big trouble with the Divas!” My cabin mate Piper announced a few days later as she jogged toward me near Rockbrooke Falls with a bamboo sack bouncing on her hip that looked like a big purse but was actually a discreet bag for recyclables. She was alone, which meant the other girls in my cabin where probably showering or hanging out before dinner.

  “I’m shaking in my shoes,” I muttered, not caring at all what the girls in the Divas’ Den were up to this summer. Twenty-four/seven, my mind was on art and Seth.

  Not necessarily in that order, despite my best efforts.

  “You missed the big video shoot,” she announced, slowing up as she reached where I knelt beside a potential bent-willow archway to install around the gazebo entrance.

  Wrestling with one stiff piece of willow, I held the branch in place while Piper lowered her bag and helped me steady the rest of the unwieldy arch decoration.

  “There was a time when Divas’ Den was filled with wannabe diva girls. Not actual tantrum-throwing starlets.” I hated to be unkind. But YouTube singing sensation Brooke White, a new addition to the Divas’ cabin, was more than I could take.

  She was trying to make all of Camp Juniper Point into her personal entourage this summer and I had zero interest in shaking my butt in her latest video.

  Piper whistled softly. “Trinity! Where has that snarky side been hiding all these years?”

  She was only teasing. But on top of Seth’s insistence that I lived in a fairytale world, Piper’s comment grated my last nerve.

  “I don’t have to always be Miss Sunshine,” I muttered, searching for the drill in the dirt around my knees with one hand while I kept the design in place with the other. Finding it, I secured the newly bent piece of willow to the rest of the frame with a short screw.

  “Of course not.” Piper let go of her half of the arch to peer at it sideways. “But you’ve been an optimist who never says a harsh word for as long as I’ve known you. I’m just surprised to hear your real view of Brooke White.”

  Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I wished I’d brought a band to hold back my hair. I couldn’t blame the heat for the bad attitude though. My mood had Seth Reines written all over it.

  Tossing aside the drill, I sat back in the dirt near the falls.

  “Truth? She’s a difficult person to like, but I still feel bad for not supporting a fellow artist.” I’d forgotten all about the video shoot in my race to try out the bent-willow archway features this morning. I’d been out here since dawn. “But ever since I started working on the gazebo, I’m obsessed with trying to get it right.”

  “Well, your hard work is paying off.”

  “You think so?” I kept thinking about all the stuff I hadn’t done, not really taking time to enjoy what I’d created. There was so much to do lately; I barely slept. I saw willow twigs in my dreams, my hands rough and callused from working with them every day.

  “Are you kidding? I had no idea your art had blossomed in so many cool directions. I especially love the willow twig railings. Everything you’re doing is so eco-friendly.” Piper slipped off her flip flops and tossed them on the ground next to me, then took a seat on the shoes. “I saw the roofers finishing up the shingles today. They just need to come back to put the cupola on tomorrow, right?”

  “So I hear.” I wasn’t crazy about the roofing contractors, who used a forklift that left deep tread marks and ran a generator all the time. Plus, a couple of the guys must have been smokers because there were cigarette butts all around the gazebo after they left each day.

  Eww. Why couldn’t they pick up after themselves?

  “Well, then they’re really close to being done. I hope we have parties there. Like, what if just the seniors got to have a dance in it some night? Wouldn’t it be so magical?”

  I smiled, grateful that I wasn’t the only girl at Camp Juniper Point who still wanted some magic in my summers.

  “Definitely.” I could picture myself dancing with Seth under the stars in the woods nearby. I’d be sad when our work on the gazebo ended, even if we’d barely spoken for the last week.

  Seth was dealing with too much this summer to see me as a prospective girlfriend. I got that. But I hated to think that our friendship was ending. That I’d never get a real chance to be with the guy I’d dreamed about for so long.

  “Who would you dance with?” Piper asked out of the blue, as if she’d read my thoughts.

  “Everyone knows who I’d choose,” I reminded her. “All of camp knows I had a crush on Seth last year, thanks to the Divas’ stupid diary prank.”

  “That’s old news.” Piper reached behind us to pick a few buttercups. “What about now? Do you still like Seth? He’s different now. Harder, I guess.”

  She wove the stems of the buttercups together with deft fingers.

  “I think he realizes he was being unfair.” I remembered how sincere he’d seemed when he’d offered to help with the nature exhibit wall. “He’s come around to the artwork. I think he sees how it will make the gazebo more memorable. More special.”

  That day in the forest when he’d helped me gather leaves, I’d wanted more than anything to accept his help. To stay by his side all day and listen to him talk about birds and pine needles with the same enthusiasm he’d had when we were kids.

  “But do you still like him?” Piper asked simply, cutting to the heart of the matter. She tucked the trio of buttercup stems behind my ear, then leaned back to admire her work. “Wow. That makes you look like Titania, the queen of the fairies.”

  I doubted that very much, since I was sweating like a pig and covered with dust from the willow project. But I was grateful for a friend. I’d never spent so much time alone at camp as I had over the last ten days that I’d been working on the gazebo.

  “Thank you.” I would have given her a hug, but she was already scrambling back to pick more buttercups. Which left me no option but to answer her sticky question. “And about Seth…”

  Piper straightened, hands full of flowers. “I’m listening.”

  “I’m scared I will love him forever.”

  “Scared?” She set down the buttercups. “Why is that scary? That’s beautiful.”

  “Not when he doesn’t see me that way in return.” I had almost tucked away my feelings for him when he’d strode back into camp and took my breath away with that kiss…

  “Are you sure of that, Trin?” She picked some leaves off a stem before winding it with another one. “I mean, I know he’s bitter about Lauren and— from what I’ve heard— not happy about his mom coming back. But in all the time you’ve hung out with him since he and Lauren broke up, are you really sure he’s never shown any interest?”

  The kiss flamed to life in my memory, so vivid I practically needed to fan myself.

  “Well—” I didn’t want to talk about it, but then again, how could I say no?

  Piper dropped the flowers. “What happened? Spill, girl! Tell me something.”

  I covered my face with my hands. “We kissed once.”

  She squealed. “Seriously? Oh my God! That’s awesome. And why aren’t you happy about it?”

  “He said it was a mistake and it only happened because I had a crush on him.” My stomach still cramped up when I thought about what he’d said afterward, while my heart was racing and my skin hummed from touching his.

  “You kissed him?” she clarified, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

  I nodded. Why had I rushed things?

  “But…did he kiss you back?” She shot me a level gaze. Practical Piper seemed determined to get to the bottom of things.

  “He did. I guess that’s the part he thought was a mistake.” It killed me that he would apologize for what happened when it had been so…incredible.

  “Then there’s still hope for you two.” She tucked another
set of buttercups behind my other ear. “My mother says where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Sounds like you’ve got some sizzle going there, Trinity.”

  She didn’t ask me any more about it, and we spent the rest of the afternoon working on the willow bark arches and decorating each other’s hair with flowers. But she’d given me more than a much-needed day of friendship. She made me wonder if Seth felt more for me than he let on.

  And this time, instead of writing in my diary about it—hoping, wishing, and dreaming for something magical to happen between us—I planned to proceed with logic and strategy.

  I’d just have to kiss him again.

  ***

  “Trinity?”

  I heard Seth’s voice as he entered the arts center the next day during the dinner period. I had told Emily I needed to work more on the dedication sign—which was true—and had skipped dinner to get it done.

  I’d also invited Seth to see it.

  “In here,” I called, capping a small tube of paint I’d used for a decorative border.

  If Seth thought it was strange that I was working on the sign while wearing a sun dress, I didn’t care. I wanted to look my best for my last ditch effort. I didn’t want to seem desperate. But if there was any chance he was holding back feelings for me…well, that just wasn’t fair.

  “Hey.” He stopped just inside the backroom, where easels and paint trays were lined up around me like I was about to teach an art class to invisible students. “I hope it’s okay I came in here. My grandfather lectured me twenty times about the dangers of mingling with the campers.”

  He winked, and I saw that half smile that had always turned me inside out.

  He was…so handsome. Seth was tall and broad-shouldered. His sandy hair was streaked with blond that lightened more the longer he stayed at camp. His pirate’s smile always looked like he was up to something, but his amber eyes were so sincere that you didn’t care.