His Semi-Charmed Life: Camp Firefly Falls Book 11

by Lisa Hughey

  The camp held nothing but bad memories. Except…his recall of the little girl who’d had a profound impact on the course of his life was complicated. Regret and gratitude all rolled together.

  Some days he wondered if he would be where he was if it wasn’t for little Penelope Hastings and her blind optimism. Which was why he hadn’t blasted Zinnia after she booked this retreat.

  Finally, Diego arrived in the clearing. The deserted clearing.

  There were only two cars in the matted down grass and gravel parking lot. Then he remembered—this was the employee parking lot. There was probably a separate one for guests.

  Diego pulled up next to a sweet, perfectly restored Charger. He got out of the silver metallic Porsche, ignored the empty camp and instead bent to peer at the leftover remnant of his youth. The car was an exact replica of his very first car. The one he’d lovingly restored. The impetus for one of the worst moments of his life.

  The paint job was perfect, the Bright Blue Poly an original color. She also had a white racing stripe with a hint of metallic sparkle in the paint.

  God, he’d loved that damn car.

  In the distance the faint sound of music drifted on the still summer evening. Fireflies buzzed in the thin woods. He spied the path to the main lodge.

  He tried to dredge the camp check-in details from his brain. But he’d mostly tuned Zinnia out when she’d been admonishing him not to be late.

  He was late.

  It wasn’t exactly his fault. He’d gotten caught up in contract negotiations with his company’s lawyer, and Jeffrey London, the CEO of London Automotive. They were in talks to merge London Automotive with Ramos’s Classic Auto Restoration. Diego was on the brink of the culmination of twenty years of planning and ambition.

  To Diego’s delight, the Billionaire Breakfast Club was about to indoctrinate another member.

  And he couldn’t wait.

  Merging was a solid business decision. Ramos’s Classic Auto Restoration had gotten big. They were all working extra hard. If they merged, the company would be bigger but there’d be more people for work distribution. London’s business dovetailed well with Diego’s. Their combined company would seriously increase his net worth.

  But as Diego cast one last longing look at that Charger, he realized he hadn’t geeked out and wrenched on a car in…he couldn’t even remember.

  He sighed.

  Tinkering with a classic car wouldn’t increase his bottom line, and a gearhead wouldn’t get bigger and better in a coverall with grease under his fingernails.

  He grabbed the leather suitcase from the passenger seat and headed toward the registration tent through the trees. A circular driveway was empty. The canvas structure in the middle of a grassy expanse inside the circle held a 6 x 2 foldup table and a plastic green file box closed tight. A single Papermate pen rested in the crevice between the file box and the table surface.

  That was it.

  He pulled out his cell phone so he could call Zin.

  No service.

  Diego sighed. The main lodge was down the path not too far in the distance. He’d check in there.

  The single porch light cast a warm yellow glow over the painted wooden balustrade. As he walked toward the light, he searched the shadows and realized the camp seemed awfully empty and quiet.

  The ground was slightly squishy. It must have rained up here sometime this week. He grimaced when he thought about the mud clinging to his Italian loafers and dampening the bottom of his silk trousers.

  Diego strode up to the lodge. Muted laughter and music came through the open window. He rang the doorbell.

  “Coming!”

  Within in seconds, the door flew open and a woman tumbled out.

  Rich auburn hair framed her sun-kissed classic bone structure. She had tanned cheeks with a smattering of freckles across her nose, a lush full mouth, and remarkable bright green eyes, the exact shade of classic Charger Rallye Green. She sparkled with amusement and happiness and an inner glow. She held a tumbler of white wine in long elegant fingers with short unpainted nails.

  “Oh, hello.” She straightened her plump lips, trying to contain the laughter that had graced her features when she’d opened the door.

  Diego frowned. She looked…familiar. Except not. He had an excellent facility for remembering faces. That skill had served him well in business. He ran her features through his memory banks. She was there, just out of reach. As if he should know her.

  Except for that single light, the porch was bathed in darkness.

  “Ah, can I help you?” She fiddled with the tail of a man’s plaid shirt over her camisole. The thin white cotton revealed small breasts with an intriguing shadow in the valley between them. Her faded loose jeans with holes in the knees were rolled up to reveal delicate ankles and toenails painted a surprising bright neon green.

  Like a wolf, his body was instinctively attuned to her. Her features tripped some switch inside him, primitive and needy. His brain stuttered on those bright toes, thinking about how he’d like to start at the arch of her foot and spend hours discovering the secret hollows and erogenous places on her body, just like he learned each nook and cranny and idiosyncrasy of a 5.7-liter HEMI V-8.

  “I’m here for the camp,” he blurted out when he realized he’d been quiet for far too long.

  “Okay.” In the background, Third Eye Blind’s 90s hit “Semi-Charmed Life” played. The furniture in the living area had been pushed back against the walls. A coffee table was littered with two empty plates and a mostly empty bottle of wine.

  “Penny. Did I hear the doorbell?” Another woman, brown curly hair and generous curves, skidded into the room. “Can we help you?”

  “I’m here for the camp,” he said again clearly, but he finally clued in to the fact that no one else was here. Just these two women.

  Diego was still in his suit and tie, the offending silk noose now strangling him.

  The woman who answered the door blinked. “The one that starts tomorrow?” Now she was hastily trying to shove her hair into the knot at the top of her head.

  “Tomorrow,” he said flatly.

  Diego pulled his phone from his pocket. His lifeline. Everything was on the state of the art smartphone. He accessed his calendar. No. “According to my calendar, it was supposed to start today.”

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Dammit.” He was going to kill Zinnia.

  The redhead straightened, the smile disappearing from her face. “Excuse me?”

  “Not you.” Diego had figured out what happened. Zin made sure he was here before camp started by giving him the wrong date. “My assistant.”

  He punched the button on the phone and returned it to his pocket.

  “She entered the date incorrectly?”

  He twisted his wrist, stared at the roman numerals on his watch, and blinked at the time. It was after ten at night. No wonder they hadn’t been expecting him.

  “More like an end run,” he muttered. “What time tomorrow?”

  “Two,” the curvy brunette said.

  Diego sighed. He was tired. He’d started his day at five a.m. and had been running ever since. He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his jaw and sighed. “I’ll be back.”

  “You can’t leave now.” The redhead propped one foot on top of the other and leaned against the door frame. “Briarsted doesn’t have any hotels. There’s no place to stay nearby. Right, Meg?”

  Diego certainly wasn’t sleeping in his car. Those days were long over. He propped his fists on his hips, and his stomach growled. Loudly.

  The grinding in his stomach that was near constant these days ramped up its slow attack on his body. Stress and hunger were not a good combo.

  “There’s got to be an empty room in the lodge,” Penny, the auburn-haired goddess, said to the other woman. “Right?”

  “Let me just turn off the music.”

  “Clearly, I’ve interrupted your…evening,” Diego said politely. “I’ll let
you go.”

  At the same time, Penny said, “We were just dancing.”

  His gaze skimmed between the two very attractive women. “I’ll let you get back to it.”

  “Oh! No, we’re not.” Penny laughed, a light trill of sound, as her eyes twinkled with a mirth. Something about that laugh triggered another flare of lust deep in his belly. “It’s fine. You’re fine.”

  “He certainly is,” Meg said under her breath, but Diego heard her.

  Okay. Not lovers then.

  Lover. The word conjured hot nights, liquid sighs, fevered kisses…and oddly the woman who’d answered the door.

  He didn’t have time for a lover. But damn if his mind didn’t zoom right back to the redhead when he realized the two women were only friends.

  “Come on in and we’ll figure out a place for you to sleep.” The brunette shoved out her hand. “I’m Meg, the camp chef, and this is Penny. She’s going to be running a corporate farm team-building experiment.”

  Diego tried to keep the grimace from his face but he must have failed because the chef laughed.

  “It will be fun,” Penny said defensively. “I promise.”

  Her gaze skimmed his silk suit, pressed shirt, and Italian tie. “Although hopefully you’ve got something more casual in that bag. Farming, and camping, are messy.”

  Her smile was wide, and her white straight teeth bit into her unpainted lip.

  Meg said, “I can’t check you in, no idea how that works. Let me show you a room where you can crash, Mr.…?”

  He was more addled than he thought. Combo of a long day and the intriguing Penny with the neon toenails and the mysterious green eyes.

  “Diego Ramos.” He held out his hand so he could shake hers.

  He couldn’t help but notice Penny’s reaction. She’d jolted, her bright green eyes wide.

  Did he know her?

  2

  Holy manure.

  Diego Ramos was here.

  Her childhood crush and the boy whose anger and resentment had opened her eyes to a whole new universe one summer. She’d come back to camp every summer until Firefly Falls closed. But she’d never again seen the counselor who’d upended her narrow view of the world.

  Their encounter had been strange, upsetting, and eye-opening.

  Penny had never forgotten him.

  She’d gone home that summer and begun learning about the world outside her tiny bubble. Which fortunately had saved her when her sheltered, rarified existence had imploded.

  In a small way, Diego Ramos had been the one who saved her.

  “Penny why don’t you…entertain our guest while I make up a room.”

  Entertain conjured images she shouldn’t be thinking about. But dang, she’d like to entertain him.

  Oh, bad Penny. She couldn’t think that way. But as she catalogued his swarthy skin, eyes the color of a fertile soil, and a mouth made for kissing, a flush started in her core and spread outward, her body tingling with desire.

  Woo, she was hot.

  “Sure.” Her voice came out husky. “Come on in.”

  He hesitated for another second on the porch as if still thinking about searching out alternative lodging.

  “There really isn’t anything close by.”

  “Thank you.” He followed her inside the comfy common area of the lodge. “I am sorry to impose.”

  His delivery was so stiff, so formal. Uptight. Closed off.

  In her memory, the boy had stayed young and angry. Because even though she’d been nine, she understood that he’d been filled with rage.

  Back then she’d been hurt and confused. He probably didn’t even remember her. Or their fraught confrontation.

  Now she just wanted to climb him like the hundred-year oak that marked the entrance to her farm and cling onto his sexy body.

  Diego Ramos had grown up fine.

  A bit of stubble scattered over his chin and around his mouth, but clearly he’d shaved this morning, and his tie was still tight around his muscular neck. And she needed to get a grip—his neck? What the hell was wrong with her?

  The common room was too casual, intimate. Especially with her inconvenient and really fricking stupid attraction. “Come on into the office.”

  Penny led him into Heather and Michael Tully’s cramped office. She flipped on the bright lights, dispelling the dark, and banishing the intimacy from the common room.

  The Tullys didn’t spend much time here. They preferred to be out and about at the camp. And they lived in Serenity Cottage on the camp grounds. But the office captured the essence of their commitment to recreating summer camp for adults.

  Diego Ramos had been mostly silent, but she could feel his gaze on her.

  Once they were inside the office, she headed around the desk so she could put some distance between them. “Have a seat.” Sitting behind the desk, safely far away from his too sexy body, appealed to her.

  He moved with a liquid assurance, appearing relaxed but still…buttoned up. Every hair in place, his clothes perfect. His pants sharply creased, his shirt only slightly rumpled even though it was ten o’clock at night.

  Penny shuddered. She couldn’t imagine spending all day cooped up inside. “Feel free to relax a little.” The wine simmering through her system loosened her thoughts and she suppressed a giggle. She’d like to relax with him.

  Another flush spread through her. Thank goodness, he couldn’t read her mind.

  An air of containment wrapped around him, as if he hadn’t relaxed in a long time. Her memories of him were different. When he was younger, his black hair had been a halo of curls around his face. He’d been loose, especially when he’d been leading them on a hike or showing the campers how to bait a hook. The only time she’d seen him uptight and angry was the last time she spoke to him in the parking lot. And that was twenty years ago.

  Get over yourself, Penny. She sure wasn’t the same.

  He still hadn’t relaxed enough to sit, and his presence seriously flustered her. Her gaze zoomed around the room until she settled on the giant bulletin board, an oversized calendar in the center showed the activities for the weekend, and circling the official schedule were pictures of couples.

  He directed his attention to the board. He sauntered over to the calendar. “Who are all these people?”

  “Ah, the camp is getting a reputation for bringing couples together.”

  She sighed, thinking about the lovely story of how Heather and Michael Tully had met at the camp, gotten married, separated, and then reunited to make the dream of Camp Firefly Falls for adults come to fruition.

  He studied the board. “You mean all these people hooked up?”

  Penny flushed. Hooked up? No. Connected in a meaningful way and decided to combine their lives. Romance? Yes.

  It was almost as if the Tully’s rekindled love affair had started a trend.

  That certainly wouldn’t happen with her. She didn’t have time for romance, even if occasionally she wished she did.

  “Found lasting love,” she said firmly. She wasn’t going to diminish the commitment of the camp couples. Between her stiff shoulders and clenched teeth, her tone was stilted and a little snooty.

  His eyebrows bent into a frown, as he shifted his attention from the photos to Penny. “Have we met?”

  Penny jolted. She really didn’t want to get into the last time they’d shared the same air. A shame and guilt she’d never quite gotten over flushed through her.

  His stomach growled.

  “Oh, you’re hungry.” She jumped up from behind the desk. “Let me see what we’ve got in the kitchen.” And she ran out of the office like her butt was on fire.

  Her heart thundered in her chest as she yanked open the commercial SubZero fridge searching for something to feed Diego Ramos.

  She’d thought of him often but, her memory was more of a caricature, representing her societal awakening rather than an actual person. But now he was here and gorgeous and all grown up and sexy.

&
nbsp; And so very real.

  She grabbed a bowl of chicken salad from the bottom shelf and shoved the door shut. She’d brought this from home so she knew it wasn’t needed for the opening tomorrow.

  “Can I help?” His voice feathered over the back of her neck. Unexpectedly close.

  She whirled around. “Holy manure.” Startled, she lost her grip on the stainless steel bowl.

  Oh no!

  She grabbed for the bowl at the same time as Diego.

  Bam. They clunked heads. But he still managed to catch the heavy metal bowl before it hit the tile floor.

  “Ow.” Penny rubbed her head where they’d connected. “Sorry about that.”

  Diego Ramos’s eye twitched but besides that small flinch his face was impassive. “You okay?”

  “Of course.” She laughed, a little embarrassed chuckle. She was always okay. There wasn’t any other way to be. “You need ice?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Penny bustled around the kitchen opening and closing cabinet doors searching for plates. Where the hell was Meg? “Have a seat and I’ll fix you a plate.”

  “It’s not necessary.”

  Penny dug through the produce drawers and found some romaine lettuce. She arranged the leaves on the simple white plate, then she scooped a generous portion onto the leaves and garnished the salad with a sprig of dill.

  “We aim to serve at Camp Firefly Falls.” She smiled at him without meeting his gaze.

  After plating the food carefully, she settled the offering on the table. “Sorry we only have the kitchen table. He looked like he’d be more at home in a formal dining room, a Georgian table surrounded by claw-footed cherry carved chairs and upholstered with rich gold formal fabric. Kind of like her parent’s dining room from her childhood home.

  What a seriously bizarre thought. Clearly they’d switched places.

  “Thank you. You really didn’t have to—”

  “I’ll just go clear out the common room.” She escaped, no other word for it.

  Diego wasn’t sure what just happened.

  He rubbed the tender spot on his head and shrugged. The aroma of the food was getting to him. So he dug in to the best chicken salad he’d ever tasted.