by Rock, J. K.
Had I written Seth’s name in by mistake? I was tempted to run out to the car and look for myself, but I didn’t want to seem as pathetic as I felt. Besides, Kellianne would have no way of knowing Seth’s name otherwise. I’d made Dad promise not to tell Mom and Kellianne about my camp boyfriend, and as far as I knew he never had. Plus, Dad had been as MIA to the rest of the family this year as he had been for me.
“Sorry about that,” I mumbled behind her as we wound our way through an overpriced tourist trap dressed up like a French boutique. “I must have been overtired. I can take the chart back and proofread more carefully.”
“That’s okay,” she chirped in a sing-song way that put me on edge. “I’ll be anxious to read over it and see how many more people are attending that I’ve never heard of.”
I buried my nose in a display of body scrubs and sea salts, hoping she’d drop the subject. Especially when two Divas’ Den girls came into the shop. Hannah and Brittany, the vampire-obsessed airhead. She was so pretty that boys didn’t seem to care about her fake fangs.
“Sooo,” my sister continued, sidling up next to me to check out a mud scrub packaged in a bottle shaped like a poodle. “Who’s Seth?”
“No one,” I whispered. The last thing I wanted was for Hannah to get word I’d been seen ditching Matt and talking about Seth. She’d convince Matt our relationship was over before I returned to camp.
“He doesn’t sound like no one,” Kellianne huffed. “But if you want to keep your secrets, go right ahead. Like I care about your love life.”
Right. She never had before. So why had she asked me about it today?
While Mom and Kellianne studied the display of earrings, I headed outside to avoid further catastrophe. I breathed in the mountain air that grew cooler as the sun slipped lower on the horizon, savoring the scent of pine needles as a soft breeze blew in off the lake.
It was so pretty here. I slipped away from the crowded streets where half my camp congregated to buy ice cream cones and spend the new influx of cash from their visiting parents. Heading closer to the lake, I stopped short at the sight of a dark-haired football star on a stone bench.
“Matt?” I felt a little uncertain approaching him, because something about his posture seemed off. Hunched over, head in hands, he didn’t look like the confident boy who had all of Jefferson Davis High wrapped around his finger.
Slowly, he picked his head up and met my gaze. His green eyes were darker than usual. His tie was loose, and the top button of his shirt was undone. His hands fisted on his knees.
“He gave the girlfriend a ring.” His voice was flat. Almost unrecognizable.
“But he’s not divorced yet,” I said stupidly. “He can’t do that.”
“He says it’s not an engagement ring.” Matt glared out at the water. “But you know that’s how the girlfriend sees it. Worse, that’s how Mom will see it.”
I sat beside him, hoping Mom and Kellianne didn’t come looking for me for a while. Matt and I watched a few families push paddleboats into the lake, and I slid my hand into his.
“When my dad took his new job, he abandoned me too,” I confessed, surprising myself.
“Seriously? I don’t know what surprises me more—that your dad is a bum too, or that you’re actually sharing something about yourself.”
“He’s not a bum,” I said automatically. “But hey, you said you wanted to hear more from me, and my dad has been on my mind a lot today. Usually, he comes to this stuff and we spend the day on the water instead of eating rabbit food and trying on jewelry.”
Matt’s hand tightened on mine.
“Right. You’d usually be hanging out with your old boyfriend, too.”
“You know, I should have told you about him. I apologized for that. But I’m not going to apologize for dating someone before I even knew you.”
“Wow.” Matt’s wry laugh surprised me. “I ought to be careful what I ask for. I wanted you to share stuff with me, and now you’re really letting me have it.”
I smiled too, glad to have something to enjoy for these few minutes. Actually, the breeze off the lake was just right too. I loved dusk when the sky turned pink and purple and the soft light made everything a little more beautiful. Down by the water, a toddler in a pink dress lost her grip on a yellow kite she’d been flying. I watched the spot of color zigzag in the breeze, caught in an updraft while a father chased the string.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered, wondering if Matt understood me better than I understood myself these days. At least he was here, sharing something important to me. And he cared.
“That’s good. Because I’m going to be here longer than I thought.”
“What do you mean?” I blinked as I turned away from the little girl, who’d burst into tears.
“There’s no way I can go home now and pretend like I give a crap about football, the most important thing in the world to my dad.”
“You’re quitting football?” I tried to envision Matt not leading the team this fall, and my mind drew a blank. Our friends back home wouldn’t believe this.
“I’ll miss the rest of strength training and the first two weeks of summer practice. If they want to boot me off because of that…then yeah. I’m done. And you should have seen the old man’s face when I told him.” A dark grin stole over his face. “He thought he’d come here with big news, but I topped the ring with a whopper of my own.”
“Matt.” I turned to him, my eyelet dress catching on the rough stone. “Don’t risk your place on the team just to hurt him.” Not attending summer practice meant being a benchwarmer at best, even for someone as talented as Matt.
“I don’t care. I’m pissed I played all these years just to make him proud of me.”
Was that true? I never would have guessed that Matt didn’t love football. Was that because he was a popular kid and I just saw what I wanted to see when I looked at him? Had I dated Matt for eight months without really knowing him at all?
I’d thought I didn’t understand myself. But apparently I didn’t understand him either.
“Anyway,” Matt continued, his tone gentler now. “That means there’s no need to go back home in the middle of the summer.”
“Really?” My mind whirled at what that meant. With Matt here all summer, where did we stand at the four-week marker? I’d said we’d stay together until then, and knowing there was a potential end point had made it easier to deal with missing Seth.
And that stung. I remembered the way Seth had looked at me when I left with Matt this morning. I hated hurting him, and in the process, I had hurt me too. If Matt was staying, I’d spend the rest of the summer avoiding Seth. And I’d never know why I scribbled his name in beside mine on Kellianne’s seating chart.
But there was a whole lot more to Matt than I’d realized and it didn’t feel right letting another great guy slip away.
“Yeah. I told my dad to sign me up for the rest of the summer at Camp Juniper Point.” He seemed to be waiting for my reaction.
I felt it was important to give him one too, since he’d told me I needed to speak up more often.
So I threw my arms around him and hugged him hard.
“We’re going to have a great summer,” I whispered in his ear.
Trouble was, I crossed my fingers when I said it. Not because I didn’t mean it or anything. But just because I wanted it to be true so very badly.
Chapter Ten
Gravel crunched under the wheels of my mother’s rental and I waved…and kept on waving as if I could physically push the black Mercedes around the bend and out of my camp life. Phew.
It’d been a long parents’ weekend, and this Sunday afternoon’s goodbye couldn’t have come fast enough. Last night I’d barely slept, my mind replaying my conversation with Matt. For the past couple of weeks, I’d held on to the hope that Seth would forgive me when Matt left, and that Matt would be strong enough to handle a break up. But now things were worse than ever. Seth was spending time with a
nother girl while Matt was going through a crap-storm at home.
What a mess.
In all the drama, I’d even forgotten to ask Mom about my letters of recommendation for NASA. I was so mad at my father I barely cared, but I should have asked.
Was I really going to throw my future away with both hands just because my dad didn’t care anymore? My hands balled at my sides. I had to do something. Matt was grieving, and I’d promised him and myself that we’d have a good summer together. But I’d be lying if I said that it’d be easy.
Seth and I had history, feelings that had been and would always be. Yet I was starting to see Matt as more than the perfect sports hero. His trophy of a life might have been tarnished, but it was only adding to his appeal. I’d always cared, but now my feelings were changing, growing, and it scared me to think I might fall for two boys. Who did that? Cheaters. That’s who. And I so didn’t want to be that person. Wouldn’t be that girl.
I fanned myself with a plucked oak leaf, grateful for any breeze in the sticky air. I tucked my frizzing ends behind my ears and hurried up the path to the cabins, ready to plop in front of our window fan. The sky was a flat grey with dark clouds that threatened rain. I picked up the pace, not wanting to get caught in the downpour.
Thwack! The familiar pinging sound of a ball hitting a bat stopped my homeward rush. I squinted through our Field of Dreams’ chain-link backstop and spotted a shirtless Matt standing next to home plate. An involuntary sigh escaped me.
He was gorgeous.
His V-shaped back rippled when he tossed a baseball high in the air, biceps flexing as he twisted his lean waist to smash it toward the outfield wall with an easy swing. Thwack! He pulled his shirt from the back pocket of low-riding jeans and mopped his face, his dark hair so wet it looked like he’d already been caught in a rainstorm. How long had he been at this? I hadn’t seen him at breakfast with his father and the girlfriend—Sherry. We didn’t follow a strict camp schedule on this weekend, and from the sheen of sweat glistening on his muscles, I’d say he’d been here for hours.
“Hey.” I ducked around the fence. “What’s up?”
His face was an open wound, his eyes bleak, mouth in a narrow line.
“Did your mom and Kellianne leave?”
My breath caught at the flash of his elongated, six-pack abs as he threw another ball in the air, then smashed it with the bat. Thwack! I tracked the orb until it disappeared over the fence. I wanted to say “home run”, but Matt hadn’t exactly scored this weekend. Guilt twisted my gut. Ogling a boy in the midst of a crisis? It was wrong on too many levels to count.
But I admired Matt’s drive and determination, something that always came out when he played sports.
“They left a couple of minutes ago. I was on my way back when I saw you.”
Matt dug in a bucket of balls for the next victim of his bat while I crept closer.
“What are you doing?” I put my hand on the bat and waited for him to pay attention to me.
He snorted. “Having fun.”
I put the bat down while a noisy family surrounding a sobbing younger camper walked by, a counselor hovering behind them. It was the perfect reminder of how hard goodbyes could be.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
Matt’s powerful shoulders shifted in a shrug. “At least it gets my mind off things.”
“Do you want to talk?”
He shook his head, sweat droplets flying. “Just got to work this out.”
I put my hand out, then pulled it back. “I get it. So I’ll see you later?”
But before he could nod, the first drop of rain slid down my neck and rolled along my spine, followed by another and another. Within seconds, the sky fell apart as easily as my life had. Matt and I raced for the dugout when thunder boomed followed by a fork of lightning that touched down beyond the tree line.
“Wow. It’s really coming down.” I looked out at the green-black forest and the thick rain. I hoped none of my friends were out in this. And yes, I hoped Seth and his dad were okay. I hated to think of anyone out on the river.
Matt’s square jaw was clenched so tight I wasn’t sure he could open it. He nodded and stared without seeming to focus at the sheets of water making muddy ruts in the pristine field.
“So your dad left last night.” I touched his slick forearm.
He cleared his throat and the voice that emerged sounded as thick as the rain. “He took off without saying goodbye.”
My breath caught. What a jerk. How could he treat his son like that? While I struggled for an answer, the rain drummed on the metal roof, a background bass line to our mini soap opera.
“He doesn’t deserve you.”
Matt’s laugh was bitter and short. “Funny, after he dropped me off last night, he said I don’t deserve him. Said I was worthless without football and he wouldn’t pay for the rest of camp.”
“Worthless without football?” My stomach dropped like a jerking elevator. How cruel and totally untrue. Matt was so much more than football. He was…was…well, he played other sports. I shook my head. I had to do better than that. How much about Matt, the real Matt, did I actually know? He was more than a pair of shoulder pads.
I should have felt relieved he wouldn’t be able to stay at camp for the second half of the summer, but instead I felt let down. Was there a part of me that really wanted Matt here? I knew I cared about him, but how deep did my feelings go?
“So what will you do?” My voice came out in a breathy rush.
His warm hand enfolded the one I’d placed on his knee. “My mom already called and said she’d pay for the rest.”
“That’s awesome.” I squeezed his hand, a lightness overtaking me. I thought I’d stayed with Matt out of loyalty, but now I wasn’t so sure.
He brought my palm to his face and pressed it against his damp cheek before letting it go. “I don’t know what I would have done back home.”
“Played basketball?” I shifted my sticking thighs on the wooden bench, wishing the rain would cool things down a little more.
“I meant without you.” Matt lifted the slipping strap of my tank top, his fingers lingering on my bare shoulder, his touch making me shiver in spite of the heat.
“Oh,” I looked at my swinging sandals and toyed with the frayed ends of my skirt. My heart was a nation divided on itself, one half expanding in pleasure at his words, the other shrinking, not wanting to lead him on. To betray the part of me that had always loved Seth.
Matt’s voice deepened and echoed in the cramped space. “Would you have missed me?” My eyes flew to his. I could at least give an honest answer to this question. “Yes.”
“Then it’s just you and my mom,” Matt said after we’d sat in silence, watching the raindrops hanging like lace from the dugout roof’s overhang. “You’re the only ones who like me for real—not for the quarterback with the division champion title.”
I blinked at him in surprise. Wasn’t that exactly how I felt? That Matt cared about the parts of me that didn’t matter as much to me, the girl who could land a basket throw toss and performed on a competitive cheer team?
“If you don’t play football, what will you do this fall?” Thunder rolled through the camp, sending the last of the families scurrying indoors, leaving Matt and me alone in the narrow, shadowed space.
Matt cupped the back of my head and he lowered his nose until it touched mine. “This,” he whispered, then captured my lips in a kiss more electrifying than the war nature was waging outside. His mouth was gentle at first, but the pressure grew more insistent until we both gasped for breath. My head whirled and I thought I’d black out until he lowered me to the bench.
The warmth of his bare chest seeped into my soaked tank, the drumming of his heart faster than the clattering rain. His lips left mine and travelled along my jaw to my earlobe. I shuddered when he lightly nibbled, the shock of pleasure intense.
My hands slid along his back, the muscles bunching beneath my touch. I traced
the ridge of muscle above his hip and felt him tremble, his breath growing ragged. But when his fingers tugged up the hem of my shirt I was the one who sounded winded. His palms skimmed upward against my ribcage until they cupped my flesh, driving me crazy. Only another kiss kept me from making a noise. The storm was loud, but I didn’t want to risk alerting others that we were behind the water curtain flowing in front of the dugout.
“Matt,” I gasped, loving the feel of his hands on me, the pressure of his hips against mine. I was as hot as a stoked furnace, heat sizzling everywhere at once. My fingers buried themselves in the thick hair at the nape of his neck and I pressed my lips to his, wanting more of him.
He pulled me up and onto his lap. My hair dripped down my back as my head lolled, his mouth leaving a trail of fire along my neck before dipping lower to my clavicle and lower still. I kissed his brow, his temple, and his square jaw while his mouth explored. I wanted it to go on and on, but suddenly he pulled back, his chest rising and falling like one of those old-time bellows I’d seen on a school field trip.
His face was fierce, intense, every handsome feature sharpened. His hungry eyes were backlit with fire as they roamed over me. Why had he stopped?
“Lauren,” he said when it seemed he’d finally caught his breath. I’d never seen him this winded, not even after the endless sprints of football practice. “If we go any farther I won’t be able to stop.” His eyes searched mine, willing me to understand what he was saying.
“Oh.” My cheeks went up in flames and scrambled off his lap. Thank god the heavy waterfall had obscured us from view. I repositioned my bra and tugged down my tank top. I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on.
“Hey.” Matt lifted my chin until I was forced to meet his warm blue-green eyes, the color as inviting as a Caribbean vacation brochure. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re my girlfriend. I love you.”
My heart seized. He’d dropped the L-bomb. We’d skirted around the word for months, saying things like, “I love that about you” or just a casual “Love ya” that sounded like something you’d say to a friend. But this. It was huge. What to say? The obvious answer was no answer, but a fierce need to return the words clawed to the surface and fought its way out.
