by Anna Edwards
“In other news, I wouldn’t care if these guys were serial killers. I think I’d die happy,” Von whispered, and I covered my mouth to stop laughter from slipping out.
She wasn’t wrong; the driver was boy-next-door handsome with shaggy brown hair and tanned skin, but it was the guy in the passenger seat that made my heart skip a beat. I’d never felt a physical reaction like that to someone before.
“Holy cannoli,” Lennie muttered and opened her car door.
They got out of their car and all my words dried up faster than the Sahara Desert. The passengers light-brown hair was mussed like he’d just woken from a nap and a layer of stubble dotted his defined chin, giving him a rugged look. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his, I must have looked like a moron.
“Fliss!” Von encouraged.
I cleared my throat. “You’re not serial killers, are you?”
Why? Why did I say that?
They chuckled, and the driver said, “I don’t think so.” He glanced at his friend. “Jack, you a serial killer?”
Jack’s lip quirked up. “Only on Tuesdays, you’re good for another two days.”
I melted when three other guys climbed out the car. One a little shorter than the others, but he had eyes the color of emeralds that sparkled beneath long black lashes. There was another that could have been Shia LaBeouf’s long-lost brother, and one that had every inch of skin that I could see tattooed.
“What’s the issue?” Tattooed-Guy said.
Lennie stepped forward. “Just debating whether your friends were serial killers.”
I wanted the ground to swallow me up. Why couldn’t I have acted like an ordinary human and asked him if his cell had signal or something?
“Well, in that case those two are harmless. It’s Dom you need to watch out for.” He pointed to emerald eyes. “He’s the unpredictable one out of the five of us.”
“You’ll never let me live that down, will you?”
“Dude, you tried to climb in bed with my mom!”
“I was roofied!”
Dom threw up his hands as we all laughed and Jack glanced behind us as Dani and Gemma got out the car.
“Nice, now we have a party,” the driver said but puffed out a breath as Jack smacked him in the gut.
“Where’s your spare?”
“How did you—” Before I’d finished my sentence, Jack had pointed to the flat. “Right. One problem though… I don’t have a jack.”
“Well, now you do.” He winked and it took a second to realize what he was insinuating.
I blushed and ducked my gaze to open the trunk of my car, and Lennie and Von helped get the spare. His friends took over from there, fooling around with each other at the same time as changing the tire. They seemed like a harmless group of guys; definitely not serial killers.
“Where you girls headed with all that luggage?” Jack inquired as we placed it back in the trunk.
“I’m not sure if I should say. I still don’t know whether you’re a serial killer.”
He chuckled. “If I was, I wouldn’t be changing your tire for you.”
“Ted Bundy,” I deadpanned.
“Excuse me?”
“Ted Bundy was charming and look how that turned out.” Everyone broke into laughter and I shrugged. “It’s true.”
Dani was strutting around with her cell in the air. “Ugh! I can’t get a signal. Len, you told me this camp would be fine for checking my emails.”
“Are you guys headed to Wild & Free?” We all twisted to face the driver, and I nodded. “We are too, that’s awesome! My name’s Brock and this is Dominic, Nathan, Luke, and Jack.”
Each of the guys waved and Von said, “This is Dani, Gemma, Lennie, Fliss, and I’m Yvonne.”
“Short for anything?” Jack was perched on the hood of his friend’s car as he directed his question at me.
“Huh?”
“Fliss, is it short for anything?”
“Felicity, but only my mom calls me that.”
“I like Felicity, it suits you.” He slipped off the hood of the car. “I guess I’ll be seeing you at camp.”
He yawned out the last words and gave a small smile before climbing in the car after I’d thanked them. At least we’d know there’d be fun people at the camp I was so dreading.
Chapter Three
Felicity
Last night we had a camp cookout to get everyone acquainted with each other, but I noticed we were the only ones there that weren’t adrenaline junkies—apart from the bachelorette party in the cabin next to us. I had a hunch we’d be fast friends with them by the end of the week.
“How do I look?” Dani twirled around in the blue t-shirt they had given us when everyone was divided into two groups when we first arrived, but the lower half of it was missing, revealing her flat stomach.
“If they had meant it to be a crop top, they would have made it that way,” Lennie scoffed.
“It looks so much better though,” Dani retorted.
The two teams would go head-to-head in camp games and activities all week for points. They would award the winners with trophies on Sunday morning before we all left, but I was more interested in the hot tubs that were mentioned after that.
We’d spent time with our new friend's last night. Tattooed guy, whose name we’d found out was Nat, was married with two adorable daughters he’d shown us photos of. I could tell by the look on his face that he missed them already. The rest of the guys were single and Dani had taken a liking to Dom, but there was only one I couldn’t get out of my head.
Jack was a mystery I wanted to solve. He was funny, outgoing, and energetic last night, until he wasn’t. It seemed like he went from 100 to 0 fast. One minute he was telling me a story about Dom in school, and the next he was quiet and reserved like I’d said something to offend him.
“Come on, Gem, we’d better get going,” Von called into the bathroom.
A groan came from behind the door. “You guys go on without me, I drank way too much tequila last night. I’ll meet you for lunch.”
I’d told her to slow down more than a few times last night. I wasn’t a party-pooper, but I knew she’d ruin her first full day here with a hangover. And I was right.
I followed Von out the door, Dani and Lennie behind us as we made our way to the meeting point. As we strode into the clearing, I sought out Jack in the throng of people. I tried to tell myself I wanted to gloat that we would win—he was on the red team—but who was I kidding, my mind knew before I did that I liked him and wanted to get to know him more.
“Dani!” Dom called; they’d spotted us before we saw them.
Dani bounced over to Dom and we followed.
“How does it feel to know you’re going to get your butt kicked today?” I asked Jack, noticing he looked damn good in the color red.
“I wouldn’t know, but I’m sure you could explain the feeling.”
“Cocky. You better have the goods to back it up.”
No, I didn’t just say that! I cringed as a cheeky smile spread over his face.
“Oh, I’ve got the goods. I could show you if you’d like?”
I didn’t have the chance to reply as our “camp councilors” blew their whistles to get our attention, so they could tell us about the obstacle course we were about to do. I groaned internally at the thought of going faster than a walking pace. I enjoyed hiking once-upon-a-time but work got in the way and I hadn’t gone for so much as a jog in around a year. This would not go down well.
After a safety briefing and a quick rundown of the course, they brought us to the starting line. There was excited chatter like the chirping of birds from all the girls, and the men were high-fiving each other. I glared at them like they were all insane, this was not my definition of fun.
“Good luck,” Jack shouted from his side of the clearing.
“I think it might be bad luck to wish yourself luck,” I taunted as if my legs weren’t already screaming at me to turn around and not make them d
o this.
He made me eat my fighting words. As soon as they blew the whistle, he was off like a shot, his friends right behind him. Damn, they were fast.
Von, with Lennie and Dani attached to her other hand, grasped my hand, and we headed toward the first obstacle.
I scrunched up my face when I had to drop to the floor to leopard crawl under low netting. It was the height of summer so I knew the mud was man made by a hose or something equally evil.
When we all got up, we were covered in mud, but I didn’t have time to collect my thoughts before I was yanked forward by Von again. She’d always been competitive; she hated losing at anything.
“Come on, Dani!” she shouted.
“Slow down, I’m dying here. I think my breakfast is going to make an appearance.” She slowed to a stop and waved us to go on without her.
Von wasted no time in pulling Lennie and I forward to the second obstacle. I looked over as the guys were scaling the high netting on their side and jumping off without a problem. I didn’t know if I could do it; it was so high.
A few others felt the same, so we called words of encouragement that seemed to have a positive effect on me too as I stepped onto the first bit of netting and climbed like Spiderman. I even impressed myself by how fast I’d scaled it.
Twenty minutes later we were nearing the end and I could no longer see Jack and his friends, they had probably finished, waiting to gloat on the finish line. I was too tired to care, I just wanted to finish.
The last obstacle was a curved wall we had to run up and then slide down the other side into a pit of dirty water. Gross.
I took a slow run up but slid back down. Only a few around us made it to the top and were now holding their hands out ready to help others.
“This is way too hard!” I griped.
“You can do it!” a woman from above shouted.
I peered up at them and gave them a nod as they held their hand out. Taking a deep breath, I walked backward to give myself more space and ran with all my might up the slippery surface.
I reached out when I thought I would fall but a strong grip grabbed my hand. Holy shit, she was strong. Only when I glanced up, it wasn’t into the face of the woman that had encouraged me; it was Jack’s.
A few guys from the red team were helping the rest of our team up, and I got a lump in my throat at the words of encouragement they were calling out. They weren’t gloating that they had won or taunting us that we couldn’t do it. They weren’t pushing us back down; they were pulling us to safety.
Jack squeezed the hand he was still holding. “You ready for the last part?”
I peered over the edge to the curved side that lead to a filthy pool of water. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Brock and Luke helped Von and Lennie up, and they bounced over with giant smiles on their faces. I knew exactly how they were feeling.
I was caked in mud, tired, and feeling emotional, but I’d done it. Maybe this trip wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
I sat on the edge with the girls either side of me and we pushed off, hands raised in the air as we hit the icy-cold water. Maybe it was just what I needed.
Chapter Four
Jack
I climbed down the ladder on the side instead of sliding into the freezing water again. My balls were inside my body the first time I did it, there was no way I was putting myself through it a second time.
Nat and Dom were waiting at the finish line and I turned in time to see a soaked Felicity crawl out of the water and half run, half jog toward us.
Nat elbowed me in the ribs. “You drool anymore and you’ll be able to fill the water they’ve lost in that pool.”
“Shut up,” I groaned, because he wasn’t wrong.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her no matter how hard I tried. I tripped several times on the obstacle course because I was staring back at her. Nat had to drag me at one point.
“That was the hardest freaking thing,” Lennie moaned as she sat on the ground at our feet.
“I’m wiped,” Yvonne agreed, and swigged from a bottle of water Dani had passed to her.
Felicity slotted herself next to me and smiled. “Thanks for helping me.”
“My pleasure, although I think we kicked your butt.”
“Don’t get too cocky, boys, we’ll get you next time,” Dani laughed.
“How are you so fast?” Yvonne interjected.
“We were all on the baseball and track team in high school, and Jack and I are personal trainers,” Brock explained.
“No fair.” Felicity tapped me in the arm playfully. “You had an unfair advantage.”
“You win some, you lose some,” Dom added.
I couldn’t get over how adorable she was with a pout. I wanted to pull that lip between my teeth, but in reality, I couldn’t. There was nothing wrong with some harmless flirting but as soon as this week was over, we’d never see each other again. Life was cruel.
My vision blurred, and I felt my eyes close. I begged my brain for just a few minutes more but as the familiar pull of sleep took over me; I stumbled backward. Nat caught hold of my arm to steady me but played it off as if he was giving me a “man-hug.”
“I’ll see you guys later, I’ve gotta go.”
“What about the point giving?” Felicity asked.
“I’ll have to miss out on this one.”
Her expression was pinched as Nat and I left, and he let go of me when we got into the woods and out of eyesight.
“You okay? I thought you were going down then.”
I yawned. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Why didn’t you tell everyone where you were going?”
“Because I don’t want everyone to look at me any differently.”
“Everyone, or Fliss?”
I didn’t need to confirm his suspicions; he knew me too well. “You don’t have to follow me back to the cabin, go to the point giving.”
“Nah, I’m going to take a shower and call Kim before everyone gets back.”
He was only looking out for me, but I was already irritated with myself. I could have been with Felicity but I had to take a nap like a child instead.
When we got back to the cabin, I glanced down at my mud-covered shirt and groaned. I didn’t want to get my sheets dirty, I flicked off my shoes and sat in the rocking chair instead of my bed.
“If we’re spending the week with them, then you’ll have to tell them something, or at least her.”
“So she can laugh at me? No thanks.”
I could hide it for a few days, couldn’t I? Because after we leave, I wouldn’t be seeing any of them again.
“I haven’t seen you this interested in anyone since Lily.”
“And look how that turned out,” I grunted as I felt the familiar pull of sleep.
My ex couldn’t handle my condition. She’d said I’d never paid attention to her, when in reality it was her that paid no attention to me. Everything was always about her. If I’d fallen asleep mid-conversation, I’d felt the wrath of it when I awoke. I wouldn’t put myself through that again.
FELICITY
I was braiding my hair after my shower so we could head to lunch, and Von wouldn’t stop teasing me about Jack.
“You’re like magnets, you gravitate toward each other. It’s so sweet.”
Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. “I barely know him.”
“And? You don’t have to know someone to be attracted to them.” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I sent my brush flying in her direction.
“You can’t say anything, you were attached to Brock’s hip during the point giving!”
She waved me off. “He’s nice to look at but definitely not my type.”
Lennie made glasses from her thumb and forefingers and put them up to her eyes, putting on a weird voice. “Yeah, we all know I’m her type.”
“We’re getting off subject here.” I groaned as she turned to face me. “You like Jack and we only have five more days here. There
’s nothing wrong with having fun.”
To her. I’d never just had fun with anyone before, the most that could come of this was some innocent flirtation.
“Guys, I’m not ready for this.”
“You are ready for this, you’re just trying to convince yourself that you don’t like him. Just like you tried convincing yourself you wouldn’t like this camp.”
I slipped my converse on and ignored her as Dani came out the bathroom fully dressed, and as if we hadn’t been waiting on her said, “Is everyone ready to go? I’m starving.”
The dining hall was close by, and it didn’t take us long to get there and grab food and a seat at one of the long tables.
“Mind if we join you?” Dom asked.
Dom, Nat, Brock, and Luke took seats next to us, and I gazed around the room.
“If you’re looking for Jack, he isn’t here.” I faced Nat. “He said he wasn’t hungry.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, I could have sworn they all exchanged “looks” with each other that made me wonder where he really was. Now I’d thought about it, before he left earlier he was unsteady on his feet and looking dazed. Maybe he was feeling the effects from the alcohol the night before?
I shook it off and joined in the conversation. Everyone wanted to go zip lining, so we finished lunch and headed toward the aerial activities.
The only thing I hated more than outdoor activities were heights. I took one look at the zip line and shook my head. There was no way I was attempting to go up there.
“I’ll sit over there and watch.”
“Come on,” Nat said. “You can pair up with me.”
I sat on the log I’d pointed to. “No thanks, I’m good here.”
Von raised a brow at me. “You’re doing this.”
“If I joined in, I’d make an odd number. You guys go have fun.”
Von looked behind me and smiled. “Won’t be an odd number now.”
“Jack, you’re up—” Dom started but coughed. “I mean… are you up for doing this with Fliss?”
