Camp Forget-Me-Not (13 page)

“Kennedi, your CIT is talking to you,” Nick prompted, his eyes skimming over me.

“So?” the little girl asked, her stare unwavering.

I swallowed back a sigh. Okay. This was going to be a long day. If only Amanda would come back so we could get started.

“You need to do what she says.”

“I will if
you
want me to.” Kennedi did some kind of shimmy that made the sequined heart on her T-shirt glint in the slanting sun.

Giggles erupted from the rest of the Mermaids. I could feel the small amount of authority I’d gained when Amanda handed me the clipboard slipping away. Nick’s mocking glance made me straighten my back and lift my chin.

“Kennedi, stand next to Claire, please.”

And the way I said it had her scurrying over to a quiet girl standing in the back of the group, her flowered tank top a perfect match for the surrounding greenery.

“Now, since everyone’s here, let’s go over the rules of today’s wilderness activity.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Kennedi interrupted me. “Like we haven’t collected pinecones before.”

Murmurs of agreement rose from both groups— dissension in the ranks. With both of the counselors off to get the picnic lunches for the day, Nick and I were losing control.

“Bet you’ve never made it a game before, right?” Suddenly the group grew quiet and stared at Nick. I glanced down at the list of rules and saw nothing about this being a game. It was educational, which meant learning. AKA—not fun.

Nick leaned down as the campers crowded around him. “Okay. Here’s how we’ll do it. Whichever cabin gets all of the different pinecones on the list and correctly identifies them will be the winner.”

“And what do we get when we win?” a heavy-set boy asked, his words sounding like they took effort given his audible breathing.

Kennedi put her fists on her hips and pushed her way through the group to him. “Who said you’re winning, Daan?”

“Yeah!” chorused the girls as the boys broke into an impromptu version of “We Are the Champions.”

Nick held up a hand, and all was quiet. Even I held my breath, but that could have been because of the way the strengthening sun made his handsome profile glow.

“The losers—” His eyes flashed my way. “—will have to bring us our dinners and clean up our table when we’re done.”

The boys whooped and the girls hollered as they each grabbed sheets with pictures of the varieties of pinecones to be found along our hike. One girl hung back.

“Claire, don’t you want a sheet?”

“Can I share with Toby?” She exchanged a small smile with a boy from Nick’s group—the Pirates of Pirates’ Cove.

Kennedi tore the sheet from my hand and shoved it at Claire. “No helping the enemy.”

“But Toby’s my friend.” Her eyes grew shiny, and I had to blink back my own tears, reminded of how close Nick and I had been at that age. I brushed back the damp and blushed when I noticed Nick’s level stare on me.

I nodded, and Toby stepped forward, his wide smile lifting the tips of his ears. “Of course you two can work together.”

Nick stopped Toby. “They’re better apart.”

I tried not to read too much into the scowl he gave me. He was being competitive, not dwelling on the past. On us. He’d made it clear he was over that. So why couldn’t I let it go? Especially when he’d come back to camp so changed with this new confident, in-your face side.

Claire’s shoulders slumped until Soraya’s small hand slipped into hers. “You can be my partner.”

Oh. Sweet. Suddenly I was glad I hadn’t bailed on the CIT program. It was nice working with younger kids. I glanced up and caught Kennedi slapping Daan in the stomach. Then again…

“Kennedi Margaret,” shouted Amanda behind me, making me jump and squirm with embarrassment. What would her CIT report say about me? Inability to control children—check. “Apologize and promise to keep your hands to yourself or you’re staying behind with Gollum.”

Kennedi batted her eyelashes at Nick. “I’ll try keeping my hands to myself. Though it’ll be hard.”

The Mermaids giggled again, and I almost joined them until I realized I wasn’t one of them anymore. I was a CIT and had to act the part.

Amanda passed out the lunch bags to the Mermaids. “And…?”

“Sorry not sorry,” Kennedi coughed out.

“She said she’s not sorry.” Daan stomped his foot, crushing a skittering beetle into the dirt path.

“Tattletale,” Kennedi yelled, her short blonde waves bouncing.

“Knock it off,” growled Nick, and the group put itself on mute again. Even Amanda and the Pirates’ counselor, Josh, blinked in surprise at their normally rambunctious group. Their reputation as the worst-behaved kids at camp was legendary. In fact, when I told my cabin mates that Nick and I got the Mermaids and the Pirates, even Brooke had stopped glaring at me and joined in the chorus of “tough break” and “so sorry” I’d heard last night.

“Kennedi.” Nick pointed at Daan. “Apologize.”

“Sorry, Daan.”

“Good.” Nick turned toward Amanda. “Josh and I talked about making this a game earlier. I hope that’s all right with you.”

Amanda nodded. “Josh told me on the way to the mess hall. Sounds like fun. We’ll call a winner when we picnic at Crystal Falls.”

My heart slammed against my ribs, and I flicked a glance at Nick. For the first time, his guarded expression had disappeared and he looked like he’d been sucker-punched. Our eyes locked, and I wondered at the different emotions reflected in his expression, wishing I could decipher them. Was he as upset as I was at returning to the spot where we’d parted three years ago?

“Who still needs a lunch?” Amanda waved a last bag in the air.

Daan raised a hand.

“He already got one.” Kennedi pointed to the brown edge peeking out of his backpack.

“Now who’s the tattletale?” Daan yelled, and I rubbed my throbbing temples. This was going to be brutal. When I looked up, I caught Nick’s eye again, his eyebrow twitch making me laugh despite myself and this impossible situation.

“Oh, I still need a lunch.” I turned from Nick, stuffed the bag in my pack and helped get the campers in line. Minutes later we reached the trail head. Amanda and Josh disappeared inside the thickly wooded area to scout out the path, leaving Nick and I with the unruly group.

Was this extra time in charge really part of our training, or were Amanda and Josh turning cartwheels somewhere in their stolen moments of freedom?

“Buddy partners, please raise your hands,” Nick called, and seven pairs of joined hands shot in the air, Toby and Claire one of them, despite Nick’s orders. I had to smile at that.

“I don’t have a partner and Claire was supposed to be on the Mermaids’ team.” Kennedi sidled up to Nick. “Want to be my partner?”

He dodged her groping hand, and I couldn’t help snorting. Maybe there was a downside to fame after all.

“I don’t have a partner either.” Daan twisted a thin branch from a scrub tree until it pulled free.

“Hah! No one wants to be partners with a slow poke.”

“Kennedi!” I gave her the best imitation of my fifth grade teacher’s “stink eye.” “Apologize!”

“Sorry not—”

“Great!” I interrupted. “Now you and Daan buddy up so we can get started.”

“Ewwwww,” Daan and Kennedi groaned while the rest of the campers laughed.

“Now hold hands.” I couldn’t resist.

“Please don’t let her make me, Nick,” pleaded Kennedi. Meanwhile Daan whipped the tall grass on the side of the narrow trail with his tree branch and looked in every direction but at Kennedi, his round face a bright red.

“You heard Kayla,” Nick prodded, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Kennedi grabbed Daan’s hand and threw their joined fingers in the air. I could understand why Josh and Amanda weren’t intervening since this was supposed to be our first chance to lead, but still…it would have been nice not to be thrown to the wolves. We were obviously making this up as we went along.

Amanda appeared, her shoulder-length brown hair mussed and her cheeks pink. “Okay. Last night’s rain didn’t appear to muddy up the trail too much.” She looked at me. “Are we all set?” “As ready as we’ll ever be,” I said, then took my place in the rear of the lineup.

“Hey, Nick still doesn’t have a partner!” Kennedi yanked her hand free of Daan’s, pulled her foot back for a kick to his shin, then caught my stink eye and lowered it. Hmm. I might be getting the hang of this.

“Yes, he does.” Nick’s deep baritone turned my insides out, especially when he laced his fingers tightly in mine and held our hands aloft. “See?”

An hour later, after Amanda and Josh had disappeared again to “scout out the trail,” we found ourselves facing the steepest part of our hike. The kids’ backpacks overflowed with pinecones, the smell of Christmas heavy in the late July air. Like weary holiday shoppers, we halted and dropped our bags.

I gulped lukewarm water, then tossed back a handful of trail mix, the salty-sweetness reviving me a bit. A very little bit. Resolving the minute-to-minute squabbles breaking out between the now-competitive teams had intensified my headache to its current jackhammer sensation. Thanks to Nick’s “game” and the way he kept urging on his group to crush us girls, I’d heard nothing but screams and insults on what should have been a quiet, no-pressure walk in the woods. At what point would I let go of the old Nick and realize that this was who he was now—so intent on winning that he couldn’t look beyond the finish line?

“Anyone see what I’m seeing at the top of that hill?” Despite the shaded forest, Nick’s face seemed to hold a light all its own, his dark coloring and gorgeous features making my heart beat faster than the impending climb.

“Is it Amanda and Josh making out?” Kennedi leaped off her log, turned her back, and wrapped her arms around herself. She ran her hands up and down her back and made kissing noises while the Mermaids and Pirates erupted in laughter. Even Soraya joined in, though she kept her hand over her mouth as her small shoulders shook. “They’re always doing that,” Kennedi called, then twirled around. “Even though I heard Josh say that if they get caught, they’ll be kicked out.”

“That is correct.” Soraya leaned down, examined a pinecone, then straightened. “Junior counselors are not permitted to engage in such behaviors and, if caught, will face expulsion.”

Whoa. For a little kid, she spoke like an adult.

I caught a speculative look from Nick before he passed Kennedi a tube of antibiotic cream. At least there was no chance in hell we’d ever be caught kissing. I imagined the rule applied to CITs on the job as well.

Clearing my throat, I figured it was past time to get moving again because drooling over Nick was not getting me anywhere.

“Those are Fraser firs,” I announced to the group, finding my teacher voice. “You can tell by the gray-brown trunks and the upward branches that form the conical-shaped tops.” I pointed my water bottle at a clump of fir trees leaning out of a rocky hillside.

“That’s the last pinecone we need.” Soraya shoved her sheet in her pocket and scrambled after Toby and Claire, clawing her way with the rest of the group up the steep incline.

“Wait for me!” Kennedi tossed Nick the first-aid cream he’d handed her for a cut and raced off. In seconds, they were halfway up.

I was about to follow the kids, since God knows Amanda and Josh weren’t coming back any time soon, but I stopped a few feet up when I heard a sob behind me.

“I’m going to make the Pirates lose.” Daan’s rasp sounded faint amongst the raucous noise overhead.

“No, you’re not.” My pulse hammered at the tender note that entered Nick’s voice. His large hand gripped the boy’s shoulder.

“But I can’t make it up that hill. I’m a loser.”

I slipped behind a tree and tried not to draw attention to myself. This was a bro moment if I ever saw one. Yet something made me linger, even if it was wrong to eavesdrop.

“You have asthma. Big difference. Huge. Where’s your inhaler?”

Nick and I had both received briefing on the kids’ allergies and Daan’s asthma. I’d been armed with an EpiPen today in case of any nut reactions for Soraya, and Nick had overseen the packing of the inhaler that Daan was approved to carry at all times.

I snuck a peek around the trunk and saw Nick pass the apparatus to Daan, a line appearing between his eyes. It was the concerned look I remembered. One I hadn’t seen in a long, long time. Without his usual cocky self-assurance, Nick seemed younger. The old Nick. The young man I wish he’d grown up to be. Was he still in there?

“Feel better?” Nick lowered the inhaler and stowed it in a backpack when Daan nodded.

The shouts of the climbing campers grew fainter now, and I moved to follow them, then froze at Nick’s next words.

“You don’t have to go up that way. I know an easier way, and if we hurry, I bet we can beat all of them.”

“Really?”

My chest tightened as I watched Daan’s misery transform into delight. His grin made me feel so incredibly proud of Nick for hanging back to encourage a kid who needed it. This was the Nick I knew. The one I wanted to know again if he’d let me in again.

“Follow me. It’s this way.” And with that, the two hustled off to the left of the cliff where a gentler incline was revealed after Nick parted the thick brush. They were gone in an instant, but the impression Nick left with me lingered.