Camp Forget-Me-Not (24 page)

“Why?” A knot of worry twisted in my stomach.

Not for me, but for him. “Nick, you don’t need to prove anything. You’re already a superstar.”

“My dad says if you’re not winning, you’re losing.” He lowered his voice. “And I’m done losing, Kayla.”

Speechless, I stared at him. I was torn between being horrified at how deep the competitiveness between the brothers went and relief that I finally understood why Nick had changed so much. No matter what he’d done these last three years, his parents still didn’t think he was as good as Zach.

We walked toward the adventure walk activity now that the kids had been prepped with their instructions.

“So don’t forget,” Nick said softly into my ear as we edged closer to the throng of excited campers waiting for their turn. “If you want to win this weekend, make sure you’re on my team.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, but then, Nick didn’t seem to need an answer. Everyone in his life wanted to win, so no wonder he assumed that would be important to me.

I would probably never fix our old friendship, but maybe it would help to show him I didn’t care about winning. Perhaps if he understood that, he’d finally realize I hadn’t walked away from our friendship just to be a Diva. I’d done it so he could follow his dreams.

There had been a time I’d thought that was a good thing. Now I wondered. Was snowboarding less his dream and more about proving himself to his family? What if the direction I’d pushed him in had been the wrong one?

“Fall. Fall. Fall. Fall,” chanted the group after we’d located Amanda and Josh and the kids had finished up the adventure walk.

We’d moved onto the trust fall, and I was shaking in my shoes.

I glanced over my shoulder and felt my knees tremble. The distance from the platform to the ground wasn’t the main problem, though I feared heights— even a three-foot drop. No. My main issue was Nick’s outstretched arms. That scared me more.

What would it be like to trust him again? My heart had been on a roller coaster ride ever since he’d come back to camp.

“Come on, Kayla. You’re the only one!” shouted Claire. She’d gotten a lot mouthier now that Kennedi had backed off on her teasing and seemed preoccupied with Daan. After an afternoon spent running obstacle courses and playing tug of war, the cabins were like family.

The thought made me glance back at Nick who beckoned, his dimples appearing. It frightened me that I didn’t know how to read this new Nick. Couldn’t tell if I could trust him, despite what he’d confided earlier. He might have been blowing off steam, not sharing something personal with a friend.

I tried swallowing, but my mouth was too dry. The chorus behind me notched up another level, and beads of moisture broke out across my upper lip.

“I-I…” My voice shook. I rubbed my clammy hands on my shorts.

“You can do it, Kayla,” urged an all-too-familiar voice. Nick. “I won’t let you fall.”

The timbre of his voice made something I’d held tight loosen inside me. I’d trusted him so often in the past. Was there even the slightest chance I could try again? Maybe not. But for the kids at least, I needed to set an example. I gritted my teeth and locked my knees. I might not trust Nick, but I’d learned to have faith in myself.

And just like that, I let myself fall. For me. Not for Nick.

Strong arms held me longer than they should have, but not as long as I wanted.

Chapter Thirteen

“Batter up!” Gollum shouted, lifting his metal catcher’s mask just as the Family Picnic baseball game got underway.

As our umpire for the day, our camp director stared at our dugout and waited for our first batter to come to the plate for the co-ed game made up of teams with a mix of campers, alumni, and family. The heat was still intense, but clouds had moved in over the last few hours. It helped that the sun didn’t beat on us with so much intensity, but the fire of Nick’s glare from the pitcher’s mound singed me anyway.

I hadn’t joined his team.

“Where’s a batter?” Gollum called again, tromping closer to the dugout in his metal spikes and raising a dust cloud that reached us faster than he did. “Come on, folks! We want to get this game in before the rain hits.”

“You’re supposed to lead us off, Brittany,” Rafe announced, picking up a hastily scrawled roster that Siobhan had put together before she got called away for a message from home. “Should I take over as manager in case Siobhan doesn’t come back?”

“It depends.” Zach Desanti rose from his spot on the bench. He had a sturdier build than Nick—thicker and more muscular, but not as tall. Dark stubble covered half his face, but his brown eyes were the same. He wore his Chicago White Sox baseball cap, a big league big deal in our little North Carolina camp. “How’s your swing? We don’t want to lose a good hitter.”

Ugh. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I guess I hoped that maybe Nick’s family wasn’t as bad as they’d sounded.

“I stink at batting,” Brittany announced, pulling off her helmet and passing her bat to Rafael. “Why don’t you go for me and I’ll manage?” She looked around at all of us, unaware the whole field had been waiting for her to come to the plate. “I’ll have this dugout cleaned up in no time. No more sunflower seeds in here, starting now.”

Rafa hid a smile as he handed over the clipboard and picked up a different bat on the way out onto the field. “When is it my turn?” Nia asked beside me on the bench.

It bugged me that Brooke hadn’t asked Nia to be on her team. Instead, she’d picked Nick over her personal assistant/friend.

“Brittany will tell you when to go out. You can’t hit because your sprained arm is still healing, but you can run the bases for me if I get a hit, okay?” We’d talk about this before, but her pale face and jittering knees said she was nervous.

“Dig deep, dig deep!” Brittany shouted, making me realize that Rafael had gotten a hit and was on his way to first.

Cameron threw the ball in from the outfield, however, and Jackie made a clean catch at first base to get our runner out.

“Crud.” Brittany peered back down at the lineup sheet, her blonde ponytail falling onto the paper. “Maybe Eli can get a hit.”

In an effort to have a fair game, Gollum had told us that there couldn’t be more than three people from the same cabin on any team. We had to have the same number of boys and girls. We also had one guest—Zach— and one alumni counselor with us, while Nick’s team had one visiting mom and another alumni counselor. We’d done pretty well making the teams even, although I noticed all the boys hit early in the batting order.

“So?” A bubble popped beside my ear on my other side, and I turned to see Alex. She wore eye black under both eyes and a pink baseball cap with a glittery letter “A” sewn on the front. Her dark ponytail stuck out the gap in the back of the cap, the same way mine did. “What’s up with Nick trying to take Eli’s head off?”

On the field, Eli scrambled out of the batter’s box as Nick’s second pitch whizzed by his face across the plate.

“Um…” How much to say? I peered at Zach standing in the batter’s circle. “Nick and his brother are pretty competitive.”

“Really?” Alex scrunched her nose as she looked from Nick on the pitcher’s mound to Zach practicing his swing. “I get that because the world revolves around my older brother, ‘Mr. Perfect,’ while I’m—you know—
me
.” She rolled her eyes. “But Nick’s got fame and gold medals. You wouldn’t think he’d need to—whoa!”

Eli danced out of reach of another inside strike. Even Gollum flinched, and he stood behind the catcher with a helmet.

My heart squeezed tight at the look on Nick’s face. Focused. Determined. Didn’t he see that the kid he faced was a friend? Or was he only concerned about the scoreboard?

“He wants to beat Zach at baseball,” I said when I could breathe again.

Eli struck out, and Nick’s brother strode to the plate. Whistles and clapping broke out in the stands. The news of our major league visitor had been passed around during the bonfire last night, and the turnout for Gollum’s Family Day seemed better than ever. A lot of locals had made the drive just to see Zach.

Alex slapped away a bee. “Nick wants to win the baseball game because it’s Zach’s sport.”

“Right.” I’d never been competitive so maybe I didn’t get it. Even during swim meets, I focused on beating my personal best.

But for Nick and Zach…their expressions were dead serious.

“Show ‘em how it’s done, Zach!” a man called from the bleachers.

A wiry guy in a red track suit leaned against the fence. Since I hadn’t noticed him there before, he must have come down from the bleachers to get a better look. His light hazel eyes, dark hair, and tanned skin meant he had to be Nick’s father…who was rooting against his own son. Despite my anger at Nick this summer, I felt for the guy. That sucked.

Nick’s jaw tightened, and a muscle twitched beneath his eye. He stared down Zach from behind his glove, spinning the ball in his right hand until he had the correct grip on it. His hips and shoulders turned, then his whole body came forward in a powerful delivery. The ball was thrown hard. Anyone else would have missed. But Zach teed off on it.

Crack!

The sound of the bat connecting with the ball sent a twinge of disappointment through me even as the crowd cheered. Mr. Desanti pumped his fist in the air, high-fiving some of the other parents around him.

“That one’s gone!” Alex led the cheer as our dugout erupted in shouting and whooping. Beside me, Nia jumped up and down while Brittany went around highfiving everyone.

I held up my hand for the high-five, but my eyes never left Nick. I knew he’d been on edge lately, but seeing his father celebrate Zach’s hit and knowing he hadn’t bothered to show up for Nick’s Olympic moment really burned me.

“Come on!” Alex called, waving the team out onto the field to congratulate Zach on the homerun.

I brought up the rear, but I still went out with them and felt like a traitor as I smacked hands with Zach. Funny, though. Zach didn’t look any happier than his brother as he crossed the plate.

“Enjoy it while it lasts!” Brooke called from right field as we jogged back into the dugout. “Your team is still going down!”

Next to me, Nia stopped. Turned.

I looked at her as she stared at her former idol.

“You stink!” she screamed, her cheeks bright red.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I put a hand between her shoulder blades and tried to steer her back in the shade with the rest of the team, but she didn’t move for a long moment and I felt the pound of her heartbeat right through her.

Brooke put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue like a six-year-old.

I tensed right along with Nia.

“Hey, right field!” Nick shouted to Brooke from the mound. “Let’s get our heads in the game.”

At his sharp tone, Gollum pulled up his mask and jogged over to the mound for a little one-on-one chat with Nick. Because Gollum was protective of Brooke? Or because Nick looked ready to flip out?

“Guess Nick knows how it feels to be the one who gets overlooked and picked on,” Alex told Nia and me as she darted out of the dugout with a bat to stand in the hole. “Don’t let her get to you, hot stuff.” She tugged on Nia’s braid.

“She pisses me off.” Nia’s cheeks were still bright red, but she trudged into the dugout beside me as play resumed.

I watched Brooke adjust her hat and sunglasses in the outfield, her movements jerky and a little awkward. Was she rattled by Nick calling her out in front of everyone? She barely got her hat straightened when a ball came flying her way off Julian’s bat. She missed the catch and had to chase it down in a grassy corner of the field.

“I don’t think she’s having the best summer either,” I told Nia.

“That doesn’t mean she can take it out on
me
,” Nia grumbled, picking at the cotton batting sticking out from under the ACE bandages wrapped around her wrist. “It’s not my fault no one will give her a dumb record deal. And who cares if her family gets evicted? I’ve been through it. It’s not like your life is over.”

“She’s getting evicted?” I murmured, too shocked to say or do anything more than pull her close. Before I could think of something comforting, Alex hit a pop fly right at the other team’s center fielder and it was our turn to take the field.

Brooke was having trouble getting a record deal? And her family needed the funds to save their home? I wasn’t surprised a producer hadn’t signed her, but I could relate to her fear of losing her home. Weird that Brooke and I had faced the same problem.

I spent the next forty-five minutes puzzling out sibling rivalries and family dramas as much as I played the game. I was in right field, so I didn’t see much action defensively. As for hitting, I was the ninth hitter and only got on base once. What preoccupied me more was seeing Brooke and Nia argue, plus the tension between Nick and Zach. If the sibling thing was so tough, how would I ever survive my father’s new household with
five
other kids? I was still learning how to speak up for myself. To lead and not follow—sometimes, at least. What if my step-siblings were terrible? I’d become wallpaper again.

The crowd cheered, and I looked up to see Brooke flying around the bases so fast her hat came off her head.