Wait (The Fast Series) (3 page)

“Dibs,” I whisper to Tessa who looks at me funny.

Vinny waves him in to the circle. “No problem, come on in join us. We’re doing introductions. Tell everyone who you are.”

“Hello, I’m Sam Sawyer but everyone just calls me Sawyer.” He adjusts his bag slung diagonally over his slim well-built body. Damn. My summer fling is
sex
-y.

“Welcome back, Sawyer, take a seat we still got a few more minutes here.”

I wish I could knock Tessa from her seat so Sawyer could sit next to me. He takes a seat in the back, and I’m unable to peel my eyes away from him. He notices me staring and flashes a smile in my direction that makes my stomach tingle. This is going to be the best summer ever. Guaranteed. When I’m old and gray, these two months right here that I’m about to live, this is what I’ll reflect back on. Prickles of excitement cause the hair on my arms to stand up. If I had a notebook in front of me I would doodle his name all over it.

The meeting finally ends and everyone breaks out of the stale meeting room in to the fresh night air. I ditch Tessa immediately and completely forget about Mark altogether in order to find Sawyer. Face after face I search through the swarm of people, he couldn’t have gone far. I wander to the back of the building, it’s dark but I catch a whiff of cigarette smoke. Sawyer’s a smoker, not great but I can deal with a little smoke if I have to. Stepping closer I see it’s actually Vinny, not Sawyer.

“Hey,” he says in a completely different voice than the one he’d been using the last hour and a half in the meeting. “You smoke?” He holds out his pack of cigarettes towards me.

“No, I was just looking for someone.”

“Listen, in a few minutes everyone’s meeting at the lake. I’ll be giving the real run down without
Julie
hovering over me.” He stomps the cigarette butt into the ground. The way he says Julie’s name leads me to assume there’s some obvious tension there.

“Oh good, there’s a real run down. I was afraid it was going to be all cheerleading and rainbows. Especially after the ‘romance is frowned upon’ statement.”

Vinny takes out another cigarette out and lights up. “Sorry, this is the first time I could sneak away from Julie all day.” He apologizes for his chain smoking and puffs away. “The romance thing, it’s a joke. Every year everyone here hooks up, this place is hook up central. See over there?” He points to a dark rundown cabin with boards over the windows. “They call that the sex hut. You’ve been warned. If you’re invited to go there and that’s not what you have in mind, don’t go.”

“Got it,” I gulp. A hut for sex, um, that’s a little scary.

“Oh and I don’t really know anything about your roommate, but be careful of some of the girls here. Courtney, the redhead, she’s the one who named it.”

“Okay, thanks for the heads up.”

“No problem.” Vinny exhales a big cloud of smoke.

I can hear music coming through the trees and follow the sounds away from Vinny and back towards the others. Sitting on top of a huge boulder I see Tessa staring up at two guys, orange shirt guy and…Sawyer. Geez, I’m away for two stinkin’ minutes and Tessa is already sinking her claws into the hottest guy here.

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” I come up behind the two guys fawning over my bunk mate.

“Tessa was just telling me she’s bunking with my sister.” Mark turns around.

Not Sawyer, it’s Mark. It’s dark. They have similar hair.

“We’re really doing this?” he mumbles through clenched teeth.

“Mmhm.” I punch his upper arm to shut him up. Good, now I can casually ask if they saw Sawyer anywhere. Before I get the chance, my body is pushed into the massive chest of a bright orange shirt.

“Sorry, Cass, I didn’t mean to push you so hard.” Mark lets out a chuckle. “Don’t tell Mom on me, okay.”

I ignore him. “I’m sorry,” I say to the substantial guy I was shoved into.

“This is Tucker.” Tessa introduces him. Orange guy gets a name.

“Nice to meet you.” Tucker gives me a nod. He has an accent, which normally I love, but in this case, not so much.

“What part of Jersey are you from?” I ask, unimpressed.

Tessa gasps and then squeals. “How did you know that? That’s crazy. He is from New Jersey and you’ll never guess.” More ear piercing squeals. “I’m going to the same school as him. Me and Tucker. I can’t believe it.”

I smile at the overexcited blonde and pretend for a second I care. “Then you guys have a lot to talk about. I’ll catch up with you later by the lake.”

“Yeah I want to check the lake out too. Maybe tomorrow morning we can fish?” Mark puts an arm around my shoulders.

I move my shoulders away from his touch. “No, you can go. I’m not doing that here.”

“Really? You don’t want to fish while we’re here?”

“No, this summer is about fun.” I don’t know why I said it like that. Fishing is fun. Right now I just have other things on my mind. Like finding my summer fling before someone else does.

Mark turns away bothered by my remark. I don’t have time right now, I’ll fix it later. I take the chance to escape away and keep searching for Sawyer. He has to be here somewhere, he couldn’t have just disappeared.

My eyes stay peeled, following a group of people down a trail I assume are heading for the lake. We finally reach the end of the path to an open area by the dark water. I still don’t see any sign of Sawyer. Vinny’s already crouched down, cigarette dangling from his lips, building a fire surrounded by a small circle of blackened stones. Beer cans are being popped open and someone walks over and shoves one in my hand. “Thanks,” I mutter to the back of whoever it was.

The bugs are everywhere. You can feel them, hear them, I’ve already slapped and killed at least six mosquitoes on my arms and legs in a matter of seconds. In my cabin I have bug spray and a sweat shirt. I need to decide what’s worse, bugs or the hike up to my cabin? Another mosquito latches on.
The cabin, it is
. If I go quickly I can get my bug armor and be back in ten minutes.

It’s so dark walking through the trees searching for the right path back up the mountain. Not as lit up as I expected it would be around here. Once the sounds of everyone partying by the lake fade off in the distance, panic sets in. Okay this was a bad idea. I turn around. This place is too new and way too dark to go off on my own just yet. Something snaps behind me followed by the sound of crunching footsteps. Thankful for long legs I’m able to soar over the unfamiliar terrain away from whatever danger is approaching until a hidden vine takes hold of my sneaker sending me hurtling to the ground with a thud. Shit, I’m about to be the first teenager murdered at camp this summer. Too scared to scream, I close my eyes and wait for a man in a hockey mask to plunge a knife into me.

“Are you okay?” A guy asks, laughing, not too concerned about my fear or my fall.

I open my eyes to see none other, than the guy I’d been searching for. Who else would it be? Embarrassing fall in the woods automatically means hot guy there to witness it.

“I’m fine.” I stand up wiping the dirt and pine needles away from my leg. Ouch, it’s scraped and raw, probably bleeding. Ignore it, focus and be flirty. “I’m Cassie. I saw you walk in late to the meeting. Lucky you.”

“Well then you know I’m Sawyer,” he grins. “You’re new here?”

“Hi, Sawyer,” I say with a dumb laugh. It’s been a long time since I actually flirted with someone and I’m not good at it. “Yeah, are you?”

“Nah, this is my third year here being a counselor. I was late on purpose. I hate that pep talk speech Vinny gives every year. I make fun of his ass every chance I get. He’s not really like that. He’s actually pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I met him before, he was smoking.” Holy Mother of God my leg is killing me, if this good looking guy wasn’t standing here next to me I think I would cry.

“You headed down to the lake?”

“Yeah, I got to find out the real rules.” I take a step and wince at the pain.

“Ah, yes, the real rules.” Sawyer stops me. “I’ll tell you one right now. The first night of camp everyone has to kiss someone.” He lifts my chin and presses his lips to mine.

Tessa

Camp just got better. I wasn’t so sure before, but now I’m pretty sure this place is going to be amazing.

Tucker. The name alone is awesome. Broad-shouldered, confident and burly, and he’s from Jersey! How did I not notice when I first met him how cute he was? No, wait, he’s way more than cute. When I start using words like burly, words like cute aren’t appropriate anymore. He’s dressed to perfection starting with that bright orange polo shirt. You
have
to look at him. He wants you to look at him. It’s like he owns the place. The way he’s talking, I’m dying. He tips his chin up after every few sentences. No idea why, he just does it. My eyes follow and my head nods up with him every time he does it. I’m in heaven soaking in that thick heavy voice of his. I keep asking him question after question just to keep him talking.

He has two sisters, a dog, it’s his second year at this camp, he’s nineteen almost twenty and we’re going to the same school. He’s going into his sophomore year and still hasn’t committed to a major.

I look over and notice Mark’s not standing with us anymore. I guess once it was obvious he was being left out of the conversation he took off. Oops, it wasn’t intentional. Hope Cassie doesn’t get mad I blew off her brother.

“So why does a Jersey boy go to a Pennsylvania school?” I move over on the big rock making room in case Tucker wants to sit next to me.

“’Cause that’s where all the pretty girls go.” Chin tip, smile. “Evidently.”

He’s flirting with me. Yippee! I try to remain cool while my stomach throws a little party.

“I’m not pretty,” I shake my head tugging on a blonde curl.
Pathetic
. He gave me a compliment and now I’m fishing for another one. What am I twelve years old?

A faint grin crosses his lips, his eyes sweep down over me carefully, but he says nothing.

The voices by the lake start quieting down. Tucker smacks and scratches his muscular arm. Just watching him scratch makes me itch, even though the excessive amount of bug spray I applied is keeping my skin well protected.

“Vinny is probably going over the rules.” Tucker nods in the direction of the lake.

“More rules? Didn’t we get enough of those before? How strict is this place?” I groan.

“No, not rules like that. These are different rules, hook-up rules. This place is gonna get a little crazy, it always does. You just gotta watch out for Julie, she’s a big prude.”

Big prude. Wonderful. My nickname in high school. I start to fidget and don’t know what to do with my arms, they land crumpled in my lap. “I didn’t know there were ‘hook up rules’ here.”

Tucker sits down on the rock next to me, he smells like the beach. Like suntan lotion, an expensive brand, one that smells like coconuts. It goes well with his whole beach look. Dirty blonde tousled hair, light hazel eyes and pink sun kissed skin speckled with brown freckles.

“They call it rules, but it’s just games,” he assures me.

I’m able to breathe easier. Nice, easy, coconut breaths. “Well, can you tell me a rule, so I have an idea of what you mean?” My butt’s getting sore from sitting on the rock, but I don’t want to move away from him.

Tucker drops his head back looking up at the night sky and clucks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. They must be bad if he’s taking this long to answer. This is not good, I’ve only been kissed and
barely
. These rules are most likely going to clash with my rules.

“One of the rules is everyone has to
kiss
someone on the first night,” he finally says with extra thickness accentuating the word kiss.

“Oh.” A kiss I can handle, especially if it’s from him. The more I think about it the more my skin heats up at the possibility of getting kissed by this burly Jersey boy sitting next to me. “That’s not a bad rule.”

“Good, then I guess it’s safe to tell you that one’s mandatory.”

“What if no one wants to kiss me?” I say and then swallow.

His sexy voice lowers to a throaty whisper. “I think someone wants to kiss you very bad.”

I pull my lower lip in to moisten it. The way he said it was the sexiest way imaginable.
Oh my God, please kiss me
. My heart speeds up at the possibility of a romance.

“There you are!” Cassie hollers limping up the path being supported by her brother. “You missed everything. This place is so much fun. They have rules, but don’t worry I’ll fill you in on everything when we get back to the room.” She ignores the fact that I’m sitting with someone and in the middle of a conversation, talking to me as if Tucker isn’t right next to me.

A long slew of curse words run through my head at my roommate’s timing. I squint down at the nasty scrape on Cassie’s leg. “What happened?”

“Oh, I fell, then I was kissed,” she gushes. “Oh wait, I have to tell you about a rule right now. Everyone has to kiss someone on the first night.”

I feel myself blush. As soon as she leaves, I’m pretty sure Tucker will take care of that.

“Come here,” Cassie instructs me in a bossy tone.

Not a fan of the bossiness but I do need an excuse to rub the soreness from my butt. I jump off the rock rubbing my hand over the back pocket of my shorts as I walk over.

“Mark hasn’t kissed anyone either.” She lets go of her brother and hobbles a step back. “Okay you two go ahead.”

“What?” I step back horrified and glance nervously in Tucker’s direction. “I’m not kissing Mark.”

“You have to. Besides you said he was gorgeous before.” Cassie gives her brother a little shove in my direction.

I’m too stunned to speak.

Mark smiles at me. “She won’t shut up until we kiss. She is telling the truth, everyone is supposed to kiss someone tonight.”

I’m fully aware and had been just about to kiss someone. But before I can say anything Mark pulls me in and kisses me. Not a little kiss, a huge open mouth, tongue thrusting, face touching, body dipping kiss. My fists are balled up pressing into his chest trying to beat him off of me but it does nothing to shorten the long kiss.