Devin pulled me into him for another hug. I did feel better about the situation since he’d told me.
We were quiet for a moment, then I asked, “Did you tell her anything about me? I mean I’m wearing your sweatshirt in front of her.”
“No. And Dahlia, she can’t know about you. She told me yesterday she hopes we can work things out over the next month. If she sees something between you and me, then she’ll make sure to put an end to it.”
This news got my heart rate up. “She’d actually report you?”
“Probably not. But she’d make sure camp wasn’t good for you and probably give me so much grief that I wouldn’t be able to stand it.”
“So, that’s why you’ve acted like I don’t exist.”
“Uh-huh. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, but she can’t know. I know you’ve told Lauren about me. You need to be careful. We need to be.”
“I promise I will. I’ll be really careful and will keep my mouth shut.”
“That would be best. Just know I’m thinking about you even if I don’t act like I am.”
Devin gently rocked me in the chair but didn’t make a move to go past that. And I was okay with it because I felt much better.
“It’s going to be hard to do this,” I said. “I have strong feelings for you.”
Devin sighed. “I know you do. But we’re going to have to do it.”
Suddenly an idea came to me. “Can we meet in here sometimes?”
Devin hesitated, then replied, “I don’t know. It’s not only about who might see us at this point. I also don’t know if I can keep the boundaries if we meet like this.”
“I’m okay if we don’t. I—”
“Dahlia,” he said quietly, and I already knew what he was going to say. “I want to give you what I know you want from me. I want to kiss you. I’m asking you to be okay with knowing I want to and accepting we can’t.”
After running my hands one last time through his hair, I pulled myself into him and squeezed around his neck. “Okay.”
Devin sighed. “I listen to songs before I fall asleep. One got stuck in my head last night.”
“Oh yeah? What is it?”
“An 80s song, of all things. ‘Why Me,’ by Planet P Project. And I kept wondering why you chose me.”
I smiled. “Did you know our hands grazed each other in the dining hall before I ever saw your face? And I had tingles.”
He laughed. “Seriously?”
“Uh-huh. The first time I saw your face was during the counselor hunt. You were consoling Aaron at a picnic table. I knew from that moment I had to meet you.”
He was quiet for a second, thinking. “That was you?”
“That was me.”
“I guess I sort of remember it. You were holding a garbage can lid and staring at me?”
“Yeah.” I giggled. “What about you? Do you remember when you first noticed me?” I didn’t take my eyes off his face.
Devin smiled. “Hmm. Yeah… It was the night you were making fun of Dirk at the campfire. I thought you were funny. And very pretty.”
I sighed happily. “I think you’re so hot. I can’t take my eyes off you.”
“Dahlia…”
“It’s true.”
I embraced him again. He made me feel good about myself.
We were quiet for a moment before Devin spoke again. “We need to go.” He shifted positions to help me off his lap.
Reluctantly, we walked to the door. But then I stopped and turned back around. “Do I still have to do things for her?”
Devin must not have understood my question, because he didn’t respond.
“Marissa is my secret pal. Remember?”
“Oh. That’s right. Ironic. Just get her some candy. I’ll show you what she likes. But it’s probably best if you don’t have me deliver it to her.”
“I won’t. I prefer that you aren’t around her. I’ll be jealous when you’re in the staff meetings.”
“Don’t be. I’m over her. I have been for a long time.” Devin reached out and pulled me into one last hug. “I like a different girl—a beautiful adopted girl.”
He let go of me and opened the door. Then he pulled the hood back around my head. We stared at each other, both probably thinking about what a kiss would be like.
“See you tomorrow?” I asked.
“Come to the rock climbing wall in the rec room during free time, if you want. I assist with belaying. Till then, Dahlia.”
After smiling one last time at him, I took off down the stairs, almost bumping into Blake.
“What are you doing, Dahlia?”
He gave me a look and then glanced up at the craft cabin. Devin had closed the door again, so he wasn’t seen. But I knew Blake had to know I was meeting someone. He was doing the same kinds of things.
“I left the bracelet I made for my secret pal on the craft table and was getting it. Good night.”
Before he could question me further, I jogged away and up the hill to the cabin.
***
“How did it go?” Lauren asked once we were at the showers.
“It went well. He explained Marissa to me, and everything made sense. She’s his ex-girlfriend. It sounds like she’s still interested.” I sounded rushed.
“Do you want me to ask Blake and see if I can get some dirt?”
“No.” I stopped walking, took hold of Lauren’s shoulders, and looked her directly in the eye. “Do not say anything to anyone—especially Blake. Devin trusts me not to talk about this.”
“Okay, okay. Sheesh. Chill out.” She looked almost offended.
“I’m serious, Lauren.”
“I said I won’t ask him.”
We started walking again. Lauren asked, “Do you want to hear what we did?”
“Um, sure.” Not really. “Did you guys kiss or something?” I asked, worried they already had.
Lauren didn’t answer, so I looked at her. Her smile told me the answer.
“When?”
She grabbed me by the wrist and said, “Okay. I’m going to tell you what we did.” She pulled me off to some trees and out of sight. “It happened right before I met you. He told me to wait by this tree near his cabin. When he showed up, he started kissing me right away.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“No. We were concealed by the trees. Anyway… I was wearing this robe since you and I were meeting to go shower after I met Blake. He untied the robe and pulled it open.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what this guy was capable of.
“Uh-huh. And he started rubbing his hand over my bra and kissed me again. Then he told me to remove it.” She was grinning now.
My eyes widened. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Her eyes widened back at me. “I took the robe off first, then removed my bra. He used his hands and his mouth.” She laughed at the memory.
“Then you guys had to stop, I assume? Being in public and all…”
“Nope. I told you we were hidden.”
“Well, what else did you do?”
“He unfastened his jeans, then pushed me by my shoulder to crouch below him. And I gave him a BJ.”
“Lauren!” I realized I was being too loud and lowered my voice. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“I know.” She giggled more. “Don’t worry. It was the quickest one I’ve ever given. Probably lasted a minute, and he was done. Right after, he fastened his jeans, I covered up, he ran off, and I went to find you. Now I can’t wait to meet him again.”
“Be sure to use a lot of mouthwash…” was all I could think of to say.
She grinned, then broke into laughter.
All of this had me concerned for Lauren. Blake behaved like a player. He flirted with me, too. I just never told Lauren. And the fact that Devin was angry with him today sent up a red flag. Devin was nice to everyone. So if Blake upset him, there had to be a good reason.
Chapter Twelve
The past two days had been h
ard. Devin hadn’t spent any time with me since our night in the cabin. And to make matters worse, I had to watch Marissa talk to him, sit by him, give him a back massage during the campfire, and hug him good night. I was going crazy. At least he didn’t act interested in her. Camp no longer mattered to me unless the activity somehow involved Devin.
Then there was an issue with Blake, who had become very chatty and touchy-feely with me during family group. Either he felt closer to me because he liked Lauren, or he did this with every girl who’d let him.
Luke didn’t bother to greet me anymore, either. He’d moved on to another girl. They’d kissed in front of me outside the cabin right before lights out. I felt sure he’d wanted me to see them. It didn’t bother me in the slightest.
Aaron was his usual self and liked to sit by me during family group. I’d put a lot of candy inside his pocket just in case he’d gotten a bad secret pal for July.
Yesterday had been a huge all-camp cookout, relays, and other games by family groups for the 4th of July. Our family group raced Devin’s in the three-legged race. It was bad enough he was strapped at the leg to another girl, but then it was me who had to race him with this other girl tied to my leg. We gave it our all, but Devin was just too fast, and they won. Then my partner tripped and fell, pulling me with her. I ended up getting some dirt in my mouth. Devin surprised me and ran over to help me.
“Are you okay?” he asked, working to untie the rope and free our legs.
“Yes,” I replied as I tried to get my mouth clean.
Devin put his hand out to help me get up. He didn’t seem to care who saw him looking after me. Then I did something impulsive and removed his sunglasses from his face and put them on my own. He gave me a curious look but didn’t stop me. He was used to this by now—losing his wardrobe to the campers.
After the cookout, we’d all headed from the lake to go to the campfire. I’d run to catch up to Devin, taking every opportunity to be next to him. When I got to him, I placed the sunglasses back on his head. He turned and smiled at me. He made no attempt to part from me, so I remained with him.
I pulled a hair tie from my wrist and started to put my hair up, but Devin stopped me.
“Don’t. I love it down and loose.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I like how it blows in the wind. Like on the day of the rainstorm, it was soaking wet and all around your face and—” Devin leaned into me so only I’d hear him. “—you looked hot.” He nudged my ribs with his elbow but kept walking.
***
Lauren and I had barely set our trays down for dinner when suddenly Blake sat next to me instead of her. The look on her face wasn’t good. What was I supposed to do? Make a scene and demand he switch places with me? Instead, I gave her a look of confusion and shrugged my shoulders. There was no way I’d like Blake over Devin, but Lauren must have doubted that.
“We have the massages tonight,” Blake said. “Will you give me one?” He directed the question to me.
Lauren shot Blake a look, but I decided to keep my head down on my tray of food and let them sort it out through whatever death glares they needed to do.
In most circumstances I would have loved the attention—especially since I always took a back seat to Lauren in the love department. However, this situation didn’t make me feel better, because I knew Blake’s actions really hurt Lauren. If Devin had asked Lauren for a back massage in front of me, I would have left the dining hall in anger.
When I didn’t respond to Blake’s question, he pressed further. “What do you say?” Apparently, he didn’t get the hint that Lauren was really annoyed.
“I don’t think I’ll be attending tonight,” I mumbled, not looking at Lauren at all.
Blake then startled me and put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. Just then, I looked up and saw Devin watching from his table. Marissa was talking to him, but he was fixated on the interaction between Blake and me. We didn’t take our eyes off each other until Blake let go of my shoulder. Then Devin turned to see what Marissa was saying to him.
Grabbing my cup, I got up and left the table as fast as I could. With shaky hands, I refilled my drink. Devin was suddenly next to me, and I noticed his cup wasn’t empty, but he topped it off anyway. We had our backs to the dining hall, so no one could see or hear what we were doing.
“Are you okay?” he asked sensitively as we stood side by side not looking at each other.
“Oh, that? Blake’s being stupid. I don’t take it seriously. I’d rather be the one seated next to you instead of her.”
He whispered back, “I wish you were, too.”
I sighed. “This is hard. I really miss talking to you.”
Devin turned so he could look at my face. I looked back over at him to see what he’d say. He mouthed, “Me, too.” Then he turned and went back to his seat, so I did, too. This time, I made Lauren scoot over, and I sat next to her without looking at Blake. When I looked back at Devin, he’d seen what I had done and smiled with approval.
When dinner was over, I saw Devin once again linger at my secret pal pocket. He passed by it and discreetly dropped something into it, then quickly left the building. Once the coast was clear, I went to the pocket and pulled out another slip of paper. I didn’t wait to read it but opened it immediately. It said: Sign up for volleyball. We practice every day…
This invitation made me grin. If we were on the same team, we could secretly flirt, and no one would have to know. I’d be around him daily for the practices. It wouldn’t matter if we couldn’t talk directly because at least we’d be at the same activity for that hour. We’d be playing a game we both loved and would be together.
Practically running from the room, I got to the rec hall and found Devin’s name on one of the teams and signed my name under it. Then I read over the list of names and realized Marissa had joined his team, too. That was the worst news possible. Why did she join Devin’s team? Was she an avid volleyball player? Or did she want a reason to be around Devin daily? Either way, even Marissa wasn’t going to keep me from Devin’s invite to be on his team. I heard Devin’s voice replaying in my head telling me he likes a different girl. You had him last year and blew it. Now I get a chance with him.
***
The first volleyball practice was scheduled for today. There were four nets set up so all eight participating teams could practice. The first matches would be next Friday, which would take us down to four remaining teams. Then, during week six of camp there would be a semi-final round to determine the final two. Finally, on the Friday of our last week of camp there would be the championship game.
As I approached the net, I’d already spotted Devin. He’d just jumped up and banged the ball over it. His shirt came up slightly and showed his tanned, toned waist. He had on dark gray Nike shorts and a burgundy graphic T-shirt. I liked how athletic he was. And I wondered if his daughter would possess some of his athletic ability and take up sports.
I had on very short Lululemon shorts and a tank top. I’d just pulled out from my hair the hair tie I’d been using. Shaking my hair out, I looked at Devin for approval. My long hair spilled messily down my back. He smiled, then looked away quickly to attack another ball.
Marissa and some random girl walked toward us. They joined the line waiting to hit the ball. I figured Marissa was helping with horseback riding, then coming to the practice from that.
This was the first chance I had to really study Marissa. She was average height, thin, and fair complexioned. She had blue eyes, and her hair reminded me of Lauren’s. Maybe she’d worn it really long when Devin had met her, because with all that natural curl, it had to be really pretty. She wasn’t voluptuous like Lauren but had more of a petite athletic build like me. I definitely was skinny, but I did have very toned arms and legs from all the sports I did. Maybe Devin liked this type more than a very curvy, well-endowed person.
Marissa jumped up and banged the ball over the net. Unfortunately, she was good at volleyball. What els
e was she good at? Hopefully not sex. I wouldn’t want Devin to miss that with her. He was good at everything, so I could see why she still wanted him.
Once our team was all in place, we began working on a series of drills. We took turns moving from one position to the next to pass the ball and then hit it. We practiced serving, as well. Every chance I had, I moved to stand in a position near Devin and avoided Marissa. At least Devin made no move to be near her either, and I noticed he did make a point to be near me, too. And every shot I took, he said a positive affirmation. If Marissa noticed he was being especially nice to me, I couldn’t tell.
When practice was over, I was a little bummed since I wasn’t sure when we’d see each other again. We only had three weeks of camp left. This could be it. So I didn’t want to leave camp with any regrets.
Devin walked a little behind me toward the water fountain.
“You did great,” he said.
After a second I realized he was talking to me and glanced around to see if anyone else could hear us. “Oh, thanks. That was a lot of fun.”
“Thought I might have to give you lessons. But now I’m thinking you could give me some. You play outside of camp, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I played for my school team.”
We smiled warmly at each other. Then some others walked up to the water fountain, so I had to turn and get my drink.
When I looked back up, Devin said almost inaudibly, “Your hair looked pretty during practice. I’ll see you later.”
He turned to walk off. And that was it. We didn’t speak again that day.
***
Following lunch the next day, Caroline called all of us back to the cabin to discuss what we’d do for the skit night. The agreement between Devin and me was that I had to participate if I wanted to see his talent. It didn’t matter if I actually had one.
Caroline took notes on what we were capable of contributing to the skit.
“I can play guitar. If you hadn’t noticed, I brought mine to camp,” Lauren volunteered. “And Dahlia can sing.”
Edge of Eighteen: A Slow Burn Summer Camp Love Story Page 13