“Not until I was on the puddle jumper. I should’ve known though. It’s not like my stepdad has ever done anything for me out of the kindness of his heart. I’m not even sure he has one.”
Liam laughed and sat back up.
“It’s like that, huh? How about your real dad? He’s the one you camp with, right?”
My stomach turned in knots, and I felt a lump in the back of my throat that hijacked my voice. How could I still be like this when so much time had gone by? I quickly looked down at the pillow that I was crushing to death.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“No. It’s okay,” I interrupted, looking at him through my lashes as the tears soaked back in from where they came from. “I’ve gotta get better at this whole talking about him thing.”
“If you’re not ready I understand.” His eyes held the warmth that I’d recognized so often in my father’s eyes, or maybe it was just that I wanted to see it in Liam’s, but regardless I felt okay opening up to him.
“He died a year ago, but he was sick for several years. The doctors gave him less than a year, but I know he hung on for me. It killed me to see him suffer for me.”
“Cancer?” his voice softening.
“Yeah. Lymphoma.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. I never really talk about it. I noticed if I brought it up around my friends they immediately began to shy away. I felt like I was the immediate buzz kill for them.”
“They don’t sound like very good friends,” his voice low.
“Maybe not, but it’s not their fault. I mean they’re young and don’t want to be bogged down by all that stuff.”
“But so are you. And it’s not stuff. It’s your father — your life.”
I looked at him, and he was studying me closely. A shiver went through me when I caught something else in his eyes, desire maybe? No. I was just being crazy.
I forced a smile. He didn’t understand and that’s okay. Friendships were complicated. I’d rather shove aside my problems in order to keep friends than divulge everything and not have any left.
“When my mom died—”
I gasped. “Your mom?”
He nodded. “I was thirteen. It wasn’t like what you went through. It was sudden. I’m not sure which is better or worse. It all sucks, I guess.”
I watched him speak of her and the incident with such ease, and I wondered if I’d ever get there.
“She died of a heart attack, and it’s not like we live where there’s the best healthcare.” He stopped and cast his eyes down before connecting with mine once more. “I was the one who found her.”
I reached my hand out to his and he squeezed it, not letting go.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“It teaches the cycle of life pretty quickly. Also puts things in perspective,” he said, biting his lip.
A big gust of wind plowed the tent wall behind me and I jumped.
“Guess, I’m a little nervous still.” I laughed.
His eyes widened and he smiled. “I would be too if I were a city girl.”
There was a moment of silence between us. He still held my hand, and I didn’t want him to let go. His eyes searched mine like he was looking for something more, and his smile faded slightly.
“My parents divorced when I was young. My mom cheated on my father. I didn’t know it at the time, but I figured it out as I got older. The guy she cheated with, she married. My dad got full custody,” I said.
“Isn’t it unusual for the dad to get full custody?” Liam asked.
“Not when your mom doesn’t want it. I think she would’ve been fine if there was no visitation in there at all, to be honest,” I replied, feeling the anger begin to boil over. “I’m not sure why she became a mom. I think it was an accident. Anyway, I was scheduled to be with her two weekends a month. That was it and most of the time that didn’t even happen. I’m thankful I didn’t have to go there because I got to spend more time with my dad, but it sent a message to me loud and clear.”
“I can imagine.” He shook his head slowly as his smile faded into a frown. “Nobody deserves that, especially you.”
“My dad was such a nice guy. He was my best friend. We did everything together. When he got sick, even when he didn’t feel well, he tried so hard to make my life easy. He was absolutely amazing. He sold his company when he found out he was ill to spend much more time with me. I think he knew deep inside he wasn’t gonna make it.” The wetness in my eyes was impossible to hide away, and for some reason, I didn’t care. It felt good, really good.
Liam reached out and brought my pillow and me into him. He held me tightly. For the first time in a very long time, I realized the tears I cried tonight weren’t sorrowful. They were joyful because I allowed myself to remember the father I had loved and what I’d always treasure about him, not what I was missing. Being away from my mother and stepdad was far more therapeutic than I realized.
“Thank you,” I whispered. Liam’s fingers ran up and down my arm as he hugged me. My eyes closed as I felt his heart beating, slow and steady. The longer I was in his arms, the more difficult it was to deny the attraction. But he wouldn’t be good for me. I took a deep breath in, enjoying how intoxicating he smelled and exhaled slowly. Heat and excitement ran between us, and I needed to break away. His breath tickled my scalp as he held me tightly, and I didn’t want to leave his embrace, but I knew I had to. It was the right thing to do. I backed up and broke his arms free. The energy running between us had quickly changed from confidant to something more, and he recognized it too as I watched his cocky grin grow wider.
“That’s what friends are for,” he said, winking at me.
I smiled and snuggled back on my sleeping bag, wondering if that was completely true. Was that what friends did for each other or was it more? That type of connection felt honest, real.
But, I was only going to be a here a couple more days so what did it really matter anyway?
He leaned back on his elbows again, but this time my eyes skipped over the knife he was packing and fell to his abs. Damn! I doubt he got those by going to a gym. The wilderness really was good for people.
He caught me staring and started laughing, which only brought out my feisty side.
“Listen, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I mean I really do, but I just don’t feel comfortable with…” I stopped unable to place the expression on his face. It was a mixture of amusement and gratification and something more.
“I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” I muttered. “You’re an amazing person, and I’m sure whatever you did wasn’t that bad, but I just can’t get involved with someone that’s got this kind of baggage. I’ve got enough issues for the both of us.”
A few minutes of stunned silence surfaced as his caramel eyes twinkled with bewilderment. His lips parted slowly.
“You think I’m one of the campers?” he asked, angling his head. His lips turned into a pulse-quickening smile, his eyes darkening a shade before he burst out laughing.
“You’re not?” I asked, completely confounded.
“No way. My dad would totally kick my ass,” he said, unable to stop laughing.
“Then why are you here?” I’m sure I was completely red in the face, but it wouldn’t go away.
“I’m kind of like their handyman, and I know the region like the back of my hand. It was easy money and good money at that. I did it a couple years in high school and this is my first year doing it in college. I actually get credit for it. The camp switched owners this year, and I’m not really thrilled with what they’ve changed so it’ll be my last summer here.”
“Oh.”
“That’s all I get is an ‘oh’?” he smiled, shaking his head.
“It makes a lot more sense now.” I grinned and a bit more of my heart softened.
“So what changes pissed you off enough to make this your last year here?” I asked, trying to shift the embarrassment and
the desire that had started to run through me again.
“For starters, the tents. We had tiny cabins. They were probably more like sheds, but still… they weren’t tents. A bear could get through them easily, but it was a little more of a deterrent.”
“So the tents are a new feature? Great! I’ve been talking myself into falling asleep in them because I thought they’d already been here for years without problems. I’ve watched the Discovery channel enough to know that I should be scared to death.”
“It’ll be fine.” He assured me. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so. Right now it doesn’t seem it’s the bears we have to worry about anyway.”
“Not funny.” I scowled.
“So something tells me you won’t be getting any sleep if I leave. Is that true?” His eyes softened as he waited for my answer.
I nodded. “Positively true.”
“I can grab my bag and sleep on the other side of the tent if you want.”
I let out a huge sigh and before I could stop myself, I lunged at him, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Thank you. I wasn’t planning on letting you out of my sight for more than thirty seconds,” I mumbled, letting go quickly.
“No sweat. I’ll be right back.”
I climbed into the sleeping bag and heard him zipping up his tent and watched as he climbed back into mine, bag and pillow in hand. He tossed them on the floor and zip tied the zippers together, creating a more substantial lock than my shoelaces.
My heart began racing as he unrolled his sleeping bag on the other side of the tent. There was something so addicting about him. His forearm flexed as he adjusted everything, and I felt an entirely new set of feelings run through me, knowing he wasn’t one of the campers.
He turned to face the wall of the tent and pulled his shirt over his head. I suddenly felt flushed as I watched him open up his bag. His shoulder and back muscles were so well defined I couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to be pressed up against him. He crawled in his bag, and I clenched my eyes shut so he wouldn’t catch me staring.
“Hope you have a good sleep, Emma. Thanks for sharing some of that stuff with me. I know it wasn’t easy.”
My heart flip-flopped as his words floated over to me.
“It’s amazing what fear will make a person confess,” I whispered.
“Or finding the right person to confess to.”
A big gust of wind cracked a branch outside, and I took a deep breath in hoping to fall asleep quickly. But all I could think of was Liam’s caramel brown eyes as he listened about my father and the warmth of his embrace. It was going to be a tough night.
ChapterSix
I woke up to the sound of the other campers roaming around outside, assessing the storm’s damage from the night before. I turned over to check on Liam, but his sleeping bag was gone. It was like he’d never been here. My heart dropped a little, which was ridiculous. I’m not sure what I was expecting. I forced myself on my back and brought the sleeping bag up to my chin. It was so cold outside of my cocoon that I wanted to stay curled up in my bag all day, but I knew I needed to get out and see if there was anything I could help with. And I wanted a shower and had no idea how that was going to work out. The bathroom situation was precarious enough!
I sat up and gathered my hair into a loose ponytail and pulled on my boots, stringing the laces up again from the night before. I unzipped the door and was immediately greeted by Liam’s orange tent and chuckled at just how close it was, especially in the daylight. I felt exhilarated as I thought about running into him, and then the realization of what I probably looked like occurred to me at the same time. Climbing out of the tent, I walked over to Steph’s tent and she was inside, her door unzipped. Hopefully she could point me in the direction of looking decent and feeling clean.
“Hey,” I called. She turned around to greet me, looking concerned.
“How are you doing after everything? Liam told me what happened. He said nothing like that’s ever happened up here before.” She looked as on-edge as I felt the night before. Somehow the daylight made the night before seem surreal to me. I almost didn’t believe any of it happened.
I shook my head and smiled. “Not really looking forward to night two.”
“I bet. I think we’re going to rearrange the camp and everything,” she said. “It wasn’t only you who was taunted. Some of the other tents were targeted throughout the night.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling partly better that it wasn’t just me who was the target.
She nodded.
“So is there like a shower or something-somehow-please…” my voice trailed off, waiting for her answer.
She nodded. “It’s not ideal, but we’ve got one. You’ll learn how to take the quickest showers of your life because they’ll be the coldest showers of your life,” she replied, laughing. “And just always grab me before you decide to shower so I can stand watch.”
“Awesome! I’ll go get my soap and a towel and prepare myself for a chilly one.” I rolled my eyes and trudged back to my tent carefully since the ground was still pretty mushy and slipped my boots off before I stepped back into my tent.
I had wanted to ask her about Liam, but I didn’t want to sound too eager, especially since they were related. I was sure anything I told her would get right back to him.
I grabbed the shampoo, conditioner, and bar of soap out of my bag and noticed the Edgar Allen Poe book that looked completely undisturbed from when I packed it at home. I dug deeper in the bag and grabbed a towel.
“Ready?” Steph asked, peeking in my tent.
“Yep.”
She grabbed the stuff from me while I slid my feet back in my boots, trying not to fall over. I wasn’t exactly my best in the morning, which only made my coordination even worse. Remembering back to the night before when I fell head first into the mud, I had to stifle a chuckle. Maybe I just wasn’t ever that coordinated.
“This won’t be your most pleasant bathing experience. I promise you that.” She sighed. “Amazing how adventures like these can seem like a good idea from the comfort of your own home.”
“No kidding,” I agreed. “So where do you live?”
“In Colorado, but before that my family lived in Arizona.”
I followed her to a line of tall, narrow tents and let out a sigh. Three of them were a dark green and two of them were bright blue.
“So the bathroom situation…”
“I’ve been eating and drinking very little just to avoid it,” I interrupted, shaking my head.
She started laughing and pointed to the structures. “Completely understood.”
“We also have portable washing machines, but I’ve had better luck just washing my clothes in the river.”
There was a makeshift hand washing station next to the structures with a red hose leading away.
“That’s the direction of the river you’re talking about?” I pointed to the hose.
“Yeah.” She unzipped a dark green structure and placed my bottles on the floor of the shower. I balanced my bar of soap on top the bottles. “It fools you into thinking that it’s a regular shower with all of the knobs, but don’t fall for it.” She smiled. “I’m still traumatized.”
“My two showers a day sounds like it will quickly morph into one.” I laughed, stepping into the structure. I folded my sweats and shirt in the corner because I planned on putting them back on before I walked back to my tent to change into something clean.
I stood to the side of the showerhead so that I could psyche myself up once I turned the water on.
“I’m not hearing anything,” Steph teased.
“Here goes nothing,” I shouted back, turning on the water.
The droplets that splashed from the floor to my ankle were freezing. I glanced at my shampoo bottle and quickly edged forward. I grabbed the bar of soap and lifted the shampoo bottle, flipping the lid and plopping the gel in my palm that also held the bar of soap. There had to be an ea
sier way!
I took a deep breath in and ran under the sprinkling water, gasping as it trailed down my back. Once my hair was wet I massaged the shampoo through my hair as fast as possible, pausing only momentarily to slide the bar of soap all over my body.
My body started adjusting to the frigid temperatures, only marginally, as I let the shampoo run out of my hair. It felt amazing getting the dried mud out of my hair. Today was definitely not going to be a conditioner day. I rinsed all the suds off my body and turned off the water.
“Whoa,” I hollered, reaching for the towel. “That completely sucked.”
I dried off as fast as I could and slipped on my clothes, wrapping my hair in the towel.
I unzipped the shower door and grabbed everything, noticing that Steph was pacing. She turned toward me and smiled.
“At least I warned you.”
“True enough,” I said.
One of the guys from yesterday was at the hand washing station, and I noticed something different about the energy running between us. He glanced at me, smiling politely, before concentrating back on his hands. I was beginning to feel less like a piece of meat and more like a citizen in the world again.
“Which guy is that again?” I asked.
“That’s Erik.”
“So where’s Liam?” I asked, unable to hide my curiosity any longer.
“He took a couple of the guys and went out tracking,” her voice was edged with worry and my heart fell.
“Tracking?” I asked. “Tracking what? It doesn’t have to do with last night does it?”
She nodded, pressing her lips together.
“Are you serious? Why would he do that? The weather’s still horrible and —”
“I told him the same thing, but he wouldn’t listen. He was determined to find the guy who did that to you.”
My heart started racing, and I began feeling lightheaded. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear. If something happened to Liam because of me, I’d never forgive myself. Not to mention the thought of being at the camp without him was terrifying.
“When did he leave?” I questioned, reaching my tent and unzipping the door.
The Camp Page 4