“Two.”
His eyes widened. “No way.”
She nodded. “Not kidding. Dad’s secretary dropped me off at Briarwood in August, and Mom’s secretary picked me up in June and brought me to camp. I saw them on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day after Christmas, they left for a cruise, and I stayed home with the nanny until it was time to come back to Briarwood.”
“Wow, I’m really sorry, Gabriela. I had no idea.” Luke felt guilty for assuming her life had been just one candy-coated, gold-plated carnival ride up till now.
She shrugged. “It is what it is, right? It’s not like I got dropped off on church steps in the dead of winter. I mean, I had everything I needed, and Briarwood’s an excellent school. I turned out okay.”
Luke looked out onto the dead-calm lake, lit by an almost-full moon. He had a feeling Gabriela could well use a distraction right now, and he had the perfect idea. “Hey. Feel like an adventure?”
Her eyebrows went upward. “What kind of adventure?”
“The kayaking-at-midnight-under-a-full-moon kind.”
She pulled her knees closer to her body. “I don’t know. I’ve never even been in a kayak in the daylight. And this lake is deep.”
“Well, despite what you saw when the girls played bumper boats, it’s actually not that easy to tip them over. Promise.”
She glanced toward the dining hall. “I don’t know, Luke. We shouldn’t leave the girls.”
“Oliver’s right in his cabin. He’ll hear anything that needs hearing, and the dogs are with them. The girls know to go to him if they can’t find us, right?”
“Yes, but—”
He stood up and reached out a hand. “Come on, Gabriela. It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
He saw Gabriela glance down, just as she always did when he said those words. At the beginning of the summer, it had kind of amused him that she so obviously distrusted him.
But now? Now it hurt. And he needed to fix it.
Chapter 28
Half an hour later, Gabi paused her paddle and looked up at the sky, marveling at the thousands of stars sprinkled around the moon.
“Gorgeous, huh?” Luke’s kayak slid up beside hers, bumping softly.
“Indescribable.” She sighed. “I think we get so busy looking around that we forget to look up.”
“That’s why I love to teach the astronomy stuff. Kids eat it up. Even your jaded, we’re-way-too-old-for-this girls liked it the other night.”
“Yeah, they did, actually. Of course, maybe they paid attention because they’re plotting their escape, and you showed them how to navigate by the stars. Totally putting that on you if they bolt.”
“Gotcha. But I’m pretty sure they aren’t going anywhere. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say they might actually even like it here now.”
“Well, we have improved the facilities substantially.”
He laughed. “Touché. True. You know, if I had to hazard another guess, I’d say you might kind of like it here, too.”
“Oh, see, now you’re pushing it.” Gabi smiled as she dipped her paddle in the water and pushed smoothly away from him, knowing instinctively that he’d follow. She made quiet splashes on the water as her boat glided silently toward the tiny island he’d pointed out just offshore. Luke had been right. She loved it.
“You don’t like it here?” He came up alongside her, just far enough away so that their paddles didn’t clash.
“Well, there are some things I like about—here.”
“The hot camp director, right? I mean, that one’s totally obvious.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “Oliver is definitely dreamy.”
Luke paused his paddle, then dipped it in the water with a twist of his wrist, sending droplets flying toward her.
She laughed and tried to do the same thing back at him, but only managed to get her boat tipping from side to side, so she grabbed the edges with her hands before she went completely over.
“Huh.” Luke circled her playfully in his kayak. “Looks like somebody could have used a few more games of bumper boat.”
“I didn’t have any games of bumper boat! And don’t you dare bump my boat.” Gabi laughed as she tried to spin around fast enough to keep track of him as he paddled.
In the moonlight, he looked like a cross between an impish teenager … and a Greek god. His smile was pure playfulness, but his body? She ached to feel it against hers again.
“So.” He finally stopped circling and paddled up beside her. “About that rom-com.”
She smiled. “What about that rom-com?”
“I think you’re officially at the part where it’s okay to fall for the hot camp director.” He put up a finger. “The one that’s not Oliver.”
Gabi laughed. “Sounds kind of dangerous.”
Sounds incredibly dangerous. Hot, scary, awesomely dangerous.
“It could be—I’ll give you that.” He paddled slowly beside her. “There’s the very real danger that we could fall madly in love and end up holed up in my cabin playing endless games of Scrabble.”
She laughed out loud. “Scrabble?”
“Or variations on the game. I can be flexible if it’s not your thing.” He shrugged. “I have Monopoly.”
Looking at his fake-earnest face, it was all Gabi could do not to kiss him right there in the middle of the lake.
“Luke, I’m pretty sure if I were to hole up in your cabin, Scrabble wouldn’t be the first thing I’d be thinking of doing.”
He stopped paddling. “What would be the first thing you’d want to do?”
Gabi started to fling another quip his way, but something made her stop. She knew exactly what she’d want to do, and it scared her silly at the same time it exhilarated her.
“I don’t know, Luke.”
He seemed to sense her pulling inside herself, because he set his paddle gently on her boat, pulling her closer.
“Do you need some help thinking of some ideas?”
“No-o. I’m having more trouble not constantly thinking of ideas.”
“So why don’t you look happier about it?”
“Because, Luke.” She sighed. “It scares me.”
“What part?”
“All the parts.”
“Why?”
His voice was soft, and was she hearing pain because she was feeling it? Or because he was?
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, unsure of how to express what she was feeling. Hell, she couldn’t even figure out what she was feeling, let alone put it into words. How was she going to tell him what was going on in her head when it was so damn confusing even to her?
She had no idea.
“Luke, I—I kind of suck at this sort of thing.”
He smiled. “I might beg to differ.”
“That’s because you barely know me.”
“I think I know you better than you’d like to admit.”
“That might be true. And just so you know, that doesn’t make it less frightening.”
Luke took her hand in his, and she was torn between chills and heat as his thumb stroked her fingers. “I’m not your ex. I’m not like anyone else you’ve ever been with. I guarantee that.”
“I know you’re not like—anyone else. I know that.”
“So is it possible I might be worth a chance?”
She sighed. “Luke, this is what I do. I fall fast, I fall hard … but unfortunately, I also fall dumb. I have seriously flawed radar.”
“Can I repeat the part about I’m not like them?”
“You can repeat it till you’re blue in the face, but I’m well-conditioned at this point not to hear you. I know it’s not fair. Believe me, Luke. I wish I wasn’t this way. I so, so do, because none of it’s fair to you. I never should have let things go as far as I did, but God, I just couldn’t help it.”
“And that should tell you something, shouldn’t it? Like, maybe instead of trying to deliver cheesy breakup lines you don’t really mean, you could maybe
just let me kiss you right now?”
“Oh, definitely not.”
He chuckled. “Because that would be awful?”
“Terrible. The worst.”
He grinned and put a hand to his chest like she’d stabbed him. “I’m hurt.”
“I just … can’t, Luke. You deserve somebody who can go all in, and that’s not me right now. There’s just too much going on, and too much baggage that’s not nearly far enough away in the rearview mirror. It wouldn’t be fair to you. And seriously? We’ve only got two weeks left, and then I’m gone and you’re here. There’s no realistic way we can make it work.”
She saw his jaw harden, and felt immediately guilty. Dammit, she didn’t know what she was saying.
He looked at her, scanning her face, landing on her lips, her eyes, her hair … back to her lips.
“I’ll tell you what,” he finally said.
“What?” Her voice was a whisper.
“You kiss me once. Right here, right now, out on this lake in the moonlight … and then you tell me we can’t make this work.”
“No.” Her voice shook as his thumb caressed the palm of her hand in slow, slow circles. “There will be no kissing.”
“One kiss, Gabriela.” He raised his eyebrows. “One kiss, and if after that kiss, you tell me you don’t think we have something worth at least exploring here, then I will stop asking.”
She tried not to look into his eyes, knowing how dangerous it was to do so. But even in the moonlight, their deep emerald green just made her want to melt, not paddle away from him.
And as if he sensed it, he reached up, using his fingers to trace her jaw, pulling her closer, closer … and then his lips were on hers, and she couldn’t pull away.
* * *
Hours later, her kayak hit the sandy shore with a swoosh and a bump, and Gabi did her best to look remotely graceful pushing herself out of it. She was pretty sure she failed. Luke, on the other hand, popped out of his boat and into the shallow water without looking like he’d first had to speak firmly to his limbs about cooperating.
Once they’d pulled their boats up onto shore and slid their paddles into the rack, Luke turned to her, a lazy smile on his face. He put his arms around her, then turned her around and pulled her back against his body. With his chin resting on her head, he pointed toward Kizilla Mountain.
“Looks like you kept me up all night, sweetheart. Now we get to watch the sunrise.”
Gabi sighed, sinking back against him, loving the way his body heated hers … loving the mixture of hard planes and taut muscle. If it weren’t for the fact that four girls would be waking up within the next hour expecting to be entertained, she’d be perfectly happy to stay like this, with his arms wrapped around her, all day, reliving the hours they’d just spend paddling the perimeter of the lake, lost in conversation until he’d pointed at the Camp Echo dock light and her heart had sunk, realizing they were back … realizing that their magical, completely unexpected night had come to an end.
She smiled, exhausted but elated. Maybe they really could figure out how to make things work between them. Maybe, if they both wanted it badly enough. If they wanted each other enough.
She sighed happily. “I love the sunrise here.”
“Oh, good. I’m putting that on the list.”
“What list is that?”
“The list of all the reasons why you should eventually realize you actually want to live here in Echo Lake.”
“Not that we’re rushing things. At all.”
“I said ‘eventually.’ That was my out.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I see you rolling your eyes, missy.” He squeezed her ribs, making her laugh. “And less than an hour ago, you agreed to give us a chance.”
“A chance is different from deciding to move here. Much, much different.” She turned around in his arms, sliding her fingers up to trace his five o’clock shadow. “We barely know each other, Luke. That’s our reality, whether you’re in the mood to admit it or not.”
His face went serious. “I know it is, Gabriela. I know it is, and yet somehow I feel like I’ve known you forever. I don’t pretend to get it, but there it is. And really, I’m finding it pretty impossible to ignore this.”
On the last word, he leaned closer and kissed her softly—just a whisper of butterfly wings, really—and yet the kiss almost melted her knees.
He pulled away, running the backs of his fingers over her cheek as he searched her eyes. “I know the girls will be up soon, or I’d be pulling you back to my cabin right now. But promise me you’ll come tonight, Gabriela. Please?”
Gabi swallowed carefully, knowing that if she did that, then there was absolutely no going back. She was already head over heels, and if she fell into his bed one more time … if she woke up under his downy-soft quilt that smelled like the firs on Kizilla Mountain, she’d be lost. Totally, beautifully, unforgivably lost.
“Will you come?” His thumb caressed her bottom lip, and it was all she could do to take a deep breath and slide free of his arms.
“I’ll come.”
He pulled her back to him, squeezing her tightly. “I can’t wait.” Then he turned around and steered her toward the pathway. “Think you can grab an hour of sleep before they wake up?”
Gabi knew she was far too amped up to sleep at this point, even if the girls were still zonked. But she nodded.
“I’ll try. Will we see you at breakfast?”
He shook his head. “Heck, no. I’m exhausted. I’m sleeping till noon.”
Gabi laughed as she headed down the path, and was still smiling as she opened the screen door of the dining hall and crept toward her cot, determined to at least lie down and close her eyes till the girls stirred.
Just as she was about to slide into her sleeping bag, she did her customary scan of the girls’ cots, automatically counting bodies and heads. There were four of each, so she smiled and pulled her ponytail loose, suddenly deliciously tired as she laid her head on her pillow.
Even two days later, she wouldn’t be sure what it was that made her sit back up. She wouldn’t be sure what it was about one cot that pinged her radar. She wouldn’t even be sure why she slid back out of her sleeping bag to take a closer look.
But what she would be sure of was the sight that greeted her when she flipped back Sam’s sleeping bag.
Chapter 29
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Luke’s eyes went wide when he came to his door five minutes later. Gabi had sprinted to his cabin in full-on panic mode, and she was breathing hard.
“Gone, Luke. She’s gone. She was there when I left at ten and went down to the beach. I know she was there. I checked the bathroom, I checked the admin cottage, and I checked the van. She’s not here.”
“So she snuck out when we were on the lake.” He ran a worried hand through his hair as he slid on his hiking boots. “Did you tell Oliver yet?”
“No.” Gabi felt her voice reach a panicky tone. “I came to you first.”
“Where are the other girls?”
“They’re freaking out in the dining hall. I told them not to dare move till we figured out what to do.”
“Okay.” He headed to a closet and pulled out a backpack that looked fully packed. He slung it onto his back and motioned Gabi back out the door. “She left sometime between ten and five, so she’s got some lead time on us. Do you have any idea whether she would have headed for the woods or the road?”
“None. God.” Gabi stumbled to keep up with him as he strode toward the admin cottage. “What if she did something like last time? What if she hiked out to the road? Hitchhiked? She could be anywhere right now.”
He turned to her, gripping her shoulders. “Listen. Freaking out is not going to help us. We need to figure out which direction she went. And to do that, we need to look for clues. Go to the tent and see if she took anything. Grill the girls to see if anybody knows anything. Anything at all.”
In any other situation o
r on any other day, Gabi would resent him telling her what to do, but in her panicky state of mind, it was actually comforting to have orders to follow. She had a feeling he knew that. Thus, the tone. Stacking a night devoid of sleep on top of the terror of finding Sam’s cot empty was seriously compromising her linear thinking.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to call the police.”
“Oh, God.” Gabi put a hand to her throat. He must be worried. She’d hoped for him to be stoic and reassuring and promise they’d find her by breakfast. But his first move was to call the police?
“Does that mean—”
“It doesn’t mean I don’t think we’ll find her half a mile from here in the woods. It just means I’m following protocol and doing what you do in this sort of situation. It’s a big forest, a big lake.”
“Oh, God. The lake. I—oh God, Luke. She wouldn’t have gone in the lake, would she?” Gabi pictured her blond head slipping under the water that horrible day. She could swim now, sort of, but still. In a panic, would she be okay?
“We would have seen her, Gabriela. No, she didn’t go in the water.”
“Okay. All right. Okay.” Gabi spun around, heading for the dining hall. “I’ll go talk to the girls.”
“Tell them to get their survival packs ready.”
“What?” Her jaw dropped. “We can’t send them out to look. Are you crazy?”
“We’re not sending them. We’re taking them with us. It’ll take the search-and-rescue crew an hour or so to mobilize. Between the five of us, we can cover a lot of ground in that time. Chances are good we’ll find her before they even get here.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Gabi and the girls shouldered their packs, sliding water bottles into the slots on one side and granola bars into stuff sacks on the other. The girls were somber, scared, and their silence was far more frightening than if they’d been squealing or squabbling. They all claimed not to have a clue where Sam had gone, or when she’d left. Nobody had heard a thing.
While they waited for Luke to finish briefing the state trooper who’d pulled into the yard five minutes ago, Gabi looked around the dining hall one more time. Sam had taken her own survival pack, and as far as Gabi could tell, she’d filled it with exactly the items Luke had taught them all to pack if they were heading out into the forest for an unknown amount of time.
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