The Summer Place

by Pamela Hearon

  She rounded the corner of the girls’ bunkhouse as a car turned in the gate. Her parents? What were they doing here? Had some fairy princess magic pulled them to the camp today? Her heart galloped away at the thought. If she gave the outline to them now, they’d have tonight to look it over, and the three of them could sit down and talk it over in-depth tomorrow afternoon after the kids were gone.

  She ran to her cabin and snatched up the pad she’d been working on and then ran out to greet them. Her hurried walk slowed when she saw Rick already shaking hands with her dad, handing him the file folder he always made notes in. She wanted to talk to her parents about her plan alone. Perhaps she could get Rick to load the kids on the bus for her, which would grab her a few minutes with her mom and dad.

  Her dad held out his arms when he saw her coming their way. “How’s my Nubbin?”

  “I’m fantastic!” She hugged them both with enough enthusiasm to bring a question to their expressions.

  “Well, camp life certainly seems to have agreed with you.” Her mom smiled, her glance shifting from Summer to Rick and back.

  She hurried with an answer before her mom got too carried away. “I love it here. I think I’ve found my calling.”

  That brought a laugh from her dad. “For...let’s see...the nineteenth time?”

  “Now, Herschel...” her mom scolded. She turned back to Summer. “Well, if you’re serious, Rick might be able to help you get a job if things work out today the way we hope they will.”

  Summer’s glance shifted to Rick. His huge grin startled her. “What’s going on?” Her gaze darted back to her mom and then her dad. “Why are y’all here, anyway?”

  Her dad clapped Rick on the back. “Rick’s arranged for someone from the state to come look at the property. They might be interested in buying the camp.”

  The words delivered a hurricane-strength punch straight to Summer’s gut. “The state might buy the camp?” No!

  “It’s just a possibility.” Rick’s eyes were set on her as her breathing became stuttered. His smile started to waver. “I thought of it last night, so I made the call to Riley Gibson this morning.”

  “We hadn’t considered selling it this quickly, but if the offer’s right, it could be our chance to get out on top.” Her mom gave Rick an adoring look.

  “Summer should get the credit.” Rick flashed a smile again in her direction. “Having the news article to flaunt during the visit should make them sit up and take notice.”

  Summer’s stomach lurched.

  “Rick’s been drawing maps and diagrams and taking notes to help us out the whole time he’s been here. He’s got a whole file here with photos, measurements. ... Everything’s laid out and ready.”

  One glance at the folder and Summer’s stomach turned over completely. She turned an accusing eye toward Rick. “You’ve known this the whole time? That they were interested in selling?”

  “I, uh, yes.” His face reddened.

  “We swore Rick to secrecy.” Her dad chuckled and gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Didn’t want you getting upset if we decided to sell it to a developer for a subdivision. But we think Rick’s taken care of that.”

  No, no, no! This could ruin everything...all her plans. She closed her eyes and breathed, groping for a light to lead her out of this dark spot. Think...quick! If they were considering selling, anyway, maybe this was her chance.

  A group of boys came out of the dorm and moved in the direction of the bus. Rick waved at their calls to him. “Sorry I won’t be here to introduce you.” He addressed her parents but kept throwing questioning glances Summer’s way. “But you’ll like Riley. He’s very laid-back. Easy to talk to.”

  “I’m sure we’ll get along fine,” her mom assured Rick as he turned to leave.

  Her dad spoke up. “Actually, today was perfect. With the kids gone, we’ll be able to give him a thorough look at everything.”

  Now the girls were making their way to the bus, also, and Rick shot her a look over his shoulder. “You coming, Summer?”

  “I’ll be there in a minute.” This was her only chance. She squared her shoulders and took a nervous breath as he walked away. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and...and figuring, trying to come up with a way that I could buy the camp myself. Or, at least, lease it to buy.” She held up the notepad so that it faced them. “I’ve even been working on a five-year plan of things that I could do to make it pay for itself.”

  Her parents moved in unison. They stared at her, turned to stare at each other, some unspoken communication passing between them, and then moved their placating looks back to her.

  She recognized the look. It was the same one they’d given her when she told them she’d decided to go to culinary school...and take up massage therapy classes...and...

  Her dad ended the silence with his laugh. “With the imagination you’ve got, Nubbin, you need to be writing fantasy stories.” He gave her a hug and nodded toward the bus. “Go on now. We’ve got business to tend to.” He took her mom’s hand, pulling her in the direction of the dining hall.

  Summer followed, determined to make them listen. “No, you need to hear me out.” She walked with them, holding out the tablet again. “I have some great ideas, like moving Fairy Princess Parties here, and renting the facilities out for retreats for various groups—”

  Her mom took the tablet out of her hand and glanced down it. “She does have a lot of ideas here.”

  “I don’t care how many ideas she has, it’s not going to happen.” Her dad’s face turned a deep red as he snatched the tablet from her mom’s grip and thrust it back toward Summer. The three of them came to a stop in the shade of the picnic shelter. “You don’t have money for a down payment, we can’t afford to finance it for you—”

  “I’m not asking you to finance it for me, Daddy—”

  “—and you don’t have any collateral, so no bank is going to finance it for you.” His forehead broke out with sweat even though there was a cool breeze where they stood. He mopped his face on his sleeve. “If we sell to the state, we’ll have the money in hand, free and clear.”

  His breathing labored, and the sound ran shudders up Summer’s spine. She had no right to ask them to give up a sure thing and gamble on her dream. They’d gambled on too many of her dreams in the past.

  Don’t be selfish.

  She took the tablet without further protest.

  “See you tomorrow, dumpling,” her mom called as they headed away from her once more.

  “Yeah. See ya.” Summer stared down at the tablet, watching the words blur. She wiped a hand down her face, still stunned that things had happened so quickly. The hurt was too deep to even cry about yet.

  Slowly, she made her way to the bus, following the last of the girls onto it, and plopped into the driver’s seat with a heavy sigh.

  A trash can sat under the lever that closed the door. She let the notepad drop into the receptacle, feeling its thud at the bottom of her heart.

  * * *

  RICK SAT IN THE SEAT BEHIND the driver’s—the one that had become his usual spot for all the road trips. Summer moved like she’d been trampled by buffalo as she got on the bus.

  He watched her, scrutinizing every movement to try and figure out what in the hell had gone wrong.

  The woman was impossible to please. He’d just given her exactly what she’d wanted—and now she wouldn’t look at him except to give an evil glare when their eyes happened to meet in the rearview mirror.

  She’d thrown away a large notepad when she got on the bus. His gut told him that had to be significant, though he couldn’t for the life of him decipher what a notepad would have to do with Riley Gibson’s visit—a visit she didn’t even know was going to occur until a few minutes ago.

  When they arrived at the zip lines, the crew divided them into four groups with a camp counselor in each group, effectively squelching any hope Rick had of a private word with Summer.

  But a bit of luck was with him. Hi
s group finished first. While they waited for the others to return, his kids played hacky-sack in the parking lot, and he went back to the bus and retrieved the tablet from the trash. One glance at it had made him wish he hadn’t.

  Shitfire and damn it all to hell! She’d written out a plan. To own the camp herself! His stomach drew tighter with every flip of the page. Ideas for moving the Fairy Princess Parties to Camp Sunny Daze. Ideas to rent the facility out to groups for private parties, church groups, businesses, weekend retreats.... She had some wonderfully imaginative ideas that sounded like they could work.

  Too late the realization came to him that he should have talked with her before he’d made the call to Riley. He’d tried to anticipate what she wanted, what she needed. Why hadn’t he just asked and listened to her answer?

  Because first he’d been too busy judging her, then he’d been trying to impress her, trying to win her adoration, trying to fix everything.

  Oh, he’d fixed everything, all right.

  He’d led the enemy directly into her camp.

  Literally.

  Hell-pee-roo.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  RICK STEPPED ONTO SUMMER’S front porch. Catching a glimpse of her through the window, he paused. She was sitting on her couch. Not doing anything. Just sitting. He’d never seen her so still except when she was sleeping.

  The memory of her body pressed against him, her leg slung over his in the abandon of sleep, motivated him forward in a last-ditch effort to make things right between them again.

  He knocked and she opened the door, looking at him dully. “What do you want, Rick?”

  “Can I come in? I need to talk to you. It won’t take long.”

  They didn’t have long. Dinner would be served in about twenty minutes.

  She didn’t answer, just turned and moved back to sit on the couch, leaving the door open. He noticed then that she held her cell phone.

  “Have you heard from your parents?” He took a couple of steps into the cabin. She didn’t offer him a seat, didn’t look in his direction.

  “Just now. The guy you put on to them seems very interested. He told them he’d get back to them soon. Probably early next week.”

  “Summer, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you wanted to buy the camp yourself.”

  That got her attention. Her eyes shot to him and narrowed. “You read my plan.”

  “Your reaction to the news was the opposite of what I expected it to be. I thought you’d be happy, but you weren’t. I was trying to figure out why.”

  “It was my plan, and it was none of your business.”

  “It was in the trash.”

  “Where it belonged. You should’ve left it there.”

  “Maybe you’re right, but—”

  “But you can’t leave things alone, can you? You always have to get involved because you know how to fix it, and you know better than anyone else.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  Anger brought her to her feet. “I’m not fair? That’s the pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think? Does it ever occur to you that someone else might know more about something than you do? I went to camp here for six years. My parents have owned it for five. That’s eleven years my family has invested here. You’ve been around for eight weeks, but in that time you’ve managed to come in and take over and jerk away something precious in my life. What’s fair about that?”

  “You’re right. I should’ve talked to you, but I thought—”

  “No, you didn’t. You didn’t think. You just reacted. You rushed in to save the day, playing the part of the hero like you always do.”

  “If I was playing the part of the hero, it was only for you. I was trying to be your hero.”

  “Don’t feed me that line. You’re still trying to be Dunk’s hero. You set out every day, trying to save Dunk, but every night, he’s still dead, so the nightmares torment you. The next day, you get up and start it all over again.”

  Rick’s gut twisted. “This has nothing to do with Dunk. Leave him out of it.”

  “You’re the one who needs to leave him out of it, but you can’t. You save your friends from the cave, save Kenny in the storm, save me from the snake, save the camp.... No matter how hard you try, how many people or things you save, you’re never going to save him. Dunk’s gone, Rick. Let him go.”

  Her words drove into his brain like a fist, grasping something from its secret depths and jerking it unbidden to the surface.

  “Dunk’s gone, Rick. Let him go.”

  The sunlight around him fractured and the camera in his head zoomed Summer out. Her mouth moved, but her words were lost.

  Dunk was in his arms.

  Heat. Fire. Bullets zinging all around, the repetitive whine of ricochets off the stones. No plan, no strategy. Just run like hell. Get Dunk to someone who can get the bullet out of his neck.

  Damn! He’s losing so much blood! Slick...hard to hold on to.

  His muscles protested the double exertion, shook violently. Sweat poured into his eyes.

  Can’t see...can’t see. Keep running.

  Hands trying to pry Dunk free.

  “Dunk’s gone, Rick. Let him go.” Asa’s voice.

  No! Won’t let go! Letting go means... Oh, God! Not Dunk...please, not Dunk.

  The film rolling in his head stopped and rewound. Back...further back.

  The child was in Dunk’s arms.

  “Give her to me. You can’t carry her.”

  Dunk handed her over. They were running.

  Zing! The bullet...one bullet...only one shot when they had the child. One shot...aimed at whoever wasn’t carrying the little girl.

  And he’d taken her from Dunk’s grasp seconds before.

  Rick’s eyes cleared to reveal Summer’s upraised chin, right in front of him. She advanced a couple of steps and stood close enough to touch him, but she didn’t. She couldn’t feel the icy tremors rolling down his spine, reverberating out to his fingers and toes.

  He took a step backward toward the door. Retreating. “I’m sorry I called you selfish.” He barely recognized his own voice through the thin ringing in his ears. Oh, God! Was he going to pass out?

  Summer reached around him and opened the screen door. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  Rick backed through the door and off the porch, an eerie numbness settling deep in his chest. It seemed to originate from the granite star hanging on the chain and bored its way through the tattoo over his heart.

  He stumbled to his cabin and into the bathroom where he heaved up the contents of his stomach. Filling the sink with cold water, he rinsed his face repeatedly until the nausea passed...but the truth remained.

  Summer was right. He always had to be the hero.

  And it had cost him the life of his best friend.

  * * *

  THE EXCITEMENT FROM THE afternoon of zip-lining had run its course, replaced by a mellowness that settled over the group like a cozy wrap...for everyone except Summer.

  A chunk of ice hung in her chest, occupying the area that had once held her heart.

  Everyone sat in a semicircle on the beach, where the gentle waves lapping behind them should’ve been mesmerizing and calming in their regularity. But Summer’s insides were a matted, twisted conglomeration of emotions.

  “I know all of you have seen a crow.” Rick’s mellow voice captured her attention. “But did you know that the crow wasn’t always black? Back in the earliest times, when the world was first created, the crow was the most beautiful bird of all. He had feathers the colors of the rainbow, and his song was the sweetest sound ever heard.”

  Tara’s idea for each of the counselors to tell a story while dressed in costume had been a stroke of genius. The kids had remained entranced throughout Summer’s story of the ill-equipped fairy princess who tamed a dragon using only a bubble wand. Neil’s ninja tale, purposely chosen so he could be dressed in black for the next part he was to play in tonight’s drama, was a huge hit also.

 
Tara’s true story, told in full Irish brogue, of her great-grandmother’s coming to America during the potato famine had moved some of the girls to tears, giving Summer the perfect opportunity to wipe away the occasional tear of her own.

  Now Rick, dressed in a Native American garb of buckskin, had the kids captivated by his tale. “Rainbow Crow couldn’t stand to see the animals freezing beneath the heavy snow and ice, so he told them, ‘I’ll go to the Creator and ask him to stop the cold.’ The journey was a long one. Rainbow Crow flew for three days and nights.”

  So Rainbow Crow chose to be the hero. No wonder he chose that particular story. Summer forced her mouth into a smirk.

  In contrast, her stomach churned of its own accord as she remembered the way she’d lashed out at him, saying what she had about Dunk. It needed to be said. He needed to hear it. But that kind of thing shouldn’t have been spewed in retaliation.

  The look on his face was like nothing she’d ever seen. Anguish personified. She’d been angry...lashed out to hurt him...wanted him to feel some of the pain she carried.

  Well, she’d been successful there.

  But instead of vindication, her guts were twisted by shame.

  She brushed away another tear.

  “I was trying to be your hero.”

  No one had ever tried to be her hero—except her dad.

  “The Creator jabbed the end of the stick into the sun, allowing it to catch fire, then he handed it to Rainbow Crow. ‘Take this back to Earth,’ he said. ‘It is fire and it holds the warmth you seek to save your world.’”

  Rick’s eyes met Summer’s for only a split second, but long enough for her to be reminded of the fire she’d seen in them when they made love. The chunk of ice in her chest melted a little. She could feel the trickle worming its way through her, leaving a warm trail where it meandered.