“Nothing,” he replied casually. “I thought I’d walk you to your next session.”
“Oh. Okay. I guess I’m done eating.” She stood and collected her trash. “I’ll see you guys at dinner,” she said, stepping over the bench.
Clint put his hand on the small of her back, low enough that it grazed the top of her butt. So tacky. He gave us all a big grin before winking at Shelly. “See ya, Shell-bell.” Her face turned positively red. I had no clue why, but it appeared I wasn’t the only person annoyed by Clint at the moment.
“You ready?” Chloe asked. I’d gone back to the cabin after dinner to brush my teeth and change my shirt. Now we were standing in front of the lodge.
I bowed to her. “Show me how to sweep, oh great leader.”
She curtsied, one long leg extending behind the other. She definitely had the grace of a dancer. “My pleasure.”
Starting on the north side of the building, we worked our way around the quad, going clockwise. After that we moved to the main trail, weaving between cabins and knocking on doors when the rooms looked occupied. It was a good way to meet people. Chloe gave me tips on the most efficient way to cover ground and showed me all the popular hiding spots along with a few of the more secret ones. I’d have never thought to look in some of those places, but that was the benefit of being trained by a former camper.
She walked me to a thick patch of brush. From the trail, it just looked like some tall bushes. But when we crept around the backside, a cozy pocket was revealed, easily big enough for a couple and completely sheltered from view.
I whistled. “This is a good one. Dare I ask how you know about it?”
“You can, but I’ll never tell,” she sang.
“Be honest, were you one of those dodgy rule breakers?”
A mask of innocence slipped over her face, and she placed her hand on her chest. With big eyes, she fluttered her long lashes. “Who, me? Never.”
“Yeah, that was super believable.” I chuckled as we moved a little farther through the trees and stopped at a grouping of rocks. She raised her finger to her lips and motioned for me to check behind them. I snuck around the corner but came up empty. It was slightly disappointing. Not that I hoped to find kids playing tonsil hockey, but if I had, it’d have been fun to bust them up. “All clear,” I said with a sigh.
“I did dumb stuff every now and then,” Chloe admitted. “But never anything too sketchy. My biggest offense was probably when I got in trouble for sneaking into the walk-in refrigerator. On hot days, my friend Pearl and I would hide in the back and snack on any sweets we could find.”
I gasped dramatically. “You’re a thief?!”
She giggled. “The funny part is that nobody cared too much that we were stealing food. It was more about hiding in the fridge. Vivian was worried other people would catch on and Benji would be shooing kids out of it all day. There’s an electronic lock on that door now because of me. Pearl and I had to do dishes for a week.”
“Such a rebel.” I clucked my tongue in disapproval. “But you still haven’t answered my original question. How do you know about all the hiding spots? Did you frequent the make-out bush?”
The second I asked, I wished I hadn’t. Hearing about fifteen-year-old Chloe swapping spit with some brace-faced kid wouldn’t bother me. But what if she’d gone there with Clint last year? Or worse…after lunch today.
She hemmed and hawed for a few seconds. “I wouldn’t say frequented.”
Another gasp, even more dramatic this time. “Naughty girl.” I tsked and shook my finger at her. She batted it away.
“I only went to the make-out bush once. It was my junior year, with a boy named Jack. He was way cute.” Relief washed over me, until she added, “All the other times were at the beach under the dock.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. I stared at her while she laughed…and laughed…and laughed. Finally, she reached up and pushed my mouth shut.
“I’m kidding!” She paused while I regained my composure. “Under the dock is where the staff go to make out.”
This time I laughed with her. “Is there a lot of dating amongst counselors?”
“Oh, yeah.” She nodded. “Staff romances are unavoidable when you work at a summer camp. The setting is just too romantic.” I scoffed, and she stopped walking, eyebrows raised in challenge. “You don’t agree?”
“What’s so romantic about dirt, bugs, and a hundred annoying high schoolers?”
Chloe snorted as she shook her head and continued back to the trail. “You’re such a guy.”
I hurried to catch up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means all you see is the dirt and the bugs and the kids. I see the wind rustling through the leaves while you’re lying in the hammock next to someone you like. I see two people on the lake, alone in a canoe at sunset. I see couples snuggling up by the fire or holding hands on a walk through the woods.” She leaned over and nudged me in the arm with her shoulder. “Don’t you ever think about that kind of stuff?”
“I’m thinking about it now,” I responded. Her eyes bulged and I gasped. “Shoot, that came out way wrong! I didn’t mean it like that.” I tried to backpedal, but it only made me sound worse.
Chloe stared at the ground, and there was a moment of awkward silence before she glanced up, all shy-like. “So the idea of being romantic with me repulses you?”
Her bottom lip poked out and trembled. Her eyes got glassy as tears welled up in them. She was about to cry. Oh no. I’d hurt her feelings. And I didn’t know her well enough yet to understand how to fix the mistake. My head started to spin.
“I didn’t say that. What I was trying to say was…” There were no suitable words to get me out of this, so I just stopped speaking. That’s when she sucked in her cheeks, and I realized I’d been played. “You’re messing with me!” I practically shrieked and shoved her on the shoulder. Chloe dropped to the ground, howling. “You suck.” I grumbled and stomped off.
“Wait!” She called and ran to catch up. I slowed down. “I’m sorry. That was mean.”
I glared at her. “Dancer, my rear end. You should be an actress.”
She wove her arm around mine and grabbed my bicep again, like she had at lunch. “I couldn’t help it. You were listening so intently. It’s like you served me the opening on a silver platter. Clint never pays that much attention to what I’m saying.”
“Yeah, well, Clint’s a dishrag.”
“A what?”
“A dishrag.”
“Ha. that’s a new one. Sounds like someone’s not a fan,” she teased.
I hadn’t meant to bag on him. Now I sounded like a giant baby. “It’s not that I don’t like him…” That’s exactly what it was like. “He’s just failed to impress me.”
Chloe laughed. “Well, you can join the club. There are a lot of guys here who don’t like Clint.”
Her implication bugged me. I stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her to face me. “I’m not jealous, if that’s what you’re getting at. I have zero reason to be envious of him.”