Romilly giggles. “You’re just jealous no one asked you to do their eyebrows.”
I lean against the wall across from her. “That must be it. My deepest regret in life, right there.”
A twitch of a smile graces her lips. “You play too much.”
“I’m a delight,” I correct.
“Annoying.”
“Charming.” I push off the wall and step closer. “And you think so, too. Otherwise, you would have never refused to admit who you last thought about kissing.”
“Admitting anything would have been inappropriate.”
“Fair enough.” I lean down until our faces are level. “But if you want me to kiss you, all you need to do is say the word.”
She stares at my mouth, making her cheeks flush. She sits up straighter on the bunk. “We can’t do this, Bash. I told you that back at the farm.”
Frustration boils inside me. “So just to be clear, all of this—” I motion between us. “—this tension is just my imagination?”
She crosses her arms. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
“Romilly…if I stayed in Meadow Hills, would you want to be with me?”
She closes her eyes. Exhales. When she opens them again, it’s like she’s taking off a mask. Her gaze sweeps over me with clear, unfiltered desire.
It sets my entire body on fire.
“I can’t answer that. You have to make that choice regardless of what I want.” It’s nothing more than a mumble, but it’s laced with all the same things I’m feeling and trying to fight.
But I don’t have a chance to process her words because the campers begin filtering in.
Romilly jerks her gaze away from mine like she just woke up from a trance.
I rise from the bed, swallowing the ache in my throat.
“Ohhh, it’s warm in here,” Angelina says, tossing her sweater onto the nearest bunk. “Things always seem to heat up between you two.”
“Actually,” I mutter, heading for the door, “they feel pretty cold to me, at the moment.”
Romilly shoots me a sharp look. I shoot her one right back.
Somehow, the teens don’t notice. Cami is already recounting a dramatic retelling of her truth-or-dare moment like she’s auditioning for a play, and Dev passes out stickers she’s been collecting for the other girls to see.
As I head back to Cabin A, I can’t stop thinking about what Romilly said.
You have to make that choice regardless of what I want.
Yeah, I do. And if I had my way, I’d stay right here and never leave her. But if she doesn’t want me back, the last thing I want to do is stay in a town so small, I’ll be forced to watch her be with someone else right in my face.
But at the same time, I almost don’t care how much of her I get. As long as I get her.
Chapter Twenty
ROMILLY
I don’t wantto do the kayaking activity. I really don’t. Not only is it cold outside, but my hair is freshly washed and straightened for the week, so possibly tipping over and plummeting into the lake is the last way I want to spend my morning. But it’s on our schedule for today, and as the only counselor in my group, I have no choice.
The sun is warm on my skin. It’s the kind of autumn day that makes me forget winter is coming. Orange and red leaves float lazily down from the trees lining the lake’s edge, dotting the surface like little boats of their own. They mingle with the actual boats already holding two teens each. Everyone is partnered up, and when Heidi and Taylor—the last two in my cabin—take the oars and push off in their own boat, I’m the odd one out.
