The three other teams were buzzing with both excitement and relief as they connected at other tables throughout the room.
“Dunk’s telling them that because we’re a five-man team—the other teams each have six; two campers dropped out this afternoon, so… Anyway, because there’s only five of you, he’s going to allow me to join you when you compete,” Jim explained as Clark and Kenneth sat down, too. “At least until there’re more dropouts to even things out.”
The two boys—both looking uncharacteristically grim—purposely chose chairs on either side of Ashley, ensuring that neither Todd nor Bull would be able to sit too close to her.
“That’s supposed to be a good thing?” Clark asked. “Dude, you hide the limp pretty well, but no one is fooled. Speculation abounds about the extent of your injuries.”
Kenneth, surprisingly, defended Jim to Clark. “Still, he’s a SEAL. This training is a vacation for him. Our paltry challenges are things he can do with both hands tied behind his back.”
Clark turned to his friend. “Yeah, but look at the rest of us. Out of you, me, and Ash,she’sthe most athletic. Add in the rage twins over there…”
Across the room, Dunk was still listening to whatever Very Important Thing Bull was earnestly telling him. One possibility was that both Bull and Todd would decide to go home early. Jim hoped that wouldn’t happen—at least not right away.
“Can Lieutenant Slade do ourpaltry challengeswith both handsandfeet tied?” Clark asked Kenneth.
“Whose idea was it?” Ashley suddenly asked. She looked up, directly at Jim.
He knew what she meant—and that she wanted him to say it was Dunk’s idea to put Bull and Todd on their team. But he wasn’t going to lie. “It was mine.”
She nodded. “Okay. Wow. Your apology,” she said. “It worked.”
Jim didn’t understand. “Worked?”
“I was disarmed,” she admitted. “I thought… Well, my bad.”
“Ho, now,” Jim said. “I meant what I said. Andyousaid you wanted to learn something.”
“I wanted to learn somethingnew,” she told him, way too evenly. Why wasn’t she more visibly upset? She was rather freakishly calm. “I mastered getting my ass grabbed the summer before seventh grade.”
And… she wasn’t upset because apparently this experience was unfolding exactly as she’d expected it to unfold. Seventh grade was twelve, thirteen years old… Holy shit. “Boys can be idiots,” Jim started.
“These weren’t boys,” she informed him coolly. “They were grown men. Friends of my father’s. I learned to keep my distance.”
Christ. “You should’ve learned to tell someone—”
“Believe me, I did.” She took another sip of her wine. “I also learned that no one cares.”
“I care,” Jim said.
She laughed. “You sure have a funny way of showing it.”
“You could quit,” he pointed out.
“I could,” Ashley agreed.
“Incoming,” Kenneth murmured, and they both looked up to see that Bull and Todd had finished their conversation with Dunk and were stomping toward their table.
“Brace yourself for impact,” Clark muttered, “in three, two…”
***
“Team One,” Bull said, putting his glass of beer down on the table with so much force that the amber liquid sloshed over the sides. He looked directly at Ashley. “We’ll have to make the best of this, won’t we?”
She looked over to see Lieutenant Slade—their team instructor—watching her steadily from across the table.
“The girl and the gay dudes,” Todd said with a scornful laugh as he sat down. He was a slightly smaller, thinner version of Bull.
“Thank you, but… we’re not gay,” Kenneth said. “We’re just…”
