“See? Everything is going to be all right. Let’s go eat our breakfast on thedeck,yeah?”
And that’s exactly whatwedid.
* * *
“Doyou think you bought enoughfirewood?”
Aaron snickered as he dropped the last two bundles of wood on the blanket I’d laid out when he first asked me to help him set everything up. “This is all they had,” he explained. “I’m surprised they even had this much left after the Fourth of July yesterday. Pass me four pieces, would you,stalker?”
It was my turn to snicker as I handed him what he asked for. We’d come out to the beach right after dinner, finding the spot we’d found earlier that others before us had used as a fire pit. Large heavy rocks had already been lined up in a large circle. I’d noticed that morning when we’d come out to the beach, with me in the ridiculous, large hat, that there were only about half the amount of people who had been sunbathing and swimming the day before. It’d been another painful reminder that this whole trip was coming to aclose.
But I tried not to let it show on my face. I smiled at Aaron every time he’d been watching, and every time he hadn’t. I was going to eat up every moment we had left together and store it all up for when we weren’t. And then,then, I’d think about all the things he had said and all the things he had hinted at and all the things he had promised me. I just wanted to swallow up everything else in themeantime.
“Do you need help?” I asked him as he walked in a circle around the pit, looking at the center of it with a furrow between hisbrows.
Aaron snickered. “I know what I’mdoing.”
“I didn’t say youdidn’t.”
He walked directly in front of me, grazing his fingers across my cheek before stooping. “I was an EagleScout.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” heanswered.
“It’s hard to get your badge for that,isn’tit?”
One of those brown eyes peeked at me over hisshoulder. “Yeah.”
“I always wanted to be aBrownie.”
I could see him pause where he was, his hands loose in front of him as he arranged the wood into a teepee-shape. “Youcouldn’t?”
“No. No money. My mom didn’t have time to take me to meetings.” I wrung my hands. “She had work and night school. It was tough. Maybe one day when I’m older I can lead my own troop or something. That wouldbefun.”
“Your mom went to night school?” he asked, his backtome.
“Oh yeah. That’s why we were so tight. She went back to get her degree right after my dad left. She’d dropped out of college when they got married. That’s actually how they met. She was an intern at a firm he worked at. She was young and wanted to have kids. Then after that, she got her master’s; she wanted to be an auditor. She’s kind of amazing. I didn’t think of it too much when I was a kid, all I knew was that she was gone a lot and my aunt and grandpa would watch us all the time during the week. Then Saturdays were for homework and Sundays were our family day. She apologized to us a few times once we were older, but we all told her she didn’t have anything to apologize for. She busted her buttforus.”
“My dad worked all the time too, so I know what you mean, but he just likesworking.”
The reminder of his dad’s work made this uneasy feeling fill my stomach. Did I play stupid or did I say something? Watching the lines of his back, I knew my answer the second I questioned it. “Aaron.”
“Yeah?”
“You know I don’t care that your dad is loaded,right?”
Slowly, slowly, he pivoted around in his crouch and staredatme.
I smiled. “I know I look pretty oblivious, butI’mnot.”
“Ruby—”
“I just wish you would have told meyourself.”
His mouth opened and it gaped, the skin on his neck turning pink and getting darker as the color rode up his jawline and filled his cheeks. “I was going to.It’sjust—”
I held up my hand to stop him. “It’s none of my business. I just wanted you to know that I knew isall,okay?”
