Fuuuck. I shouldn’t have just signed myself up to stay here. I should get far, far away. I was fine just admiring Brooks earlier, when I thought he was off limits. This could lead me into dangerous water, if I stay. But to see who I now know is Brooks’ ex treating him this way? Who am I to leave now, when I promised him the help he so desperately needs?
Then, an unwarranted feeling of jealousy washes over me. I have no stake in Brooks, but I can’t help but feel conflicted about why I’m practically green with envy right now. Where does Kai get off on belittling Brooks like he has in the little time I’ve spent here, and why does Brooks justallowit?
“You really don’t have to stick around and help out, though,” Brooks adds. “I’ll figure out how to get it done somehow. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I’ve got many hands here now who can help me.”
I shake my head. “You got a place I can stay for the night?”
Brooks bites his lip, and his chin dips. His gaze falls to his feet. “I haven’t had time to get the staff cabin ready yet for the few who stay on-premises for the season. It’s a mess.”
“Doesn’t need to be pretty, I just need a place to stay the night,” I reassure him.
“Well, if you insist. I guess I could at least go make sure there aren’t any critters that are hiding out in there as well. Come on, let me show you the way. And…” His emerald green eyes flick between mine, and I get the faintest sense that he’s letting go of some of his guardedness. “Thank you, again, for what you did just now. Sticking up for me. And fixing my car. And for playing animal control officer…” he trails off, chuckling sheepishly.
“It’s no big deal,” I reply earnestly. Because it isn’t, truly. My secret aside, I am pretty handy. If he’s got the supplies already, it’s all easy work.
He fixes me with a look. “It is, though. It’s a big deal for me, anyway,” he says vaguely.
And it makes me wonder,whyis that?
Chapter Six
“Sir?” A nervous voice snaps my attention away from my current project, making sure I have all the campers’ health history forms uploaded for Sherri, our camp nurse. I peer up from my laptop to find Colton Waters in my office doorway. “Do you have a second?” he adds.
I really don’t, but I lie anyway, “Sure. Come on in.” No matter what, I always make time for these kids. Even if the kids happen to also be staff now.
I gesture at the plush, papasan chair in front of the window that overlooks the lake. I felt it was best suited there—so that during sessions, my clients didn’t feel like they were confined in a shrink’s office. It perturbs me to be referred to as a shrink; I don’t want to be so clinical. My job as a LCSW suits the mission I had in mind for the camp just fine, without having to go through all the extra, costly, schooling to become a psychiatrist. Also, while I do believe that medications can oftentimes be helpful—necessary, even—theprocess to becoming a licensed prescriber is long and arduous. Best left to someone who has more time and resources than myself.
Colton fidgets, but then takes a couple steps in and sits.
“You settling in alright?” I ask him.
He nods. “Y-yeah,” he stammers. “I mean, I think I’m going to like it here…”
I smile and pull off my thick-rimmed readers—my ‘Clark Kent glasses’, as Morgan calls them, adding that they do indeed make me look like a dork, who is secretly a superherobaddie—setting them on the desk in front of me. I sit back in my chair and cross my outstretched legs at the ankles, hoping he’ll read my body language and relax a little himself. It works, because he goes from resting on the edge of the chair to sinking into it.
“You’ve put in a lot of hard work these past couple of days,” I tell him, noting the way the praise perks him up. Briefly, I wonder if his parents ever do the same. “You fitting in with the others, so far?”
He nods more assuredly now. “Yeah. The other counselors are pretty chill.” He shrugs. “They haven’t given Petro any shit either, which is nice.”
I nod. “I vetted all you work-campers to make sure everyone would be respectful and accepting of him being trans ahead of time. In fact, because I’m gay myself, I would never hire anyone here that wasn’t an ally to the gay community. We have a good bunch,” I assure him. On his insistence, Nikolas’ mother was another parent who reached out to me ahead of time to make sure this would be a safe place for him.
“Good.” Colton nods. “I wish Petro had that back home…” he sighs sullenly, but doesn’t seem to want to elaborate more. I don’t pry. I don’t really think I have to, because I get it. I know places like Alder Notch don’t exist everywhere. It sucks that not every place can be as accepting as it is here.
I change the subject, because that’s just a whole different whirlpool I don’t want to get caught up in. “You seem to have hit it off with Morgan, too,” I note with a chuckle, having observed them the last couple of days spending a fair amount of time together, as the group gets the camp ready. Dare I say, they appear quite twitterpated with one another. “Or is she bullying you into being friends with her? She’s pretty good like that,” I tease.
His cheeks get pink, and I’m growing even more convinced we have a little crush going on here. “She didn’t bully me, no,” he says, biting back a grin. “She’s nice.”
I nod. “I agree, though you know I’m a little biased.”
“She calls you ‘Dad’,” he remarks, “but on the tour, you said she’s your niece, right?”
I chuckle, because we get that a lot. “I did. She is biologically my niece, yes, but I’ve been ‘Dad’ to her since she was eight. Her mother, my sister, passed away, so I adopted Morgs.”
“Her mom died, too?” he asks, his blue eyes—a stunning match to Evan’s—alight with sudden piqued interest.
I make a mental note of the ‘too’ in that statement. Sounds like Colton and Morgan have that in common.
“Yes,” I tell him. “She’s pretty open about it. You might reach out to her to see how she’s handled growing up without her mother, if that’s something you think might help you,” I offer.
