“It was a bit of a rush to get here in time,” Honey admitted. “But I’m sure I’ll soon learn my way around.”
“Well, Buck knows where everything is around here.” Zephyr’s eyes crinkled as though at some private joke. “Especially your cabin. He can take you there now.”
“What?” Buck said.
“That would be great,” Honey said. Determined to recover from her disastrous first impression, she turned to Buck, dredging up a smile. “That will give us a chance to talk. We should get to know each other, since we’re—”
Co-counselors, she’d intended to say, but she never got the chance. Buck descended on her like a force of nature, all power and purpose, his muscled body abruptly right up in her personal space. Every word she’d ever learned fell straight out of her head.
“Right,” Buck said loudly. He seized her elbow—Honey’s few remaining brain cells sizzled and fused—pulling her toward the door. “We should talk.In private.”
“It was nice meeting you both!” Honey managed to squeak as Hurricane Buck swept her away. “Thank you again, director!”
“Thankyou,” Zephyr said, putting an odd emphasis onthe final word. “Oh, and Uncle?”
Honey didn’t know who he meant until Buck paused. He looked back at the younger man warily.
So far, Honey had formed an impression of Zephyr as a nice, rather quiet man; not at all the dominant, driven entrepreneur she’d expected, given that he was the founder of the camp. Now, as Zephyr met Buck’s eyes, she had a sudden appreciation that hehadbuilt this whole place. Here was someone who’d had a dream, and made it reality, and would protect it at any cost.
“Don’t cause problems,” Zephyr said, and there was steel in his tone. “Remember what we discussed. I can’t afford to loseanycounselors this year.”
Buck’s jaw tightened. He gave Zephyr a curt, jerky nod before hustling Honey out of the office.
The moment they emerged into the sunshine, Buck let go of her arm. He sprang away from her, back-pedaling a good six feet, as though fearing she might try to tackle him to the ground if he stayed within arms’ reach.
“Sorry,” Buck said gruffly. His right thumb rubbed across his fingertips, as though he too still felt the heat of that brief contact. “Didn’t mean to manhandle you like that.”
Certain parts of Honey had not been handled by any man in quite some time, and were letting it be known that they would not object to more of it. She swallowed, attempting to recover at least an ounce of dignity. “Why the sudden rush?”
Buck grimaced. “Panicked. Didn’t want you to say it out loud. Especially not in front of Zeph.”
Honey blinked at her co-counselor, nonplussed. “Um, I’m pretty sure he already knows.”
Buck stared at the closed door as though wondering whether he could get away with striding back in and murdering everyone. “Probably.”
Before she could point out that Zephyr had literally just introduced them to each other as co-counselors, and thus that ‘probably’ was definitely a ‘definitely’, Buck shook his head. Raking a hand through his hair, he turned away from the door.
“Damn freaks might still be able to hear us,” he muttered, then winced, glancing at her. “No offence. You get here by car?”
Honey was starting to get mental whiplash from this conversation. “Uh, yes?”
Buck grunted. Without warning, he set off for the parking lot, so abruptly that she was left behind. She had to break into an embarrassing bouncing trot to catch up with him, and even then she couldn’t quite match his pace. No matter how she stretched her legs, he stayed a half-step ahead of her, covering the ground in long, steady strides.
“Zephyr called you uncle,” she said, hoping that if she made conversation, he’d slow down. “You’re related?”
Buck grunted again, not pausing. “My sister’s son.”
“Oh, so the camp’s a family business?”
He let out a huff of humorless laughter, still not looking back. “As of about five minutes ago. Don’t usually have anything to do with the place. Zeph twisted my arm into helping out this year. He couldn’t get anyone else.”
That explained Zephyr’s comment about not being able to afford to lose any counselors. And also why a man who looked like he wrestled lions for a living was crammed into a camp t-shirt.
“You don’t seem very happy about it,” Honey ventured.
“I am the exact opposite of happy about any of this.” They’d reached the parking lot. Without so much as a glance at the other vehicles, Buck strode unerringly to her car. “You got the key?”
“Uh, yeah. Hang on.” As she fumbled in her pocket, she couldn’t help asking, “How did you know which one was mine?”
