I shift on the decking of the stoop, hard and crooked beneath me, and wait for her to knock. It’d made me nervous, most of today, being apart from her, but Paul had rounded up me and Hammond to help do some tree clearing over by Good News 4, a sweaty and satisfying job that had taken nearly all day.What if we get our stories crossed,I’d thought,what if Lorraine’s asking her about all the shit I haven’t wanted to make up, what if Zoe tells her we met on a website?But when I’d met up with her back here, I’d asked her about it, an agitated edge to my voice that I’d hated. “People who know how to have conversations know how to steer them,” she’d said. “Anyways, the kids were a good distraction. Who can talk when you’ve got someone screaming or crying or holding their privates all the time? Now get out, soI can shower.”
See? Game.
So even though my shoulders feel heavy with tension, thinking about what’s coming in Hammond and Val’s presentation tonight, I’m looking forward to it too, only because I’ll be watching it with her.
A knock comes from behind me, and I stand, brushing off my jeans and taking the deep breath I need to stop thinking about herin the shower.
Inside the cabin it’s humid, steam fogging up the two mirrors, the scent of her shampoo thick in the air. She’s dressed, but she’s dragging a comb through her wet hair, the color of dried wheat when it’s like this, leaving little droplets on the red-and-black flannel she’s got on.
“God,” she says, not even looking at me. “Showers aren’t even relaxing when you’re mostly checking for ticks all the time, I swear. I thought I found one in my hair but it was just a peanut from the Coburgs’ trail mix. I’m telling you, I think my heart stopped for a minute, thinking I’d found a peanut-sized tick.”
She turns her head and looks at me, her brows furrowing. “Don’t have that look on your face. Ticks are not a joke.”
Whatever look I had on my face, I suspect it’s not gotten any more serious, because she sets down her comb a little aggressively and rolls her eyes, then crosses into the bunk room where she starts pulling on apair of socks.
“Ticks are not a joke,” I repeat back to her. “I had one once, right behind my knee. It gotin there good.”
“What?” she says, freezing with her left sock halfway on. “Did you get adisease?” She has this look on her face like I am the actual tick. This is a woman who I’ve basically blackmailed into being my fiancée and right now she looks like this is the most offensive thing I’ve ever said to her.
“No.” I’m wearing out that spot on my cheek that I keep biting to stop me smiling. “I just got—”
“Oh my God,don’t. Don’t tell me anything! Was it bigger than a peanut? No, wait, don’t even tell me. God!” She pulls on the rest of her sock, stands, and does this...I don’t know what. A clumsy, ridiculous, full-bodyshake,like no other way I’ve ever seen her move.“Let’s stop talking about it,” she says, crossing the room to pull on her boots. “Did you find out anything fromHammond today?”
“Find out anything about what?”
She looks up at me from where she’s lacing her boots, does the eye roll that’s becoming increasingly familiar to me. “About tonight. About theirpresentation.”
“Oh. No?”
“You were with him allday. It would’ve been good to gather some intel.”
“We were using chain saws. It’s not good forconversation.”
“You had the whole ride over there and back. And I’m guessing you didn’t turn on the chain saws at minute zero and then run them for four hours straight. You never tooka water break?”
Jesus, this woman. She was probably a really good lawyer. I do the equivalent of pleading the fifth, which in this situation involves me shrugging, a movement she answers with a gusty sigh. “Val skipped the hike this morning to stay in their cabin. I’ll bet she was prepping for the presentation. I’m telling you, she’s the brains of that operation.”
I snort. “No surprise there.” I may not have had a lot conversation with Hammond, but it doesn’t take much to realize his bulb runs about as dim as it did when we were kids. On the ride back he’d asked me if I’d ever had to treat one of those “four-hour erections” he was always hearing abouton commercials.
“But that’s brains enough.” She stands and grabs her jacket from the hook by the door. “She runs that household. I’m pretty sure Hammond’s real estate career is a daily gift from his father, and you know Val came from this little coal-mining town in West Virginia and got a full ride to Georgetown? She knows her shit. That wedding scrapbook she brought me looks like a professional did it.”
“It’s a wedding scrapbook, not abusiness plan.”
“Don’t be dumb,” she says, bluntly. “These days wedding plans are business plans. I’m telling you, she’s smart. We need to watch out for her tonight.”
When we get out onto the stoop, she pulls her still-damp hair back from her shoulders, gathers it into a messy twist that she clips with something she’s pulled from her jacket pocket. “We’re not supposed to be competitive,” I say, even though it’s the exact opposite of what I believe. I’m just being contrary, and I realize it’s because there’s something oddly familiar about being contrary with her.
“Whatever you say, Boy Scout,” she says, and sets offdown the path.
“You think ticks like the smell of that shampoo you use?” I call after her. She stops still where she’s standing—maybe she’s trying to suppress another one of those shudders. But when she turns back to look over her shoulder,she’s smiling.
“Don’t know,” she says, “but I’m pretty sure you do.”
* * * *
You wouldn’t think a presentation about a campground business plan would be considered a romantic event, but you also wouldn’t know otherwise by being in this goddamnroom right now.
Val and Hammond have turned the lights down low for their presentation; they’re at the front, setting up a laptop and murmuring quietly to each other,babythis andbabythat. So far as I know, all the kids are up in Paul and Lorraine’s apartment with two of the camp staff members, though I can’t imagine that’s going well since the Coburgs said no TV or movies. It seems the relative dark and the lack of children is putting everyone in an affectionate mood, because Tom’s got an arm draped over Sheree’s shoulder, his fingertips stroking up and down her skin, and Rachel’s standing behind Walt, giving him a shoulder massage, which frankly seems unnecessary since Walt didn’t spend four hours clearing trees today, and also I’ve never seen him carry any one of those five kids. Paul and Lorraine sit closest to the front, side by side, their hands joined. Both of them seem nervous, and I’m guessing that the first presentation is bringing the reality ofthe sale home.
