“But why me?” I asked.
“Maybe because you’re new, so you’re an easy target,” Bob said.
“I think it’s because whatever good you’ve done this summer made Jack look bad,” Teddy said.
Bob placed his hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“I guess I’m as good as I could be under the circumstances. Thank you all for showing up when you did. When he gets like that, I’m afraid he’s going to punch me,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s scary when he loses his shit,” Bob said.
“All the traits you want in a camp director—bad temper, no connection with the campers, and no respect for or from the people who work for him,” I said.
“It took Lori a little over a month to figure out what it took me years to live through,” Bob said. “No wonder he’s afraid of you.”
“Me? He’s the one who’s scary.”
“I’ve got a totally different question. Who do you think switched on the loudspeaker?” Mindy asked. “Can Nicole do it from her desk?”
“She could, but I can’t see my wife doing something vindictive like that,” Bob said.
“Do you think Marilyn would have the chutzpah to do it?” Mindy asked.
We all snickered at that.
Bob shrugged. “I think she’d be too afraid of the consequences, but wouldn’t it be ironic if she did?”
The door swung open, and Gilda flew in, sweating and out of breath. She pressed her back against the door. “If I tell you something, you need to promise it doesn’t leave this room.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
She took a deep breath. “I turned the PA on. I wasn’t going to let Jack bully anyone else. Last summer it was me, now it’sLori. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do something.” She gasped for air. “I taped the entire tirade and gave it to Chip. And then he folded Jack into his tiny car and drove him out of here.”
36The Laundry Shack
“When I heard Jack screaming at you over the loudspeaker, I couldn’t get to you fast enough.”
Teddy leaned against the laundry shack, his arms firmly wrapped around me, his head resting on mine.
“I felt immense relief when I saw you. I really thought Jack was going to slug me.”
“Finally, I was there when you needed me.” Teddy took my chin in his hand. “You do know that if he’d laid a hand on you, I would’ve flattened him.”
“You would’ve, wouldn’t you?”
His kiss was urgent, forceful, like he needed to show me the strength behind his words.
“Things are really falling into place for us,” Teddy said. “Poor Jack really shot himself in the foot today.”
“Poor Jack, my ass. He deserves whatever his partners dish out. Speaking of which, our meeting with Chip was momentous. But you have some things you’ve been keeping to yourself. I realize I’m not one to talk about lies of omission.”
“Lies?” Teddy asked.
“You never told me about your financial situation.”
“You never asked.” He smiled. “I had a dot-com that did well. I sold it and made enough money to live comfortably forthe rest of my life. But then I had to think about how to occupy myself. The answer was easy . . .”
I finished his sentence. “Coach soccer.”
