The cheers in the room didn’t overshadow Jack’s villainous laugh as he scooped up his pile of winnings, taking both of us out in one fell swoop.
“Looks like you have a new home, little frog,” he gloated, dangling my keychain, and I wasthisclose to flipping the table. But Grandma Carol had taught me better than that.
“You don’t actually want that garbage,” Lamar joked.
I held out my hand. “He’s right, I’ll take it back.”
“No way. You lost, princess. But I think you’re right, this little frogislucky. For me, at least.”
I looked at my frog, then back to his obnoxious face. I was done letting his rugged good looks distract me. This man was poisonous, and now, as he swung my frog around his finger, laughing, I was more determined than ever.
Taking Jack Hawthorne down was personal.
SIX
Jack
The past weekhad been confusing at best. My attempts to get Nat out of my head had only backfired. I’d ended up fixating on her more. I’d won at poker, but that wasn’t what I kept thinking about. No, I kept picturing her working with me to install her AC in that too-hot cabin. The way we’d looked into each other’s eyes for longer than was appropriate. And that hand touch.
Images of her kept flooding my mind. Her too-tight yoga pants. That relieved sigh when the AC kicked on after our efforts. At the mess hall, happy and playful as she set up the event. Then riled up as she stormed off after I took her precious frog, Bernice. Who names a keychain, anyway? The little thing was worn down and kinda cute in a been-through-the-wringer kind of way.
I’d set it on my coffee table over a stack of mail I hadn’t gotten to yet and looked at it like the trophy it was.
At the office, Autumn was running around with an air of deadlines about her. I tapped her shoulder, and she jumped. “So, how are things going?”
“Normally, amazing. But this week? Exhausting, if I’m being honest. Everything runs smoothly until the owners are gone, and I’m basically doing three jobs. I’m also the counselor supervisor,so if you could do me a favor and not need any supervision, that would be great.”
“They’re back later today, aren’t they?” And not a minute too soon, apparently.
“Yes, thank goodness.” Relief flooded her face as she blew her bangs out of her eyes and melted into her chair. “It’s been a long week, Jack. I mean, I’ve loved stepping up. I’m totally capable. But last night, Jamie asked if I was auditioning for a new role as camp ghost since I’m never home.”
I cracked a grin. My friendship with Autumn was the best thing to come out of my time in Palo Alto. At the bright, bushy-tailed age of twenty-two, I’d decided to move down to California to work for my dad’s construction company. He’d moved from Oregon after my parents’ messy divorce when I was in high school. When a bad breakup had me feeling untethered, I’d figured there was no better time to move to California and reconnect with my dad. He took me under his wing and taught me the ins and outs of his construction company. Quickly, I fell in love with the work and learned everything I could.
I’d been in my mid-twenties when I met Autumn. She’d been a barista at the coffee shop I frequented. Come to think of it, she’d had an air of deadlines even back then, slinging orders like she was being chased. Only now, there was more of a love and purpose surrounding everything she did.
When Hazel called me with the job offer to come help her and Leo restore a former resort into their vision of Camp Starlight, I’d known she would need more help, and I’d recommended Autumn. They video called that night, and two weeks later, Autumn and I were both packing and moving to the Oregon wilderness, thrilled for the opportunity.
I took in the room. Autumn’s space was a whole other level of destruction than usual. When she hit a fugue state, my best friend buried her desk space and any other available surfacein sticky notes. There was an abundance of the color-coded squares, and I considered swapping the colors around just to mess with her, before thinking better of it.
Instead, I picked up a photo of her and Jamie. They looked amazing, all heart eyes and hugs. “Aw, the couple in love.”
Autumn snatched the photo frame out of my hands. “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” she said lovingly as she looked at the picture. It was of them holding each other all cute-like at the dock.
“Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. Burned the T-shirt, spread the ashes at sea,” I said sardonically.
Autumn let out a little laugh, despite the tense conversation. “You mean the lake?”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s a metaphor.”
She clasped her hands, her eyes filled with sadness. “So you’re never going to… ever?”
It was as if she didn’t know my shitty backstory. Parents put the kids through a terrible divorce, dad moved to another state, both parents put pressure on me to choose who I’d live with, and they still can’t talk to one another, blah blah blah. And that was just their relationship. My past was rife with cheating exes.
“Not everything ends up like how it did for you and Jamie.”
She set the picture back down with a sigh. “Listen, just in case it wasn’t clear before, I didn’t know that Nat was coming back. I swear I would have warned you.”
Just then, my phone started vibrating. I took it out to see my ex’s name pop up on the screen, telling me she was thinking about me and wanted to talk. As if she had any right to such a thing.
