“Whoa, still at it, Hawthorne?” Lamar adjusted his sunglasses and gave me a lackadaisical smile as I picked up some nails I’d just spilled while thinking of my family. “You know you’re about to compete, right?”
I grinned back at him. “Needed to get out of the house.”
Lamar came closer. “And this has nothing to do with the brunette living at your place, then?”
“Nope,” I said, letting the P pop. “Definitely not.”
“Well, whether you’re avoiding your roommate or not, the obstacle relay starts in twenty minutes.”
“Right. Obstacle relay.” The last place I wanted to be. Actually, that was the infamous finish line mud pit I’d practically tackled Nat into. I shook my head, but I couldn’t shake the memory of how she’d arched so perfectly into me. How she’d kissed me back as if she needed my lips to breathe.
Shut up, brain.
“We have odd numbers, don’t we? I’ll sit this one out—” A part of me cringed at the suggestion. This was a perfect summary of how out of sorts I was. Giving up on the competition? The Jack of yesterday would have smacked himself upside the head.
Lamar grabbed my water bottle off the floor and handed it to me. “Not this time. We’re meeting at the mess hall to assign obstacles to our teams. Just remember, your preference doesn’t matter. What matters is that campers make their choice and we get what’s left. Five bucks says you get the mud pit.”
That would be just my luck.
I took a large swig of my water and cracked my back. An obstacle course sounded like hell. I’d already pushed my body to its limit. “Let’s do this.”
Lamar clapped. “Good. I don’t want to have to change my bet.”
“Bet?”
He looked a little sheepish, like maybe he wasn’t supposed to tell. “Yeah, you know the counselors have been taking bets on which of you comes out ahead during this thing. You’re just so competitive. I never thought we’d find someone who matched you in… spirit.”
I rubbed my neck, which was killing me.
“Though looking at you now, I might need to change my choice.” He winced as if he’d expected me to be treating this like an Olympic event instead of the casual obstacle relay that it was.
“Why do I feel like a horse right now?”
“You’re manifesting your greatest fear?” Lamar guessed.
But horses had nothing on the unease I felt over being close to Nat. We were being bet on and pitted against each other before I even got there. My heart tightened in my chest. It would be even harder to get her alone to apologize. No matter what, I’d fix this before we faced another awkward night at our cabin.
I nodded and ran my hand through my hair, then put my hat back on. “Twenty minutes?”
“Maybe fifteen now.” Lamar laughed as I took off in a quick jog back to my place for a quick change of clothes before meeting my pod at the mess hall.
I showed up to a flurry of campers running back and forth, finding their pods.
Nat waved a sparkly baton, indicating where Andromeda was gathering. I grinned, but I didn’t catch her eye. I needed to gather my own pod. This week, my group consisted of half a team of roller derby players, the rest of whom were in Chase’s pod. They were excited to compete, and a small rivalry had formed between their teams, which promised to be entertaining.
I was glad they seemed to have their shit together. None of the obstacles were particularly hard, but they’d still present a challenge to the other campers. My gaze instinctively went to Nat. She stood by Hazel and Lamar, discussing something. All the counselors were gathering, probably to go over the logistics.
“Be right back,” I told my pod, and I jogged over and stood across from Nat, taking her in and barely listening to Hazel as she went over something having to do with out-of-bounds shortcuts. For all I knew, they were talking about NASCAR, because when I glanced at Nat, she had me questioning everything.
She looked beautiful, as she always did. She wore black workout shorts and a loose camp counselor tee, her hair tied up with a bandana as a headband. But there was also a weary quality to her. She had bags under her eyes and a sluggishness to her smile that was so unlike her. When I looked a little closer and saw her bloodshot eyes, I wondered if she’d slept at all last night. Knowing I was the reason for her sadness was a stab to the ribs.
Nat never looked at me. She turned away from the impromptu meeting as quickly as she could. I did the same and felt oddly hollowed out. I shook off the feeling and tried to concentrate on the relay.
Each of the pods was given a map of the five obstacles and their locations throughout camp.
My group huddled together to decide who was going to do which obstacle. Sue held out her hand for the map Hazel had given us and was clearly their roller derby team captain, ready to assign positions.
“Nat’s gonna do the mud pit,” I overheard as one of my teammates said my name and the word “mud” together.
