She was too emotional. Too quick to give her heart away. Too good at scaring people off.
I thought I’d outgrown her, but I guessed I was still that girl.
I thought Jack knew me. I thought he understood me. I thought he was different from everyone else.
Maybe Jack’s relationship avoidance had only been a front for the woman he saw becoming obsessed with him. Maybe he just wasn’t interested.
Once my bags were packed, I made my way to Hazel’s place. Campers usually hung out at the campfire for a while after the talent show or by their cabins, so I was lucky to avoid people on my way out of my pod.
I could see Hazel and Leo’s duplex in the distance, right as I heard some voices coming up the trail. I jumped off the path and dipped behind some trees. I wasn’t proud of it, but I was committed.
“Did you see the way she looked at him?”
“I wasn’t looking at her. I would cut off my right tit just to get a man to look at me like that.”
Some giggles followed as a very loud hiccup came from one of the campers.
“Wow. You’re cut off.”
My mouth went dry. Was I that obvious to other people? To the staff? Would I be able to show my face at camp? God, I’d have to come back to camp. This was a nightmare.
When they passed, I booked it to Hazel’s. I knocked quietly and whispered her name as I waited for a response. Nothing. Then I knocked harder. Still nothing. Tears filled my eyes as I turned from her place, dropping my phone in the process. It lit up on the ground, and I lifted it to find a message from my sister with four simple words.
“So, are you coming?”
There was nowhere quite as depressingas an airport hours before a red-eye flight after you’ve had your heart stomped on. I used to find them fun and exciting, but right now, it just felt depressing.
A man lying on his duffel bag by our gate let out a snore as a couple shared a wilted airport salad beside me. I checked my phone again when another couple approached hand in hand. They hugged each other as if they might not see each other again. They must have been going to different gates. I hated that I wanted to know. What was their love story? Maybe in the past, I would have talked with them and found out.
I tore my gaze away from their affectionate display. A flash of the last couple I’d interviewed popped into my brain. Married for forty years, still watching the stars together. My chest ached, and I willed myself not to cry here.
Three. More. Hours.
And no message from Jack.
Which was good. The last thing I needed was some pity response or a request to talk. I’d gotten out of there like a bat out of hell, and I wanted to burn my phone rather than hear from him. Mostly.
I’d texted Hazel that I’d decided to see my sister sooner than expected, and she’d given me the okay. I felt bad leaving my campers without saying goodbye, but I would have been a mess if I’d stayed.
Would I be a mess if I came back after this trip?
After my and Jack’s last hookup—and that was what I had to see it as now, a hookup—Hazel had interrupted our cuddle to tell me that a former camp counselor had reached out about working the remainder of the summer. That it meant I could leave my position. She’d reminded me it had been temporary anyway but I was welcome to stay. I’d tried to get a read on her that day, on what she preferred, but I hadn’t been able to.
Somewhere in between the storm and all the competitions, I’d decided to stick around, even if it severely impacted my traveling. I’d come to the conclusion that I needed Camp Starlight, but maybe I needed it more than it needed me.
I could easily lift right out, and that realization hurt. Hazel had been so busy this summer that we’d rarely hung out. The person I’d spent the most time with was Jack.
He didn’t need me around either.
THIRTY-ONE
Jack
I woke up with a headache.I hadn’t touched a sip of liquor the night before. So why did it feel like I was hungover?
Oh my god, I love you.
She loved me?
