Matt took off his baseball cap, and his brown hair flopped down from under it, barely touching the tip of his nose. Pushing it back, he readjusted the hat and put it back on. His smile transformed his face.His unshaven jawline and the deep blue of his eyes were like catnip; I instantly craved more.
“So, I see we’re smoking now?”
“Yeah, I’m all about those healthy choices,” I joked.
“Hey, I’m not judging,” Matt countered, pulling a pack of Newports out of his pocket and extracting one. “May I?” he asked, gesturing at my cigarette.
I handed it over, and he used the lit end to light his own, inhaling deeply to get the sparks to catch. Smoke billowed from the kissing cigarettes.
“When did you take this up?” I asked. “Mr. All-County Athlete. This isn’t like you.”
He exhaled, blowing up and away from me. “Honestly, it’s a fairly recent thing. I started a little while after I came out here.”
“Which was when?”
“This spring. April. Larry retired in January, but he took forever to move out of the Gate House, so I came out on the weekends to work for a while and stayed in Pat’s cabin on the other side. It was the only winterized house besides mine. I finally moved in for real the first weekend of April.”
“Good timing. I’m sure spring’s probably a pretty busy season for camp prep.”
“You have no idea. So many repairs needed to be made. Roofs, new screens on most of the windows, clearing paths, building new bunk beds for a few cabins. And so much painting. Oh, I had to completely re-lay the floor in Cabin Seven too.”
“But you had crews to help, right?”
“Only on the alumni work weekends. You got the e-mails about those, right? I’m surprised that you didn’t come out, given that you’re here for the summer.”
I nodded. “I thought about it. But I was still in school and couldn’t really disappear for entire weekends.”
Matt took another drag, raising an eyebrow. “School?”
“UConn. Again,” I laughed. “I just graduated with a master’s in social work.” I stubbed out my cigarette and laid it carefully on the single concrete step at the entrance to my cabin. I made a mental note to get an empty can from the Lodge later to use as an ashtray.
“Nice. You were always the smart one between us.”
“What about you?” I asked him. “What brought you back?”
He looked at the ground. “Long story,” he began. “Tell you what. Let’s get a drink later, once you’re all settled in. We’ve got to get over to dinner now. You want to ride with me?”
“Sure,” I said. “Let me just grab my stuff.” I opened the screen door, got my keys off the coffee table and scanned the little space. It looked cleaner and brighter already.
I locked the wood door to the cabin, then beeped the car clicker for the Taurus and climbed in the passenger side of the truck. Matt laughed as I closed the door.
“What’s so funny?”
“You do realize there is literally nobody here, right?”
“You never know. Someone might roll up and try to steal my sweet ride,” I said, gesturing at the dented back bumper of my car.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nobody wants that old jalopy. Maybe you can save up for a new car this summer.”
“Or I can just ride with you,” I said, surprising myself.Shut up!What are you doing?
But he looked over and gave me a wink. “Mi casa es su casa, Roberts.”
The silence that followed grew awkward quickly, so I filled it with the next thing that popped into my head. “I need to hit the grocerystore. Maybe after the staff meeting, we can head over there together? Then we can hang out by the cliff. Is the gazebo still there?”
“Indeed it is. All right. You’re on.”
We rumbled down the long, open road into the late-day sunshine. Everything we left behind—the memories, the confusion, the heartache—rose up into the air in a thick cloud of dust.
