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“Fine, I get it,” she said. “We all have pieces of our past we would rather keep to ourselves, but your past is Camp Chance’s golden boy, Penny. He’s not going anywhere.” She gave me a sad smile. “Can you deal with that?”
That was the million-dollar question.
Could I?
* * *
When Troy said the training would be intense, I’d expected long days and some challenging team-building exercises.
I didn’t expect crash courses in everything from first aid to fire starting; how to deal with aggressive behavior to how to fend off wild animal attacks; and how to tie the perfect knot to how to feed eight campers on basic rations.
My hands were sore, my head was pounding, and my shirt was stuck to my body with a fine layer of sweat.
I was exhausted.
On the upside, I’d managed to avoid Blake for the entire day. He had been assigned to the other group, which was fine by me.
After spending the whole night tossing and turning, I’d decided that Marissa was right.
Blake was here to stay… and so was I.
I needed this.
Besides, maybe having him here was a sign—my chance at full and complete closure.
Maybe my luck had finally turned.
Marissa assured me that once the first round of campers arrived, there would be little time to worry about bumping into Blake. Each counselor had a small group of same-sex campers assigned to them and would live in one of the cabins with their group for thirteen nights. There were six counselors: three male and three female, and six activity instructors. Troy and Tina handled the day-to-day camp management, and a team of ‘behind-the-scenes’ staff helped everything come together. Meals, cleaning, maintenance, that kind of thing. There was another full day of training followed by a team debriefing on Friday and then a day off before the first group arrived on Sunday.
“Intense, right?” Marissa breezed into the cabin as if she hadn’t just spent the last eight hours paired with me. My lack of coordination was apparent when it came to pretty much anything that involved ropes, oars, or maps.
I nodded as I peeled the damp t-shirt off my body and grabbed my wash bag. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“Great, then we can head to the campfire,” she said. “We managed to talk Troy into grilling out again.”
“Uh, I’m not sure. Is it mandatory?” I wasn’t ready to see Blake. In fact, I planned on avoiding that reunion for as long as possible.
“No, but what are you going to do instead? Hang out here alone?” Marissa’s brows furrowed.
That was exactly what I planned to do. Blake would no doubt be there, which meant I would not.
Padding into our small bathroom, I ignored my cabinmate’s pleas. She didn’t understand; I hadn’t given her any reason to. All Marissa knew was that Blake and I had some kind of history. If I was going to survive the summer here, I needed my past to stay just that—in the past.
The hot water lasted all of five minutes, cutting short my plans of a long soak under the pitiful trickle spurting from the showerhead. I wouldn’t even have this luxury come Sunday when I moved into my campers’ cabin. Campers had to use the communal blocks for washing; one for staff and one for them.
After drying myself and brushing out my hair, I pulled on some clean shorts and a tank top and rejoined Marissa.
“That didn’t take long,” she said with a knowing smirk.
“Let me guess. You knew the hot water would barely last five minutes?”
“Something like that. Besides, it means you can come with me now.”
“Marissa,” I sighed.
“What? You can’t hide in here all weekend.” Her smirk became more of a pout. “We can avoid him, I promise, but you’re going to have to face him eventually.”
Not today.
