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My head wholly agreed with that.
It knew the rational thing to do was to see out the summer and then go back to reality.
My reality.
The one where I worked a minimum wage job and lived in an apartment that was hardly fit for purpose.
My heart though… my heart wanted to believe there was a reason for this. Some explanation for the universe’s decision to cross our paths at this precise moment in time.
“I can’t risk it,” I whispered, knowing she wouldn’t understand.
This wasn’t a game.
It was my life.
But then she said six little words I couldn’t ignore.
“Everyone deserves a second chance, Penny.”
CHAPTERELEVEN
Penny
The weeks passedin a blur of sticky summer days filled with laughter, tears, and teenage tantrums.
I tried hard to heed Marissa’s words of advice and give Blake what he wanted—a chance to get to know me again.
We spent what little downtime we had talking and discovering the people we had become in our years apart, but both of us were still holding back. I knew he felt it as much as I did, but all I had asked of him was to take things slow, and he kept true to his word.
It was already the end of the eighth week, and Blake and I were at our usual spot by the lake. The sun beat down on us, but the breeze tempered the afternoon heat, and I lifted my face to enjoy the cool rush of air over my damp skin.
“You’re so good with the girls now,” he said.
I glanced over at him and smiled, pride swelling deep in my chest. “I feel like I’ve found my stride. I’ll be sad when it comes to an end.”
Something flashed in his inky blue eyes, but I didn’t push him. Neither of us looked ahead to the end of the summer.
We had only just found one another again, and the thought of saying goodbye made my stomach drop.
It was still hard to believe we had lived in the same city for the last four years and had never crossed paths before this summer. But Blake’s regular job as a legal investigator with his uncle’s law firm required him to travel a lot, so I knew I probably wouldn’t see him all that often, if at all.
There was every chance we would leave camp and become nothing more than a distant memory to one another, and my summer spent at Camp Chance would just be another place I turned to when things in my life became too much to bear.
A memory to lose myself in, a sanctuary… a dream.
Comfortable silence lingered in the space between us until Blake shuffled next to me.
“I know I promised to take things slow, but it’s killing me not to know.” He sat upright and twisted around to face me, his eyes glistening in the sunlight. “Is there someone waiting for you back home, Penny?”
His question caught me off guard.
Home.
Home died the day my parents left me alone on this earth.
Nowhere would ever be home again.
We had talked about it enough when we were younger, and I always thought Blake understood that, but I guess it was just another thing separating us. He had moved on, and I hadn’t.
