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I wanted to kill Marissa.
When we arrived at the fire, we somehow ended up seated next to Blake and his boys instead of our usual spot next to Sheridan’s group. My safety blanket had been ripped away from me, and I knew Marissa was somehow responsible.
Although, from the smug look on Blake’s face, I didn’t doubt he was also involved.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he whispered, so close his warm breath brushed the shell of my ear, sending a shudder through me.
Of course, I blamed the chill in the air.
“Blake,” I warned, trying to nudge him back into his own space.
He was being inappropriate. Not that anyone was interested in what we were doing in the outer row of the circle when Troy commanded everyone’s attention with his over-enthusiastic campfire songs.
“Okay, let’s do a round ofThe More We Get Together.Do you remember this from the first night?” Troy asked the circle, and everyone nodded. “Well, this time I’m going to add some extra verses. Got it?”
We nodded again.
Being my fifth group, I knew the routine by now.
“The more we get together…” Troy started us off, and we all joined in.
“Together, together. The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.”
“Great, now it’s Marissa’s in her canoe… And go.”
I sang along with each verse. Troy always picked on two or three counselors to get a reaction from the kids. Unfortunately for me, my verse didn’t highlight my strength.
After a run-in with a huge spider during the first week, I got lumbered with ‘Penny’s afraid of spiders.’ The kids loved it—me, not so much.
“Okay, last one,” Troy bellowed, his hands making easy work of the acoustic guitar. “Sam’s eating all the s’mores.”
Troy strummed his guitar, and I inhaled, ready to sing. Sam’s name was on the tip of my tongue, but Blake leaned in close to me again and started singing. It was almost a hum, so quiet and low I had to strain to hear him over the noise.
Blake’s not ready to say goodbye, say goodbye, say goodbye.
Blake’s not ready to say goodbye, unhappy he’ll be.
’Cause you’re still his lucky Penny, do you know that, do you know that.
Blake’s not ready to say goodbye, unhappy he’ll be.
I didn’t dare look at him.
Emotion lodged in my throat, my hands trembling as I shoved them under my thighs.
I wanted to cry, to let the tears burning the backs of my eyes fall. I wanted to smile, to share this simple moment with him. But most of all, I wanted to lean into him and show him that I felt the same.
That after all this time, my heart still remembered him.
It never forgot.
Very slowly, I inched around to him. Blake was leaning into me enough that our faces were close. So close that I could feel his breath on my face, see the sunspots dusting his skin.
He pulled away slightly, giving me his eyes—eyes that held so many memories—and then his gaze dropped to my mouth, and everything went quiet around me.
He wanted to kiss me.
