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Blake wanted to kiss me, I knew it with every fiber of my being.
“Penny, I—”
“Good job, everyone.” Troy’s voice was like a bucket of cold water, and I used the harsh awakening to shuffle as far away from Blake as possible.
It wasn’t enough given we were packed like sardines on the benches, and I was aware of everything. Of his hand gripping the edge of the bench, his pinky finger grazing mine. The gentle rise and fall of his chest as he sucked in a shuddering breath. The way he kept glancing at me and then looking away whenever I turned my head in his direction.
It was a game of cat and mouse, and I was most definitely the mouse.
Only, I wasn’t sure what would happen when he eventually caught me in his trap.
* * *
“Night, everyone,” Troy said sometime later. “Get some rest because you all have a busy day tomorrow. Remember—one summer, a lifetime of possibilities.” He and Tina waved us off as everyone broke up to hear back to our cabins.
I was relieved to leave the campfire. The last hour had been excruciating, and although Blake didn’t say another word to me, something was building between us. The pull between us was just too strong, and for as much as I had tried to deny it, I couldn’t any longer.
Marissa had been right all along.
“Come on, girls. We have an early start.” I herded the girls toward the path back to the cabins. “We’ll get our wash bags, then go brush our teeth and hit the sack for the night, okay?”
A couple of the girls grumbled, but it was only the fourth day, and most of them were still finding their feet. Once they felt a little more at home, I had no doubt I would be dealing with more attitude than a few groans.
“Graham makes me brush my teeth twice before bed. Once for the clean and once for good measure,” a small dark-haired girl named Phoebe said.
“Twice? That’s stupid,” one of the older girls replied. “You should tell him he’s an idiot.”
“Audrina,” I said sternly.
“What? It’s the truth. No one brushes their teeth twice.” She scoffed. “Isn’t it bad for them or something? Graham sounds like a dick.”
So much for finding their feet.
I spun around and stopped, effectively blocking her passage. “Audrina, we don’t talk like that here. There are rules.”
She studied me for a second and then narrowed her eyes to almost a scowl. “I thought Camp Chance was supposed to be fun.”
“It is fun, a lot of fun if you stick to the rules. No cursing and no making anyone feel bad.”
“I wasn’t making her feel bad. I was just saying Graham sounds like a di— I mean, a douche.”
“He’s not,” Phoebe stated with a defiant tilt of her chin. “He’s nice, actually. He helps me with my homework and takes me to the library on Saturdays.”
Audrina redirected her attention from me to Phoebe. “The library?” she sneered. “He sounds like aboringdouche.”
“Audrina, enough!”
I didn’t raise my voice a lot. In fact, in two months, I could count on one hand how many times I’d lost my patience. But occasionally, something touched a nerve, and it was impossible to ignore, and right now, I didn’t like that Audrina was trying to tarnish Phoebe’s relationship with Graham.
One thing these girls didn’t need was someone tearing down the positive relationships they had with their foster parents.
Audrina cut me a withering glare and skulked off in a huff. I lingered back with Phoebe wanting to check that she was okay, but she beat me to it.
“I don’t care what she says. Graham is the greatest. One day, I hope he and Maggie adopt me, and I can live with them forever,” she said, her voice filled with the kind of dreamer’s hope I knew could do more damage than good.
I’d never had the luxury of hope when I’d entered foster care. I’d lost everything—had nothing else left to lose. But maybe that was the better place to be. Phoebe still had hope. She could still experience so much pain and hurt all because of her young, naïve hope.
Still, part of me envied her. Envied that blissful state of unawareness. Envied how fond she sounded of her foster family. Agoodfamily.
