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Leaves rustled behind me, but it was the hand landing on my shoulder that startled me and sent me into a blind panic. I jerked forward, shrugging Marissa off me.
“Whoa, my bad.” Her voice was laced with regret.
I turned slowly, expecting to see the confusion on her face, but all I found was concern as she held up her hands in a peace offering.
“Holy shit.” She gave me a weary smile. “You run fast. I almost lost you back there. I covered for you, by the way. I blamed it on Troy’s grilling skills.”
An unexpected laugh bubbled up my throat, but as quickly as it had arrived, it disappeared into the night.
“Ready to talk about it?”
I shrugged, my eyes darting anywhere but directly at her. How did I even begin to explain things to Marissa? A girl I barely knew.
“Okay, well, you might be quick, but you have a crappy sense of direction. Our cabin is back this way.” She motioned to a path behind her. “Come on, let’s get back. I have a whole summer’s supply of Reese’s we can binge.”
I followed her, my breathing slowly returning to normal, and we walked in silence for a few minutes. Laughter and chatter from camp carried through the air but was quiet enough that I knew I’d run further than I realized.
It didn’t take long for Marissa to break the awkward silence between us. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say your little stunt has something to do with seeing Blake tonight?”
“What is he doing here?” I asked the question that had consumed my thoughts ever since my eyes landed on him across the fire.
Why here?
Why now?
Why does the universe hate me so damn much?
“He’s here every summer, Penny,” she said with mild confusion.
“He is?” I slowed down, unable to digest what Marissa was saying.
She nodded. “Next to Troy and Tina, Blake is Camp Chance’s longest-serving counselor. This must be his fourth or fifth summer.”
Fifth summer? But that meant—
I shut down those thoughts.
Thoughts that would do me no good here.
We started to walk again but I remained silent. I felt Marissa watching me out of the corner of her eye as she tried to piece together the puzzle.
The pieces obviously fell into place quicker than expected because she said, “You went pale when Blake arrived. You two have a bad history or something?”
Or something.
My body tensed. If only she knew how Blake Weston was a part of the worst time in my life, a time I wanted nothing more than to erase. But it wasn’t that simple because he was also a part of some of my most treasured memories too. The kind that, no matter how hard you tried, refused to go away.
The kind that had hit me like a wrecking ball, forcing their way into my mind the second I’d recognized him.
Stolen kisses in the yard when no one was looking and sneaking out to the lake at Cenci Park to lie on the grass and watch the stars.
There had been a time when Blake was my everything.
But that was then, and this was now.
And now we were nothing but strangers.
When I didn’t answer, Marissa relented.
