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Hunter swims the lane rope back over to me, and I take it.
“You have thirty minutes!” Juliet shouts from the shore.
We look over to see her standing on the beautiful lawn, the main lodge in the background and the flag whipping in the wind.
“Counselor meeting in the Astronomy Tower,” she reminds us. “Quinn dropped off pastries. Bring your tablets!”
I hook the rope onto the next dock. “Yes, I’m starving.”
Hunter comes in, wrapping an arm around my waist, both of us with one hand on the dock.
“Twenty-five minutes to finish this,” Kade goes on. “Four minutes to change and get over to the lodge, and one minute of you on her. You can do it.”
Hunter chuckles, kissing me as I circle his waist with my legs.
I’m so excited for this summer. Sun, splash, and steamy nights.
“You’re smiling,” he whispers, coming in to kiss me again and again. “Happy?”
I nod, moving my arms around his neck. “Quinn is finishing her four-year degree in three, so after she graduates next May, we’ll have pastries year-round.”
Hesnorts. He thought I was happy about working with him this summer. Psh-please.
Actually, I am happy. So happy. I love Blackhawk Camp, I like working with kids, and my boyfriend will only be a cabin away.
He kisses me again, and I deepen it, grinding into him and taking full advantage that no kids have arrived yet. I hope we can sneak in some night swimming this summer.
Shouting hits our ears, and we pull away a little, recognizing his sister’s voice. We both look over, watching her bark at people to get off her obstacle course. She’s personally designing one for the Color Powder War on the Fourth of July.
“A.J.’s already set to be a counselor-in-training,” he says. Then he looks at me. “Where’s James?”
We forgot that two kids actually are on the premises today.
I jerk my chin to Chimney Lock Island, out beyond the docks. It’s not much land, only about an acre or so. I see my brother’s canoe on the shore. “Making that altar to Jason Voorhees’s mother’s head fromFriday the 13thPart II.”
Hunter’s face falls, and he looks at me. “He’s not.”
“Oh, it’s brilliant.” I grin big, pressing my finger to my lips. “Don’t tell anyone.”
We laugh, because everyone is scared of that island. It’s part of the camp fun. The veteran campers pass around stories to the new ones, and every summer, Jax catches at least one batch of kids trying to sneak out there in the middle of the night.
I hold Hunter close. “You’re smiling,” I say back. “Happy?”
“Yeah.”
But I draw in a long breath. “I feel like you should still go to the University of Chicago.”
It was his dream, and I feel like he’s sacrificing it for me. I could never get in there, but he did.
But he simply says, “There’s always graduate school.”
But…
“I’m excited I’m not leaving,” he tells me before I can protest more. “Kade and me in the dorms at Clarke, my family close, and I get to fulfill the fantasy of climbing that tree and sneaking into your room right under your dad’s nose.”
He kisses me again, and tingles spread over my body.
I know he’s happy to stay and keep building his relationship with his brother. And I know he feels he owes it to his parents to stay close for a little longer since he thinks he cheated them of taking part in his life for more than a year.
