Barra sucked the inside of her cheek for a second before she said, “We started running into each other everywhere. The same café near Campo Santa Margherita. The same vaporetto stop. Once in the rain under the Rialto. I had an umbrella, and she didn’t, and that was when it all just clicked. From then on, wewere inseparable. We spent every night together wandering the piazzas. One weekend we had sex on every surface in her tiny apartment. I don’t think I even wore clothes once when we were at her apartment. I thought I loved her,” Barra added. “But then the semester ended, and real life was not as poetic as Venice. Things didn’t work out for us.”
Tamsyn poured a little water into the pot. She watched it turn the color of weak coffee. Was Barra telling her this because she knew about her and Isla? But how did she know?
“Did you speak to Aggie?” Tamsyn asked abruptly. Subtlety had flown out the window.
“You mean this morning?” Barra asked, frowning. “Because I’ve spoken to her a few times this morning. She asked if I wanted to take a walk to the watering hole, but it’s wash—”
“Never mind,” Tamsyn interrupted quickly and tossed the water into the dust. Then she looked up at Barra, who was staring intently at her feet. She had bare feet. She was the only woman brave enough to wander around camp without shoes, as if the hot rocks and the possibility of scorpions didn’t exist. “Why did you tell me that story?”
Barra lifted her gaze until their eyes met. “Do you believe people can actually fall in love?” she asked, her voice softer than Tamsyn had ever heard it.
Tamsyn glimpsed Isla over by the creek. She was ankle-deep, hands on her hips, staring out across the orange-colored plains. Then, almost instinctively, Isla glanced back over her shoulder. She caught Tamsyn’s eye and smiled. Tamsyn swooned. A swooping rush of what could only be described as love flutters filled the entirety of her stomach.
“I do,” Tamsyn said.
Barra considered this for a moment. “Well, I think I might be in love with Dominique.”
That hit like a punch to the ribs. What? Dominique was engaged.
“Barra—” Tamsyn started. She wasn’t sure what to say. Should she reprimand Barra for falling in love with a taken woman? What did someone do in a situation like this?
But then Barra interrupted her with a deep exhale. “That felt really good to say out loud,” she grinned, wiping make-believe sweat off her smooth forehead. “Thank you for listening to me. I’ve been dying to get it off my chest. I don’t really trust anyone else out here, especially not Aggie. Josie clings to her like a leech. But out of all the people, you and Isla get it, right?”
“I do,” Tamsyn said, even though she wasn’t sure what Barra meant by her and Isla. Not that she was going to ask. This conversation was about Barra and Barra alone. “I get it.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything.”
“Of course,” Tamsyn replied, raising her hand. She covered her pinky with her thumb. “Scout’s honor.”
Barra laughed her usual laugh at the same time Aggie and Josie came running back into camp. “We’ve got mail!” Aggie called, brandishing a letter.
“And muffins!” Josie added, walking after her, holding a wicker basket in her arms. Golden brown-tops glimmered with sugar crystals.
Naturally, everyone gravitated toward the commotion.
“What does the letter say?” Dominique asked, standing behind Barra. She was a head taller and had her palms pressed on Barra’s shoulders, gently squeezing her. Tamsyn wondered if Dominique had any idea just how much damage that little touch was doing right now. Probably not.
Aggie slid out a piece of parchment and read, “Tomorrow tests more than muscle. Wit, cunning, and stamina will decide who rises and falls. Fortune favors the daring, and the well-fed.”Aggie glanced up. “You heard the letter, time to fuel up. The muffins won’t eat themselves.”
Tamsyn didn’t have to be told twice. And it seemed Isla neither.
Before Tamsyn could even grab a muffin from the basket, Isla had already snagged two and tossed one with an easy flick straight into Tamsyn’s hands.
“Good catch,” Isla said, winking, and then Tamsyn felt it again... that swarm of love flutters she couldn’t possibly hide.
Chapter Twenty-One
Isla felt a kick in her step. Either it was the residual sugar high from yesterday’s cappuccino muffins, or it had nothing to do with the muffins and everything to do with last night.
She and Tamsyn had snuck out to the clearing, where they’d done nothing but make out under the creaking branches of their gum tree. There had been no talk of whatever Tamsyn had wanted to discuss the night before, and Isla had felt entirely relieved. Maybe she’d gotten it all wrong and Tamsyn didn’t want to talk about their future. Maybe Isla had prematurely panicked because she’d been having several disturbing thoughts the days prior, like moving all the way to Santa Monica. Like learning west-side traffic patterns and knowing which side of the bed Tamsyn preferred and sharing her two-hundred-dollar face cream when Tamsyn’s ran out. Like building a life that included shared grocery lists, weekend trips to Palm Springs or Catalina Island, and packing school lunches for Tamsyn with little handwritten notes between turkey-and-avocado sandwiches and a neat row of sliced carrots.Have a great day. I love you.
Ha, what was she thinking? Isla was a New Yorker. She didn’t pack lunch for anyone. She barely packed lunch for herself. And she most certainly wasn’t the type of person who fantasized about domestication.
“That looks dangerous,” Barra said as they rounded the corner.
Isla, who was looking down at her feet admiring her handiwork—she’d scrubbed her Nikes clean in the creek this morning—looked up and suddenly that bounce in her stepturned to lead. Ahead of them, in the center of the clearing, was what could only be described as a sadistic-looking obstacle course. Three sadistic-looking obstacle courses. One for each pair.
“Shit, it looks harder thanNinja Warrior,” Dominique added.
