And we kiss. Long, slow kisses and frenzied, desperate ones. I've never before been kissed like Gage Carter kisses me. It’s like I’m his sole focus, and his only mission is to make me forget anything but him.
Now, we’re halfway through June and finishing up the fifth week with campers, and my sixth week here total. It’s a scorcher of a week, too. A heat wave has been lingering in the area, with temperatures reaching one hundred degrees some days.
My phone rings when I’m almost to the mess hall for dinner after another Friday Skit Night. Actually rings. Like, with a phone call. I check the screen. It’s my sister Molly.
I answer, and since it’s a video call, her face appears on the screen.
“I’m bored!” she whines.
I chuckle. “So have your husband entertain you. I’m about to eat dinner.”
“I can’t. He’s in Alaska on a work trip.”
“Ah. Sorry.” I sit down in one of the rocking chairs outside the mess hall.
Molly’s eyebrows pinch together. “Seriously, I don’t know how I did this every day.”
“Did what? Came home to an empty apartment?”
“Yes! It’s so lonely.” She pouts her lips.
I lean back in the chair and push off the ground with my toe to start rocking back and forth. “Didn’t you basically work, like, all the time to escape that exact thing?”
“Ugh, yes.”
I squint. “You need a hobby.”
“I could start one, but then I’d abandon it when Jonathan gets back.” She smirks. “My hobby withhimis—”
I make a face. “Eww, Molly. I don’t need the details.”
Molly laughs. “I was going to say Scrabble. But hey, we’re newlyweds—what do you expect?”
“Newlyweds. You’ve been married for six months. How long does that distinction last anyway?”
Her expression turns dreamy. “Hopefully forever.” She sighs.
Aww. I really hope so too.I love seeing Molly like this.
“So, anyway. Hobbies,” I say. “Oh! Do you remember that one summer when I was, like, five and you decided to take up juggling?”
“Yes!” Molly squeals. “I thought it looked fun, so I spent my entire saved allowance on a juggling kit. Six balls, four pins, and a how-to DVD.”
“How long did that last?”
“Oh, I gave it my all for about a week, and then I moved on … to unicycle riding, I think?”
“Apparently you were in your clown era,” I deadpan.
We’re both still laughing when I see Gage come up behind me through the phone. Before I can say anything, he smacks a kiss on my forehead.
“Gage,” I say meaningfully. “I’m on a video call with my sister.”
He looks at the screen, then looks at me, smirking. “Oops,” he says. “Hey!” He waves toward the phone.
“I’ll meet you inside okay?” I nudge him away, and he heads into the mess hall.
When I look back at the phone, Molly’s eyes are wide, a knowing smile on her face. “Was that Gage? Annie's brother Gage?”
