twenty
Jamie
Sunbeamswarmedmyface,calling me to stare at the amazing wilderness outside my cabin window. I meant to cover my eyes with my hand but paused, realizing it was wrapped around the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
So it wasn’t a dream.
I had Autumn in my arms on a resplendent summertime morning. I couldn’t help but smile.
I realized we had never slept together before. We’d been together, but we had never lied about where we were and gotten a hotel or drifted to sleep after a quickie and forgot to go home on time. No, this was something new. I took a breath of Autumn’s hair and pulled her in a little closer, determined to savor this significant moment.
Autumn’s face was pressed against my chest, her deep breaths warming my skin. We hadn’t taken the time to put on clothes. The most I’d done was take care of the condom and crawl back into bed with her, so we were sticking together in all the placeswe were touching. It was perfect except for one thing. I was famished.
I carefully kissed her forehead, lifting her so that I could slip my arm out to place her head back on the pillow. Jesus, she slept like a rock. She also didn’t notice my removal of her leg from my shins or the noise I made as I pulled open a dresser drawer to get a pair of joggers, a shirt, and underwear. I thought about whether I should wake her up, noting that it was seven thirty, a first for me in I didn’t know how long. Sleeping in felt amazing.
I stretched and gazed at her again. Her face was pressed into the pillow, tendrils of hair cascading over her face to show glimpses of her soft features. Her partially open lips, still red from our nightly activities. Her button nose led up to long eyelashes that drifted over her cheek. I could have stood there like that forever—which would be a perfectly normal fleeting thoughtifI had deeper feelings, which I didn’t.
I opened the door to my cabin with as much finesse as I could muster, hoping it didn’t creak like it always did and wake up the beautiful woman nestled in my bedding. Just my luck, it didn’t. I thanked the door gods and stepped onto my porch, ready to get going on this glorious morning.
Ren’s small but high front window curtain was closed. Curious…
After I did my business and brushed my teeth, my stomach rumbled. I moved to the mess hall with zeal, ready to load up on breakfast and bring it back to my cabin. I only hoped that she would still be there.
“No, they are totally doing it,” one of Autumn’s campers, whose name I thought was Irene, said. “She didn’t come home last night.”
Shit.
“How do you know?” Ian whispered.
Probably Irene grabbed a slice of spinach and feta quiche. “She’s always in bed by eleven, and I’m a night owl. Plus, her curtains are open right now.”
My ears tuned in. Were they talking about Autumn?
“You are so damn nosy.”
“Are you at the same camp that I’m at? The gossip in this place takes me back to high school. It’s like riding a bike,” Irene mused.
Ian laughed. “I think you need to hook up.”
“Believe me, I would. Unfortunately, everyone I think is hot has a ring on their left hand.” She shrugged, picking up her tray and turning toward me. I waited for a flash of recognition to cross her face, but she didn’t appear to recognize me or at the very least know me as the probable source of her gossip. Maybe I was drawing the wrong conclusions.
I walked by Autumn’s pod. Her window blinds were shut, thank god. Maybe we’d gotten away with it. I knew this was ridiculous. We were grown adults, and she hadn’t mentioned a rule about fraternization. But if I knew Autumn at all, we were walking a fine line between her freaking out and her being okay with what had transpired, and being found out would probably slant negative.
I tried to close my cabin door softly, but the thing wouldn’t give without some strength, and I gave it a little too much, slamming it shut. Autumn didn’t glance at me, instead speaking into her pillow, her words coming out muffled.
“You’re clothed.”
What I should have been doing was telling her to slip out as carefully as she could before the camp woke up. Instead, I dangled a croissant in her eye line. “It would have been weird if I showed up at the mess hall as naked as you are.”
Her eyes snapped open. “You don’t know that,” she deadpanned, getting up and pulling the blanket over hershoulders to create a cocoon. She took the croissant and unceremoniously bit right into the center of the thing. Monster.
I sat the two plates of food I’d procured on the bed and handed her a coffee. She took it as though it was her only lifeline, looking over the rim as she sipped slowly. I looked out the window to avoid her gaze as it did something to me.
“You trying for round two?” she flirted. “That’s the only explanation for this kind of treatment this early in the morning.” Her stomach grumbled.
Couldn’t I just get my girl a croissant? But that was the wrong answer.
“That’s the only explanation?” I asked as Autumn beamed at me, patting the space next to her. I did as I was prompted, taking a piece of bacon and biting into it. “What about if I was trying to impress you?”
