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It’s not even noon yet, though, so I try not to get ahead of myself.
“Mr. Fletcher, look!”
Ryan and Brayden run up to me with huge grins on their faces. The latter is cupping something in his hands, and for a moment, I feel my stomach sink. What the hell have these boys gotten into?
But to my relief, Brayden opens his hands to reveal a frog sitting in his palm. It’s light brown with a white underbelly. As it looks at me, its throat sac inflates.
“We found him in our cabin!” Ryan exclaims.
“What a cool-looking frog!” I say with a grin, kneeling down to their level so I can get a closer look. I hold out a hand, and the frog leaps into my palm.
“How about we take him back home?” I suggest. “The critters in these woods are fun to look at, but it’s best not to touch them. They get a little freaked out when kids pick them up.”
“Aw, but they’re so cool…” Brayden pouts.
“I know, right? But you wouldn’t like it if some giant pickedyouup out of nowhere, would you?” I say. “Let’s put him by the water. He’s probably got a family waiting for him.”
I lead the boys over to the pond and crouch down in the sand. As I let the frog leap out of my hand, I hear a distant cry.
“Mr. Fletcher!”
A canoe is floating off into the pond. Standing on it are two girls – June, who’s waving her hands in an attempt to catch my attention, and Isabella, who’s clinging to her and sobbing. The paddle to the boat is floating on the surface of the water, far from their reach.
These girls aredefinitelygoing to get a stern talking-to later. But for now, my main priority is to stop them from floating away.
I leap into the water and make a mad dash for the boat. It’s drifting away pretty quickly, but I’m much faster, and within seconds the paddle is within reach. I snatch it up, then swim over to the boat and climb on.
“You’re gonna be okay, girls,” I reassure them, giving them both pats on the heads as they hug me. Despite my annoyance, I can’t help feeling sorry for them. “Let’s get you back to dry land.”
I paddle back toward the shore where I’ve gathered a bit of a crowd – including Melody, who’s watching me with wide eyes. I try not to let her distract me until the boat has reached the dock and both of the girls are out of the boat.
“What on Earth were you two doing?” Melody says with an exasperated sigh. She kneels down to their level to check them over, sighing with relief after concluding they aren’t hurt.
“We wanted to go on the boats…” June says bashfully, staring down at her feet.
“We saw a pirate movie last weekend, so we know how to sail a boat!” Isabella insists. “We just… dropped the paddle.”
“Mm-hmm. Well, learning to steer a boat is abitmore complicated than it looks in the movies,” Melody says. She has that stern, serious look on her face, but I can tell she’s fighting back a grin. “I’m glad you two are safe, but there will be consequences for this. Head back to the cabin right now, alright?”
With that, the two girls sulk off to their cabin. As Melody rises to her feet and ushers the kids back to camp, she throws a brief glance my way. I manage a smile, but not before she turns away.Damn it.
Later that night, as the kids are settled in bed, I head outside for a breather. I’m still a little on edge from what had happened that day. What if I hadn’t gone to the lake and found those girls in time? In a way, Ryan and Brayden had played a part in saving the day. If they hadn’t brought me that frog, I may not have heard those girls’ cries until it was too late…
The cabin door squeaks open, snapping me away from my wandering thoughts. Out steps Melody in her pajamas. I try not to stare, but it’s hard not to when she’s in that tight tank top and fuzzy butterfly-patterned pants.
“So…” she begins, twiddling her thumbs. “I was thinking of starting a bonfire. I could really go for some s’mores…” She adds the last part in a lowered voice, as if the kids could somehow hear us from their bunk beds inside. “Care to join me?”
I can’t imagine a world where I’d say no to that. “I’d love to,” I respond, and the two of us head into the woods.
We reach the bonfire, and she sets it up for me while I find some marshmallow-roasting sticks. We both sit down in the lawn chairs and though the smoke stings my eyes, I can’t keep them off of Melody.
“So…” she begins, twirling her marshmallow around in the flames. I can tell she’s about to admit something that’s been weighing on her mind.
With a sigh, she finally turns to me. “I may have misjudged you a little bit. Your track record isn’t the best, so you can’t blame me. But… maybe you’re alittlemore reliable than I initially thought.”
I raise an eyebrow. “What led you to that conclusion?” I ask.
“Well, we’re only one day into this outing, and you’ve already proven just how good you are with these kids,” Melody says. I notice a slight blush on her freckled face. “And when it came to that whole boat situation, you weresoquick to act. Almost like you’d done this before. If I were in that situation, I’d have probably panicked.”
