Page 23 of One Last Summer
“Favorite camp memory,” Sam said, pointing at me. “Go.”
“Oh, crap, um. Winning the senior girls’ swim race during my last summer.” The words came out garbled, my mouth full of pizza. “Sorry, Eloise.”
I’d kicked her butt by a few seconds, and later that night she’d cried over her loss. Tonight she just waved me off and went back to canoodling with Linus. I’d worked so hard that summer, showing up to swim laps after each day’s activities were done. That feeling of winning by the skin of my teeth had been downright euphoric, a high that had numbed my worries for a day or two until the reality of my parents’ split settled back into my brain.
“Oh! Wait, I’ve got another one,” I said as a memory flashed brightly in my head. “The night we raided the kitchen for cookies and almost got caught by Marla. I think we were twelve.”
“By we, you mean you led the way, and our entire bunk followed.” Sam shifted in her chair, her hand holding her bump. “You were always leading us into precarious situations.”
“That was back before I knew better.” The words came out sadder than I intended. “I also gave the entire bunk lice that year.”
“Like I said.” Sam swatted my knee. “Precarious situations.”
She pointed at Nick. “Nicholas. Go.”
“Capture the Flag my first summer, when that kid with the blue hair—”
“Wilson Frank,” Eloise interrupted.
“Yes, Wilson! When everyone forgot he was stuck in the other team’s jail and left him there forever, and when we finally figured out we needed to rescue him he had his pants down and was peeing behind the goalpost because he was too committed to the game to leave and go to the bathroom.”
Eloise let out a huge laugh, leaning forward on Linus’s lap. “Oh my god, yes. That was the first time I’d ever seen another person’s genitalia. That gets my vote.”
“He was so embarrassed!” Nick could barely get the words out, he was laughing so hard.
“He’s an attorney now,” Sam said, looking down at her phone. “According to LinkedIn.”
Finally catching his breath, Nick added, “And every play and musical I ever did here. I never had the confidence to do theater before coming to camp. And now it’s my whole life.”
“You should have seen the production of Newsies he directed last year,” Trey said proudly. “The kids were amazing.”
Nick offered him a wistful look in return as a quiet lull fell over our group, the fire crackling in the wake of our silence.
“Mack?” Sam asked, shifting in her chair to get comfortable. “I mean I know you work here, so you have a wealth of moments to choose from.”
“Worked, you mean. Pretty sure I’m about to be unemployed and moving back in with my parents.” Mack’s mood shifted for a moment as he dragged a hand through his hair, his smile now a tight line.
A dull throb pulsed in my chest, an actual, honest-to-god ache, as I thought of Mack this afternoon, lighting up at the sight of his garden, the spark in his voice as he’d talked about his dashed plans for next year.
It was obvious that he loved it here. Pine Lake was Marla and Steve’s, of course, but Mack’s touch was all over this place. It was a loss I hadn’t fully considered until this very moment.
He studied the ground in thought, tracing a circle in the sand with his index finger. Then he looked up with an earnest smile. “This.”
“Oh my god, you’re so full of shit,” Sam moaned, digging a marshmallow out of the bag in her lap and lobbing it at his head.
“Hey, what?!” Mack ducked defensively, and the marshmallow landed with a plunk in the fire. “I’m serious! I look forward to this week all year. And I’m glad we’re all here for the last one.”
His eyes darted toward me, just for a second, but it was long enough to fill me with fifty different dirty thoughts, all of which involved his mouth pressed against various parts of my body.
Mack’s teeth grazing the soft skin of my forearm, or his lips pressed against my thigh.
It wasn’t the first time my mind had traveled to the Land of Naked Mack Thoughts. But now, with him just a few feet away from me, the fact that they could actually happen in real life felt both terrifying and thrilling, like the moment you get buckled into a roller coaster before it rockets up that first hill.
It was the same thing I’d felt the first time we’d met as kids, when we’d kissed at fifteen, and every time he draped that medal over my neck again and again with satisfied glee. When it came to drawing me in, like a moth to a flame, Mack always won.
12
“HERE, HERE,” NICK agreed as he hopped up to smack Mack on the back affectionately. I snapped back to reality, nodding eagerly along to what Nick was saying, just in case someone noticed I’d drifted off into X-rated fantasy land.
