Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
The ranger just split off onto another road in his truck ahead of us, leaving us to make the last bit of the ride back to the camp unescorted. I squeeze the remnants of the small pack I tossed on the porch last night. One strap is torn off and there’s a new ragged opening down one side.
I feel the way it looks. The afterglow of the morning seems to have turned into the cold light of day.
I turn toward Price, noting the way he’s gripping the steering wheel, the flex of his jaw muscle and the way the tendons on his neck are standing out.
I get why he feels he has to raise Hailey out here in the wilderness, and I get why he doesn’t think I can be a part of that.
I wear glittery body lotion, and floral-embossed hiking boots. I have a standing salon appointment every Wednesday at noon. Outside of the boots I bought to come up here, ninety-nine percent of my shoes would be woefully inappropriate for even a walk on the grass in a park. I like heels and dresses and fussing over my magnetic lashes until they are perfect.
Besides, I’ve wanted to go to NYU since my sophomore year at Michigan State. I love New York. The noise and the smells and the fashion.
Speech therapy might not seem glamorous, but I love what I do and there’s a lot of money to be made being a private therapist to the upper, upper class. It’s what I’ve planned for almost three years.
I also know I pushed him last night. Taunted him really. Like I did that night after the bar.
He’s a man, after all. He saw the opportunity and read the invitation and showed up ready for the party.
I got what I wanted, right? He destroyed my v-card, summer goal achieved.
“I get it,” I finally choke out, trying not to say too much because my chin is starting to quiver.
“When we get back, there are some things I need to take care of. Then we’ll talk. The parents are dropping off kids, I need to meet the network guys and—” He palms the wheel of the Jeep, turning under the tall carved log archway into Camp WanderLust. “I need to get some things sorted out. I know Hailey is going to rapid fire questions at me about why I was gone. I want to make sure she’s okay.”
Before we got in the Jeep to head out, Price had the ranger radio back to his headquarters and told them to call Ted and let him know we’d be back soon. Campers are arriving today so there’s a lot to handle I’m sure.
I shrug. “Sounds good. I need to change clothes and get ready for another session with Hailey. Consistency is key with speech therapy. I know she’ll be waiting for you. She comes first.”
He opens his mouth. It hangs there like the words are frozen on his tongue, then he closes it without saying anything, only swallowing on a nostril-flaring inhale.
He doesn’t know how to say what we both know needs to be said.
He told me this couldn’t happen. And like an idiot, I thought that was negotiable.
But if I got what I wanted, why do I feel like pieces of my heart are scattered around my feet?
The next few minutes on the gravel road back into camp, Price accelerates like he’s ready to be away from the tension that thickens the small interior of the Jeep.
“See ya,” I say as casually as I can muster when he slows and parks the Jeep in front of the main hall. Counselors are waving as some early families pull in to drop off their kiddos for the next few weeks.
I grab the handle to the door and pull, swinging it open and hopping onto the ground before Price has the ignition off.
Hailey is a handful in the best sort of way. Her IQ has to be off the charts, but it’s also her personality. She’s forty years of wisdom and sass packed into a six-year-old’s body.
The rest of the counselors were organized at tables checking in campers when we got back. I scooted off to my bunkhouse, jumped into a lukewarm shower, trying to wash away the clutching feeling in my chest along with Price’s scent.
As I dressed, the reality of what we did came crashing down around me.
Raw. No condom.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
It’s been a few hours now, there’s campers all around finding their way, and Ted asked me to stick by Hailey because the older woman that’s her sort of nanny-ish stand-in grandmother, Wiley, is down with a migraine and Ted and Price have official new camp owner and TV network duties to tend to.
Hailey’s been trying to teach me how to climb the rope in the outdoor obstacle course, scurrying up it like it’s a ladder, then touching the branch it’s attached to and inching back down. And I can tell how proud she is of keeping up with the exercises we were practicing yesterday, her ‘s’ sounds much more sibilant as she repeats the tongue twister I taught her as she goes up and down the rope.