Bookishly Ever After (27 page)

“Big surprise.”

I elbowed him, “Who is this awesome fiddler but wants
to be a potato farmer…”

“Because that’s really glamorous.”

“And she gets offered a seat in an August music intensive back home. Right now she’s torn between staying on the Island for the rest of the summer or going to the intensive.” Dev gave my arm a squeeze and I moved to the right under his guidance.

He didn’t miss a beat. “Why is she torn?”

“Because she thinks she’s falling for the guy.”

“Who wants to be a potato farmer.”

I laughed. “Yeah. You know, not everyone can be a Bollywood star.”

“Tree root.” Dev’s arms tightened around me and, before I could really trip, he half-lifted me over something that had caught on the toe of my Keds. He then continued like nothing had happened. “And I didn’t star. I was a background dancer. Which, by the way, still beats potato farmer.”

I tried to make a dismissive gesture with my free hand. “Whatever. You can keep telling yourself that.” I took a deep breath and the earthy-pine scented air steadied me. “You know what I love the most about this book?”

“What?”

“The author isn’t a musician, but she gets it. That magical feeling you have when you’re playing and everything falls together and you’re nothing but the music.”

He squeezed my shoulder and hand, but this time it wasn’t to get me around an obstacle. “That really
is
an awesome feeling. I love that someone else gets it.”

We walked silently for a minute, the campers fading away and it was just me and Dev walking through this pine-scented darkness. Just as I was about to say something, Mrs. Forrester’s voice broke through and shattered the spell. “Good job, guides. Blindfoldees, you can take off your blindfolds now.”

I reached up to slip off the blindfold. With the few lanterns surrounding the clearing, it was dark enough for my eyes to adjust almost immediately, focusing first on Dev and then shifting quickly to the moonlight reflections of the pines in the lake behind him.

“No trees, as promised,” he said, and I blinked back to his face.

“That must have been really hard for you,” I shot back teasingly. Dev let go of my arm and hand and suddenly, the night’s chill washed over me.

“Before we switch and finish the rest of the trip around the lake, we have a mini science experiment for all of you.” The campers groaned and Forrester waited until they quieted down before continuing. “Tonight, we’re going to learn about triboluminescence.”

“Cool,” Dev said under his breath.

I tilted my head at him and mouthed “Geek” before turning back to face Mrs. Forrester. That was a new addition from the trust walk when we were sixth graders.

“Triboluminescence is what causes things to spark when you crush them, releasing extra electrons. You’ll cover that in your science classes next year, but for now, we’re going
to watch triboluminescence in action.”

Mr. Hamm started walking through us, handing out candies as he spoke. “All sugar-based candies triboluminesce when you bite into them, but the wintergreen flavoring makes for a very visible spark because it’s fluorescent.” He shook his head at one of the boys who was about to pop the candy in his mouth. “Don’t eat these until we tell you to, because you’ll need to watch your partner if you want to see chemistry in action.” He gave me and Dev each a little white mint and moved on until everyone had a piece of candy.

“Everyone have their mints?” At the nods from all of us, Forrester said, “We’re turning off the lanterns. I need you to face your partners and wait for my signal to bite down on the candy. This is going to be the only time that eating with your mouth open is acceptable, by the way.”

I turned slowly to face Dev and the words “chemistry in action” ran through my head again at the way his moonlit profile made me feel like I had a chemical reaction going on in my heart and lungs. His eyes locked with mine before his attention slipped to a spot closer to my ear. He reached out, his hand almost brushing my cheek, and I froze, like Maeve on Midwinter night. He pulled a pine needle out of my hair and twirled the needle between his fingers before letting it flutter to the ground. Dev seemed as breathless as me.

He has a girlfriend
, the little voice in my head reminded me.

The last lantern clicked off, turning the clearing into a giant shadow. Some of the girls giggled and I heard a friendly
scuffle behind me.

“Okay,” Mr. Hamm said, his voice effectively silencing the group. “On the count of three, bite into your mints. One,” I took the mint between my fingers and watched as Dev did the same with his. “Two.” I brought the mint up to my lips, seriously regretting turning down the lipgloss advice as Dev’s gaze dropped to my lips. “Three.” I watched as blue light sparked from Dev’s mouth and the cold around us disappeared as I watched his lips move. His hand accidentally brushed mine in the dark.

Sparks flew. Oh, hell, sparks
flew.

There was nothing like sneaking out after breakfast and moving around a camp parking lot trying to get a signal on my cell phone to kill the magic left over from the trust walk. I squinted at the number of bars on my phone and sat on a stump at the edge of the lot.

“You’re breaking up again.” Em’s voice was static-y but her annoyance was clear.

I stood and watched the bars jump up. “Sorry. Camp Sundew hasn’t moved into the twenty-first century. Better?”

“Much. So, you were saying?” She switched to speakerphone on her end and the sound of her closet squeaking open came through the line.

“You were right. Kris was…” I searched for the right words, “not as wonderful as I thought he would be. It was like he only liked me because I matched some sort of checklist for him after Grace’s makeover.”

“I told you. Fictional romance. Too bad you didn’t figure it out when half the junior class told you he was a jerk.”

I couldn’t help but correct her. As much as I didn’t want to think about the whole conversation and kiss, I still couldn’t think of Kris as bad as Em and the others described.
“He’s not a jerk. He’s just really, really focused on what he wants.”

A dismissive sound came over the phone. At least, I thought it was a dismissive sound and not Em choking on something.

“And doesn’t care about what anyone else wants unless it matches up with his plans.”

“It
was
awful, especially when Dev had to save me.” I played with the hem of my polo. Today, I had stylishly accessorized it with a red bandana belt. “Between that and the trust walk thing, I don’t think I can do this co-counseling thing anymore. Last night was torture.”

“It sounded pretty awesome to me. Dev swooped in and got you out of a bad situation. Then, you guys held hands and wandered through the woods in the moonlight.”

The force of my eye roll had to be heard over the phone. Leave it to Em to turn a trust exercise into something it wasn’t. “Blindfolded.”

“Whatever turns you on.”

“You’re not taking this seriously. It’s a lot easier to think of Dev as just a friend when I’m not with him practically twenty-four hours a day and when I don’t have to watch him make sparks in the dark.” I tugged at my bun, feeling a few of the looser pieces slip out. Hello, disheveled Phoebe.

I could hear her giggles over the line. “You know, it would be a little easier to take you seriously if you didn’t say stuff like that. It’s just too easy to tease you. At least you’re not here, feeling the wrath of Osoba.”

“I’ll take Osoba over suffocating under the weight of pretending this totally unrequited crush doesn’t exist. It’s so romantic in books, but in real life it totally sucks.”

“I knew it!” A high-pitched squeal erupted behind me and ice washed through me as I turned slowly to find Diana and Eliana standing on the edge of the closest parking space. “You do like him!” Diana grabbed my free hand and swung it happily.

I could barely keep my phone to my ear. “What the hell is going on?” Em asked with her special blend of pissy annoyance.

“This is awesome,” Eliana said, giving a little twirl. “Like Romeo and Juliet. But not.”

I tried to stare the two of them into silence. “Two of the girls from my cabin just found me.”

A groan came from the other side of the phone line. “That’s not good, is it?”

I shook my head out of habit. “Not particularly. Not if I don’t want Dev to find out.”

“Oh, we won’t tell him,” Diana looked up at me angelically, big eyes and all.

Apparently, my death glare was broken. “I gotta go. I’ll call you when I can.” I eyed the two campers and hoped they wouldn’t rush off before I could talk to them. “Text me about the interpreter audition? I want to know how it went.” She’d been preparing for days for the audition and it killed me that I wasn’t there to cheer her on this time.

“Spoiler alert: I got it. I’ll tell you all about ficus and
corsets and people who were in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society later, when you don’t have to deal with little monsters.”

“That’s awesome,” I said, cringing at how distracted I sounded.

“Yes, it is. But that’s nineteenth-century, and you have some twenty-first century eavesdroppers. Go. Good luck with that mess.”

“Thanks,” I said, clicked off my phone, and pocketed it before regarding the two campers. “Please just pretend you never heard this. Please?”

Eliana reached up and tugged a few more strands out of my bun so they brushed my cheek. “That’s a lot better. Dev looked like he liked it when your hair was down yesterday.”

“Huh?”

Diana answered that one. “At the walk. He played with your hair.”

I blinked at both of them, running through my memories of the night. “No, he pulled a pine needle out of it.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Diana said. “You definitely need our help if you want to get him to ask you out.”

“I don’t want anything like that.” I dropped my hands from my hips and tried a calming breath. “I have to go set up for orienteering, Go back and eat some more scrambled eggs or something and don’t worry about this Dev thing.”

“But—” Eliana didn’t seem too happy.

I tried to look both of them in the eye and settled for ping-ponging between them with my best serious face.
“Please? This is something personal that I need to deal with on my own.”

Diana crossed her arms and actually made a pouty face. That girl had conniving angel down pat. “Fine, but when you need help, we’ll be here.”

I put one hand on each girls’ shoulders and started guiding them back towards the mess hall.

“Thanks,” I said, trying my best to sound appreciative. “I’ll remember that.”

Dev was already preparing the stones and sticks for the fire pits when I arrived at our clearing. I dropped my bag of compasses on the table and tried to look nonchalant as I collapsed onto the bench and started shuffling through the packets we’d be handing the kids.

He looked up with a sleepy smile. “Where did you disappear to during breakfast? That table was pretty hard to handle on my own.”

I cringed, then pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it at him. “Sorry, I actually found a signal and was checking in with Em.”

“Afraid she’ll send a search and rescue team if she didn’t hear from you for more than a day?”

“Something like that.” I shrugged. “Besides, it couldn’t have been that bad. We definitely won the counselor lottery with our campers. They’re not a lot of trouble.”

“Right, maybe all your girls aren’t.” He stood and sat
on the bench next to me and I tried not to notice how hyperaware I’d become of the little bit of air between our arms and legs, my skin buzzing where we were practically touching. “Tanner was acting up last night, so I threatened to kick him out of the cabin. When he called my bluff, I took all his things and threw them out the front door. He tried sleeping outside for about half an hour before coming inside and promising he’d behave.”

I covered my mouth to hide my smile. “What if he hadn’t done that?”

Dev shrugged. His fingers picked at a frayed spot on the knee of his jeans. “I’m sure Forrester would have understood.” I gave him a look that said I wasn’t as sure as he was. He reached over and pulled the packets out of my hands. “So, as payback, how about I take the easy orienteering part this morning and you get down and dirty with the fire building?” he asked, pulling out one of the maps and rotating it to find up.

I reached over and positioned the map for him, careful to grab the sides opposite from his hands. “That would be fair, except for the tiny fact I have no idea how to build a fire.”

“It wasn’t in any of the books you’ve read?” I locked him in a death glare and he stood up, grabbing my arm and pulling me with him. “Just kidding. Part of the reason why they asked me to be a counselor is because I’m a scout and the king of outdoorsyness.” He knelt in front of one of the supply piles and gestured for me to join him. “We have a few minutes. Come learn, little padawan.”

“I still can’t picture you as a scout.” I folded my legs under myself and sat as far from him as I could while still being within reach of the fire pit site.

He didn’t look up from his task of shredding some bark and dry pine needles, but a little dimple appeared in his cheek.

“Mom and Dad like it because it looks good on college applications. I like it because I get to occasionally blow stuff up.” His eyes met mine, like he was checking to see if I was smiling. He reached out with a handful of the shredded stuff. “This is kindling. We’re going to use a bow and drill setup to get some embers going in here.”

“I once read a book where the character used a tinderbox to—” I stopped and bit my lip to keep from spouting any more utter book geekishness. Part of me wished I’d had that tinderbox and, like Scarlet in
The Bear’s Daughter
, could show off by making a fire in seconds.

“I knew it. What haven’t you read about?” He handed me a few sticks and a rock. One of those things looked like a mini-version of a rough bow. “No tinderboxes. You have to work for your fire here.”

“Okay, Yoda. Teach me,” I said and he failed miserably at hiding his surprise.
Touche
, geek checkmate. He probably hadn’t expected me to get the padawan reference. “I’ll try my best to learn.”