Her gasp has my head snapping in her direction again, and I nearly fall over when she yanks at the collar of my hoodie.
“You got a hickey from Kenickie,” she jokes, quoting Grease.
My hand flies to my neck, my fingertips pressing over the spot it must be, the memory of his lips replaying in my mind.
Peeking at Cam, I bring my beer to my lips, and my girl lifts her hands in a praising motion, holding hers out.
“Way to go, sister.”
A calming sense of happiness washes over me and I turn to my friend.
“Tell me all about the kids from your child development class.”
Cam beams, shifts as I had, and starts talking. We stay in our chairs for well over an hour, laughing and joking about everything and nothing.
A little while after that, Mason drops a chair beside us, joining in on our conversation, and of course, Brady and Chase follow as soon as they spot the three of us together.
We share some of the stories our parents have told us about their group trip overseas, since we’ve all gotten different ones, and make plans to spend Thanksgiving at the beach house with our cousin and friends.
Mason busts out the marshmallows, so Brady and I sharpen some sticks into clean points for roasting.
After eating my first one, I put on another, finding my favorite shade of blue across the bonfire.
Noah stares, his friends all around him, mine all around me.
Never taking my eyes off his, I let the treat hit the flame before bringing it to my mouth, but I don’t blow.
I let the blaze grow bolder, brighter.
I let the heat take over until it’s nothing but a ball of fire.
And in one quick breath, blow it out.
He’s too far for me to hear his chuckle, but I know it’s there.
He winks, and this time, I feel it in my soul.
Chapter 26
Arianna
* * *
I was hoping for an invite to sleep in Noah’s tent last night, but not an hour after our marshmallow fun, Cameron was down for the count, which put me on best friend duty.
I did, however, set my alarm for when he mentioned he was getting up, so I could help him pack and say bye before he took off. Knowing the boys, we’ll be here as long as possible, cutting it to the very last minute before we have to head back to campus. They’re every bit outdoor, hands-on, adventure men.
By six a.m., on the dot, Noah’s pulling out of the campsite, headed home for his visit with his mom.
As quietly as I can manage, I snag the last of the logs near Brady’s truck and carefully arrange them into a tall point around the mess of ashes. There’s enough kindling still burning below that I don’t have to use the brush to get it going today—clearly some campers had a way later night than I did for this baby to still have some life—so I stay crouched, watching to make sure it burns evenly or the fire will weaken sooner than we want.
“You need another log?”
I glance over my shoulder to find Chase stepping up, his hands buried in his hoodie pockets, beanie hanging half off his head, as if he forgot to tug it down when he crawled out of bed.
“These are the last of them.”
He nods, coming forward. “You’re up early. Cam okay?”
I chuckle, pushing to my feet. “Drooling all over my pillow when I last checked. Her ride home won’t be fun.”
He grins, following my steps.
“Want to help?” I gesture to last night’s beer pong mess, pulling two garbage bags from the plastic bin under the food table.
Wordlessly, he grabs the bag, and we start on opposite sides, picking up the empty cans on the ground first, moving to the tabletop second.
“I miss partying like this.” Chase looks across the trees. “Well, I guess this is only our third parent-free camping trip, but still. I could go for more of these.”
“Good thing we’ve got all that practice from sneaking onto the back of Brady’s grandparents’ property, or we’d be coming out here with nothing but tents and an ice chest.”
He grins. “Yeah, we discovered the hard way you have to bring wood camping, didn’t we? That was a failure of a trip.”
“We had to leave in the middle of the night, and we slept in the truck outside my house because Mason didn’t want to see the grin on my dad’s face when he got to say ‘I told you so’ when they said we weren’t ready to go on our own.”
Chase laughs, nodding his head.
I gasp, looking to him. “Do you remember summer of sophomore year, when your parents let us have that pool party at your place?”
“Our first adult-free swim session.”