Either way, it wasn’t conducive to my plans. I grabbed his name card, planning on finding Krista’s and switching them so that I’d at least get to spend the evening with her by my side.
“What are you doing with my name card?”
Obviously, I was going to get caught. Because this was how things worked for me. I placed the name card back down, sighed, and closed my eyes, asking the universe for strength, before turning around to face Camden.
He looked amused. “In case you didn’t hear me, what were you doing with my name card?”
Moving you to another table. “Looking for you to make sure you knew where you were sitting.”
“That was thoughtful of you.” His words sounded nice, but his tone let me know that he did not believe me. As well he shouldn’t. He gestured toward the set-up board game on the table, one I’d loved as a kid and had sometimes even played by myself because I was an only child. He tacked on, “I thought maybe you were afraid of a little competition.”
“Ha.” I actually said ha. “If I run into any, I’ll let you know.”
He gave me a wolfish grin and sat in his chair. “In that case, let’s play. And please know that I’m going to destroy you.”
“Not in this lifetime. I’m a gaming master.”
“I can’t wait to see how well that works for you in a game based on chance.”
“Be prepared to be blown away,” I told him.
“So long as you get ready to be blown away by how badly I’m going to beat you,” was his sardonic response.
My blood pumped hard at the idea of him challenging me. I had been overly competitive my entire life. Like, it had cost me friendships and relationships. I was better as an adult, but I could not resist a gauntlet being thrown down.
Not good. I needed a distraction. Maybe we’d have engaging game partners in the two other chairs and my hormones could stop jumping up and down at the idea of sitting next to Camden. Especially once he scooted his chair closer to mine so that our knees brushed. I couldn’t help it, I reflexively jerked my knee straight up at the electric sensation, ramming into the table and nearly knocking all of the board game pieces over.
“Are you okay?” he asked and I just pretended like I didn’t hear him.
My hopes that I’d have a good distraction and some conversation were dashed a moment later when we were joined by Dan’s aunt and uncle. After introducing themselves, they started murmuring things to each other under their breath, like they were having an argument that had been going on for twenty years. They were far more interested in the custom drinks that had been named after Dan and Sadie.
I was distracted from their silent disdain when Troy grabbed the DJ’s microphone and announced, “Now that everyone’s in their seats, let’s play!”
The unspoken fight between the couple across from us apparently escalated as the wife stood up suddenly, knocking over her chair in the process. She stomped off, her husband trailing behind her and calling her name.
Leaving us alone.
“What color would you like to be?” Camden asked me.
“Red.” I was always red.
“I’ll be blue. You can go first. Also, in case I didn’t tell you earlier, you look very pretty.”
I was in the middle of reaching for a card when he said that and I paused. It had been so long since a man had said anything like that to me that I didn’t know how to respond.
I went with, “Um, thank you?” My mom had always taught me to accept a compliment, but at the same time, I didn’t want to encourage whatever he was doing. Mostly because I didn’t have a handle on myself when it came to him. I was far too intrigued.
One of the hotel employees stopped at our table, offering Camden a shell-and-bead lei. After she’d put it around his neck he turned to me with a huge smile on his face.
“If you make a joke about getting lei’d, this conversation is over,” I warned him.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said but his grin told me he’d at least considered it. He wore the gleeful expression of a naughty boy who had plotted a scheme but called it off at the last minute. And I found that endearing when I shouldn’t have.
Turning over my card, I moved my red token five spots on the board. “I already have a dad for those kinds of jokes.”
“You’re lucky.” His tone made me want to question what he meant, but I reminded myself that I wasn’t interested in him or his life and was just trying to make it through this week. Before I could say anything in response he went on. “I tried looking up that camp of yours. Where is it again?”