I raise my eyebrows in question—is he going to do it or not? I stand on my toes, tantalizingly close to him, until he finally closes the distance between us.
His lips are warm and soft. But they’re gone before it dawns on me that I’m kissing Isaac.
My bottom lip sticks to his as he pulls away. He leans back and opens his eyes, a smile widening across his face.
I raise my hand to sign as I mouth the words, “You still have to say it.”
He arches an eyebrow and gives a slow nod. “Yes, I like you, too.”
“Really . . . ? Are you sure?” I tease him. “Hmmmm . . .”
There’s a twinkle in his eyes. “And you still like me?”
I shrug. “Maybe you should k-i-s-s me again.”
He taps his fingers against his chin, feigning deep thought. “Let me think.” He wraps his arms around me.
But something is nagging me, so I ask. “Wait, what’s the sign?”
“Kiss,” he demonstrates, using both hands. He presses his fingers against his thumbs and brings his hands together so that his fingertips touch, representative of two people coming together. He pulls me close. “Your signing was pretty good . . . ”
“Right!” A big smile crosses my face. “That was good? Signing fast, too. I guess we need to fight more.”
He shakes his head, reaching out for my arms and drawing me toward him once more, for a long, slow kiss this time.
We’re pushing curfew, but I don’t care, because there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
Chapter Seventeen
At Sunday morning lake time, we’re greeted by two very hungover lifeguards lying horizontal on the beach chairs. Oliver squints up through his sunglasses upon our arrival. He gives the smallest of waves. “Don’t drown.”
“And don’t be too loud,” Ben says, pulling his towel over his face to block the sun. “—— if you must drown, do it quietly.”
The campers are waiting outside the fence playing games on the grass. Ethan clears his throat, but neither lifeguard moves.
“—— two more minutes,” Oliver says. “We’ll be ready then.”
I suppress my laughter when I notice what’s about to happen. Down near the shoreline, Jaden and Isaac have filled two buckets with water and are slowly making their way back up the beach. Ethan holds out one finger and looks at his watch. When it hits nine o’clock, he nods.
A little too eagerly, Jaden and Isaac dump the water on Oliver and Ben, who lunge from their seats.
“Oi!” Oliver yelps, shaking his head and spraying droplets of water on us. “We’re ready. We’re ready.”
As the campers flock onto the beach, Mackenzie pulls our group aside. “Hey, girls,” she says and signs. “Line up here. I want to do a quick video.”
The girls seem intrigued. Honey waves for Mackenzie to hand over the phone, but Mackenzie shakes her head.
“I’m thinking, like, you all take turns saying your name and one thing you like to do at camp.” She holds out her phone with the reverse camera, and signs one-handed. “I’m Mackenzie and I love to dance,” she says and signs, followed by a painfully try-hard silly dance.
“Me! Me!” Honey raises her hand to go first, but Blake pushes her back.
“No, me first. I’m Blake, and I love to swim.” She tugs at Mackenzie’s sleeve. “Did you get that?”
“Actually, do that again with ASL,” Mackenzie says. “You know how to sign ‘swim,’ right, Blake?”
“Uh, Mackenzie?” I step forward between clips. “What’s this for?”
“A cute post for my story,” she answers while gesturing for Honey to repeat her line next.
I’m not sure about this. It feels wrong for Mackenzie to use the young campers to create content for her audience.
I step away and discreetly wave for Ethan. When he’s by my side, I ask, “Is it okay for campers to be recorded and put on the internet? Or does that require parent permission?”
“Huh?” Ethan says, busy fastening the straps of his life jacket. “Parents do sign a release, but that’s for the official camp YouTube page, and that we haven’t used in years. What recording?”
“Oh, well. Mackenzie’s making a video with the campers for her personal channel.” I’m standing with my weight on one leg and arms crossed like a tattling child.
“That’s not okay. Have you said something to her yet?”
“No, I told you first.”
“Okay, I’ll go talk to her.” He ties up his hair. “Just how fast did you run to find me to get her in trouble?” he teases.
“It’s not like that.” But I uncross my arms and shrug.
“Sure.” Ethan just shakes his head. “By the way, we might switch things up a bit, give you a chance to work with the older girls, too. I’m sure Simone could use an extra arm.”
“Is that all I am? An extra arm?” I joke.
“Technically, two.” He smiles. “I’ll get things sorted with Mackenzie and let Simone know you’ll be switching to her group starting next week. And isn’t that when your brother is getting here?”
“Right,” I sign. “Max should be here on the first. Wow, it’s that soon already?” I guess it’s obvious I’ve been a little . . . distracted lately. July will mark the halfway point of my time at Gray Wolf this summer.
I see Isaac, towel draped over his shoulders as he helps one of his campers onto the beach wheelchair. He raises his eyebrows and gives me a sweet little closed-mouth smile, reaching out to squeeze my elbow as he walks by, pushing the chair down to the sand.
* * *
Jaden and Mackenzie are on duty tonight, but Mackenzie is in the staff cabin, so Isaac, Natasha, and I join Jaden around the roaring campfire.
Isaac sits beside me on the bench and reaches into his backpack for his Nintendo Switch. “Wanna play?”
I nod, finishing my quick check of my texts and socials, which reminds me of my conversation with Ethan earlier today. “Also, wait, since when does Camp Gray Wolf have a Y-o-u-T-u-b-e?” I ask.
“We do?” Isaac sets his console down on his lap, searching for the YouTube channel on his phone, then shakes his head. “One video. Guess what year?”
“2012?” I’ve never signed a year before, and I hope I’m doing it correctly.
He shakes his head. “Nope, even older.”
“Seriously?” I raise my eyebrows.
“All the way back to 2010.”
“Wow.” I think for a second. “I mean, do you think Ethan knows the password?”
Isaac slides his phone back into his pocket. “Maybe he can find out. Why?”
“Well,” I say and sign, “Mackenzie seems to make a lot of money with her YouTube.”
“Yeah, it’s awful,” Natasha chimes in.
Jaden shakes his head. Natasha pulls up Mackenzie’s channel on her phone and leans over to show him. “Shit, that’s a lot of followers.”
“Right,” I say and sign. “So, I don’t know, maybe we can make a video to get money for camp? And maybe she can share it?”
“I don’t want to ——，” Natasha signs. I turn to Isaac.