“I’m not. I’m ju—”
“You’re out of control, Callaghan. That’s how it starts. One minute you’re carrying a puppy then next minute you’ve crashed a boat you weren’t supposed to be on into the rocks and are being threatened with deportation.” His eyes narrow at my far too specific example. “Theoretically. Anyway, I’d invite you in but unlike you, I respect authority and apparently there’s something about cabins and not dragging men and their comfort animal into them.”
“Who knew you could be such a good girl.”
I almost choke. “Goodnight, Russ. Thanks for walking me.”
I step backward up the remaining steps onto the porch of my cabin. Space between us is good. Space means I don’t lean forward and kiss him. Or attempt to climb him like a tree.
“Goodnight, Aurora,” he says softly. “Sweet dreams.”
Turning my back to him, I quietly open the door, careful not to wake my sleeping roommate. When I look over my shoulder, he’s still standing next to the steps. “What’re you doing?”
“I’m watching you go in so you don’t have to watch me leave.”
My heart is in my throat as I close the door gently behind me and when I finally get into bed, I decide that it was definitely flirting.
Chapter Fourteen
RUSS
I didn’t think there would ever be a time where I’d voluntarily apply JJ’s advice to my life and actually benefit from it; and yet here I am.
The only person who knows you’re not confident is you is something he said to me to be confident with women, but I’m currently applying that to everyone and, surprisingly, it’s working. Unnecessary worry is a mentally exhausting process and, by definition, there’s no logic to it. All it does is make me feel alone, even when I’m surrounded by people.
The team has settled into a comfortable routine with all our campers and Aurora and I have settled into a comfortable routine when we’re not with the kids. Every time I walk her back to her cabin it gets harder not to kiss her goodnight, especially when she looks like she’s thinking about it too, but I’m grateful for her making an effort to keep us out of trouble.
I think I’m grateful.
I’m enjoying breakfast with Emilia when the woman always on my mind comes stomping toward us. She sits down beside her best friend and huffs. “Never again. I mean it. I will pay. I will fake my own death. I don’t care about the consequences.”
Hiding my laugh with my coffee mug, I check over my shoulder to make sure there are no listening ears from the kids still eating breakfast. Xander sits down beside me, his plate suspiciously loaded with bacon. I lean in, whispering. “Stop feeding the dogs.”
He keeps looking at his plate as he shakes his head. “You’re not my mom. I don’t have to listen to you.”
“Surely it wasn’t bad,” Emilia says to a still scowling Aurora, also fighting a laugh.
All our campers sleep in one cabin and we each take turns sleeping in there to supervise overnight a couple of times a week. There’s always a senior like Jenna available overnight for emergencies, so as long as your kids aren’t acting up, it’s easy.
Maya was feeling sick yesterday, so Aurora volunteered to cover the night shift, incorrectly thinking she would be with Xander. When she realized she would be with Clay she looked like the world was ending.
Yeah, petty me was happy about that.
“Sure it was bad, Emilia,” she grumbles. “He told me he doesn’t mind cuddling if I’m scared of the dark. I know he’s joking, but he’s so much funnier when he’s not trying to be funny.”
Emilia’s eyes roll. “What did you say?”
“I told him I sleep stab.” I almost choke on my coffee. “Which I thought was the end of it, but he started telling me it sounded like there was something under my bed and for me to wait on his while he investigated.”
“You gotta admire the creativity,” Xander teases. “Being a douchebag is difficult in this day and age, but here he is, hustling.”
Aurora’s eyes lock on him murderously. “Jessica was coming to ask me to get her teddy that’d fallen down the side of her bed and overheard Clay joke that it could be a murderer under there and started screaming. Then everyone else started screaming. I’m surprised you didn’t freaking hear it. My ears are still ringing. It took like, two hours to get everybody back into bed and calmed down.”
“I slept like a baby,” Xander says, taking a bite of his toast.