“Emilia won’t,” Aurora says, taking my mug out of my hand and sneaking a sip. “She’ll never back down to a man.”
The kids were getting antsy about not having enough time to practice since we keep them busy all day, so we switched things up to give us all the morning before returning to regularly scheduled programming this afternoon.
I assumed Aurora was exaggerating when she said it’s a big deal, but she wasn’t. Everyone takes it super seriously, which makes me worry even more.
Rory steps closer to me, seemingly absentmindedly, her arm rests against mine as she continues to watch our friends fight like siblings. God, I’m pathetic for enjoying something as simple as her gravitating toward me.
“Hey!” she shouts at Xander and Emilia, making them both look at us all watching them. “How about you come up with something and you can just teach us when you know? If I wanted to watch two people fight over something pointless, I’d spend time with my parents.”
“Fine,” they both snap, immediately returning to arguing with each other.
“Go enjoy your day off,” Aurora says to Clay and Maya. “There’s no way they’re agreeing on something in the next two hours.”
“You’re a real one, Roberts,” Maya says, yawning and waving as she disappears in the direction of the cabins.
“I don’t mind hanging around here for a bit longer to help,” Clay says, sticking his hands into his pockets and shrugging lazily.
His smile is odd today. It’s forced and awkward and it’s making me want to stand in front of Aurora and shoo him. I can’t, obviously, because that would be rude, not to mention slightly unhinged.
“There’s nothing to help with,” she says, her tone sharper than I’ve ever heard her be. “You deserve a break, so go enjoy it.”
Clay’s eyes flick to me and I instantly realize I’m missing a piece of the puzzle. Clearing my throat, I put on my best fake smile to match his. “Enjoy your day off, dude. There’s nothing interesting happening here.”
He finally concedes, looking embarrassed as he heads off toward the cabins behind Maya.
“Why’s he being weird?” I ask Aurora quietly as he gets further away from us.
“Dunno. Can you make sure nobody gets eaten by a mountain lion for five minutes.” She takes the empty mug from my hand and grabs our water bottles from the picnic table. “I’ll get us some water and some deck chairs and we can just sit and watch everyone, okay? Should I get us some paper for origami? Yeah, I should. Find us a strategic spot.”
She’s disappearing toward the main building before I even have a chance to answer her. I watch her leave before ambling toward Emilia and Xander who are, unsurprisingly, glaring at each other. “Why is Clay being weird today?”
Emilia’s eyebrow immediately rises. “Why are you saying ‘today’ like he isn’t like that every day?”
“Rory was snappy with him and he looked embarrassed.”
“He’s been like that since he tried to kiss her,” Xander says casually. “You just haven’t noticed because you don’t pay attention to any of us because we don’t have blond hair and suck your dick.”
“You sound jealous,” Emilia snorts.
“I am. I’d look fucking great as a blond,” he says back. “Not into dicks though, sorry dude. Tried once, not for me.”
“Back up.” My fingers find my temple to try and process the past ten seconds. “He tried to kiss her?”
“Yeah, I told you!” Xander argues. “You went to her cabin to check she was okay and ended up volunteering me to work.”
“You told me he was annoying her and invited her on a vacation, but you didn’t say he tried to kiss her!”
“Oh, my bad,” Xander says casually, like my brain isn’t now full of the image of Clay kissing Aurora.
“Who’s trying to kiss who?” Jenna says, appearing behind me, catching the end of what I said. The last couple of days have been exceptionally hot, so Jenna kept the dogs with her to make sure they were keeping cool. Fish circles me excitedly, while Trout immediately tries to eat my shoelaces and Salmon paws at me to be picked up. “Gentlemen, no more treating the pups like babies. The carrying stops.”
“Feels unreasonable but okay,” Xander grumbles, pouting.
“It’s for our talent show performance, Jen,” Emilia immediately lies as I crouch to the dogs’ level to fuss them all. “We’re workshopping a plot.”