Camp Love (Camp Starlight #1)

1. Jamie

one

Jamie

“Remember that promise you made to me, like, eight months and twenty-three days ago? Well, I figured out how you can make it up to me.” Ren leaned against my desk, pouring champagne with focused precision while I closed out the notation for our biggest client yet.

Another case closed, and everything was clicking into place.

“Your friendship comes with too many conditions.” I took the glass he waved in front of me before he could accidentally spill on the documents we’d painstakingly worked on for the better part of a month.

He parked his ass on the corner of my meticulously clean desk and took a large glug of his fizzing beverage. “Oh, you mean, like, being there for your best friend’s birthday party? Your recently divorced best friend who works too much to have time for other friends?”

“You don’t want other friends,” I joked. “And no more guilt trips. You know I wanted to be there.”

“Clients shouldn’t be calling late expecting you to have no life.”

“That’s the job.” Sacrifices had to be made.

All I had to do was remind Clint and Margaret that I was the obvious choice for senior associate.

Only two slots would be offered to me and my colleagues, and that meant two people would be leaving our firm in the coming weeks. I was not going to be one of them.

“James, haven’t you heard the phrase ‘work hard, play hard’? Where’s the play?” Ren tried again.

Begrudgingly, I had to admit that he wasn’t wrong.

We put in the long hours because our highest-profile client had been running us ragged all month.

I wasn’t about to turn down their calls, even if they had a knack for calling right when I was in the middle of a REM cycle.

Or in the shower. Or when I was eating. All this work would pay off when I was named senior associate.

“I’m listening, and I hear you.” I used my best guidance counselor voice. “But can you hand me that file?”

I reached my hand out for a manila folder just inches out of my wingspan.

He didn’t move. In fact, he sat right on the folder like a four-year-old who didn’t understand that there were consequences to his actions.

I may have been overworked and went out of my way to get things done, but getting ass-prints out of perfectly flattened paper wasn’t part of the job description.

“No. I can’t.” Ren’s face was dead serious as he crossed his arms over his chest.

I tugged at the small bit of yellow I could see, pulling at the file until it was fully out from underneath him, grinning as I dropped it into its folder in my filing cabinet and pushed it shut. I reached for the next case on the docket, but he smacked at me, and it fell to the ground.

“I know the indelible list of goals you’ve got burned into the back of your skull, James.

‘Graduate at the top of your class. Make partner by forty. Lead a life of luxury and stability.’” He mentioned all of this as if it were stupid, even though that deadline would be here before I knew it.

“You’re even ignoring the champagne, which is incredible, really, but it only illuminates the fact that you have problems. So hear me out.

We’re locked and loaded on the Bradley case, and the hearing isn’t for another month.

” He put the file back on the shelf haphazardly, as though it wasn’t going to fall from its crooked placement.

“Perfect, time to prep. I’ll visit the site again—”

Ren turned back to me, his pretty-boy face shifted into a frown.

“Or…” His voice was firm. “What if you just enjoyed the moment for, you know, a moment? We could finally take a vacation. You’ll be taking on more responsibility when you get back.

Which means that I need a break before all the madness starts, and you need a distraction. Or what most people call a vacation.”

Time away on some white-sand beach with a mai tai in my hand sounded fantastic.

Of course it did. I’d been working nonstop for as long as I could remember.

In high school, the motto was “be the best.” In college, it was “be at the top.” And with internships, it was “work the hardest.” Proving myself over and over didn’t allow for vacations.

As much as I hated to admit it, Ren was right.

Everything was out of my control. This case being closed meant I could finally take a moment for myself.

Only, I didn’t know what that looked like.

I’d been working so hard for so long that life outside of work was nonexistent.

But I didn’t mind it. Work was where I fit in, where I could rely on my instincts and drive to do what it took to get our clients the win.

There was no need for any personal life outside of the quick hookups I sometimes indulged in through impersonal apps.

I’d tried dating a few times and met some interesting people, but when first dates rarely became second dates, whether on my end or theirs, it would be better to pursue dating once I had more time.

And I’d have time after I was promoted. Okay, maybe not in the first few years while I proved that I was the obvious choice for partner, but after that happened, I’d make it a priority.

My new plan was to start dating at thirty-five, even if my family gave me a hard time about it.

By then, the most suitable prospects who had married naively in their twenties would be divorced and seeking their second marriage anyway, so I might as well wait for round two.

Not everyone was meant to find their life partner at twenty years old like my parents and my sister after them.

“You need to make time for yourself.” Ren snapped his fingers to get my attention off life planning. The little shit.

“You’ll drop it if we take that weekend rafting trip that you’ve never shut up about?”

“Oh, James, sweet James. That was last year’s vacation we didn’t take.” Oof, he had a point. And he also… looked devious? “I’ll arrange everything, and it’ll be unforgettable. Just sign right here.” He pointed to a blank sticky note. “In blood—”

“In blood?”

He sighed in annoyance. “Surrender yourself to my will already. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“It’s about time,” my overenthusiastic sister, Marley, exclaimed, shaking her phone over video chat after my news.

She acted like I hadn’t come out of my bunker for years when we still had check-ins regularly.

But she was right, and the idea had grown on me just a little.

I was starting to feel more confident in the decision, seeing how happy it was making her. “So, where are you going?”

“Ren signed us up for some sort of camping adventure, complete with ‘life-changing experiences.’ Whatever that means.”

“Camping? That’s so unlike you. Have you even been camping since that trip with the Robertsons freshman year of high school?

Didn’t you have to sleep in the car after the tent flooded?

” It was spring break that year, and it had gone well for the first few days, but yes, we did end up sleeping in a car, and yes, it was my first experience with back pain.

“Yeah, that was terrible, but it’s summer, and this time, I have an extensive list of what to pack and how to relax—”

“Only you would have a list for how to relax,” she teased. “It’s a far cry from the big brother I used to know, who was more concerned with pranking his track coach than making sure he had the right books on him for class.”

I took the pen from behind my ear, crossed off bug spray from my packing list, and wrote it on the paper taped securely to the corresponding tote.

“Yeah,” I mused. “Coach didn’t appreciate it when we gift-wrapped every item in his office. Or when we staked his lawn with pink flamingos.”

I moved on to my monthly check-in about our family. “How’s everything going with the move? Should I come out and help?”

My sister had moved from a one-story ranch-style home into a two-story with enough bedrooms for her two kids to have their own space.

“There are boxes everywhere, but no, it’s under control.” She sighed as if she was gearing up for something. “You’ll come for Thanksgiving, though?”

I hated that she had to plan that far in advance, but based on my track record, she was making the right call. “I think I can get the time off, but if it would help, I could—”

“You’re not using us as an excuse to get out of your ‘life-changing experience.’”

“I thought you loved me,” I play-whined, but the truth was, I felt relief. After hours of research, I’d started to feel the tickle of anticipation. Hearing the excitement in Ren’s voice and seeing it on my sister’s face only piqued my interest, and I anticipated the trip more.

“I do love you, and speaking of love or any kind of connection, why don’t you tell me about your plans to date? Now, there’s a life-changing experience for you.”

I nearly spat out my iced tea. Of course, my sister would think I’d be going on some sort of singles vacation with the idea of finding my soulmate. It didn’t work like that for anyone but her.

Marley and Savannah met each other at a concert ten years ago. Their shared interest in music became a conversation about the books and movies they loved, and that turned into enjoying time with each other, which turned into them falling in love.

“We’ve talked about this. I’ll take up dating after I’ve settled into the new position. When there’s more time.”

“I don’t know what’s funnier, the idea that you’ll take up dating like it’s a hobby or the delusion that you’ll have more time when you’re a senior associate.”

“Why not? I’ll have more of a choice in clients. And remember, I took up bowling, and now”—I lifted my phone and gestured at the neatly packed pile of clothing, shoes, and toiletries with a ta-da flare—“camping.”

She chuckled at me before she went in for the kill, which I appreciated. “Bowling only lasted a month, Jamie.”

“Not my fault my teammate moved to Ireland, and 2 Legit 2 Split couldn’t stay together.”