13. Tea
Chapter 13
Tea
Loons will choose quiet, protected places for their nests, which are built in bays or sheltered islands close to the water.
The male loon will select the nesting site before a female mate is chosen.
“So, what’s a BILF?”
Riley spread the plastic cloth across the folding table.
“Brother-in-law for life, obviously.”
Tea taped down the corners, but she wasn’t even sure it was needed.
The day was hot and the wind was coming from the south.
Or, lack of wind. It was dead without a cloud in the sky.
“That makes more sense,” she replied.
“Why, what did you think it stood for?”
Her face flushed.
“Oh…you know. When people say stuff like MILF or DILF, they mean…”
Riley frowned.
“No, I don’t know what you mean.”
Her flush deepened.
“You know…brother I’d like to…”
Riley smirked at her.
Tea grumbled. “You’re messing with me.”
She whipped her head back and laughed so hard birds flew away from the trees across the lawn.
She wiped her eyes, still laughing.
“Oh no, honey. You’re the only one blessed with that honor.”
Tea ripped open the package of patriotic paper plates.
“Not the only one,” she grumbled.
She knew she had absolutely no right to be jealous, but being hit with how gorgeous Janelle was and hearing that Archer dated her for two years never seemed to leave her head.
Friends. We’re supposed to be friends.
I should be happy for his relationships.
Her stomach soured at the thought.
Riley seemed unfazed as she opened boxes of plasticware.
“Well, the only one at Wild Pines. Hey, do you ever hear from Quentin and Deanna? I miss those losers.”
“No, never.” Tea pulled her hair into a ponytail, thankful for Riley’s quick change of subject.
“You?”
“Nah. Quentin moved to San Diego and I think Deanna is in Austin? Kind of bums me out. We were all so close.” Riley glanced out at the water and paused, her eyes on the teenagers out on the raft.
She pursed her lips, then did a scan of the lawn before reaching for her vape in her pocket and taking a pull.
“Listen, Tea. I know you guys are chummy and all that again, but I need you to know how bad it was after what you did.”
Tea sucked in a breath.
“I get it. I broke his heart.”
“You didn’t break his heart. You eviscerated it. I have never seen anyone fall apart like that before.”
She winced.
“That bad?”
“Worse than bad.” Riley coughed.
“Don’t fuck with him again, okay?”
She didn’t even know how to respond to that except with a nod.
Riley nodded back. “You could have texted me back, you know. A Facebook message or something .”
Emotion clogged her throat.
“I know.”
She sighed.
“Listen, I get it. You lost your dad, and I am still so sorry about that. He made every summer here better .” She took another pull of her vape, then exhaled a long puff.
“I wish you didn’t shut us all out though.”
“And learn about all the ways Archer was falling apart?”
The door of Cabin F swung open.
Archer was carrying a slow cooker, his mother tucking serving utensils under his arm to carry.
Austin followed, balancing two trays in his hands, bellowing out a laugh at something Astor said from inside.
Archer scanned the lawn, then locked eyes with her.
He tilted his head, clocking her expression from yards away.
“Just friends my ass,” Riley mumbled next to her.
“And I thought Austin and I were complicated.”
Tea kept her eyes on them as they strode across the lawn.
“What do you mean you guys are complicated? You were always meant to be together.”
“So were you.”
Tea faced Riley to retort, but was cut off by Austin.
He plopped the trays of pulled pork sliders and finger Jell-O on the table, then grabbed for his wife, kissing her hard on the mouth.
A hand grabbed for her shoulder and turned her around.
“No need to watch that.”
She flushed, her mind melting down to one single focal point: the warm tattooed hand on her skin.
“How are your feet?” he asked.
She looked down at her bare feet in the grass, her mind drawing a blank.
He squeezed her shoulder.
“Are my creams helping, or…?”
“Oh, right.” She nodded her head, snapping out of it.
“Yes, thank you. Nan is also making me take Benadryl around the clock, which makes me a little drowsy, but it’s helping.”
“Good.” He looked down at her leg.
“Your bruise doesn’t look as scary as yesterday.”
She looked down at the spot breaking out of her denim cut-offs.
The bruise was yellowing, but it still was obvious enough to be utterly embarrassing—a physical reminder that after her second and third attempts out on the water this week, she still couldn’t manage to get up.
“Maybe I can’t water ski anymore.”
“You will. We just need to practice.”
She bit her bottom lip and looked out at the lake.
“You okay?”
She turned, and his face was wrinkled with concern.
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You kind of looked like you saw a ghost when we made our way over here.”
Because I did.
The ghost of summers’ past, telling her how much she screwed everything up.
With her grandparents.
With Riley. With Archer.
“I think I’m tired,” she lied.
“Too tired to be my teammate for the corn hole tournament?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Never.”
He grinned.
“Good. Because I haven’t won in eight fucking years, and I’m in the mood to whip some ass.”
There was something nice about having traditions in such an unprecedented time, or at least that’s how Tea felt as she watched the rest of the Wild Pines crew gather at the center of the lawn, placing their trays of potluck items on the table before assembling around the flagpole.
Everyone had come dressed in their red, white, and blue best, some in swimsuits, some in summer dresses and shorts.
No one wore shoes. Gathering together for the Fourth of July felt like slipping into a worn pair of comfortable jeans.
It was familiar, and as she scanned the faces of everyone in the circle, she could see plainly that the others felt the same.
There were smiles and lots of laughing as old inside jokes were thrown around.
Even if it was a risk, she knew this moment was much needed.
People weren’t meant to be kept at a social distance.
They needed each other.
She felt a twinge in her heart at the thought.
Hadn’t she been keeping herself at a social distance already, even before the pandemic?
Except for her mom, she didn’t have anyone else in her life to share her moments with, or even talk to about her father.
At the thought of her father, she turned to face Archer.
He stood close beside her, his hands cupped in front of him, the tendons in them clenching and unclenching, as he scanned the crowd.
After almost a month of working for him, Tea knew this was his usual response when he was stressed about something but didn’t want to raise his voice.
“Arch.”
He turned to her, his gaze like ice.
“Traditions like these hold us together. We need each other. It’s going to be okay.”
He exhaled, his arms still tense.
“Then why do I feel like this is a very bad idea?”
“Do you want to leave?”
He sucked in a breath and looked at the cloudless sky.
“We’re taking every precaution we possibly can.”
“I know,” he murmured.
“I simply want to protect everyone. Keep them safe. I don’t want to be the cause of any more spread, or to create any threats for those who are immunocompromised.”
Tea felt in her gut yet again that there was more to Archer’s words then he was letting on.
She reached for his arm and squeezed it, watched him track the movement.
“You’ve kept everyone safe, and if people didn’t feel that way, they wouldn’t be here today.”
He nodded, his eyes still on her hand on his bicep.
“Should we start this thing?” Rhonda boomed from across the circle.
Archer stepped away from her grasp and turned around.
“Yes, let’s do it.”
The Wild Pines crew remained silent as Danny and Chris unfolded the flag, then helped their moms connect it to the flagpole.
Steph lifted it to the top, then pressed her hand to her heart and led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ashley sang a soft “Star Spangled Banner,” and Jorge’s face was covered in tears as his daughter finished, the group hollering and cheering by the end of it.
Archer cleared his throat.
The noise settled as he stepped forward.
“Okay everyone, please go to the table in small groups so we all don’t crowd—”
Austin bolted for the food table.
Danny and Chris followed, as well as the rest of the teenager gang.
“—at once.” He sighed.
“Dig in.”
The table spread was an impressive feat of Midwest potluck staples.
Pulled pork sandwiches, grilled brats with sauerkraut, corn on the cob, slow cookers full of mac and cheese and cocktail wieners swimming in a sweet and sour sauce, fried fish, Scotcharoos, finger Jello, mini strawberry Rhubarb hand pies, peanut butter Buckeyes, and every possible kind of whipped or creamy salad imaginable.
Macaroni salad, potato salad, Snickers salad.
It was more than enough food for all of them, almost as if the crew was trying to make up for all of the lost potlucks of the year.
By the looks on their shining faces, it was the right move.
Everyone was happy and laughing as they sat down at picnic tables to eat lunch.
Someone had flicked on music from a Bluetooth speaker, a few people dancing as they went to take their seats.
Archer and Tea sat at a distance with Austin and Riley.
They listened to Austin rattle off ridiculous stories about summers of the past, recalling the heinous things he and Archer got up to.
She sat there with a smile on her face, listening to Archer belly laugh to Austin’s retelling of the time they filled Astor’s Yeti cooler with broasted chicken and swam it to the dock to eat it, the cooler bag smelling like greasy chicken for weeks after.
His shoulders relaxed as the hour passed.
At one point he placed his hands down on the bench, his fingers brushing against Tea’s thigh.
She knew it probably didn’t mean anything—the bench was small and he was big and there was barely any room between the two of them.
But that didn’t stop her heart from hammering in her chest from the small amount of contact.
Eventually people got up from their seats and mingled, watching as Danny and Chris set up the eight boards and bean bags for the tournament.
Archer took names of the different pairs and began putting them in brackets, doing his best to remain calm as Austin argued loudly with him.
Archer kept shaking his head at him.
Tea tied her hair into a ponytail and walked up to them.
Austin’s eyes narrowed into slits as she approached.
“You’re ruining the dream team.”
Archer scoffed.
“The dream team? Austin, I have lost the past eight summers paired with you. There’s no dream team if there isn’t even a dream .”
Austin threw up his arms. “But I’m your brother!”
“That doesn’t make you the best partner.” Archer cocked his head at Tea.
“She’s the dream.”
Her face flushed.
“D-dream team ,” he stuttered.
“She’s the dream team.”
Austin rolled his eyes, told Archer to put him down with Riley, then stalked off.
She glanced up at Archer, noticing the pink in his cheeks.
She smirked. “I’m the dream , huh?”
“Shove it,” he grumbled.
She framed her face with her hands, feigning innocence, ready to mess with him.
“Am I really that dreamy ?”
He rolled his eyes and dropped his clipboard on the picnic table beside him, then grabbed her chin, giving her a small yank toward him.
She gasped at his assertive touch.
Her lips parted as she looked up at him.
He glared back at her.
“It’s time to get your game face on. We can’t lose.”
She squinted.
“My game face is on.”
He shook his head then his other hand was on her face, his thumb drawing two lines underneath her eyes.
She smiled. “War paint.”
He nodded, then added two black strikes under his eyes.
“You better be as good as you were eight years ago.”
She cocked a brow.
He rolled his eyes. “At corn hole , Tea. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
She laughed, then fixed him with her game time face.
“Are you kidding? I went to a big ten school and got even better at corn hole. Let’s sink these suckers.”
They won every single game, to no one’s surprise.
She and Archer slipped right back into being teammates with ease, like no time had passed at all.
They cheered each other on and made faces and sly distractions as their opponents took their turns.
Austin called it cheating; Archer called it strategy.
During the final round, as they played against Danny and Chris, it was neck-and-neck.
The twins sat at twenty points, while Archer and Tea had eighteen.
They only needed one more three-pointer in the target hole to win.
The twins needed only one bag on the board.
Danny narrowed his eyes at the board, tossing a bean bag back and forth in his hand.
“Come on, man, you got this,” Chris said from across the lawn.
“Yeah man, don’t miss,” Archer teased next to Danny.
“Shut the fuck up,” Danny snapped.
“ Daniel Bramble , language!” Rhonda hollered.
“Yeah Daniel, listen to your mom,” Tea teased.
Danny glared at her.
“I agree with Austin. You guys cheat.”
She lifted her hands.
“Didn’t know talking was cheating.”
“Yeah man, don’t be a sore loser,” Archer added.
Danny grumbled something under his breath, then squared his shoulders, took a step, and tossed.
The bag landed on the board, but the throw was too harsh.
It glided across the wood and landed on the grass behind it.
“ Noooo! ” Chris screamed next to her.
Danny sank to his knees.
Archer pointed to Tea.
“You got this.”
She nodded and relaxed her shoulders, eyeing the target, envisioning what angle she would need to throw the bag at the perfect shot.
She let out a long breath, then tossed the bag.
It sank right in.
Cheers erupted across the lawn.
Tea held up her arms in triumph.
Archer swerved around a sulking Danny and Chris and ran up to her, bending low and grabbing her legs with his arms.
Fear plagued her chest. “Archer, NO! ”
He laughed as he stood up, his grip on her legs tight as he threw her over his shoulder, then ran to the dock.
She pounded on his back.
“Let me down !”
“You said it’s good to have traditions!” he yelled back.
“No, no, no, no —”
She was cut off by the cold water as he plunged them into the lake.
She felt him squeeze his hands around her thighs before letting her go and making his way to the surface.
Tea came up for air, spitting water out of her mouth and onto his face.
“You monster.”
He barked a laugh.
“We do this every time we win, Tea bag!”
“ Not my nickname! ”
He laughed again as he climbed the ladder at the dock, then reached an arm to help her up.
She ignored his hand and climbed up, then stood on the dock before him, soaking wet.
He grinned back at her, his war paint dripping down his face, his eyes glistening with mischief.
It was hard to pretend to be mad at him when he looked that happy.
Looked like her Archer.
She crossed her arms. “You better make me a s’more tonight.”
He loped an arm around her shoulder and led her back to the party.
“Already have the supplies.”