8. Jack #2
She stepped closer to me and stared into my eyes. I wanted her to touch me. Anywhere. Just the idea of feeling her skin on mine covered me in goose bumps. I didn’t need this. I didn’t need to be jealous of golden boy Chase. And I didn’t need to have feelings at all.
Wait, feelings? No. This was just an attraction, plain and simple.
I shook my head, trying not to look at her. Why was I so infatuated with her?
She continued, oblivious to the ridiculous realization plaguing me. “Look, I’m just trying to have a good time at camp. I’m not looking for a fight.”
Not looking to fight? Of course, she’d want me to just forget what she’d done. “Well, you should have thought about that before—”
“Before what? Are you still hurt over being tackled? How tiny is your male ego?” she shot back, her voice going up an octave.
My heart pounded, ready to jump out of my chest. All my misplaced attraction turned to anger over something so trivial, but she brought it out in me. “You one hundred percent did not deserve to win at flag football.”
“I was always going to win, Jack. Football is in my blood,” she teased, but it only disgusted me. Everyone knew that the Breckenridges owned Baltimore’s football team, among other things, and apparently, she was proud of it.
“Careful, Nat. Your spoiled rich girl is showing.”
Her pupils dilated, exposing the tender spot, and I prepared to push on it like a bruise.
Nat gave me a look of pure contempt. “Stop talking.”
“I didn’t realize that’s what got you off. Rubbing power and privilege in the faces of the common folk? Should I bow?”
“You don’t know a thing about me,” she seethed.
Maybe I should have listened, but I wasn’t inclined to do what she wanted me to do, and if I were being honest, I liked getting under her skin. Just being around her brought out something in me that I wasn’t proud of. “You’re a Breckenridge through and through. With the integrity to match.”
Her jaw looked like it was going to come unhinged as she gaped at me before narrowing her eyes. And just like when she’d tackled me on the field last week, I was caught off guard.
Nat shoved my shoulder hard, sending me off-balance, my arms flailing out wide to no avail. I toppled into the cold lake water with an awkward splash. I came up quickly and sputtered out water, wiping a hand down my face.
It took me a second to catch up to just what I’d done. “Nat. Wait—” I tried as I grabbed my floating T-shirt and swam to the ladder. I looked up to see her receding form, already halfway down the dock, muttering obscenities as she stormed away from me. Shit, she booked it fast.
I pulled myself up using the ladder. My T-shirt clung to my neck, like my bad choices. I wrung it out aggressively. I may have gone too far this time. The thought sat uneasily as guilt began to eat at me.
On top of me coming off like a jerk, there were professional ramifications to my behavior I hadn’t fully considered yet.
Like how stupid I was. Nat was close to Hazel, and if she told her what I did, how I was behaving, I could lose Starlight, the best thing that had ever happened to me.
What would I do then? Go back to construction without whimsy?
No, thank you. I needed to get my hotheaded nature under control before I completely lost sight of what was important.
My phone started ringing, interrupting my thoughts as I saw my brother’s face appear. I bent down and grabbed it from on top of my towel, answering in my mostly normal, cheery voice. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Sorry, I know it’s late, but I wanted to let you know that Jordy’s been asking about you lately. He misses you.”
I pictured my nephew, now ten and growing up fast. It was always fun to see him running around camp as a carefree little boy.
I loved it when he visited. It gave me such pride that my nephew wanted to spend time with me, and it was a stark reminder that I needed to get my act together and set a good example for him.
Possibly even get my head out of my ass when it came to this whole rivalry.
“I’m free Thursdays,” I said, needing something positive to focus on. “He can come over and chastise me about my cabin being too messy.”
“Can he chastise you about that on a Saturday? There’s a winery in Emerald Falls I’ve been wanting to take Molly to. I know she’s going to love it.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I can make that happen.”
“Awesome.” I could hear the joy in his voice at the prospect of surprising her. It was proof that Foster was a better husband than our dad was for our mom.
A sour feeling flopped in my stomach, and I wanted off the phone. My family would be so disappointed if they knew how I was behaving. Letting anger and negativity infect me and others around me.
I felt Autumn’s presence behind me on the dock and turned to see her kind wave when she realized I was on the phone. “Listen, I gotta run. Autumn’s here.”
Autumn stopped walking and waited for me to finish the call.
My brother’s cheery tone did nothing but dampen my mood. “Don’t give Autumn too much trouble. See you next week.” Little did he know, Autumn wasn’t in my sights. Nat was.
“You’re late,” I muttered for the second time, annoyed but not with her.
“After campfire is an arbitrary time, Jack.” Did she and Nat talk or something? “And I had to find calamine lotion for a camper with poison ivy. Where’s Nat?” She looked around the dock as if she would just appear. Pop up out of the lake like a mermaid, all magical and shit.
My chest tightened as I pictured Nat storming off because of me. “She left.”
“Well, you clearly took part in your epic showdown without me. So what happened?” She watched as I continued aggressively wringing out my T-shirt, squeezing every last droplet of water out of it as though it would rid me of my shame. “You’re pouty. So I’m guessing Nat won?”
I looked back over the night water, seeing the buoy floating in the distance, and let out a long sigh. “I got what I deserved.”