16. Jack
SIXTEEN
Jack
After our unexpectedly personal conversation, Nat went to sleep, but I was wired. The moment Chase had picked her up, an emotion I couldn’t define had filled my senses. Made me… jittery.
How did she have time to date someone out here?
I was not upset. I wasn’t.
She could do what she wanted. After all, relationships were for fools. A huge percentage of them didn’t work out, and then most marriages ended in divorce. I didn’t care that it was cynical. I wasn’t playing those odds.
She sure had looked beautiful when she left, though. Her hair was curly instead of wavy, and she wore this little sundress that had lacy shoulders that gave you the barest peek of skin, which was somehow more alluring than the places her body was visible. She just glowed.
And the talk we had when she’d gotten back, where I learned more about her?
I’d enjoyed it, up until we got to the part about me not dating.
I hadn’t wanted to hash out the Gia stuff I’d been avoiding.
Hoping to shove it under the rug, more like.
I didn’t want to deal with it myself and especially not with Nat.
I hated her. So why did images of her standing close to Chase under the moonlight keep flooding my mind?
I needed to remind myself that I didn’t care about who people dated, least of all her. And even if I did have some kind of feelings for her, however small they were, I wouldn’t act on them. I wasn’t going to date anyone, not any time soon. Maybe ever again.
But I did have to admit she was the first person who had piqued my interest that way since Gia. I hated Nat even more for it.
Only, that wasn’t true. When it came down to it, I enjoyed getting to know her more.
I liked how she was slowly opening up to me, in the quiet space of our bedroom, more than I’d thought I would.
I found myself hanging on to her every word when she did.
Slowly, I realized I hated how much more I wanted to know about her.
A message popped up on my phone, and I swiped quickly upon seeing Jordy’s name. What was he texting me so late about?
Nat. Of course, it was Nat. Apparently, she’d followed him on his socials. Before that, there had been just nine of us, most of whom were family. And Jordy was ecstatic, given the ten or so exclamation points after “Naturegirlnat followed me.”
I shot back my nicest “That’s awesome,” with an exclamation point of my own, even though that wasn’t really my thing.
It was nice of her to follow Jordy. She had been so sweet with him, giving him tips and helping him learn about what she did.
There was no condescension, only kindness.
And from the way she explained her process, I realized there were a lot of things I’d made stupid assumptions about.
With every bit of new information, she was more and more intriguing.
Maybe I should just let this whole thing go with her. If I were being honest with myself, I wanted to stop holding this anger. It wasn’t sitting well, and it hadn’t in a long time.
I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. My creaky door swung behind me, slamming into the frame. “Come on.”
I waited in the dark of my porch for Nat to come out of our room and complain, but she didn’t.
The last thing I needed was to see her in those cute short shorts she slept in.
I wondered if they would be the pink pair with red polka dots.
Or the gray ones with llamas on them. And just like that, I was back to my internal debate of which was better: Nat in sleep shorts or in my T-shirt and sweats.
Would I be forever cursed with these images?
Fuck. Now I really needed to clear my head.
The moon shone brightly over camp, so much so that I didn’t need a flashlight, even under the cover of tall trees.
“Jack, wait.”
I turned to find Jamie in athletic attire, sweaty and out of breath. I didn’t realize the man even stayed up this late, but clearly, he had something on his mind.
“What’s up?”
Jamie wiped the sweat from his brow and stopped jogging in place. “I need to talk to you about something. I’m planning on asking Autumn to marry me.”
I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping at that admission. But it quickly morphed into a smile. It had been nearly a year since they’d gotten back together. He made my best friend happy, so he was good in my book.
“And you need my blessing? Well, James, I must say, I’ve been waiting for this moment for what feels like forever.”
Jamie lifted a thumb over his shoulder. “I knew I should have gone to Leo about this.”
“Wrong. Leo’s a terrible secret keeper.” The man couldn’t even keep his secret Santa pick to himself. “Even with him being gone, all of camp would already know everything by now if you had.”
Jamie shrugged. “I guess all of you suck.”
“I’m willing to ignore that comment.” After all, some days he was right. “That’s great, though, Jamie. Really.”
“I’d be excited if I wasn’t so nervous. It’s also her birthday. But it was the only way I could get both of our families here without her suspecting anything.”
I could tell he needed a confidence boost. “She’s going to say yes. You know she will.” I gave him a pat on the back. “I usually get her a Super Soaker or LEGOs or something. Look at you getting her a ring.”
Jamie shrugged, as if he wasn’t convinced.
“Yeah, maybe. I know it’s fast, but I want to get started on our life, you know?
And it just feels right. But I’m here because I need you to do me a huge favor.
I found this ring that screamed Autumn, but it had to be shipped here.
It’s supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but I’m going to a mediation in Emerald Falls, so I can’t sign for it. ”
“What’s the window?”
“Sometime between one and three.” He winced. “I can get coverage after that, but I need someone to hang out at my office. I couldn’t get the thing delivered here, you know?”
Wednesday was two days away. I thought over my plans. I could make it happen. This was obviously important. “I can do that.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I’m going to propose on Thursday. Our families will be here for her birthday, and it’s her day off, so…”
“That sounds great, Jamie. Looks like you have it all planned out.”
“I need it to work. I can’t keep holding on to this secret. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I smiled at that. “Of course. It’ll all work out.”
“You have got to be kidding me, Jack.” Nat swept in like a whirlwind, partially deflated multicolored balloons parting at her feet. Her face was two shades redder than usual, and I could already tell this was going to go poorly.
She burst onto my side of the room, which had been designated as such by a blue line of painter’s tape right down the middle. The night she’d taped it, I’d had half a mind to tell her that it only allowed for her to use half the doorway, but I’d figured I should pick my battles.
“What is it, Nat?”
“How can you be lying there when this place is such a pigsty?” She gestured to the empty stack of bins at the base of my bed and the pile of stuff I’d placed there after making space for her in front of it.
I’d had every intention of shoving things inside after I’d bought them, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.
“And how have you still not cleaned up these balloons?”
She shoved a creeping pile of winter clothes over the line with her foot, and my blood started to boil.
Nat acted as if she had been living in a warzone. Sure, this room was the worst, but at least I knew where everything was. She had yet to see the second bedroom, which was a blessing considering her reaction to this.
I’d tidied the living room, removed all the work supplies, and piled up the mail. But before all this, the kitchen and bathroom had always been clean. I wasn’t an animal. And she could walk from point A to point B easily. Wasn’t that enough?
“Maybe I’m waiting for the perpetrator to clean them.”
“Good luck with that.” A smug look spread across her face, further instilling my belief that she had been the one to prank me. How she’d gotten into my cabin, though, I was still trying to figure out. Maybe she’d popped out a screen to an open window?
“And to answer your question, the reason I’m lying down is that I’m tired.
” And man, was that an understatement. Between doing my daily camp duties, attending to my pod, and working on her cabin, I’d barely had time to breathe.
Which was why her griping like I was lazy the second I had a moment to sit down was getting on my last nerve.
“You’re tired? I’m tired of functioning in this mess. This is where I sleep. This is where I work.”
“Then maybe you should work elsewhere. Maybe you should get out of the cabin more.”
Her face twisted with shock and indignation. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
“My job,” she said through clenched teeth, “requires my attention sixteen hours a day. I can’t just sit at a desk and stop at five o’clock. And I don’t have time to just rest.”
“Not all of us work the way you do, Nat. And it sounds like even you’re doing too much.” Coming from me, that was a hypocritical statement. We had a surprising number of things in common because I’d often been told the same thing, and just like her, I ignored it.
“I’m not about to justify…” She took a breath. “You know what? No.”
She threw her purple hard-shelled suitcase on her bunk bed and started shoving things from her nightstand into it.
I jumped to my feet. “What are you doing?”
“You just told me to get out of the house more, and this isn’t working. I’m just going to sleep outside.” That was the moment the rain started to clatter against the window. What was with this summer? Her eyes raised, and she sighed in frustration. “I’ve done it before.”
“It’s pouring.”
“Fine. Then I’ll sleep in my car.”
This time, I was the one with clenched teeth. “You’re sleeping in your car over my dead body.”
I shut the case, and she turned around to find me right in her face. How were we always finding ourselves in this position?