Dead of Summer

Chapter 1

“It’s going to be different this year.” I watch lazily as Kinsley takes a long draw of the vape she never goes anywhere without, then take it when she offers it to me. Her lazy smile is enough for me to know it isn’t some of her low-key shit, and I’m a little more careful than usual as I suck in a pull from the container.

“How’s that?” I ask, drawing one knee up to my chest and toss it back her way. “You going to fulfill your spiciest, romantic dreams with Liza this year?” Liza, the gorgeous camp nurse who has never, not once, given my friend more than a raging crush on her by just breathing and looking pretty.

Kins’ smile widens. “Absolutely. And we’re going to get you some summer love too. How’s that sound?” Her tolerance is much higher than mine, and she breathes in from the vape one more time before stuffing it in the pocket of her camp-issued shorts. That, plus the bright purple t-shirt with its gaudy white letters printed on the front, proclaim her and I both as camp counselors for Camp Crestview.

I’ve always thought our outfits feel too eighties. I’m sure some parents think so, and we’re lucky the kids are too young to remember any campy summer movies from that time period. Otherwise, they’d do worse than turn a deaf ear to our directions or kick us in the shins.

“Summer love?” I snort. “What are we, in some cheesy romance movie? Will we both fall in love and go home, only to think we’ll never see our new loves again?”

“Yep.” Kinsley gets to her feet, pulling her hair back into a high ponytail before dragging me up off the floor of the counselor building. We’re definitely not supposed to be smoking anywhere on camp grounds, but this is the safest place to do it. Here, at least, the kids know they can’t enter, so we’re left alone, for the most part. And we’re certainly not the only ones who’ve brought what our boss would label ‘contraband’ to camp. “And then that’s when act two starts, and our summer flings show up at our high school.”

“Shame we aren’t in high school anymore,” I remark offhandedly. “Do we need to, I don’t know”—I shoulder the door open, and when she steps out behind me to let it close, I hear it click locked once more—“form a gang? With matching jackets?”

A voice calls out to both of us, prompting us to glance up toward the drop off area. It’s packed with parents giving their kids a last hug, or trying to shoo them away from the car so their mom or dad can leave and have a ten day break from their little gremlins.

Working as a camp counselor has been eye-opening when it comes to kids.

Namely, how much I don’t want any of my own.

A woman with dark red hair and a heavily made-up face smiles at both of us as she waves fervently from across the gravel parking lot. Mrs. Stern, in her too-fancy outfit and her staggeringly expensive car, has made an effort to say hi to us for the past three years, ever since Kinsley and I took this job for some extra money in the summer.

“Hi Mrs. Stern!” Kinsley yells back, cupping her hands over her mouth. “We’ll take care of Jonah!” The twelve-year-old in question makes a face where his mother can’t see, and hoists his duffel bag higher over his shoulder. He might like camp, but he’s never a fan of the scenes his mother likes to make. I’m pretty sure he comes here to get a break from her.

“I was wondering if the usual suspects were going to show up,” I mutter, eyeing another kid that tried pushing me into the lake last year. He grins at me, showing off a missing front tooth. I fight the urge to flip him off, and instead just wave and motion that I’m watching him.

He only laughs and runs off with his friends toward whatever cabin they’ve been assigned.

“You heard about Kevin, right?” Kinsley’s voice dips lower, so that no one can hear us, and we both watch as Mrs. Stern wrangles Jonah to give him one last hug before she leaves. Half of the reason the drop off point is so full is because she won’t leave and her Escalade is blocking more than three other cars combined.

But like hell are we going to say anything like that to her. She’s probably rich enough to ruin our lives if she wanted to.

“No?” My brows rise and I look at her, suddenly interested. Whatever love she has for gossip cannot be matched by my obsession with it. “Don’t leave me like this. I’ll die?—”

“He has the little c,” Kinsley informs me soberly, leaving me to wonder, for a moment, what the little c is.

The big C is cancer, right? So the little c is?—

“Kevin Roy has Chlamydia?!” Two nearby campers turn to look at us, and both of us turn beaming smiles on the girls until they go away.

“Say it louder.” She lifts a brow. “I don”t think Mrs. Stern heard you.” I only grimace as Jonah Stern runs past me, and we give his mother one last wave before she finally drives away.

It’s our turn to leave as well, since we aren’t responsible for drop offs. We’re just supposed to be walking around, offering the kids any help if they need it. With sixty of them and only ten of us, today is one of the worst in terms of how hectic camp will be for these next ten days. At least until pickup, anyway.

“So. Summer love. I have a target.”

“Liza,” I fill in as we walk, nodding. A few kids from last year greet us, and we put on our happy, kid-appropriate faces as we ask them how their summers have been going before once again ending up on our own. The camp is larger than the first I worked at, when I was barely out of high school four years ago. And it’s a bit of a hike to the pool that’s not yet open for this round of campers. “Any specific plans?”

“But more importantly, and why I bring up Kevin, is because I have graciously provided you a target as well.”

I blink at this information, eyes narrowing in thought. “Can I…pass?”

“No.”

“Then I thank you, great friend.” I give her a mocking bow before adding, “Who, exactly? No matter how many times you steal my blankets or make me nachos, I’m not into women. And I’ll just die alone before I step foot near Alec or Daniel.” Especially Daniel, though that part goes without saying.

“I’m not that bad of a friend.” She sounds confident enough to make me nervous, and I frown her way as we check to ensure no one opened the deck house door and slipped into the pool area on drop off day. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time, and I don’t feel like playing CPR simulator again this year for a child who’s inevitably going to cough dirty, chlorinated water into my mouth. “Like I was saying about absentee-Kevin, we got a replacement. A replacement who, I think, makes a viable new target for your summer love quest.”

“You mean candidate, right?”

“Sure,” Kinsley shrugs. “Feels kind of casual when you say that instead of target. Like you’re not really in it to win it, you know? But you call him whatever you want.”

“Does he have a name I can call him? You’ve managed to avoid that so far.”

“Don’t know it.” She changes direction from where I’d expected we were heading, and instead of taking us to the beach or the dock, leads us into the middle of the camp. It’s where Otter Hall stands like a fortress for dinners, activities, and hot chocolate to take out to the big bonfire. “Liza asked if I’d show him around,” she tells me, sounding carefully casual.

“So you accepted, to get on her good side. Right, this isn’t a surprise,” I agree, not sure where this is going.

Until I do.

“Oh no, you are not pawning off Mr. New on me. Especially without even giving me a name. No way, Kins. I have enough shit to do without holding the hand of some eighteen-year-old who’s never seen a summer camp before.” My words grow more and more desperate with every stride she takes, and I can feel the weed swirling through my veins as it hits me with too much force, knocking away most of my arguments for why I don’t want to do this.

“I am so pawning him off on you.” She opens one of the large doors and ushers me inside Otter Hall, her hand on the small of my back before coming in after me. “And Liza is going to be incredibly grateful. Really appreciate this favor you’re doing for me, Summer.”

My face contorts into a grimace, and my voice is too loud when I say, “So, was all of your ‘summer love’ talk bullshit? Were you just trying to get me on board with doing you a favor?”

Kinsley blinks innocently, smoothing her hand through her dark brown ponytail. “No? Well, not entirely. I plan to make Liza my summer love conquest.”

“Wow.” I can barely muster more than an eye roll. “Fuck me if I want some summer love, right?”

“Never know.” My best friend lifts one shoulder, then drops it. “Maybe he’s so your type that you’ll fall in love, get married, and join Liza and me on our sailboat.”

“That’s stupid.”

“That’s summer love,” Kinsley taunts, and opens her mouth again before pausing, confusion and a touch of surprise on her features. Then she murmurs a very soft, “Oh,” and I’m stuck staring at her, more confused than anything.

“Summer love, huh?” The smooth, soft voice from behind me nearly catapults me into outer space, and I whirl around to see what might be one of the most gorgeous humans any God has ever seen fit to put on this earth.

That, or I’m higher than I should be and it’s the weed yapping poetically in my brain.

Maybe both, now that I really look at him.

His dark golden-blond, almost brown hair is pushed back from his face and tousled, like he runs his fingers through it a little more than necessary. It’s longer than most guys keep their hair, the soft curls nearly reaching his shoulders. But it only serves to draw attention to his gorgeous high cheekbones, his full lips, and the fact I’m half sure he uses cherry chapstick on his full lips.

Okay, that part definitely is the weed.

As if he knows what I’m thinking, his lips draw up in a half smile, causing his bright honey-brown eyes to glitter with amusement. “Sorry. Was I, uh, interrupting?” He reaches up to run his long fingers through his hair, and for the first time I realize he’s dressed just like us, but with shorts that reach his knees instead of mid-thigh. He’s certainly not fresh out of high school like I’d expected. Instead, I’d peg him at around twenty-three like I am, if not a little older.

Suddenly, I’d rather these uniforms be more like the ‘80s. Short-shorts on guys and all.

“You were not interrupting at all,” Kins assures him, eyes never leaving his face. If she wasn’t two thousand percent into women with no compromise, I’d say she was into him. But when she glances at me like her new plan is coming into focus, I realize even he can’t top the allure of Camp-nurse Liza. “This is Summer.” She shoves me forward, and I’m pretty sure she’s trying to push me into the new counselor. “She’s going to show you around.”

“She’s—” I break off when I trip, nearly falling into him thanks to the languid relaxation still swirling through my bloodstream. His hands come up, fingers outstretched like he’s prepared to catch me, and I pat myself on the back when I don’t make an idiot of myself and actually fall into him.

I’d never live that down.

“She’s right,” I mutter, sweeping my red-brown hair over my shoulder from where it’s become disheveled and in the way. “I’m going to show you around. What’s your name?” Knowing I either have to ask him now—maybe a little rudely—or call him ‘new counselor’ until he deigns to tell me himself.

“Kayde.” He reaches out a hand for mine, and it takes me a whole three seconds to realize he’s waiting for me to shake it.

When I do, his grip is warm, though not damp from sweat. His fingers curl around mine, and his eyes hold my gaze with polite, warm interest. “Kayde Lane.”

“I’m Summer,” I reply, completely unaffected now that my appreciation for his looks is waning. “Welcome to Camp Crestview. Please don’t let any of the kids eat you, because that would be a lot of cleanup for me.”