Chapter 24
The walk of shame back to the campsite was mildly humiliating. Thank God it wasn’t far because Jazmine was giving us so much
grief, despite Seb’s insistence that we never intended to keep this from them (we absolutely did) and that it was none of
their business (it truly wasn’t) and that we knew what we were doing (nope).
Jazmine imitated talking with her hand to show him how little she believed him. And as I ducked into the girls’ tent, I gave
Seb a look that said, I have to deal with this, and he gave me one back that said, Good luck. It was the last thing I wanted to do—my body was still hoping all of this would blow over so that we could get back to it—but
I needed to make sure Jaz was okay with this. I didn’t think she was genuinely upset with us, but the guilt made it hard for me to know for sure. She sat on her sleeping bag, pretending
to look menacing, with her arms crossed while I zipped up the door.
“Got anything to say for yourself?” she asked in a low voice.
I lifted my shoulders slowly, gritting my teeth. “Oops?”
Jazmine snorted a soft laugh. “Just fell on top of him, did ya?”
“Oh God.”
Her laugh was bigger this time. “Go on, confess.”
I sighed deeply and crawled to my sleeping bag, flipping onto my back to stare at the camping lantern that hung from a hook in the top of the tent. “Okay, so I didn’t plan for any of this happen.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“We have strictly been roommates this entire time.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“No, really! It’s as much of a surprise to me.”
“But see, it’s not a surprise to me. I told you he was obsessed with you.”
I closed my eyes and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“Paige!” she whispered hotly, poking me through my sleeping bag with her foot.
“I can’t help it. I’m so happy.”
“Holy shit, you really are. I don’t understand . . .”
I flipped onto my side and propped myself up. “I need you to be okay with this. We’re doing this, me and him.”
She raised a brow. “Looks like you already got started.”
I shook my head to emphasize that we had not done the deed. “This is all new, and we have no idea what we’re doing. But I’ve
never wanted anything more, and I hope you can be happy for us.”
“I’m not a monster, Paige. I’m your best friend. I would never not be happy for you when you’re happy.”
I smiled. “Same.”
“Besides,” she said, running her fingers through her curls. “Who am I to throw stones when I’m living in a glass house? But
why didn’t you tell me when I fessed up about Paul? You were asking me if I had a thing for Benny, and I remember thinking
that was such an odd question. But now I get it. You were secretly hoping you weren’t the only Wag.”
“Maybe I was just confused and didn’t understand my own feelings.”
“And you do now?”
I nodded. A small part of me wanted to share everything he’d told me that night. But it wasn’t as big as the part of me that
wanted to keep it just for me and Seb. There had to be some balance between honesty among the Wags and our own private business.
I knew Jazmine would understand that because of Paul.
Sometimes you just need a little space to make mistakes.
And maybe Seb and I needed more space than others.
Hushed voices filtered in through the thin tent walls. Seb was talking to Benny, and it sounded like an argument. My stomach
tensed as I tried to make out what was being said. Were they fighting? Jazmine made a face that said she was thinking the
same.
But just when I was starting to worry, I heard Benny’s deep laugh, and then Seb’s. More light laughter followed, and it sounded
like they were okay. I released the breath I’d been holding.
Jazmine’s eyes softened. “Our very first Wags couple. Guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.”
“Really sorry for not telling you,” I whispered.
She shook her head, dismissive. “I suspected. His emotions have been all over the place since you got back. All I ask is that
you guys try not to have a terrible breakup that destroys the Wags all over again.”
“We’ve barely even kissed. Give us a chance to screw it up first, okay?”
She snorted a laugh. “Fine. But I’m going to need all the filthy details before you do.”
“Deal.”
We talked about it a little more, but Jazmine was tired.
After we shut off the lantern, I lay awake in my sleeping bag, replaying everything in my head, when my phone buzzed.
The screen lit up the small tent when I touched it, so I ducked into the sleeping bag to read the text I’d received from Seb: Everything okay over there?
I sent a quick response: Hunky-wunky. How bout there?
He replied:
Also hunky-wunky. Haven’t changed your mind yet, have you?
I quickly typed: Not a chance.
He didn’t text back right away. I waited and waited for him to reply, getting nervous when it seemed like he could be hesitating.
Just when I began to wonder if I should amend my reply, his response appeared on my screen:
When we get back home, new rule. No clothes inside the cottage.
A thrill went through me. I texted: Being naked all the time might be cold.
This time, his response was swift:
I’ll keep you warm, don’t worry.
I grinned at the screen, but before I could reply, Benny’s deep voice came from the boys’ tent. “Can you two save the sexting
for tomorrow? Some of us are trying to sleep on hard ground, and if those fucking screens don’t stop lighting up the tents,
I swear to God . . .”
Jaz snorted a laugh and called back in the dark, “Thank you, Benny.”
“Fine. Good night, everyone,” Seb’s voice said.
I shouldn’t have doubted Benny’s and Jazmine’s reactions to Seb and I. Whatever happened in the future, I knew that night
that the Wags were going to be okay.
When I woke the next morning to a chilly tent, Jazmine was already sitting up in her sleeping bag. Judging from the silence
in the boys’ tent, we were the first ones up. I retrieved a change of clothes and some toiletries, and Jaz and I shuffled
off to the pavilion to shower. By the time we got back to the campsite, Benny texted they’d already showered and gone to move
the Land Rover back to the site so we could load up. Jazmine and I broke down the tents, and when we’d gotten most of the
site packed, the boys drove up.
Seb jumped out of the Land Rover wearing cargo shorts and a long-sleeve red T-shirt that read World’s Sexiest Grandpa. When his eyes met mine, everything melted inside. We smiled at each other like absolute fools.
“Mornin’,” he said, holding up a bag of food. “Luke-warm breakfast muffin, anyone?”
“Is this an apology muffin?” Jazmine asked, snatching the bag from him. “Because I’m hungry enough that it actually might
work.”
“Definitely the sorriest muffin I’ve ever eaten,” Benny said with a little humor. “Eat up, Wags. We’ve got to drive to the
spot, blow up two paddleboards, and make sure the coordinates are right.”
“Chop-chop,” Seb said, clapping his hands twice before pulling down his sunglasses over his eyes. “Let’s find Mabel’s rings so we can get back home.”
I couldn’t agree more.
When we ate and got everything loaded, Benny took a quiet county road that curved through the woods until they opened up to
flat marshland farther east. The place we wanted to drop into the river was halfway between Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse
City, and the Land Rover’s GPS turned glitchy. Too rural, I supposed. But we had Benny’s portable GPS, and after twenty minutes
of driving, we found a tiny dirt road that dead-ended at our river.
“Holy shit, this is where backwoods killers dump their bodies,” Seb remarked when we parked in some underbrush. “Look, tire
tracks. Fairly fresh ones. Hope we’re alone out here. Punkin, I’m counting on your warning bark, girl.”
Benny inspected the tracks and dismissed them. No way of knowing exactly how fresh they were, really, and more likely that
they were made by people wanting to fish than any Deliverance types. So Seb and Jaz divided the gear we’d be needing into a couple of backpacks. Then we pulled out the hard paddleboards
and inflated the others. When we were all ready, Seb found a break in the underbrush with better access to the river. One
by one, we put our boards on the shore, stepped onto them, leashed up, and pushed away from the bank, with Punkin joining
Seb on the back of his board.
The river wasn’t wide, but it was fairly slow-moving.
When I stepped on my board, it took me a second to get my balance.
I hadn’t been boarding in a year, and it showed, unlike Jazmine, who was so happy to be back in the water, both arms functioning, that she whooped out a joyous call, loud enough to scare up birds along the riverbanks.
“I’m back, universe!” she shouted. “Let’s do this!”
I pushed off with my paddle and did a quick pivot to get myself going in the right direction, sharing Jazmine’s good mood
as air rushed over me. It felt so good to be moving. I quickly forgot about the chill on my bare legs. And once we were properly on the river, it turned gorgeous,
with a canopy of trees bending over the water and dappled morning light coming through. The four of us streaked across the
water’s surface, laughing and breathless as we tried to race one another, navigating around rocks and wayward tree branches.
Seb and I couldn’t stop grinning at each other like fools. He breezed past me, holding out his arm to grab my ass, and I nearly
knocked him with my paddle.
The GPS coordinates of the old military camp were about a mile and a half away. We made good time when the river was straight,
but then hit a lot of twists and turns that Jazmine navigated breezily, but the rest of us had to slow down. All in all, it
took us about half an hour, and once we rounded one final turn in the river, I spotted the stone tower.
“Look!” I shouted.
“Stone tower, check,” Seb said. “And completely deserted.”
Benny pointed. “Look, on the bank.”
The perfect sandy spot to stop and get off our boards. Lots of tracks here that looked like they could’ve been made by canoes