21. Jack #2
“I think there’s a missed opportunity here. You’re from the beach, Sue. Dirt is basically sand. It’ll be just like you’re home. You know you want to switch with me.”
She shook her head, not budging. “I spend enough time cleaning dirt off my four kids, Jack. I like to be clean on my vacation.” She was going to be doing the tire shuffle, which was the fourth obstacle set up at the meditation meadow, so it wasn’t like she wouldn’t be eating grass herself. Hypocrite much?
I pointed to the next activity, which was here at the mess hall just outside this building. “I can Hula-Hoop,” I continued, even though I had never Hula-Hooped in my life. But we only had to hula ten times. How hard could it be?
Unfortunately, predictably, my pod wasn’t persuaded, which made me the designated chump going into that ill-fated pit. Stupid frog.
A smile pulled at my lips as I turned the keychain over in my pocket. I’d taken Bernice from the hook that Nat had installed in her cleaning frenzy. For some reason, I liked having the cursed little critter, even if it had yet to be lucky for me.
“You’re missing out,” I said as everyone split up to go to the starting position for the obstacle they would be competing in.
I caught a glimpse of Nat still huddled up with her pod, no doubt doling out their own assignments.
Maybe she’d walk over to the mud pit with me.
I rubbed the little frog and realized that part of me didn’t hate that idea as much as I should when my brain decided to bombard me with images of Nat in the mud.
Her flushed cheeks and pouty lips lived rent-free in my brain.
My subconscious didn’t stop there, though.
I pictured our muddy make-out on repeat.
I wanted to kiss her again. I pictured moving into her space, reaching out and threading my hands through her hair as I pulled her against me.
Cherishing every moment of her soft, surprised moan as I pressed my lips to hers.
Would it be an apology? Perhaps a declaration.
No matter what it would mean, I pressed on the little frog and willed it to happen.
I wanted to do the mud pit now, as insane as that sounded.
I watched like a falcon, but too soon, I found Nat laughing with one of her campers.
For some stupid reason, my heart only sank further.
I chided myself. My dumbass fantasy of Nat and me kissing after this relay wouldn’t happen, especially not in front of campers. Focus on the competition.
Now that my initial reluctance to do the mud pit was assuaged, I was able to direct that feeling of want into winning. Then she was walking next to me. Fantasy back on. Shit. We didn’t make eye contact. We didn’t say anything. Luckily, there was so much commotion around us that no one noticed.
I checked on my campers to make sure they’d fanned out to go to their places, and I homed in on Sue, who was walking in the direction of the tire obstacle.
Those tires had been painstakingly retrieved, just as I expected them to be.
Herman had forced me to sell candy bars door to door for his grandniece’s dance team fundraiser.
He’d made me take a twirling ribbon with me, and the people of Wildwood had been happy to make me use it.
I’d thought about buying the candy myself, but he’d stood on the sidewalk watching like a parent making sure their kid was safe.
Once the counselors and campers dissipated, Nat and Felicia joined me and the four other campers on the walk to the mud crawl.
Lola was monitoring the finish line and listened as Leo told us that the race had started over the radio.
The quietest person in our pod, Tavis, would be kicking us off, but I couldn’t see how that went, and it was killing me.
I wished I could be there to cheer my campers on before they ran to the next obstacle, but I could only hear secondhand what was happening.
The events went quickly, and I found myself secretly glad my team hadn’t taken me up on my doing the Hula-Hooping skills challenge, after Autumn had radioed that it was taking forever.
On second thought, that shit sounded much more difficult, and I could only imagine how bad I’d do with these uncoordinated hips.
Someone finally emerged from the woods, and good sports that we were, our group cheered on the camper, who was on Lamar’s team.
When I moved closer to Nat during the hubbub, she subtly moved away and put Felicia in between us, pointedly ignoring me.
Which was fine. I didn’t want to hash anything out while we were competing anyway.
Even if her silence felt like an open wound that needed cauterizing.