Chapter 19 #3
“Hop on, I’ll walk it in deeper,” Camila says.
Valeria nods and sits on the board. Camila pushes the paddleboard a little farther out, the water swirling around the board.
When her lower half is completely submerged, Valeria offers Camila a hand while trying to steady the board for her to climb on beside her.
Valeria’s knees wobble before Camila can make it onto the paddleboard, and swiftly topples them both over.
Valeria’s scream slices across the lake. Her body hits the water, and the impact steals the air from her lungs. For a second, there is only cold and the echoing thud of her own heartbeat. As her body sinks deeper, a memory flashes through her mind: Brooke’s face, tight with disappointment.
Valeria’s stomach clenches on instinct, muscle memory older than thought. When this had happened with Brooke, Valeria had barely come up for air before Brooke’s anger flared. A small worry whispers that Camila might react the same way.
Valeria resurfaces, blinking water from her eyes, already bracing for a harsh comment.
“I’m sorry.” The words are halfway out before Valeria can process that Camila is laughing.
Valeria blinks, trying to make sense of the scene before her, then blinks again as if the image might correct itself. The knot in her chest doesn’t loosen immediately. Her nervous system insists this is a trick—that the reprimand is coming next.
But it doesn’t.
Instead, Camila says, “I’m so sorry,” struggling through the words as her laughter grows.
Out on the water, Lily and Isabella paddle closer, their board slicing lazy paths through the shimmering blue. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Valeria replies.
When Camila gets her laughter under control, she hops onto the paddleboard first, steadying it with an ease that Valeria could never manage.
Water beads along Camila’s shoulders as she leans down and reaches for her, all but pulling her out of the water. Valeria’s breath leaves her in a rush, not just from how ridiculously impressive—and unfairly attractive it is—but because of how close they end up.
Camila’s hand stays firm around hers, and a bright, unsettling spark flutters low in her stomach, and she doesn’t know quite what to do with it.
The knot in her stomach eases, her shoulders relaxing without her even realizing it.
She almost laughs at herself for expecting Camila to react the way Brooke would have.
It hits Valeria then, how much damage Brooke had caused. To the point that she expects the gentlest person to turn mean, even when Camila has never given her a reason to think that.
“Everything okay?” Camila eyes her.
Valeria nods. “Yeah, I think there’s water in my ear.” She really needs to get her feelings in check.
Thankfully, right at that moment, Alejandra and Clara paddle toward them, and they all bump together in a loose ring, boards nudging one another.
“Group float?” Lily asks.
“Obviously,” Alejandra says, reaching out to hook her foot around Lily’s board. They all follow suit, linking hands, feet, or the tips of their paddles until they’re tethered to each other.
Clara pulls a waterproof speaker from her bag. She clicks it on, and music spills out, filling the quiet.
Valeria and Camila settle onto the paddleboard, each taking an end. They lie back in opposite directions, their knees meeting in the middle as their legs hang off. The board rocks gently, a slow, easy rhythm, and it takes all of Valeria’s willpower not to wrap her ankles around Camila’s.
Everything softens. The heat settles into a mellow glow, their boards rock together as their linked circle drifts slowly, a lazy spin that gives each of them a new slice of shoreline to look at every minute or so.
Valeria leans back on her elbows, sunglasses slipping slightly down her nose. “This,” she says, stretching her legs out so her toes skim the water, “is exactly what I needed.”
Everyone murmurs their agreement.
After a few minutes of silently floating, Alejandra suggests a round of “categories,” and before long, they’re all shouting answers.
Lily calls out, “Animals!” and they’re off.
Alejandra yells, “Elephant!”
Valeria shouts, “Shark!”
“I was going to say shark,” Isabella complains, then says, “Llama!”
“Too slow, you’re out!” Lily yells.
Clara blurts out “Dragon!” with complete confidence.
“That’s not real,” Alejandra says, already grinning.
“It counts,” Clara insists as she splashes Alejandra.
Water sprays up, Alejandra jerks back, overcorrects, and suddenly she’s tipping right off her board.
Her paddle swings wide and bumps Lily’s and Isabella’s, which bumps Valeria’s and Camila’s, and the whole chain reaction sends them all scrambling for balance none of them has, and in the space of a heartbeat, all of them slide straight into the lake.
A mess of arms, splashes, and half yells hits the water at once.
They all come up coughing and laughing, hair plastered to their faces.
Valeria surfaces near Camila, pushing her hair back and laughing so hard she can barely tread water.
Water drops cling to Camila’s eyelashes, and Valeria is mesmerized.
Clara ends up clutching her paddleboard with one arm, and the speaker miraculously keeps playing. Alejandra emerges beside her. Before they can address what happened, the other two boards start to drift away, and they all swim toward whichever board floats closest.
Then, they swim back into a loose cluster. They gather their boards in the middle, but no one rushes to climb back on. They float there, laughter thinning into a warm quiet.
“What now? Should we go hiking?” Clara asks.
“Yes,” Alejandra, Isabella, and Lily answer.
Valeria suspects it’s a thin excuse to leave her and Camila alone. None of them has ever enjoyed hiking, especially not Clara. Valeria is half-tempted to say she’ll go to show them she sees what they’re doing, but she opts not to. Honestly, some time alone with Camila sounds nice.
“Not me—you guys go,” she says, turning to Camila, only now realizing she might choose to go. Valeria did not think that one through; she should have let her answer first.
“I’ll stay. I want to catch up on some reading,” she says, and Valeria lets out a relieved breath.
“Sounds good.” Lily bites her lip, clearly trying to contain the smile that wants to overtake her face.
They watch the girls paddle toward the shore, then turn back to face each other.
Valeria wants to freeze this moment so badly.
She wishes she were artsy like Isabella, so she could paint this moment and never forget the way the sun plays off Camila’s hair.
Her gaze focuses on the striking contrast of dark and light between Camila’s eyes, wanting to lose herself there forever in the softness of her gaze.
Valeria has known since the moment Camila barreled into her clinic that she was attractive, but it has only intensified as she’s gotten to know more about her. In moments like right now, that attraction feels impossible to ignore.
“Want to read?” Camila asks, reaching for Valeria’s waterproof bag.
“You sure you trust me with your book after all the times we fell into the water?”
“I’d trust you with anything.”
Valeria’s cheeks flush, and a giddy lightness takes hold, making her want to laugh and twirl all at once.
Camila holds out a book for Valeria, but she doesn’t reach for it because she can’t.
Her limbs have gone loose and unreliable, jelly masquerading as bone.
How does Camila always do this? Take an ordinary moment and tilt it, just enough, until it feels like more.
When feeling seeps back into Valeria’s limbs, she takes the book from Camila’s hand.
Their fingers brush, just barely, but it’s enough to make her breath hitch.
Thankfully, Camila doesn’t seem to notice, and Valeria immediately focuses on reading the blurb of her book, but she barely gets past the first line.
They lie on their sides then, mirroring each other.
It’s the same position they were in before, but it doesn’t feel the same.
It takes Valeria a few seconds to coax her breathing and heart back to a steady rhythm.
When she does, she looks down at the book in her hands.
It’s tattered, softened at the edges, the spine cracked.
Valeria can only assume it’s one of Camila’s favorites.
It looks like it’s been held more times than it’s been shelved.
She opens it and skims a few pages, and her heart stumbles all over again.
The margins are crowded with annotations.
Valeria has always hated it when people do that; her books are tiny trophies meant to stay pristine, but now, instead of irritation, she feels a bright, fizzing excitement.
Eager for a glimpse into Camila’s thoughts.
Valeria starts reading, and almost immediately she realizes her mouth hurts.
She has a ridiculously large smile stretched across her face, one she can’t seem to rein in, no matter how hard she tries.
Every time she reaches one of Camila’s notes, her attention derails completely.
She’s barely reading the book anymore. Her eyes are skimming the lines until she reaches another one of Camila’s notes.
“What are you smiling so big at?” Camila laughs.
Valeria doesn’t look up. “Your notes,” she says, still grinning. “They make the book a million times better.”
Camila laughs. “I’m glad,” she says before turning her attention back to the book in her hands.
Valeria isn’t sure when time slipped out from under her. She only notices when she turns and sees the sun in a completely different place than she remembers.
“We should probably head back,” Camila says, also realizing time escaped them.
Valeria’s belly grumbles right on cue.
“Yeah,” she says, laughing softly. “Good idea.”
Camila paddles them back to shore, the water giving way easily beneath her strokes. When they reach land, the camp is quiet.