Chapter 4
NC State Campus
A week later
I was on campus, but I wasn't thinking about school. I was lost in my own thoughts about working with my brothers.
Phillip and Salem made me agree to work with them for eighty hours doing manual labor to pay off the repairs they had done to my car. It was thousands of dollars in bodywork, so I agreed happily. I was getting a good deal, but they weren't shy about making me work hard while I was with them. There were no breaks—barely a few minutes for lunch. I would work ten hours a week with them for eight weeks until my debt was paid.
For my first few weeks, I would be working on that tunnel on the property up near Kerr Lake. It was an hour each way from Raleigh, and my brothers didn't take the commute off of my time, but I didn't complain. I only had one class on Fridays, and it was online, so I did homework in the truck. I rode with them to the job site on Fridays and worked a ten-hour day .
They would be done with that tunnel in a couple of weeks, so really, I just had two more days of going out there. In a few weeks, they'd be onto a new job, one closer to Raleigh.
I talked to that little boy and his grandma again the last time I was up at the camp working. He was a sweetheart, and funny too. The lady, Amanda, who I knew as Nana, told me all kinds of interesting facts about the property. Before they bought it, it was privately owned but open to the public. It was a sixty-acre wooded plot of land near Kerr Lake. She and her husband had met there when they went to a weekend retreat as teenagers.
The property lines looked a bit like the state of Oklahoma with the tip of the panhandle touching the lake. The bulk of the property had no lakefront views, but there was access to the lake via a trail and a small piece of shoreline. The camp itself was set up for family and church gatherings along with small camps. There were trails, swings, areas for sports, pavilions, and of course, the giant firepit.
The cabins could sleep a total of forty, but they were only used for official camps through the local church. Most of the guests were families going out there for picnics, but sometimes groups of a hundred or more would meet up there for the day to use the facilities. The firepit was a draw since it had all those beautiful boulders and sat fifty people comfortably .
The same man had owned Camp Eden all these years. He lived in a mansion on the lakefront property and had loaned the back section of his property to 'the church'. He just liked to see the property go to good use. The patrons could hike through the woods to get to the lake and fifty feet of shoreline. He paid for the upkeep and maintenance, so it was always free to visit.
That all changed when he passed away. His children inherited the property and sold that section of it. The Kennedys sold their family home so they could purchase it. Camp Eden went from a public facility to the private home of Ben and Amanda Kennedy.
They had closed it and signs had been posted several months back when the property first changed hands. They now kept the gates closed. My brothers and I had to use a code to get in every time.
The Kennedys had done a lot of work on the main house and planned to eventually refurbish and repurpose the cabins. Amanda sat out there and told my brothers and me all that last Friday when she brought us lunch. She told me the whole story about how she met her husband at the campfire. She went over to a specific rock and explained where she was sitting when she first saw him.
I thought it was a cool story, and they seemed like a nice family. I got along really well with the boy, and what's more was that my brothers let me sit there for another half-hour after we ate lunch and talk to him and sing a few songs before they told me to get back to work.
Today was Thursday, and I was thinking about Camp Eden because I had to go there tomorrow. I was currently on campus and had just finished one of my classes.
I sat at an outdoor table at a coffee shop. I wanted to take a second to relax, but someone I knew saw me and came up to me. Tuesday and Thursday were my busiest school days. I had a one-hour break right now and then two more classes before I was done for the day.
At the moment, I felt like I wanted to be alone and get some things done. Zoey had begun talking to me, and I was doing my best to shake her when I looked up and saw someone else I knew. I had just been thinking about Camp Eden, and lo and behold I see the beautiful Kennedy guy—John-Michael—the boy's dad.
I knew it was him. I had only seen him for a few minutes that day, but he had a face that stuck with you. I had marveled at that mouth and jawline, and I still marveled at it. He had on sunglasses the day we met, and he was wearing the same ones now. I knew the boy's mom had passed away. Amanda brought that up the other day when she explained why Ethan spent so much time with his grandparents.
I didn't know what his story was other than that the boy's mother had died .
This man was so distractingly gorgeous that, in that moment, I caught myself wondering if I could ever learn to be a mom to little Ethan. I actually laughed out loud when that thought crossed my mind.
"What?" Zoey said.
I felt smitten and starstruck by the guy I just saw, but I didn't tell her that. I just shook my head. I glanced his way again. There were a lot of people so Zoey had no idea who I was looking at.
JJ Kennedy was amazing-looking and his family was likeable and wonderful. That tunnel in the woods and Camp Eden in general was an amazing place. I didn't even dread working with my brothers tomorrow.
I was relatively sure he was single.
If I had seen him while I was in my element, maybe I could think about talking to him. If we were in the dark, with flashing lights and the shield of my glasses and camera, I might have been more confident. As it stood, I was virtually speechless and paralyzed when he waved and started walking up to me. He noticed me, and he pointed and smiled as he began to walk over.
"Oh frick, my gosh. That's my teacher. That's my math teacher—the one I was just talking about that's so hot. He's coming over here. Oh, Sadie, how do I look? "
I had been looking at John-Michael Kennedy the whole time she spoke, and it took me a few seconds to realize what Zoey was talking about.
"Who are you talking about?" I said.
"Mister Kennedy," she whispered, looking breathless and panicked.
Both of us turned his way just in time to see him approach our table.
He was clearly looking at me.
His eyes were aimed straight toward mine.
Our gazes locked, and he smiled. "It's nice to see you," he said. "I wasn't sure if that was you without the glasses. I'm John-Michael Kennedy. Do you remember me?"
We were sitting in the shade and he put his sunglasses on his head and smiled at me, sticking out his hand to shake mine.
"My parents have Camp Eden. We met out there."
"Y-yes, I know. I just, I didn't expect to see you here."
I smiled stiffly at my friend who looked slightly confused. "It's me. Zoey Blanton. I'm in your Monday-Wednesday-Friday class."
"Oh, okay, hi, hello, Zoey. I recognized Sadie. Shy, right? With the glasses? Are you a Kirkpatrick, the construction company?" I smiled at him and he continued, "I hardly recognized you without your glasses, but I saw the bag." He gestured to my backpack sitting on the table. It was the one I used all the time—the one I had been using as a pillow that morning.
"Y-yeah," I said. "Sadie."
"My son absolutely loves you. He talks about you all the time."
"Oh, that's so sweet," I said. "He's just the cutest little boy. He's my bud."
Zoey was next to me, and I could feel that she was annoyed. She made faces and huffed and puffed to make sure I was aware of her. She and I weren't close. I had simply run into her. I knew she wasn't going to leave us alone. I knew she was curious enough to sit there and listen to our conversation. I stood and started to pick up my things. I would rather not talk to John-Michael at all than talk to him with an acquaintance of mine sitting there listening to us.
"I was just leaving," I said. "It was good seeing you both, but I have to go by the bookstore before my next class."
"I'm walking that way," he said. "I can go with you, if you don't mind."
I nodded thankfully. "Okay, thanks. Good seeing you, Zoey." I pretended not to notice her annoyed expression. I didn't owe her anything, and so I pretended to be oblivious to her feelings about my departure. It wasn't my fault that she knew this man or that she thought he was looking at her. I was learning how to shut down people who were being negative before they had the chance to affect me .
It only took me a few seconds to pack my things, put on my backpack, and grab my coffee. I told Zoey that I would see her out sometime and we walked away, heading toward the bookstore even though I really didn't need to go there.
"I think your son is the coolest. Your mom too," I said, once we had hit a stride walking next to each other.
He turned to look at me. He had on his sunglasses again, but I had seen those dark eyes. "My mom said she talked to you for a long time the other day," he said.
"Yeah, I go out there to work with my brothers on Fridays. She was telling me you were a teacher here. But I still was shocked to see you."
"Your brothers are doing an amazing job on that tunnel," he said.
"Thank you, I think so too. It's a great project, though. I've never seen anything like it."
"I know," he said. "I saw it the other day, and I just love what they're doing."
"Yeah, it's cool," I said.
"Ethan comes home singing every time he sees you. He kept singing a certain song that first night—about the monkeys jumping on the bed."
I laughed.
"He said you taught it to him. I couldn't understand what he was trying to say at first. He said the monkeys fell down and bumped their heads, and they got fussed at, and I had to search it on YouTube."
I laughed at that. "Did you find it?"
"Yeah, and I knew the song. I had heard it. I just had to figure out if that's the one he was talking about."
"I think I was trying to encourage him not to fall off those rocks. That firepit is insane."
"My parents met there," he said. "That's why they bought the property."
"Your mom told me. She said that's why she's building the tunnel. Are they going to rent it out, you know to groups or whatever? That property is so cool—all those trails, and the canoes."
"Did you walk out to the lake?" he asked.
"No, but my brothers did, and they were telling me about it. I saw the baseball and soccer fields. It's crazy that the whole thing is your parents' house now."
"It is crazy," he said. "I went out there a few times when I was a kid and I always thought it was the coolest place. I don't love it that they live so far away now. I know it's just an hour, but I was used to having them right there in Wake Forrest."
"Yeah, I bet that's different."
We walked slowly on the sidewalk, and no one was around.
"All four of us still live in Raleigh, though, so Mom will be here a lot. "
"Are you talking about your siblings when you say all four of us?"
"Yes. Me and my three sisters."
"That's right. I think I knew you were the only boy. I'm the only girl in my family."
"I hardly recognize you without your sunglasses. I'm glad I saw your bag."
"Me too," I said, smiling at him.
He was actually the best-looking guy I had ever met in person. He might be the best one I'd ever even seen on television. I was blown away by how attracted I was to him.
"I don't want this to be awkward at all, and I definitely don't want you to feel like you have to agree to what I'm asking you…"
I knew it. I just knew he was going to ask me out, and I could feel excitement building in my body.