Page 12 of Summer Ride

Each day she pasted on a smile and faked being content around her friends. Yet whenever Carter looked at her, a piece of her ached and shattered.

As the campgrounds grew over the years, her friends and coworkers changed as well.

The campgrounds had added a few new cabins over the past year. Plus, there were now more than twenty new glamping tents spread out in a designated camping area. The glamping tents were a new addition that had taken the campgrounds to the next level and brought in a different type of guest. Ones who didn’t necessarily want fancy formal dinners or pre-made meals made by a celebrity chef.

Instead, there were stationary grills and picnic spots for guests to cook for themselves. There were common bathrooms with showers and laundry machines as well as a large tented communal dining hall for any of the guests who wanted to rough it together.

While guests who stayed in cabins were treated with all the luxuries the camp had to offer, the glampers were a little more limited. They still had access to all of the fun physical activities, such as the zip lines, beaches, boating, massive water slides that sat in the bay, and horses, but the dining halls and massages were off the menu.

Which meant she didn’t usually deal with the glampers a lot. Thankfully, since her schedule was pretty full most days.

Even though some dark things had happened to some of her friends at the camp over the years, those events had only brought everyone who worked there closer together.

Even her.

Which is when she knew without a doubt that she had gone soft.

It had been seven months since she’d felt his arms around her. Seven long months since she’d been touched. Since she’d felt any sort of enjoyment.

Was she dying inside because of it?

She was thankful that summer was beginning again. Even though it never got very cold in Florida, it was chilly enough that she spent her free time inside. Alone.

Warmer weather meant she could get out and do things with friends or pick up extra hours working behind the bar or serving drinks or food at the dining hall.

Damion and Julie had taken off a couple months before on their sailboat to head to Hawaii for a very long honeymoon. They were supposed to be gone for eight months and weren’t due to return for a few months still. Which meant no more sunset sails at the camp for a while. This led guests to book more massage sessions during those last hours of the day, and she was working more than normal.

There were enough bookings scheduled that she and Andrea were thinking of hiring another therapist. Or at least a receptionist who could clean the beds and rooms between bookings.

Her career was the one thing that was steady in her life. She had loved what she did from that first day.

She even kept up on her therapeutic studies by adding acupuncture to her repertoire. Surprisingly, that had led to a huge pay raise, and she’d immediately gotten a new car.

After the whole craziness that Damion and Julie had gone through with Lisa Tribberton, several new security measures had been put in place around the camp. Damion and Julie had almost died because of a social media post, so now everyone who worked there only posted camp content on the camp’s social media pages, instead of their own.

Along with Brett Jewel and Aaron Michaels, there were now three more people on the security team—Rider Collins, Timothy Leer, and Mr. Bo.

No one knew Mr. Bo’s real name, outside of Brett. No one needed to. The older man was one of the nicest people anyone had ever met.

He always had a spring in his step and a toothpick in his smiling mouth.

Mr. Bo usually made his rounds when she was closing up and often walked her to her car at night.

She enjoyed the older man’s company and was thankful he was with her when she found the first note on her car.

He was the one who caught her when she slipped to the ground after reading those simple words.

“Mary Ester Boyle.”

Chapter Four

Carter didn’t know what he’d done to deserve all that wonderful time with Kara. Up to the point when he’d met her, he’d been shy and awkward. He’d been a nerd in school, with thick reading glasses and braces. Then puberty had hit him. His teeth were now straight and he’d paid for Lasik surgery for his eyes to get rid of the glasses. And he’d hit the gym. A lot.

With his lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian achieved, he had wandered around the dating world, trying different dating apps or letting friends set him up. All of which had failed miserably.

Which is probably why he had blindly fallen head over heels for Kara. She was everything he’d never really imagined he’d fall for. Which turned out to be a very good thing.

She was shorter than all those tall models he’d fantasized over during his youth and college years. He had become fascinated with her pale porcelain skin and the splatter of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Infatuated almost.