Page 92 of Wildfire
“Not all balls are created equal.” Xander gestures for me to throw him the ball while he continues to bicker with Clay about something. “You’re allowed to favor your own.”
Russ is staring at me with his hands on his hips. His hair is messy, brushed back off his face in the way I love. It’s a real struggle not to tell him how pretty he is every minute of the day. “I know we sort of laughed about it, but I need to hear you say you know what a hockey puck looks like and that you know it’s not a ball.”
“Of course I do.” He breathes a sigh of relief. “Like a little baby car tire.”
“What? No, it—”
I turn to walk away from him, pretending to trip over my own feet and fall to the ground before he can say anything else, shouting, “Ouch!” at the top of my lungs. Russ crouches beside me, pretending to check my knee for injury. “You’d be a terrible actress, y’know.”
“I’m in so much pain,” I say casually. “Please take me to the nurse, my hero.”
The rest of our team jog over, staring down at me on the floor. “What happened?”
“She fell over her own feet,” Russ says, holding out his hands to help pull me up. “I should take her to the nurse to be on the safe side. You guys carry on without us.”
Clay immediately tries to protest, but Xander beats him to it. “Yeah that’s fair, then we’re both one person down. Feel better, Roberts. Good effort, etcetera.”
He mouths “Good job” as I pretend to hobble away with Russ, and I love that Xander immediately thinks I did this for him and not myself.
When we’re far enough away from the basketball court that the kids’ cheers are just a quiet hum, Russ pulls me off the path and pushes me against a tree. My heart rate instantly spikes, excitement growing as he presses into me, caging me in with his arms. I know everyone is at the basketball court, but this is bold, especially for him.
“If I knew you wanted to take me against a tree, I’d have fallen down so much earlier.”
“Take you?” he echoes. “No, I need your undivided attention while I talk to you about hockey pucks.”
Chapter ThirtyAURORA
WHAT’S THE WORD FOR WHENyou find yourself exactly where you’re supposed to be?
I feel at peace with myself and my life for the first time, and there’s nothing that can derail that. Today is finally visiting day. A lot of families leave camp for the day and only come back for the evening barbecue and games; some families don’t visit at all.
I hated visiting day when I was a camper. Some years my parents didn’t come because Elsa wanted to visit our grandparents, so they’d use the child-free opportunity to take a vacation and try and save their unsavable marriage. Other years only Mom came. The worst year was when Mom, Dad, and Elsa came and they made me so miserable Jenna gave me an extra bowl of ice cream when they all left.
All our kids are expected to be taken off-site today, meaning we’ve all got the easiest day ahead. Emilia forgot about the camera Poppy bought her to document the summer and has therefore documented nothing, so today is our do-over day.
“Do you think we need outfit changes as well?” Emilia asks as I throw different hair accessories into a purse with my cell phone, headphones, and a paperback about a princess and her hot bodyguard.
“I love you and I love Pops, but I am not stripping behind a tree for either of you. It’s a uniform and it has a bear on it; why would we ever want to wear anything else?”
I’m not saying I’m an expert at candid shots, but I am. We set up camp at a picnic bench not far from our cabin and I give Emilia my best work, changing my hairstyle so the photos look like different days. While I’m pretending to laugh at Xander, whose back thankfully is to the camera, we realize this isn’t going to be easy.
The dogs are more photogenic than the guys, which is no exaggeration.
“Russ, stop grimacing,” Emilia yells at him. She stomps over, showing me the camera, and he honestly looks like he’s sitting on a wasps’ nest.
“You’re too pretty to be this bad at being photographed,” I say, flicking through the pictures. I hand the camera back to Emilia and ask her to go back to where she was so I can try something.
“And what about me?” Xander asks, picking Salmon up to cuddle.
“Put the dog down!” we all say at the same time, which is met with a grunt and an eye roll.
“You’re pretty, Xan,” Russ says, flinching as I try to force his face into a more relaxed position with my hands. “What are you doing?”
“I’m relaxing you.”
“This is not relaxing, Aurora.”
Looking around, I check that there isn’t anyone hanging around near us before leaning in and kissing Russ. I wasn’t expecting him to respond so enthusiastically, but his hand grabs the back of my neck, keeping me in place.
