Page 73 of For Fox Sake

Piper and Oliver head back to their cabin to turn in for the night, and the rest of us settle around the fire.

Ari sits between Ryan and me on one of the long benches, while Finley and Archer tell us about some of the recent happenings with the camp.

When there is a lull in the conversation, Ari speaks up. “Do you have any campfire stories?”

Finley grins at me from across the fire, the flames making her eyes glitter. “Remember Squinty Pete?”

A bark of laughter bursts from my throat. How had I forgotten? The memory rushes back, the first time Dad told us about Squinty Pete. We couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. We had been helping him with some routine maintenance issues, Aria and I. More like following him around and annoying him, and then running around playing in the trees while he was working in the cabins.

“Don’t go too far,” he would tell us. “Squinty Pete might be out there.”

It was his way of keeping us from wandering too far.

“Squinty Pete lives deep in the trees,” I tell Ari now. “And he only has one eye, but it’s a giant eye.”

Her nose wrinkles. “One giant eye?”

“Yep,” Finley says. “And he watches from the trees, waiting for little children to go deep enough into the forest and close enough for him to snatch.”

I squeeze Ari’s side, making her giggle.

“At night,” Finley continues, “Squinty Pete comes out and looks for any candy or food little kids have left out to gobble up.”

I chuckle. One of the clever ways Dad came up with to get us to throw away our trash without him having to ask over and over.

We share more camp stories, until Ari starts yawning and crawls into my lap, laying her head on my shoulder.

We make plans to all meet up for a tour of the camp after breakfast the next morning, and then I drive Ari and Ryan to their cabin.

I help them carry the bags inside. Ari races from room to room, excited about everything, from the kitchen already stocked with her favorite snacks to the bunk beds in her room and the flat-screen TV on the wall in the living room.

“Can I sleep on the top bunk?” she yells.

Ryan lifts her brow at me.

“There’s a wood railing.”

“Sure, honey,” she calls out.

Ari’s excited shriek is the only response.

We grin at each other.

Ryan glances around the kitchen. “This is really nice. Your family is...”

“Annoying? Pushy? Overbearing?”

She shakes her head. “Try amazing.”

I make a face. “Yeah, I know.”

Ari comes running out from her bedroom. “Jake, can you read me a bedtime story?”

“Of course.”

“We have to at least wash up and brush your teeth first.” Ryan leads her toward the bathroom, throwing me a glance over her shoulder. “Will you grab Shirley and the book from my bag? It’s on the bed.”

“Of course.” I cross the living room into the master bedroom, easily locating her bag, opened on the bed. I move a sweater to the side and my hands still over an unopened box of condoms.

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