Page 7 of Camp Help Falling

I tilt my head toward the wall he vacated, and we walk over, two of my steps matching one of his. I mimic his positioning from earlier before looking up and explaining in a low voice, “Girls are pink. Guys are blue. Here at camp, there’s no purple.” I raise my eyebrows at him, hoping he understands without me having to go into more detail. It’s awkward enough when I have to explain it to teenagers.

“I still don’t get it.”

I sigh. I don’t know why I’m doing this, other than it gives me an excuse to keep talking to him. “When you mix blue and pink, you get purple. Holding hands? That’s mixing pink and blue. So there’s no hand holding, kissing, or…other stuff.”

I glance back up, only to be met with his perfect lips pressed together, holding in a laugh. He gently bumps my shoulder with his arm, sending a wave of excitement through me. Get it together, Sadie.

“I’m messing with you,” he says, his eyes sparkling. “I understand what purpling is.”

“Oh, good,” I respond lamely, trying to focus back on the end of the staff meeting instead of this still-mysterious guy beside me.

“What’s your name?”

I turn at his unexpected question. He tips his chin to his chest to look down at me. Oh my gosh, I must look like a child to him. How tall is this guy? Now that he’s here, right next to me, he feels even taller than he was in the parking lot.

I reach out the hand that isn’t holding my staff shirt. “I’m Sadie.”

His much larger hand closes around mine, and electricity zings where our skin touches. Out of habit, I grasp his hand in a firm handshake, which he returns. As my hand slips out of his, I mentally facepalm myself. I just shook his hand like a dude. Was he expecting some demure girl’s limp-fish handshake? Did I just ruin the whole sparks-fly-when-we-touch moment with a bro-strength grip?

But his eyes spark as he says, “Oliver.”

Tonight, I will remember the way his name rolls off his tongue until I fall asleep. Oliver.

It feels a little silly, getting this twitterpated over a guy I’ve seen twice and just barely introduced myself to, but I’ll be honest: this is the most attention I’ve received from a guy in…four years? Five years? Ever since I broke things off with my high school boyfriend to move to Denver, I haven’t really been able to catch the eye of anyone. The whole crazy-camp-girl thing, plus the fact that I spend three months out of the year nearly unreachable, doesn’t exactly bring all the boys to my yard.

“So how long have you been doing the camp thing?” he asks, facing forward again, pretending to pay attention to the campfire program planning. I should be paying attention, since I’ll be participating in both of the programs, but at this moment, I’m more interested in the man next to me. The man who leans into me, pressing our arms together.

“Ten years. Twelve, if you count the years I was a participant.”

“Impressive.” He nods, not saying anything more. But instead of the loaded silence behind a guy not knowing what else to say, it’s oddly void of any judgment.

“What about you?”

He laughs softly, his eyes glancing around the room before looking back to me, but before he can answer, a commotion down the hall draws my attention, and I pull back, creating space between me and Oliver.

Landon rushes past me, mumbling a barely intelligible, “I’m sorry,” before half-running to the door, Paul hot on his heels. Linda looks back at the disturbance with concern, but smiles when she sees me standing next to Oliver. The youth staff ignore the slight interruption, but Tyler looks at me with a question in his eyes. I shrug, unsure of what’s going on, and he goes back to discussing how we’ll be ending the campfires and dismissing the participants back to their cabins.

“This is my first time at a summer camp, actually,” Oliver says quietly, once everyone’s attention is back on Tyler.

“I definitely couldn’t tell.” I shoot a sideways smirk at him, and he shakes his head, chuckling quietly.

“What gave it away?” The laughter in his voice does funny things to my heart, sending it pitter-pattering away like an Irish dancer.

“You’re the first person I’ve met who’s showed up to camp in business casual.” I tilt my head toward him and briefly run my eyes down to his toes, ignoring the way my heart does double-time when his eyes flare with approval.

“You’re telling me this isn’t standard camp attire?” Oliver leans closer, pressing our arms together again as his voice drops in volume and pitch.

I open my mouth to answer with another witty comeback, but Tyler loudly wraps up the meeting, and the commotion of the staff heading back to their cabins breaks the moment between me and Oliver.

As the youth staff exit the lodge, chatting animatedly about tomorrow, Tyler helps Danielle with their two kids, who fell asleep during the staff meeting. I give them both a small wave as they head down the hall to the stairs that lead to one of two sleeping rooms above the main lodge room. Danielle looks at Oliver with the slightest widening of her eyes, and I give her an almost imperceptible shrug.

I’ve got no deets to spill to her about Oliver.

The other two adult staff members, Mia and Austin, the archery and waterfront directors, also wave goodnight and head out to their own cabins. As soon as all the staff are gone, Linda makes her way back to me and Oliver with a bright smile on her face.

“I see you’ve met Sadie, our wonderful camp director.”

I smile and blush at the compliment. Linda is always so kind with her words. The only people who have ever been this open with compliments for me are the Sunny Girls.

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