Page 66 of Cisco

“He’s got a crush on you, you know,” she continued.

Buffy rolled her eyes in an “I told you so” way.

Hilly swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. “What makes you say that?”

Nel was now audibly scratching from inside her living quarters, and whining to be let out. Hilly dismissed the conversation for a moment, jogged up the steps and quickly opened the door. Nel burst out, greeting her new summer pal with a lot of sniffing. Whatever they smelled must have agreed with both of them, because within a minute, the two ran off together into the woods.

Adeline giggled, watching the pair, then continued with their previous topic. “The amount of time Cisco spent talking about you after he picked us up from the airport, clued me in that he was smitten.”

“And on that note, now that I know I have an ally where your love life is concerned, Hilly, I’ll be off to interface with the kids.” Buffy winked at Adeline, then strode off.

Hilly knew she was blushing, and changed the subject for a moment. “Uh, will Coco take her cues from Nel, and not run away?”

Adeline nodded, still grinning. “She’ll be fine. And if you don’t want to talk about Cisco, I understand.”

Hilly’s face now felt crimson. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about him. It’s…just that everything is pretty new. He’s…made a few overtures, but I’m still not quite sure if he wants to start something long-term or not.”

Adeline made a phhht sound. “Oh, he wants to,” she assured Hilly. “But from what he said, I get the feeling he’s just waiting for you to give him the big green light.”

Hilly wasn’t sure she could do that. She wanted to. She’d contemplated it. But with her sadly small amount of experience, she felt she might screw things up and he’d find her lacking.

“Yeah. I’m, uh, kind of on shaky ground with that one. It’s not exactly my thing, to make the first move,” she admitted.

“It could be,” Adeline told her with all sincerity.

“Could be what?” Crash asked, coming up from behind them with Mase and Cisco following.

“Could be enough time before lunch for us to unpack and catch our breath,” Adeline responded.

Hilly appreciated the save. “Sure. If you guys would rather do that, we can put off your tour until later, and do it while the kids have free time and none of us are teaching or supervising anything.”

“I’d like that,” Adeline said. “I’m not the best traveler, so I could use a little down-time.”

“Take as long as you like,” Hilly smiled at her. “This is your vacation, after all.” She then realized she had no clue if Adeline worked outside the home or not. “At least I assume it is,” she added.

Adeline laughed as they weaved their way toward the cabin where the pair and Coco would be residing. “I’m in marketing, and after a really bad experience with an old boss, I quit and began freelancing. Which means I can do my job from wherever I park my ass.”

“That’s great. I did sort of the same thing after I got out of college, before I inherited the camp. Then I gave it up because I’m here half the year, and working in an attorney’s office for the balance.”

“Who does your marketing for the camp?” Adeline asked. “You know, like your PR and your website?”

“I do.” Hilly scrunched up her nose. “It’s not optimum, since I don’t really have the time to devote to it, but I’ve managed to bring the camp to capacity this year for the first time, simply by word of mouth.”

“That’s awesome.” She looked hesitant for a second. “Would I be overstepping if I asked to take a look? Maybe I can tweak things for you.”

“Would I mind?” Hilly came back incredulously. “Are you kidding? I’d freaking love it.”

“Then it’s a plan. I’ll see if anything needs sprucing up. And if you notice me taking pictures around, don’t worry. I won’t use your campers’ faces unless their parents sign releases.”

“I’m not worried,” Hilly responded almost giddily. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing.” She bit her lip. “Damn. Now I’m afraid I’m not paying you and your husband nearly enough for being here.”

“Seriously?” Adeline laughed. “A summer away from the hustle and bustle of the city? A camp setting with free meals as well as all the fun and games we can possibly imagine? I feel like we should be paying you.”

Hilly opened the door to her newcomers’ cabin, and held it ajar for Adeline to look in. “Don’t make any rash statements until you see where you’ll be living.”

Three hours later, Hilly felt like she had new friends for life. The pair had settled in, professed their love of their accommodations, then had come to find her and her companions in the dining hall.

Over lunch, with Buffy giving her waggling eyebrows from a table across the room, Hilly began to feel more at ease. Crash proved to be hysterically funny, and Adeline was so warm and giving of her time, Hilly wanted to adopt them both and never let them go. It buoyed her up to an even greater degree that Cisco was showing her more public affection than he had at any time in the past two weeks. Perhaps he was staking some kind of claim in front of company? Whatever was in his head, Hilly wasn’t going to complain about the number of times he touched her; a hand to her back here, a brush to her arm there, a kiss to her cheek…

---