Page 16 of One Reckless Summer

She nods toward the front of the room where my brother is still standing silent, as a wave of low mumbling voices courses through the room. “That’s the guy you left with last night, right?”

My skin flashes as he goes back to his speech about no fraternization.

Pretty sure he fraternized right down my throat last night.

I grab Dolly’s wrist jerking it back as she raises a finger to point toward the front of the room. “Do you think I don’t know that? Don’t point.”

“I thought you might not recognize him. You were knee deep in the hoopla last night.”

“Did you know he was my new boss?” I lean in, keeping my eyes down on my boots as I squeeze my fingers into my palms.

“What?” Her eyebrows arch. “No! Last year the director was this old woman named Mavis. The year before that it was some creepy-ass dude who kept staring at my tits the whole time. They didn’t have a no fraternization policy that year, I can tell you.”

She screws up her face with a silent gagging expression, as my ‘big brother’, emphasis on big, turns and waves toward a more polished looking man standing off toward the edge of the room.

“This is Mr. Fletcher. He’s from the Adventure Channel. They’re thinking of turning Camp WanderLust into a reality show, and they’re here to observe. There are release forms for everyone to sign because they’ve installed cameras in the public areas of the camp. He’s just here to see whether what we have here might be right for their network.”

Big brother ushers the middle-aged man with a receding hairline and an uncomfortable looking brown suit to take over with a wave of his hand.

“Hey there everyone.” The guy looks uncomfortable, brushing the bit of hair on the top of his head back with his fingers and from what I can tell, he’s a behind the camera sort of guy. “Thanks, Mr. Webber. Everyone knows the famous Price Webber here and your boss’s content creation and YouTube fame are why we’re here. Now that he’s settling down to run the camp, we see an opportunity for more than just a YouTube channel. But, we will see. Just be yourselves and pretend we’re not here.”

Dolly leans over to whisper, “Your new boyfriend’s famous. I hadn’t heard of him, but from what some of the other counselors said, he’s a big deal in the adrenaline junkie world.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I mutter, but inside my head a plan is wiggling itself together.

No fraternization policy or not, I think I’ve found my Matt Dillon.

Chapter Six

Price

After the team meeting, I practically trample the staff that stand between me and my prize.

Anger coils inside me. At myself.

I shouldn’t have bolted like I did last night, but when I saw she was going to be on my staff, I fucking panicked like a kid caught with his pants down. I suck with people. Knowing how to handle most normal situations challenges me.

Then, when I tried to casually ask Ted about a counselor named Summer Greer…

He told me she’s the girl we hired as the ages six through eight cabin monitor but also…Hailey’s speech therapist.

Fuck. I want to be the dad my daughter needs. I want to break the cycle of shitty parenting that goes back three generations in my family.

It’s only been a year since we’ve been together full time, and when I found out kids at her school were teasing her because of her lisp, I damn near burned the place to the ground. After I scared the shit out of the principal and her teacher, they said she might get some help from a speech therapist.

The summer camp and our move was already planned, so when Ted came across a counselor’s application that had some speech therapy background on it, I told him to get her here.

Now, here she is, and I’m totally fucked.

All I want is to carry her back to my office, shove her over my desk and mount her like a junkyard dog. I can practically hear the sound of wet flesh slapping, her breath being driven from her lungs with every pump, pump, pump.

And then give her more, because I’ll never be able to stop when it comes to her. I’m surprised I’m not getting complaints about the obvious hard-on tenting the front of my combat pants ever since she walked in the room.

I damn near kicked the door down when she disappeared into the ladies’ room before I could chase her down.

She emerged wearing her Camp WanderLust t-shirt and our standard khaki shorts, and the fuck if she doesn’t make the uniform look like Victoria’s Secret on steroids. She’s tamed her hair into two braids tied with little lavender ribbons, as I watch her park her wobbling suitcase next to a bookcase filled with lime green bins with each camper’s name on the side.

Taking on the camp with my friend Ted will not be without its challenges for me. But I agreed that sticking with the standing schedule of a youth camp this summer would be a good way to ease into the closest thing to a job I’ve had in a decade.

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