Page 17 of Lake Hollow Curses

Each passing day this summer is making me feel like I’m living in the longest and most chaotic comedy skit ever. When I’m not trying to figure out what my life has become, working here throws baffling things my way. No one should try what he’s proposing, but I bet if Skip contacts Charlie, he’ll accept that conclusion fromhim. Just not me. I shrug in response.

My walk back to the bumper boat fiasco gets sidetracked when I see Remi struggling to get a child’s shoe off one of the course obstacles it was thrown on. I reach around her to pluck it off. “If Skip summons me to his office one more time, I may have to demonstrate why his plan won’t work. Then I’m going to need a padded cell somewhere.”

She bumps into my side with her rear playfully, “Tell him thatI’mon the way. That’ll shut him down. We had ‘words’ this morning about me leaving in a couple of weeks. He doesn’t understand why I can’t find a school near here. But when I explain why to him, it’s not good enough.” When she told me the news, apologizing that she’d been hesitant to share, I told myself not to react. Not to show her how hurt I’ve been.

But I have obligations to return to also.

Hugging her tight to me, I say softly, “It’s all going to work out.” It has to, because life without her sounds deeply deplorable. It’s nothing I’m looking forward to.

Her friend, Keenan, walks our way idly swinging one of the mini putt clubs. “She’s got more faith in that top than I have in most of humanity.” He directs the golf club at a red-faced mom trying to reason with her out of control toddler whose shoe we’ve rescued. “It’s impressive.” Her thin, barely there crop top is fighting to make it against the flotation devices she had surgically attached to her chest.

The pop music that is piped into the Funpark cuts out with an announcement on the speaker, “Cal to base, Cal to base, please.” For the fourth time.

Remi puts her hand against my chest, straightening up taller, she says firmly, “Oh no. Uh uh. I’ll take care of his bullshit. Besides you need to head back over to the bumper boats, they haven’t been running for over fifteen minutes and the line is winding back all the way to the office.” She leans in to give me a kiss on my cheek. “Try not to drown your co-workers.” She immediately slaps a hand over her mouth, her cheeks reddening. “Oh my God, I didn’t mean… what I meant was… Oh for fuck’s sake. Can we just forget I said something so insensitive an-”

I cut her off with a kiss, as I slap Keenan on the back because he starts to choke on his gum next to me.

“It’s okay. You didn’t mean anything by it,” I say through a chuckle. She’s still making comments under her breath because of her bad word choice.

She looks over her shoulder mouthing sorry once more, before heading inside the office. She’ll say sorry a dozen more times for the faux pas before she drops it. “Do me a favor, please?” I ask Keenan who is making faces of disgust at the toddler’s mom.

“Oh, this should be good. Go ahead,” he says sarcastically.

“Switch places with me. Please? I’ll owe you a huge favor.” There is no way I want to deal with Nat or Kami for the rest of the day. Nat can’t stay focused, she’s always wandering off, and Kami is either trying to flirt or fight with me during every forced interaction.

“Hmph. I don’t think we can be friends anymore. Memories will suffice. Goodbye, old friend,” he says mockingly, kicking his leg up behind him, giving a little wave. “Bye, bye. Be gone.”

I can’t help laughing at him.

Ten minutes later after bargaining with him he finally agrees to switch to the bumper boats; he gets thirty dollars, a yes or no on whether Remi has used any of his gifts… she may not be happy about that admission, and two of his drive-in shifts.

The bumper boat line and unhappy customers have spilled into the mini putt line by the time that Keenan turns to leave. Minutes later, Remi comes back from the ticket office, frustrated. “The hypothetical fixed it. You and Charlie should be safe from his antics for now. Where’s Keenan, what happened?”

“He is off to the bumper boats. Wasn’t that nice of him?” I wink at her,

She pulls a rubber frog on a keychain from her pocket with a key on it. “I forgot to give this to you earlier. It’s for my apartment at school. I want you to use it. Use it a lot. I mean all the time.” She isn’t leaving for twelve days. It’ll go by fast, but I wonder why she’s giving this to me now. She must be as nervous as I am that she’s moving back to Florida. Even if it’s temporary, if she needs us, we won’t be close by.

“You’ll come back to see us, too?”

There’s a pang of discomfort in my chest. A need to make sure she knows that I don’t want this to be a summer fling. She’s jump started my heart. A jolt that’s given me purpose again. The amount of times my mind wanders to thoughts of her daily would be embarrassing to admit out loud. Hell, I’ve never felt so compelled to share the most mundane occurrences with someone. Not even Charlie, who I’d normally tell.

“You won’t be able to keep me away.” When she grabs my hand to lead me back to the start of the course, I notice she has crafted all of our names: Wilder, Charlie, Grady, and I out of googly eyed frogs up one arm. The way my heart feels like it’ll swell out of my chest can’t be healthy. Damn, the way I feel wrapped up in her still stuns me.

Chapter Thirteen

Remington James

The sheer delight I feel over having all the guys together at the cabin is making me downright giddy. I felt bad asking Charlie and Cal to meet us here, knowing their reluctance to hang out at The Bends, but it would not have happened otherwise. “This is one of those things we call ‘leave it alone’s’ not sure if you heard about ‘em or not…” I can’t help but wrap my arms around his waist. Wilder thinks he needs to have a talk with Uncle Skip about the way he treats me. The others all agree that ‘Captain Crazy’ uses me. But what they don’t understand is that it’s not going to change. He was saddled with his twelve-year-old niece at the worst time of his life. I should just be grateful he didn’t abandon me like Relia had.

Cal grills the steaks while he and Grady discuss baseball. Specifically, Cal accepting a new offer to train with a minor league team in Florida a mere fifty miles from my school. Yes, please. Although, I don’t want to be pushy about it. Charlie andWilder have been sticking near me. It’s sweet, but I keep tripping over them.

Each time I look them over, I have the impulse to slap my cheeks. Not one, butallfour. With their shirts off, sporting athletic shorts and the delicious muscles that wind me up. I’m talking v cuts that my tongue wants to run down, strong arms that I want to run my hands over, and… ooo, just the thought of other appendages makes me light up bright red. How in the hell? Maybe it’s the way the universe is giving me reparations for the first part of my life. I never want to take them for granted for a single solitary second.

“Leave it alone? You mean like he does when it comes to asking everyone you know to help him?” Wilder adds. He’s not wrong.

“Ugghh… he has a valuable lesson to learn about demands and leverage. Like if he needs people more than they need him, he isn’t in a position to make demands. Most people learn that around five years old. Yet, he does it all the time.” He must have Charlie on speed dial, since Wilder helped with his security camera problems he’s knocking at his door more, Cal has to listen to him constantly at work, and Grady hasn’t been exempt, his wheedling him to make an appearance in the parade for James’ Flicks n’ Fun still rankles me.

“Speaking of… what was wrong with his security program?” Charlie crosses his arms while staring Wilder down. “Remi said there was a problem. What did you do to fix it?” His tone isn’t what makes me bristle, it’s the way he’s looking at Wilder like he suspects him of something.

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