Page 5 of It Starts With Summer

“Ravi.”I narrowed my eyes at him.“I’m fine.Which bunk do you prefer?”

He sighed.“I prefer the top.”

"We're perfect together," I said, winking.“I’m a bottom, mostly.Like Sutton over there.I bet that’s why we didn’t work.”Not because he was an asshole who still insisted that he was straight.

Ravi nodded and went back to folding, missing the innuendo, stopping only when the bell rang out across the camp, startling him to stand again and scan the room.“What’s that?”

“The camp bells signal wake-up, bedtime for the campers, and activities.This one is calling us to a meeting of all the counselors.”I set my book on my pillow for later and stood, brushing off my shorts.For a moment, Ravi gazed regretfully at his half-organized drawers, then he followed me out the door.

They held the meeting in the main lodge, a spacious log building with a vaulted ceiling and exposed wooden beams situated in the boys’ camp.The girl’s side had their own lodge, but this was an all-camp meeting so counselors from the boys’ camp and the newly reopened girls’ camp filled the room, their excited chatter creating an electric atmosphere.Ravi stood close beside me, his notebook out and pen poised.

“You don’t need to take notes,” I said.

Ravi’s brows lifted in shock."This is an important meeting.Everyone knows you take notes at meetings."Was he joking?I couldn’t tell.

Matt, and the director of the girls’ camp, a 30-something woman named Lila who looked a lot like Matt, but without the beard, began outlining the summer activities and expectations.I zoned out, drumming my fingers on the table in front of us until Ravi reached out and forcibly stilled my hand with his.

“Shh, I’m trying to focus.”He wrapped his fingers around mine and held me still with all the firm sexiness of a daddy-dom.

“They’re talking about saving water in the shower building.You’re fine.”I kicked back and tried to tug my hand away, but he wouldn’t let go.

“It’s key information,” Ravi hissed, still holding my hand, as if he was afraid I might move it if released.Right when I was thinking I might enjoy Ravi Chandra holding my hand, he released me to flip the page in his notebook and jot something down.Had he actually been listening to the speech about togetherness and camp unity?“Shouldn’t you at least listen to the rules?”

As Matt and Lila concluded their speech, they encouraged us all to work together to create a memorable summer for the campers.

“Teamwork” was the keyword of the evening.Ravi had written it in his notebook and underlined it three times.Matt and Lila tasked each pair of counselors with preparing the cabins over the next two days.We each had art supplies to make signs and name tags, and we needed to wash things down, make the beds and, overall, make things cozy and welcoming.

“After three years and nine sessions, I have this part down,” I said, as we left the lodge and headed for the Raven cabin.

Ravi shot me a confused stare.“You’re good at making beds?Your unpacking skills don’t seem indicative of that.”

“No.No one cares how well we make the beds.But I know just what to do to welcome the new campers.”I opened the door and reached around in the closet, pulling out a package of electronic remote-controlled whoopee cushions.

Ravi stared at it in horror.

“Okay, I know what you’re thinking,” I preempted Ravi’s disapproval, “but trust me, this will be hilarious!”

“Absolutely not,” Ravi replied sternly, his serious frown only making me want to do it more.“We should set an example for the campers.”

“Come on, Ravi.Lighten up a bit!It’s just a harmless prank to break the ice and make everyone feel more at ease,” I argued while placing one of the whoopee cushions under a camper’s pillow.

“What if it hurts someone’s feelings or gives them a reason to mock or bully each other?”he asked, effectively ruining my fun.I frowned.“Kids can be cruel.”

“We won’t let that happen.If we make them laugh, the nervous ones, the homesick ones, settle in more quickly.Trust me, it’s a long-running tradition.”

Ravi frowned.“Perhaps we can make them laugh by pranking each other instead.So we won’t be bullying children.”

I paused, whoopee cushion in hand.The pranks were real icebreakers, and I’d used them for years, but calling it bullying children made me feel like an ass.Sighing, I pulled the fart device out from under the pillow, staring at Ravi, not sure I wanted to admit that I didn’t hate his solution.

“Prank each other?Would that work?You’d know it was coming.”

“So, make your prank epic.”He shrugged and shook out a sheet from the bundle the laundry person had left on the bed.“They didn’t even fold it when they pulled it from the dryer.It’s so wrinkly.Do you think there’s an iron?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, we are not ironing sheets.”

three

Ravi

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