Page 10 of The Summer Intern

Well, maybe I’d look hot in a sexy motorcycle helmet, seated behind my hot biker boyfriend.

I shook myself and forced myself to focus on Matt, who had moved on to showing me the camp’s various huts and shacks.There was a gear shack, a kayak shed, a science cabin, a rock-climbing wall, and finally, the arts and crafts hut, which definitely looked like a hut, and not the good kind.Was there a good kind of hut?I wasn’t sure, I’d have to look that up later.

“And up here is the bathhouse, where campers go for showers.”

“They don’t have their own showers?”

“The cabin you stayed in is the only one with a shower,” Matt said.“Usually, we give that to an older couple who does the cooking.The counselor cabins have sinks and toilets, but no hot water.The rest of the campers and staff use the communal showers and toilet buildings.”

“Toilet BUILDINGS?”I gasped in horror.“Like you have to walk outside?In the dark?”

Matt smirked.“Right, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that until after you took the job.”

“Good luck convincing me now,” I muttered, following him up a hill behind the cabins.

“And this is where we do barbecues and bonfires,” he said, pointing to a circle of benches around a raised platform, which someone had cleared of snow.

“Oh!It would be perfect for performances, do you ever have those?”I stepped up onto the platform and looked around, forgetting my grumpy mood as I spun.“Perhaps a camp talent show?Theater in the round just like it used to be, under the stars!”

Matt was just staring at me, the corners of his mouth tilting up under his beard.He cleared his throat and stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking at his feet.“Ah, no.We haven’t done that before.”

“So how does the outdoor stuff work?”I asked.“If there’s a mountain biking counselor and a rock climbing counselor, can’t there be a music counselor?”

He frowned at me.“That’s not how we do it.Each counselor team is in charge of a cabin of twelve kids; they take them around to the different activities.Activities with safety requirements, like swimming, have additional help, but otherwise, it’s just cabins.”

“But you don’t have cabins.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the campers are in single and double dorm rooms now, right?And they’re all old enough to walk themselves to different activities, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“Why not have the counselors teach the activities they’re best at?Have two counselors responsible for art, two for music, two for the rowboats, that sort of thing.It would give the campers the best experience with each activity, and it would give them a chance to get to know more of the kids.Or to avoid activities they hate.”

“Kayaks,” he said, his eyes unreadable.

“What?”

“They’re kayaks, not rowboats.”He looked out over the lake, frozen and glistening white in the late winter sun, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking about.Probably about how wrong I was.

“Anyway, it’s just a random thought I had, not a real plan.Besides, I don’t want the job.”

Matt turned and stared at me, his eyebrows pushing together.“Ah.”

“Thanks for the breakfast sandwich, though!”

“What if I let you plan the music and arts curriculum?”

I blinked.“The whole curriculum?Like, I’d get to choose what you do?”

“Within reason.We’re just a summer camp.We do have a rather tight budget.”

Shit.Oliver had been right.This job would look good on my resume.“I’ll think about it.But I don't think we jive.”

"Don't think we jive," Matt repeated, eyebrows shooting up.

"Yeah, you know, we keep arguing."

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