Page 68 of The Kiss Keeper
The crowd buzzed with chatter as people shook their heads and crossed their arms.
Natalie glanced away from the group and stared up at the camp. The setting sun lit the buildings in a warm glow. She’d seen it like this a thousand times, maybe more. It had become a constant, grounding force in her life. A memory that she clung to when her life was falling apart. Not only that, it didn’t seem possible that Camp Woolwich could cease to exist. It was a pillar of the community. They offered summer camp scholarships to foster children and constantly invited community groups to enjoy the grounds.
But more than that, this place was her center.
The one place where she fit, where she belonged. For much of her youth, she’d been shuttled back and forth across the country. Two bedrooms. Two lives—one as her mother’s daughter and the other as her father’s little girl. Here, at Camp Woolwich, she was herself, her best self, her whole self.
“Are you okay, Heels?” Jake asked, pressing his hand to the small of her back.
She looked up at him and saw pain and confusion welling in his gaze. Why would this affect him so profoundly?
“Here’s what it comes down to, folks,” her grandfather said, cutting into the conversations and drawing everyone’s attention. “Bev and I can sell, and we can all share in the profits or someone—”
Natalie shook her head. “No, we’re not selling. I’ll do it. I want to run Camp Woolwich.”
“Do you think you can handle it?” her grandfather asked.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I do.”
“Hold on a second,” Leslie quipped. “You guys are going to trust our family’s legacy to Natalie? She’s been fired more times than I can count, and she bounces around from guy to guy—and only seems to date men named Jake—which is pretty damn weird. Plus, let’s face it. She’s not reliable, and she wouldn’t be a good steward of all you’ve built.”
“Yeah,” Lara chimed. “How can she take over? She doesn’t even eat lobster!”
“Nor does she care for her feet properly,” Leo mumbled.
Leslie stepped forward with her signature bullshit sincere expression shellacked to her face. “Grandma, Grandpa, I love the camp, but I fear that Natalie would run this place into the ground.”
Jake took a step forward and started to say something, but she stopped him.
“This isn’t your battle,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. She turned to her cousin and lifted her chin. “You know what, Leslie? I don’t know what I ever did to you. We were close once, but then you changed, and you’ve been awful to me ever since. You’ve teased me, tricked me, and you seem to take great pleasure in all my failures.”
Her cousin’s jaw dropped, but Natalie wasn’t done. A switch had flipped, and little Natalie Callahan, the youngest Woolwich grandchild, was done taking shit.
She climbed up onto the folding table and stared out at her family as a resolve like nothing she’d ever known coursed through her veins.
“I know what you all think of me, but I have news for you. I love this place. With or without your support, I’m going to continue building on what Grandma and Grandpa have created. In fact, I’m going to make it better. There are going to be more nuns, more Elks, more marching bands, and I’ll double camp attendance. I’m not going to stand back and watch Camp Woolwich become condos or a beach resort. This place is a part of me—part of us—and I’m going to make sure it stays a part of our family.”
She met her grandfather’s eye, and he winked. He actually winked.
Holy shit!
He was onboard. He was okay with this.
The reality of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks.
She took a steadying breath. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have a lot of planning and whatnot to get to. So, as the lobster luau queen and soon to be camp owner, I bid you to enjoy your murdered lobsters,” she added, then jumped off the table and sprinted up the beach.
The salt air rushed over her skin and blew off her lobster queen crown as she ran.
What did she do? Could she even run a camp? And did she agree to move here permanently?
“Jesus, Heels. That was…”
She glanced over her shoulder as her fake boyfriend ran up alongside her.
She waved him off and kept going, knowing where she needed to go to work all this out.
“Natalie, can you stop for one second?” he called.
