Page 18 of Love At The Shore
Kayla blew her whistle. “Good job, guys. Let’s break for lunch.”
The campers hustled toward the picnic tables, barely managing to follow the pool’sno runningrule. Kayla kept an eye on them and waited for Nick to drag himself out of the cool blue water.
“Come on, dude. Those fish tacos are calling your name.” She gave him a playful tap as he stood dripping on the deck.
Shoulders slumped and eyes downcast, he clearly wasn’t in any hurry to get something to eat. “I’m not really that hungry.”
Inwardly, Lucas winced. The kid must be really upset if a fish taco couldn’t pull him out of his funk. They were the camp specialty.
Kayla shot him a sympathetic grin. “I can’t have anyone passing out on my watch, so you’re gonna have to eat something.”
Nick sighed. He looked so small out there, so vulnerable. His shark-pattered swimsuit hung all the way down to his knees.
A strange ache churned in the pit of Lucas’s stomach. He’d been that kid once, and it hadn’t been fun.
“I promise, they’re worth it,” Kayla said.
Lucas kept his gaze trained on Nick as he trudged toward the picnic tables, then slouched onto a bench. The boy didn’t so much as glance toward the tacos, the cooler full of juice boxes or the dessert table.
“Hi!” Kayla waved her arms, dragging Lucas’s attention away from Nick.
Uh oh.
Why did he feel so self-conscious all of a sudden? This was his camp. He was allowed to drop in and check on the campers.
He cleared his throat. “Hey you, looks like I’m just in time for fish tacos.”
Kayla cast a pointed glance at the cluster of boys and girls gathered around the grill. “At this rate, you may have to cut in line. They’re a hungry bunch.”
Lucas shook his head. “What? You didn’t save me one? Maybe I need to find some new friends.”
Nick’s dejected face flashed briefly in his mind, followed by the image of Jenna standing on the deck of the beach house, her dark hair tossed by the sea air and eyes as stormy as a tempest.
Lucas blinked. Hard.
“Good luck with that, McKinnon,” Kayla said.
He peered past her toward Nick, still sitting by himself. “How’s Nick doing out there?”
Kayla’s eyebrows drew together. “You know him?”
“Neighbor of the month.” Lucas had become accustomed to the revolving door that was the other half of the beach house. He thought he had anyway, until Jenna and her kids turned up.
“Well, he starts off strong and then just sort of gives up.” Kayla fiddled with the red lanyard of the whistle around her neck. “But I’m sure he’ll get there.”
“I’m sure he will.” Lucas nodded.
He didn’t want to give Kayla the impression that he thought she wasn’t doing a good job. She was great with the kids. He couldn’t run the summer day camp without her.
Lucas had no reason to interfere. If Kayla thought Nick would improve on his own, chances were he would. She had far more experience with this sort of thing than Lucas did. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Nick he wasn’t exactly a teacher. Yes, he owned a summer day camp, but he was strictly hands-off when it came to the campers. The camp at Tybee was a way for him to turn his love for the beach into a way to make a living. Sharing his passion for nature and the shore with the younger generation meant the world to him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to get personally involved with all of the campers. Or any of them, really. He didn’t need that kind of pressure.
The reasonable thing to do—thesmartthing to do—would be to let Kayla do what she did best and just stay out of it. But as she grinned and headed toward the picnic area, Lucas found himself watching Nick again. And the sadder the little boy looked, the more the ache in Lucas’s gut nagged at him.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that there weren’t any fish tacos left.
Lucas wasn’t hungry anymore.
Just like Nick.
