Page 45 of Lady and the Camp
Chapter 14
Hudson
Wedidn’tsomuchcreep through the woods as walk fully upright with flashlights. Still, I breathed in sweet victory. I’d convinced Lucas to lead me to the other camp.
A meager fence with a sign noting the camp boundary met us at the property line. Taller than me, but a simple chain link I’d climbed dozens of times as a kid. I moved forward.
“You can’t climb that, Hudson,” Lucas said, ever the stickler for rules.
I should have brought Maggie. Or Bianca. I bet Bianca would have been up for a little nighttime fence climbing. “If I can manage an advanced barre class on four hours sleep, you bet I can do this.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Ugh, men.“Is there another place to cross?”
“The road, at the main entrance.”
Fat chance. “Then why did you take me through the woods?”
“Figured you’d come to your senses once we reached the boundary.”
My senses—ha! Normally, my senses would direct me to a deep dive on the camp’s social media accounts, followed by a closer look into the online presence of the people who ran it. Brycen had to be a gold mine of data. I knew his type. I’d bet the entire line of Sunday Riley’s skincare regimen he had an Instagram less than a couple years old, completely re-crafted to his current persona, with a dead account lurking somewhere hiding all sorts of secrets.
But for some reason, holing up in the camp office late on a Friday night under the low-glow flicker of Twila’s aging desktop didn’t appeal. Neither did fighting for connectivity in my bunk. I’d accidentally scraped my knuckles against the rough ceiling more times than I cared to count.
Nope. I wanted the real deal. A sneak peek at the rival camp with my own eyes. A little adventure.
I tucked the flashlight into my back pocket with the light pointing up. I started my climb.
“Hudson,” he warned.
“I’m not a camper. You can’t tell me what to do.” I swung a leg over the fence.
“I’m your boss.”
Okay, sure. He could fire me. But then the adult-to-camper ratio would be jeopardized, and a full load of campers were enrolled the coming week.
The fence shifted, absorbing new weight. Lucas was climbing.
I beamed at him—my smile, not the flashlight.
He joined me on the other side. “This is a bad idea.”
“So is microdermabrasion the day before a public event. Sometimes you take the risk.”
He trudged alongside me. “I sound like a broken record, but yet again, I have no idea what that means.”
Darkness permeated the path. Every step involved scouting for rocks or tree roots poking out of the dirt. I stumbled and a strong arm caught me. “Careful.”
I tried to see his face through the dark, but he moved ahead of me. “Follow where I walk.”
Only our breathing and footsteps sounded for the next few minutes until a clearing came into view.
“Activity area.” Lucas stopped, his voice close. “Ropes course. See?” He shined his flashlight into the branches where a wooden bridge crossed the air between large trees. Various ropes stretched across the clearing. A wooden structure the size of a park’s playground equipment featured more ladders and ropes.
“Is it likeSurvivor?” I’d seen enough episodes of the reality to show to know they did obstacle courses involving ropes and bridges. “Ooh, do you think we’ll do giant puzzles on a beach?”
“I don’t know what they have over here anymore.”
