Page 57 of Lady and the Camp
I turned my head a fraction to see her better. Her closeness set my heart to a new pace. “I won’t.”
Her breathing came light and shallow. “Especially thunder and lightning while we’re sitting ducks in a creepy cabin in the woods.”
“If it makes you feel better, any bad guys out there have to deal with the rain to get to us.”
She swatted me. “You don’t watch scary movies, do you?”
“Never liked them.”
“Killerslikerain. Theythrivein it.”
I wanted to laugh, but she looked freaked. The whole reason we were trapped out here together was because I didn’t want her to be alone today. Her world had upended, and she’d been bombarded with hateful comments online. And that video. She’d been Krom’s pawn where he threw all his blame.
She didn’t know I knew any of that. We could discuss details later. Right now, she was practically screaming, in her own way, that she didn’t feel safe.
Well, this was my camp, and I wouldn’t let her feel unsafe. “There’s an ax in the closet.” I swung my arm around her, my heart pounding the whole time. “I’ll protect you.”
I couldn’t believe I’d gotten the words out—they were that painfully cheesy. An offense my cousins would shred me for if they ever heard about it.
But Hudson didn’t crack a joke. She nestled in closer to me, letting me hold her, as the thunder rolled on.
Chapter 18
Hudson
We’dsurvived.LucasandI survived in the murder hut during that awful thunderstorm.
I felt like a huge baby acting scared about a dumb storm. All my emotions crashed together, resulting in spewed nonsense about horror movies coming to life.
Lucas hadn’t teased me. He possibly pitied me for being such a scaredy cat.
But also? His steady, strong arm grounded me. His warmth like a seal of protection. He’d given me exactly what I needed in that moment.
Also, he had that ax in the closet. Just in case.
After the rain eased up, we made a careful dash through muddy trails to camp and parted ways for the day. I was embarrassed by my outbursts. Lucas likely sensed it and gave me space.
He didn’t even know the full truth about my reason for being here. I needed to come clean with him at some point, but right now, I held that truth close. The less he knew, the better.
I showered, then settled in reading one of Maggie’s fantasy novels from her stash inside the roller desk.
That night, as I plugged my phone into the charger, I skimmed through the day’s photos. The wildflower field had been pure magic. Beautiful. Romantic.
I want to show you something.Lucas had thought of me when he’d suggested going to the clearing with those beautiful flowers. He’d expected I’d want to photograph them, which I very much did. But the beauty took me off guard. I wanted to experience them, to touch them, and smell them. Not just digitize them.
My photo review landed on the selfie of me and Lucas. I could imagine us other places together, posing in front of lakes and flowers like Lucas enjoyed. Or at a concert or a busy restaurant, the stuff I liked. Us with a group of friends.
I set the phone aside and drifted off to the best sleep I’d had since starting my camp adventure.
The next weekly session of camp began Sunday afternoon with a new batch of campers ranging in age from eight to twelve. No word from the outside world meant another week of Miss Hudson the camp counselor.
I got cracking with the camp social media after receiving official approval (this approval came from Twila, but it counted since she ran the office). I wouldn’t go too wild, but improvement was a guarantee when the start was rock bottom.
Literally, the last post made seven weeks prior on the camp’s Instagram was of a rock. No caption and nary a hashtag. Just a rock on an account hovering on life support.
“Let’s get you all lined up facing the lake, and then I’m going to move behind you,” I instructed Bianca’s cabin of adorkable campers. We’d already handled a skinned knee and a bee freak-out and it wasn’t even ten a.m. “Grab the hand of the camper beside you.”
The girls linked hands. Perfect. Picture perfect.
