Page 32 of Playing it Country

“Just thinkin’ about all of it—this town—the shenanigans my mama had to put up with raising us. We didn’t go easy on her, but man it was fun—growing up in the orchard and underneath the stars—there’s nothing like it.”

She nods and turns in her seat to face me. “We took a trip this one summer to Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondacks and camped by the water for, like, a week, I think. My brother, Cal, and I would take our campfire pies and sit down by the edge and look up at the stars, and I just remember thinking I’d never seen so many in my whole life.”

“That must have been somethin’ over a lake like that.”

“It’s one of the largest lakes in the Adirondacks. It’s just something that always stuck with me, that trip. Cal and I were probably in middle school and not too cool to be out in the woods seeing how many stars we could count before we were too tired to keep our eyes open.”

“Sounds like a great trip.”

“It was.” She sighs wistfully, and I can’t be sure but I think there’s a hint of sadness there as well. “It’s where my love of photography came from—being out in places most people will never see—it’s exhilarating.” She holds up the camera in her lap. “It’s why I won’t be staying in Clementine Creek very long.”

“Because of photography?” I ask.

“I applied to a traveling position. It’s a dream job.”

I notice that she doesn’t saymydream job but I don’t want to press. We’ve had a really great day, and I don’t want to ruin it by delving into something she doesn’t want to talk about.

Changing the subject, I ask, “What’s a campfire pie?”

Her gaze snaps to mine and her mouth drops open. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” I say as I look from her to the road and back again.

“There’s these molds you buy on the end of, like, a marshmallow stick and you butter the bread like you’re making grilled cheese and then you put a piece of bread in one side and then canned pie filling on top and then—”

“Canned what?”

“Pie filling.”

“From a can.” It’s a statement I cannot wrap my head around.

“Yes, and you put it on the one piece of bread and then you put the other piece of bread on top and squish it together and then you put the whole thing over the fire and it makes this little pie.”

“I don’t even know what to make of that.”

“Wanna try it?” she teases and I chuckle.

“I’m honestly a little scared.”

“It will be fun, and if you’rereallylucky I’ll teach you how to make stuffed bananas.”

“That also sounds questionable,” I say as I pull down the road onto my parents’ land. “Last stop for today’s tour.”

I catch movement out of the corner of my eye and slow the truck to a crawl as I pull my phone out and roll the window down. Ten seconds of video is all I need before I’m attaching that little visual snack to the group message thread and then continuing to our destination.

We get out of the truck, and my phone immediately starts going off. Hannah eyes me curiously, but I just lift a shoulder like it’s no big deal. Guy wanted to start a betting pool about me and my roommate…

CASE: (Video of Sorren reading shirtless in a lawn chair)

CASE: Seriously how is this guy still single?

HAYDEN: Hey! Reading time is sacred…wait…

HAYDEN: Am I counting those abs correctly?

HAYDEN: (wow face emoji)

EVERETT: I’m in this message—you know that right?

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