Wildfire (Maple Hills 2)

“ARE YOU GOING TO SAY something, or are you just going to stare at me?”

JJ doesn’t change the smug look on his face, and it’s making me want to disconnect the video call. “I’m just honored, although not surprised, that you’re calling me for life advice. What can I do for you, buddy? You need to know how interest works? What a 401(k) is?”

“Yes, I called you from camp to find out about retirement plans,” I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. “I should have called Nate.”

“Take that back right now.” JJ, who was lying on his couch, sits upright. “You have my full attention. What’s up?”

I’m in the main building during our lunch break because it’s the only place to get Wi-Fi. I check around me to make sure I’m still alone. “Aurora. The girl I hooked up with on Saturday night. She’s here.”

“Sweet. I love a summer romance,” he says cheerfully.

“No. There’s no romance here. She, uh, she left while I was in the bathroom.” I sink farther into my seat, embarrassed to be admitting I was walked out on to my friend. “And also staff isn’t allowed to mess around together, but even if we were, she isn’t interested.”

JJ sits in silence and I’m busy waiting for him to react. “Russ, you’re going to have to explain it to me like I’m five, because I’m not following what the issue is here.”

“I was hyping myself up to ask her out, and when I came out of the bathroom she had already gone. Embarrassing, I know, but now it’s awkward because we’re both here and I’ve been staying away from her, an—”

“Back up, Callaghan. You like this woman and you’re staying away from her why?”

“I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. She didn’t want to see me again and now she can’t escape me. We’re in the same group.”

JJ sighs heavily. “Did she tell you she didn’t want to see you again?”

“I haven’t actually talked to her. Like I said, I’ve been staying away. I don’t wa—”

“Want to make her uncomfortable, yes, you said that. Oh, Russ. You are so hopeless, but I love you anyway.”

“Thanks? I think?”

“It’s not true unless she said it. Unless she actually tells you she doesn’t want to see you again, then you’re just making assumptions.”

Fantastic. “So what now?”

“Well right now you look like some guy who got what he wanted and is now ignoring her, and you’re not that guy. You’re the good guy who doesn’t realize sometimes people leave after hooking up and that doesn’t have to mean anything dramatic. You’re not going to have a chance with her if you ignore her, genius.”

I really am hopeless. “I’m not looking for a chance with her. I don’t want to get fired.”

“So why are you calling me about the girl you don’t want a chance with?”

“I just want to know how to be around her, since we have to work side by side for weeks.” I scratch my jaw, feeling pretty clueless about women right now. “She was pushed up against me yesterday—stop looking at me like that, it was during a team activity—and she was so close to me I could smell her shampoo and, well…”

Quickly turning down the volume on my cell phone, I check once again that I’m still alone, while JJ does what can only be described as cackle. He eventually calms down and I feel like my entire face is on fire. “It happens to the best of us, buddy. Does she know?”

“Well it was digging into her stomach.” Sighing, I run my hand down my face as I prepare for the cackling again. “When she moved away, she winked at me.”

I count all the way to thirty-three before JJ finally stops laughing. “The real reason you wanted to talk to me.”

“What do I do?”

“You accept that you completely misjudged the situation and you talk to her instead of avoiding her like a dick. Be around her by doing just that, being around her. It’s easy.”

The doors open behind me and I look over my shoulder to spot Xander walking in with the dogs. “I gotta go, but I appreciate you, man. Thanks for hearing me out.”

“Bye, lover boy, keep me updated,” JJ says, disconnecting the call.

Now that my phone has service again, my notifications have come through while I’ve been talking to JJ. The last thing in the group chat is a picture of Mattie, Bobby, and Kris at the beach in Miami and one of Lola, Stassie, and Joe on their flight to New York.

I take a video as Trout scrambles up the outer side of the beanbag chair and slides down into my lap and send it to the chat. I’m about to close my messages when I spot more from someone I was hoping to avoid hearing from.

DAD

How are you?

Did you see my request??

Then a few hours later.

Too good to text back now?

Think you’re better than me do you

Too good for this family

“I’m fucking beat, man.” Xander groans, throwing himself into the giant beanbag chair beside me, causing me to lock my phone immediately and put it into my pocket. “This sun is a killer.”

It takes me longer to process what he’s said because my heart and brain are racing after seeing the messages from my dad. “Yeah, it’s brutal. Where is everyone?”

He kicks off his sneakers and stretches his legs out fully. “Tanning, I think. I need to cool down before I melt.”

Sharing with Xander has been a great arrangement so far. Other than being very competitive, which I learned yesterday, he’s usually super chill, tidy, and seems to have this radar for when to stop before his questions go too far. When he realized Emilia, Aurora, and I go to the same college and I shrugged when he asked if we knew each other, mumbling, “Sort of,” he didn’t push.

We sit in a comfortable silence, another thing I appreciate, and Xander scrolls on his phone. I’m too scared to get mine out again, so I give Trout all of my attention and think about what JJ said.

“You excited for training?” Xander asks, looking up from his phone.

Even though there are camp nurses, we all have to do basic first aid training. Anything is better than the harness safety training this morning where I spent the majority of my time eye level with Xander’s dick. Don’t even get me started on all the icebreakers, which are now my least favorite thing in the world. “At this point, anything that’s not an icebreaker is a win in my eyes.”

He groans, throwing his head back against the bean bag and Trout jumps at the noise. “Someone should tell them the ice is officially broken. I saw Clay naked this morning by accident; you don’t get more broken than that.”

I was attempting to herd my dog shadows out of our cabin this morning when Xander practically crashed into me looking mortified. “Walked into the wrong cabin,” he spluttered, smothering a horrified scoff with his hand. “Wasn’t paying attention. Oh my God.”

“Maybe we need to refreeze the ice a little, in that case,” I joke. “You want me to fill up your water bottle before we head out?”

He nods, handing it over. “Thanks, bro.”

I’m walking toward the water machines when someone turns the corner, colliding with me. Dropping the bottles to the floor, I catch the arms of the person stumbling away, keeping them upright.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was go—” Aurora finally looks up after finding her balance. “Oh, hi.”

“Hi.” She moves and that’s when I realize I’m still holding her and her eyes are puffy. “Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” she says immediately, giving me a bright smile that looks entirely pretend. I’ve seen her real smile before—making her smile and laugh is ingrained in my brain—but this isn’t it. “Everything is wonderful.”

Everything doesn’t feel wonderful. I pick up the bottles I dropped and take the few seconds without her sad, green eyes looking at me to rack my brain to work out what could be wrong with her. I overheard her say to Maya this morning that she dislikes being paired with Clay because she doesn’t like the way he looks at her body when they’re working together.

I also don’t like the way he looks at her body when they work together, or the way his hands stay on her a little bit longer than necessary. But I put that down to jealousy, not substance in my concerns. Aurora and Maya agreed he’s harmless, just annoying, which made me feel better and a little less like I should push him into the lake or into the path of a bear.

“I’m just getting some water for me and Xander.”

“Water is good,” she says far too enthusiastically for the topic of conversation. “Water is, uh, hydrating.”

Tucking the bottles back under my arm, I clear my throat. “Aurora, did something happen?”

“Nothing that I shouldn’t expect at this point. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is peachy,” she says. I’m not sure whom she’s working hardest to convince, me or herself. Before I can ask anything else, she takes a big step back, fake smile still in place. “See you at training.”

She’s gone before I even have time to respond.

THE SOLAR-POWERED FANS POINTING TOWARD the six of us as we wait for our instructor are useless in the face of the exceptionally hot afternoon sunshine.

“I can’t live like this,” Xander groans, fanning himself with his hand. “Why couldn’t we have done this inside?”

“How do you think I feel?” Maya says, wafting her Brown Bears staff T-shirt. “We don’t get sun in England.”

“I’m more worried that the resuscitation dummies are going to melt,” I say, nodding toward the pile of plastic.

“Hello, hello. I’m here. Sorry, everyone, I’m Jeremy and you should be”—he checks his clipboard—“Alexander, Aurora, Clay, Emilia, Maya, and Russ? Yes? Perfect.”

I’m a fan of Jeremy straight away because he immediately complains about how hot it is and moves us and the equipment into the shade. He also doesn’t pick me to do the demonstration, which also scores him points.

Emilia is fully sweating and panting by the time she manages to get Xander into the recovery position, but when she’s done, she sits back and admires her hard work with her hands on her hips, like a proud dad.

“The rest of you pair up and practice, please,” Jeremy announces. “I’ll be watching; please shout up if you’re struggling with anything.”

Clay immediately moves toward Aurora, but I’m closer to her. “Come on,” I say, gesturing toward one of the empty practice mats. “I’ll do you first.”

“Oh, okay.” I think this is the quietest I’ve seen her since we arrived a few days ago. I know I shouldn’t expect anything better after avoiding her for forty-eight hours, but I still don’t know what upset her earlier and it’s bugging me. “Thank you.”

We both get into position, her on the mat and me beside her, and I suddenly can’t remember how to do this. I’ve done first aid training before, because Coach Faulkner makes us do it every year, telling us we’ll never know when we’ll need it—and yet here I am once again, clueless.

I watch Xander moving Emilia and it suddenly comes back to me. Gripping the back of her thigh, I start to lift her leg into the correct position. “You should tell him you don’t like it when he touches you.”

Thankfully the task at hand gives me the perfect opportunity not to look at her face, but I can feel her eyes burning into me. “And you know that how?”

“Your entire body language changes when he’s near you.”

She scoffs. “You seem to have noticed a lot about my body for someone who’s barely looked at me since we got here.”

Her words make me freeze, but only for a second before I push through it, gently moving her arms to the right angles and rolling her onto her side into the recovery position. “Just tell him, Aurora.”

“Are you jealous?” she asks, rolling onto her back and moving into a sitting position. She’s leaning back on her hands, her hair ruffled from the mat, light freckles beginning to decorate her cheeks. She’s fucking beautiful, but there’s something different about her today. Of course I’m jealous of it being so easy for Clay to just talk to her and touch her without caring about any potential consequences. “No, I’m not jealous.”

She looks sad. “Then you don’t need to worry, do you?”

“Aurora, I—”

She stands before I can say anything else. “Excuse me, I’m going to use the restroom.”

I nod and watch her walk away, lying down on the mat so I don’t have to see everyone else getting along and moving onto the next task. Five minutes pass before she reappears, dropping down onto the grass beside me.

She tucks her hair behind her ears and hugs her knees close to her chest, offering, “I’m sorry for being weird. I’m having a bad day. It’s my dad’s birthday and, well, we have a really shitty relationship. To call it a relationship at all is actually a huge stretch… aaand now I’m officially oversharing. Can we start over? I really want to recovery-position you.”

“I’d really like to be recovery positioned.”

It’s cute watching how hard she’s concentrating. She tries to lift my leg, just like I did to her, only to huff and try with two hands. “Do you want me to make it easier for you?”

“No!” she says, tugging my leg up to the correct position. “If you were passed out you wouldn’t be making it easier for me.”

“Okay, then…”

“Jesus Christ, I feel like I’m working out. Why are you so big?” She’s going to kill me while trying to save me. “Oh, I forgot to check if you were breathing!”

Before I can reassure her that I’m definitely breathing—for now—I’m drowning under a sea of blond hair that smells like peaches as she puts her ear to my face. With all my limbs eventually in the right positions, she pulls me toward her, rolling me into the final pose.

“Well done, Aurora,” Jeremy says somewhere behind me. I hadn’t even registered he was there. “You guys can move onto the bandages now. There’s a step-by-step guide to follow; I’ll get you a pack and then you can tell me when you’re done.”

“Good job, partner,” she says, holding up her hand for me to high-five. “We’re a good team.” I slap my palm against hers. “You’re really good at… recovering people.”

My lips quirk as I listen to her go on and on, looking more confused with every word out of her mouth. “You’re good at recovering people, too.”

“The sun is melting my brain. Let’s get the bandages. You can tie me up first.” She shakes her head, pressing her hand against her forehead. “I made it weird, didn’t I?”

Embarrassed Aurora is adorable. “Yeah. Good job, partner.”