Taming Chloe Summers (Grover Beach Team #7) (5 page)

“You know I’m in charge,” he warns in an almost dangerous tone. “I can force you to come.”

“No, you can’t.” I’m
sure
he can’t.

He presses his lips together and almost smirks. “You’re right, I can’t. But at the end of your probation, I have to file a report about you. The question now is, what will I write in it?” In a provocative way, he shifts his mouth to one side, pretending to deliberate. “Did you take your job seriously and act as a model counselor? Or did you fail?”

My eyes grow wide with horror. “You wouldn’t dare!”

He bends his arms so that his face moves even closer and his chest is pushing against mine. “Are you sure?”

I’m warm, that’s all I know right now. Way too warm. It must be 120 degrees in here. And then I wonder what stupid game he’s playing. Before today, we hadn’t spoken three words in four years, and now he thinks he can fuel my fire by getting too close?

Well, judging by my galloping heartbeat thundering in my ears right now, he obviously can. It’s extremely annoying.

At that moment, Numbers Two and Three burst back into the room. “Everything’s set. We can go,” Julie says cheerfully, then she stops dead as Justin moves away from me, slowly and unimpressed by the disturbers. Her cheeks flush a little. Damn, are mine rosy, too?

I clear my throat and tug the purple cami into place. “Really, I don’t want to go, Julie,” I tell her when my vocal cords function again.

She stares at me, the happiness literally dropping from her face. Even though she’s fast to cover it with a forced smile, the disappointment is still apparent. “Okay.” Her voice is softer than before, lower, and drained of all excitement. She turns to the boys. “Maybe another time then. You two enjoy your sodas.”

“What?” My chin smacks down. “I didn’t mean for you to stay behind—go with them. Have fun.”

She lifts her shoulders without much enthusiasm. “I’m definitely not going to leave you alone on our first night at camp.”

Hands clasped behind his back, Justin walks past Julie to the door and slides a glance at me, tilting his brows. He knows he doesn’t have to say a word.

“For Christ’s sake!” With a growl of irritation, I ignore the satisfaction crossing his face, trudge to the wardrobe, slip on my strappy sandals, and head outside. “Let’s go together then.”

Two, Three, and Four follow me, one of them switching off the now flawless light in our cabin and closing the door. With a sideways glance, I find Julie’s beaming smile back in place once again. At least one of us is going to enjoy this.

As we amble through the woods to the dining hall, she explains to me the genius idea Justin and Greyson had to keep the kids busy and out of trouble until we get back. I nod from time to time to keep her happy, not really listening to her drivel. I’m actually more concerned with rubbing a light chill from my arms. A breeze we didn’t notice inside the cabin has picked up. If I’d known, I’d have brought a sweatshirt to drape around my shoulders.

The yellow, square building is pitch-dark when we arrive, but Justin obviously knows where the control box for the lights is. He flicks a few switches, and a small part of the hall and kitchen brightens. “The fridge is stocked with soda. Have as many as you want,” he tells us.

As many as we want? How long do they intend to stay here? I agreed to come—by blackmail—but I’m not going to spend the entire night in the dining hall. One soda. The faster it’s consumed, the better.

I grab a Sprite from the fridge and sit down with the others at the same table we claimed at dinner. It’s weird to be here at night. Everything’s quiet. We don’t have to raise our voices to hear each other like we had to with the crowd of teens around. In fact, with only the lights above our table on and the rest of the room disappearing in darkness, it’s almost cozy.

While I silently sip half the Sprite, relaxing in the gray vinyl chair, Julie tells a long story about how being a counselor is like reliving the best times of her childhood. Obviously, her camp memories are a lot like mine but, regardless, they wouldn’t have made
me
come here voluntarily.

I already heard about Justin’s ambitions that afternoon, and Greyson’s motives to become a counselor apparently have to do with his little brother. “He wanted to go to camp so badly, but it’s his first time away from home alone and he was quite scared,” Number Three tells us. With his big brother around to keep an eye on little Collin Monroe, the problem was solved.

“If I had a younger brother, he couldn’t have paid me to come here,” I snort and take another sip from the bottle.

“Nah, it’s not that bad. Once I got used to the idea, I was pretty eager to come, actually,” Greyson replies. “Anyway, what’s your reason for becoming a counselor? You don’t seem so happy about it, to be honest.”

My gulp of Sprite echoes in the hall. I look up at him, biting my lip because I never thought about explaining my reasons for coming to camp.

“Yeah, tiger,” Justin mocks me with a smirk and mischievous gleam in his eyes as he leans back and laces his hands over his stomach. “Why are you here?”

Oh, he’s enjoying this all right.

Drop dead, asshole
, I want to shoot at him, but I hold back and grind my molars instead. No one will make me spill the truth about my probation at this table. Definitely not him. “Because,
Spider-Boy
,” I finally drawl with menace and a hard stare, “I’m getting a reward for this.”

“You’re getting paid?” Greyson asks in wonder.

“No.” Clearing my throat and dropping the lethal venom in my voice that was meant for Justin alone, I explain, “I get to go to Europe if I do this. There’s a famous acting school in England. I’m already enrolled, and two of my best friends are waiting there for me.”

“Wicked,” Julie breathes.

“It’s a whole year I get for two weeks of camp.”

“Five,” Justin says.

“What?”

He blinks a couple of time. “Five weeks of camp.”

“Yeah. Of course, that’s what I meant,” I say quickly. “Five weeks.” As I lower my head, Justin’s scrutinizing gaze doesn’t escape me. Dammit, I need to be more careful. Another slip like this can’t happen, especially not around him.

“Have you been studying acting in the area since high school?” Julie asks.

“Yeah. I lived in San Francisco last year.”

“Ooh, that’s so exciting. I haven’t been outside San Luis Obispo my entire life—well, except for camp.” She laughs. “Have you already met some real stars there? Are you getting taught by famous actors? How long is the course?”

Her interest and fire inspire me to tell her more about the school I’ve been going to with Brinna, and soon my throat goes dry from answering all of Greyson’s and her questions. They look impressed beyond words when they hear that Harrison Ford was invited to teach a special course last fall at my school. Unfortunately, I can’t show them the selfie of him and me on my phone because—yeah, officially I don’t have my phone anymore. It’s supposed to be rotting away with all the others in a closet in the main office. No one needs to know mine is actually waiting for me in my purse back in our cabin.

When Julie and Greyson start an excited conversation about which actor they would love to meet in person, I take the chance to slip away and get myself another drink from the fridge around the corner. As I fish a mineral water from the back, I sense someone stepping up behind me.

“I’m impressed. You didn’t even blush when you lied to them.” Justin’s purr tickles my ear. I stiffen, clasping the neck of the bottle in my fist. “But then,” he continues in a low, soft voice, “you never blushed when telling lies in the past either.”

I spin around and find myself caught between the fridge and Justin, who’s grabbing the door with one hand and the side of the stainless-steel box with his other. “It wasn’t a lie,” I growl. “It was just one version of the truth.”

“Ah, yes.” His gaze turns hard, in spite of the fire in his eyes when he fixes me with his stare. “I can see how that’s easy for you, as you’ve always been a master of altering the truth to fit your needs.”

The cold from the open fridge behind me is crawling up my bare legs, while the heat from Justin’s body seeps mercilessly into my front. The war of fire and ice inside me threatens to bring me down to my knees in another moment. I need to go.

Pushing at his outstretched arm, I try to escape, but he’s gripping the fridge door too hard. His arm doesn’t budge an inch. “Going to keep me locked here forever?” I snap, trying to kill him with an evil glare.

An infinite moment longer, he just stands in front of me and deliberates. Then he says, “No,” much softer than before and chuckles. “Just for five weeks.”

Yeah, funny, isn’t he? I push at his arm again, harder this time, and shove it out of the way. Biting my tongue, I stalk back to the table. Justin follows a few seconds later, sitting down again with a Fanta in his hand. I stare at the yellow-and-orange can, getting swept away into the depths of my past.

Kneeling in the grass, I wipe the sticky liquid from my face. “You did that on purpose!”

His eyes are dark, intense, and fixed on mine. “Absolutely.” Then he smirks and wipes his wet mouth with the back of his hand, before taking another sip of his Fanta.

I shake the memory away. Justin was right earlier. Obviously, some things never change.

After the escapade with him in the kitchen, it’s quite nice to be in the company of others again. And in spite of initially intending to have only one drink and slink off, I’m surprised to find myself still sitting at the table in the dining hall after midnight, listening to Julie explain an altered version of
Capture the Flag
, which she wants to introduce to the kids tomorrow.

“So there’re the usual two flags, one for the boys and one for the girls. Except, both groups have to protect them for the entire five weeks. The one group that can steal the flag of the other and hold it until the end of camp are the winners.”

Even though I’m absolutely not into camp games, I find this particular idea kind of intriguing. Maybe it’s the sportsmanship in me piping up—who knows—but when she says we need two flags in different colors, I suggest stealing two dish towels to construct them.

“That’s a good idea,” Justin says approvingly and then has Greyson run outside and find two foot-long sticks. In the meantime, he saunters to the kitchen and comes back with two towels. One is checkered blue-and-white, the other yellow-and-white. “Blue for the boys?” he asks and holds one up.

We tie them each to a stick and—voila—there are two perfect flags for the kids.

Julie is swinging ours cheerfully as we walk back to the girls’ campsite accompanied by Justin and Greyson because it’s late and dark and we have to go through the woods. The earlier breeze has grown into strong gusts of wind by now. Looking up at the starless sky, I think it might start to rain in just a few minutes. We better hurry.

“Are you cold?” Greyson asks me when I keep rubbing my upper arms to warm them. “I’m sure Justin can lend you his jacket for the walk back.”

“There’s no need,” I tell him politely but scowl at Justin at the same time to stop any stupid ideas. From his stern look, he wasn’t thinking about it anyway.

At the next cold slap from the wind, I do start to envy Julie and Justin for bringing jackets, however. Greyson seems to be just fine in his T-shirt.

My chin dipped low to watch the path in the dark, I hear the boys whispering behind me and get a bad feeling.

“What?” Justin snaps at Greyson under his breath, but not low enough for Julie and me not to hear.

“She’s cold,” hisses Greyson.

Then a few illegible words are whispered, and finally Justin snorts. “All right, I get it, Grey,” he growls and comes forward to flank me. I don’t look up, but a second later, a warm hoodie is draped around my shoulders. Wearing Justin’s clothes is the last thing I want tonight, so I shrug, irritated. He only grabs my shoulders tight and holds the damn hoodie in place. “If you drop it,” he drawls a warning in my ear, “I’ll throw you over my shoulder, carry you to the frog pond, and dump you in the water.”

My gaze snaps to him in shock. His tilted eyebrows say that he means it. Fuming inwardly, I seal my lips and keep walking but angle away from him. He’s such an idiot, and someone should slap Greyson for getting me in this awkward situation in the first place.

But the annoying shivers from the cold wind stop when the warmth of the worn hoodie encloses me, and suddenly I can’t be mad at either of them anymore. Gripping the sides, I wrap it tighter around me. A soft smell creeps up my nostrils. It fills my head with images of Justin pressing me against the wall in our cabin. I don’t want to be swamped with that right now, not when he’s walking so close beside me. With a hard swallow and a shake of my head, I abandon those thoughts.

Relief floods me when the three huts come into sight, just as a couple of raindrops land on my nose. I pick up my pace, skipping up the steps to the shelter of our porch. Julie is right by my side. She thanks the guys for taking us. I just mumble, “Good night,” and turn to walk inside.

“Chloe!” My hand is already on the doorknob when Justin’s tight voice makes me freeze. Warily, I pivot. Standing on the bottom step of our porch, he holds out his hand. “My hoodie.”