He stood, dusting his cargoes, a strange choice for someone who was about to sleep outdoors. He glanced at the kids and back at me.
“Good-night, Amy,” he said in the smoothest voice I’d heard on him.
We made our way to our sleeping bags, which were on opposite sides of the kids, and I stared at the dark sky for a few minutes before dozing off.
CHAPTER 15
By midmorning the next day, the sun was really beaming, and the heat rose above ninety. And from what I heard, it wasn’t stopping there. It wasn’t as warm earlier when Rick and I woke up at sunrise. The campers were all still sleepy by the time we packed up. But I managed to convince them to try to enjoy the scenery for a few minutes before we left.
I threw on my white shorts and navy tank top and took a lazy stroll down the boardwalk to get an iced coffee and a croissant. I was by myself, since Rachel was at a biweekly scheduled lifeguard safety training. All the Bays Beach Club and Summer Camp lifeguards get together at the club pool every other week. Rachel explained that they normally went over everything we already knew, including basic water safety, standard CPR, how to tell trouble before it happens, and the usual role-play that I remember from my training a few sum-mers ago.
It was a few days before the camp’s Fourth of July show. This year the holiday fell on a Monday. It was mandatory for the camp staff to participate in preparing for the show, including working on decorations. I showed up at the gym a quarter after ten. The plan was, as Sarah had explained it, to build most of the decorations at the gym, painting the signs, making hats, preparing costumes, and readying various raffles. Molly, the other art teacher, was already bustling along. The fact that she was walking around with a clipboard and not actually doing anything gave me the idea that she might have taken the lead on delegating. Trish and Mickey were there folding the T-shirts that were to be displayed for sale. A few other camp staff and volunteers were there too. Some people I recognized who worked at the gift shops and the beach club tennis courts and the bartender from the Bays Club Grille were all doing something. I spotted Jeff there. He was packing the gift baskets. He saw me and winked. I looked away as if I’d been looking past him and didn’t notice.
“Hey, Molly,” I called.
“Amy! Great. Now we can really start getting creative around here,” she exclaimed. “Come over here and look at my ideas for the backdrop for the stage.”
I walked over to her colored sketch of the backdrop that would go on the outdoor stage in the back of the main building. It was of a beautiful summer beach with a sunrise behind it.
“Wow. That’s incredible, Mol.”
“Thanks, I feel like it still needs something…I don’t know…original.”
I stared at the small-scale image for a moment and envisioned it enlarged, spreading across the white columned stage. Then it came to me: the rising sun letting out a glow into the sky, shining light onto a translucent but vibrant American flag. The flag would need to be wavy and cover most of the backdrop. I explained the idea to Molly and lightly drew a sketch of it over some vellum paper I found on the supply desk.
“You can do that?” She stared at me, amazed.
“Well, sure, with translucent paint. I can pick some up at the hardware store. I’ll get a red, white, and blue and maybe a yellow for the rays.”
“Do you think you’ll have enough time?”
“Sure, it won’t take long. I’ll just go check out the backdrop to see how much paint I’ll need.”
“Great.” She handed me her sketch and gave me a thumbs up before dashing off. She glanced back midstride
“The backdrop’s being set up on stage right now, if you want to go put some primer on it first.”
A few minutes later, I walked out to the stage, which was built on the deck in the back of the building, facing the beach. I put down my basket of supplies on one of the white folding chairs. I heard a couple of voices from the direction of the stage and turned.
I felt my lips part. A guy with incredibly toned legs and bare tanned biceps was holding the backdrop upright. I couldn’t see his face, since it was tucked behind the set piece, but I did see a few strands of soaking wet hair peeking from the edge. He wore dark-gray gym shorts and a white tank. If just the left side of him was that hot, I couldn’t wait to see the rest of him. I blinked when I saw who came from behind the backdrop. It was Rick.
He was still holding one end of the six-by-seven-foot backdrop while looking behind it. “You don’t want to push too hard, but you will need to give it a little more to align it with my side.”
I recognized the girl holding up the other end of the flat: the waitress from the café, Haley. That’s when I remembered that she was on staff at the club and was probably volunteering. Her choice of whom she wanted to help was no shock. I couldn’t explain at that moment why it bothered me.
Rick spotted me. His eyes stood out even from the distance. His forehead glistened from sweat.
Haley glanced over in my direction and turned away. “Why can’t you just move it closer to mine?” she complained.
“Because that’s not where it goes, Hale.”
Hale? I guessed they were friends, or maybe something more? My heart sank in disappointment, which surprised me, again. I shook my head. The heat must have been getting to me.
Rick turned back to me. And I was thankful that I was wearing my new baseball hat—hoping it covered up my stare.
“Hey, you here for the backdrop, right?” he called, his eyes squinting in my direction.
My head snapped. “Uh, yeah, but I can come back if you’re still working.” Or not.
