“Amy,” Jill called and ran up behind me.
I turned and nearly fell over when Jill embraced me in one of the biggest hugs I’d gotten in months.
“Thank you,” she whispered over my shoulder.
“Thank you, Jill. I really needed that,” I whispered back.
With that, I picked up speed and took off in the direction of Bays House.
CHAPTER 25
Ifelt the tears burning in me but refused to let a single drop fall. When had I become this weak, pathetic, lovesick person? Where was the strong, independent, young woman who never let anyone bring her down? I learned very early that when life takes something away from you, you move on and never look back. Or as Rachel would now say…
Damnit. Rachel.
The keychain. I stopped in my tracks and spun around on the boardwalk to head back to Jake’s Souvenir Shop. I found it by a crowded section of the beach, so with any luck, I’d get lost in the crowd if I ended up anywhere near Rick and Haley again. Still, I reached into my deep bag for my sunglasses in case those tears did decide to fall any second.
I ran into the shop and went directly for the key-chain display. I scanned and spun the wheel, looking for anything that resembled Rachel and her time here. The one that got my attention was a single silver key ring holding two identical chained links with rubber white-and-red lifesavers on each one.
Perfect. I smiled to myself.
I paid for it at the checkout and turned to leave. That was when I saw them again, right over the boardwalk: Rick and Haley. He looked distracted, glancing back and forth between Jill, who was now jumping the waves, and then to his feet. Haley seemed to be following Rick, babbling away and trying to get his attention. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she was just irritating him and that he had no real feelings for her. Until I saw what happened next. He spun around and kissed her. It was aggressive and fast. And it made me sick to my stomach. Seeing them together at the beach had been bad enough—shocking, if anything. But seeing him kissing and touching another girl was beyond anything I’d ever felt.
As I ran home from the beach, I opened the door to my apartment and shut it behind me, locking it. Not that Rachel didn’t have a key, but I needed to disappear from the rest of the world, to hide out under my covers until the pain went away. Just as I pulled the covers off my bed to crawl under them, I stopped myself.
I hadn’t come here to get my heart broken. I followed a sign to get out of town for the summer, maybe even for good. I went on a search to find a new beginning, not find someone to break my heart.
Thursday morning an e-mail and text message went out to the entire staff of the summer camp to meet at the gymnasium before the first sessions started. The CITs were assigned to meet the campers as they got off the buses and keep them in the cafeteria for breakfast until our meeting was over.
“What do you think this is about?” Rachel asked as we walked past the fenced-in field.
Her guess was as good as mine. For some reason, I hadn’t been focused on the why. I was dreading seeing Rick again. I hadn’t seen him since he and Haley lip-locked on the beach, and I’d managed to avoid him successfully. I shook my head, deciding that it didn’t matter. I was here for only another three weeks, and then I’d be heading to New York.
“I don’t know,” I finally replied. The only time we’d met our campers inside the gym was the first day of camp, so we could all meet everyone in one place. But this was strange. And sudden. Which never meant anything good.
We walked into the air-conditioned gymnasium. It was a bit shocking, since it was rarely air-conditioned unless there was an event. A crowd of people, including staff for both the camp and the club, were spread out across the gym. I looked for Sarah and found her up on the short, green-felt stage with a podium set up and a few chairs off to the side. From the back office, I saw Tom Myers walk in, a white-haired man in his late seventies, the owner of the camp. A woman close to his age I presumed to be Nancy, his wife.
As they got settled, I absently watched the door, and my heart dropped when Rick walked in. Alone. Everything became a blur around him. He wore a clean, white T-shirt and khaki pants. His hair looked dry and soft, not the usual slick style he had when he was working. I imagined running my fingers through it. Rachel nudged me.
“You’re staring,” she whispered.
I snapped out of my daze. “Huh? Oh. Thank you.”
“Do you want to go stand in the back?”
“No.” I insisted. “I’m not going to hide or let him run me off, Rach,” I paused. “Besides, I was here first.”
“Mature. It’s a shock you guys didn’t make it.” She rolled her eyes and focused back on the podium, where Sarah was still chatting away with Grace while checking the mic. Her head was down over some papers. Then she finally looked up and scanned the room for a few short seconds.
“Thank you all for coming this morning,” she paused. “Wow, it’s quite a turnout this early.”
“Does she look nervous?” I whispered to Rachel.
“Shh,” she replied without looking at me.
Sarah continued. “As you all know, Tom and Nancy opened this camp in 1975. And in the last few years, they have been spending more time with their own families.” Sarah looked back at the couple. “We all know that time is a valuable possession and that we can never get it back.”
Sarah took a deep, shaky breath.
