Chapter 6
“Would you like another s’more?” Pete asked Lea.
She gave him her signature megawatt smile that only glowed brighter with the complimentary warm, golden tones of the campsite fire. “I would, thank you, Peter.”
“Please, you can call me Pete. Everyone else does.”
“Doesn’t Keke call you Petey?”
Pete handed her his stick, avoiding eye contact in case his rolled to the sky. “Not by permission.”
Lea giggled. “I really do think it’s cute. But I understand if you don’t like it.”
Ego properly stroked, Pete said, “Well, if you like it so much.”
Lea enthusiastically nodded. “I do. But I’ll call you whatever you want.”
The heat from campfire was really, really hot. “Then you’re the only one I’m allowing to call me Petey.” He grinned, and his chest swelled. He wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his arm.
“Thank you…Petey,” she said in a demure tone, complete with a lowering of her eyelids.
Pete never felt more like a conqueror. And with only one lesson from Keke. What else could he accomplish with more lessons? He jumped up off the large tree log that created a seat and maneuvered past the kids sitting on his opposite side.
The night air felt cooler the further away he moved from the fire, but the humidity of the summer night still made his shirt stick to his skin. Yet, the drop in temperature refreshed him after sitting next to the fire and the additional heat his body produced thanks to his overactive nerves.
But talking to Lea hadn’t been as daunting a task as he had previously assumed. The only girls he had ever been comfortable talking to had been chess club and debate club members.
And the ones in the computer science club.
Pretty much any official nerd club. They weren’t knockouts like the cheerleaders and so, technically, weren’t really…women? They were more like…buds. Like him.
Keke stood behind the table littered with everything for their campfire s’mores. Graham crackers, bags of marshmallows, and bricks of chocolate. When she met his gaze, he winked.
“I saw you chattin’ it up with the hottie camp counselor,” she whispered when he came near.
Her teasing smile only emboldened him. “I took your advice. Start with something simple. Already knew her name, so I just asked how her first night was.”
Keke’s eyes grew big, and her mouth formed a small “O.” “Not that hard, is it, Casanova?”
Pete rolled his eyes. “Stop. It’s harder than you think for a guy like me.”
Keke popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth, followed by a giant marshmallow. She shoved the marshmallow to one cheek. She looked as cute as a hamster.
“What does that mean?” she asked around the food in her mouth. “‘A guy like me’?”
Pete shrugged. “One who’s as introverted as I am. Who doesn’t exactly have the looks to pull off attracting the opposite sex with just eye contact.”
Keke snickered. “Whatever, Petey.”
He didn’t correct her use of his unsanctioned nickname. Didn’t seem right not to let her continue using it, even though he’d told Lea she was the only one allowed.
“You’re smart—hello, Cornell?—and the gym obviously agrees with you.”
She kept her eyes averted from his form, which had Pete smiling. Pete leaned against the table and crossed his arms over his chest. He angled close to Keke. “So, what exactly are you trying to say?”
Keke’s narrowed gaze hit him. “Don’t push your luck.”
“It’s lip service then.” He began breaking pieces of chocolate for the s’mores he and Lea would make. “You don’t really mean anything by it.”
