Bookishly Ever After (26 page)

Dev cleared his throat, staring down at an arrow he pulled out of the bucket. “Phoebe, I’m sorry about what I said yesterday on the docks. I didn’t mean to upset you.” His fingers pulled at the fletching and I was convinced he would destroy that poor arrow. “You know I was just trying to get you to join the fun, right?” I nodded ever so slightly and he stuck out his hand. “Truce?”

I completely failed at not letting a smile slip while shaking his hand. “You saved me from totally embarrassing myself with Kris. I owe you an apology for dragging you into that. Truce, as long as you don’t try to force me onto another boat.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to bring down the Wrath of Phoebe onto myself.” Dev picked up and twirled one of the learner recurve bows and pointed it at me. “Can I get a refresher? I haven’t touched one of these since the mod in gym last year.”

I gently set my bow down on its stand, the teal riser and Niamh’s gold autograph shining in the sunlight. “Okay.” My hands fluttered in the air around the bow and his hands, not quite touching either. “Show me what you remember. Try to hit the target.”

“Easy enough.” Dev grabbed the arrow he had been abusing out of the bucket and slid it onto the arrow rest.

I watched him nock the arrow and cringed. “Wait.” When he squinted questioningly at me, I reached out to un-nock and rotate it into the right position. “The different color feather faces out.”

“Oh, yeah. Forgot that.” He stared intensely at the target and started pulling back on the bowstring.

“Elbow level.” I reached over and put my hand on his elbow, gently pressing down as he pulled his arm into position. I was deep into teacher mode but still noticed how his arm muscles moved and the energy that seemed to radiate through my fingers. My voice lowered to a soft whisper.
“Anchor at your jaw.” I tapped the top of his hand and guided it down, my hand brushing his cheek by mistake. I pulled away quickly and moved my hand back to his elbow, glad he couldn’t see my face. “Pick a spot on your arrow or your bow to aim. Breathe.” I felt his arm respond and my brain catalogued the fact that we were now both breathing at the same time. “And release.”

I stepped away from him, keeping my eyes on the arrow. It was definitely off-center, but at least it hit the target. Behind me, I heard Dev reach for another arrow out of the bucket. “That was awesome. Can I try again?”

“Go for it.” I turned and busied myself with counting all of the bows we had laid out at the stations. He did
not
need to see how much that lesson had thrown me off. If I tried to shoot right now, my shot would probably be as bad as his.

“Is this right?” I heard him call out to me.

I turned and took in his awful position. Dev seemed to have forgotten everything I’d just corrected. “Not really.” I took a deep breath to steel myself and tried to look professional as I walked back to him. “Elbow?” Dev dropped his elbow, but it was still way up over his shoulder. I tried to force an annoyed sigh and positioned myself alongside him again. From here, I could smell the spicy-soapy Dev smell and our breathing was once again back in sync. Time slowed. I swore he could feel my heartbeat through my fingertips. I was in trouble.

Once his elbow was in the right position, I gently pushed down his shoulder and leaned in a little to gauge his
aim. The hair around his ear moved with my breath as I said,

“Okay, now.”

He released the arrow and right away his aim was much better than the last time.

Dev dropped his bow and jumped away from me. “Shit.” He rubbed at a welt quickly reddening on his arm and looked at me apologetically. “Sorry.”

I tapped at my arm guard. “It’s my fault. I should have made you wear an arm guard.” Happy to have an excuse to step back a little bit more, I almost backtracked all the way to the table where we’d laid out the equipment and pointed at the target. “But at least you got a bull’s-eye for it.” I watched as he glanced up and seemed to forget his arm in a nanosecond.

Dev walked over to the target and poked at the arrow sticking out of the side of the yellow circle. “Huh. Watch out, zombies. I’m ready to shoot you back to hell.” He wiggled the arrow free.

“Yeah, not that ready. And am I the only one who isn’t into
Perfect Zombieism
?”

“Yes.” The kids from group three started filtering into the clearing and he walked back over to where I stood. “So, why do you get to wear all that stuff and we don’t?” He gestured at my chest guard.

I tugged self-consciously at the giant black triangle that covered my left boob. “Because I’m doing this every day for a few hours? If you start demonstrating, I’ll lend you mine.”

He put up his hands in a stop motion and shook his
head. “No way, the demos are all yours.”

“It’s all about relaxing and becoming one with the bow,” I said, giving him what I hoped was a quirky-but-only-friendly smile. Something about being on familiar territory seemed to make me bolder than usual. I was like Maeve here, and I didn’t even have to try.

He bumped me playfully with his side. “You’re, like, Zen-Master Archer Phoebe,” he said softly as the campers started gathering in a horseshoe shape around us.

A feeling, like when Maeve first picked up her bow and landed every shot perfectly bubbled up in me. I clipped my quiver onto my jeans and winked at him.

“Okay, guys, who wants to shoot some arrows?”

I winked at him. Ohmigod, I was an idiot. He’d totally guess and I’d go back to being ego-fodder for a guy who had a girlfriend and definitely wasn’t interested in me. I buried my face in my sleeping bag and wondered if polyfill was thick enough to properly suffocate me.

“Phoebe?” I rolled my head sideways to one of my campers shining a flashlight in my face. “Aren’t you going to change?”

I blinked at the light and reached out to push the flashlight away. When the spots faded, I made out wild curls a lot like Em’s.

“Giselle?” The form nodded and I sat up. “Yeah. Give me a second. I’m trying to climb out of the pits of my own stupidity.”

“O-kay.” Giselle backed up and twirled her flashlight so it illuminated the cabin like a disco ball. “What happened?”

Bethany Two slid onto my bunk, surreptitiously glancing over at where my book lay open on the windowsill. “We heard the archery thing was pretty awesome, so it can’t be that.”

Damn, they were attracting a crowd. “Nothing, really. I was just being dramatic.” I shook my head and reached into my duffle to pull out a wool sweater and fleece hoodie.

“I’m glad you’re not fighting with Dev anymore. He’s cool, even though he was an ass for splashing you on the dock.” I almost choked at angelic little Lily saying “ass.” “We’re pretty lucky to have the best counselors in this place.”

I popped my head through the neck hole of my sweater and pat my static-y hair back to semi-flat. “Now I know you guys want something.”

Bethany One shook her head. “Nah. We talked to the other girl cabins. Their counselors treat them like kids, yell at them, and Mary’s cabin had to cover for their counselor because she snuck out last night to go make out with her boyfriend.”

“We like you because you talk to us like we’re adults,” Eliana added. She finished dressing and looked like she’d been eaten by a marshmallow.

“I think you might be a little overdressed,” I pointed out to her in my most adult voice.

She shook her head and pointed at the little backpack she had slung over everything. “Layers, baby. All of this stuff
squishes to, like, sock size. I’d rather keep stripping down than freeze my tuchus off in the middle of the woods.” She raised an eyebrow at some of the looks she got. “Laugh all you want now, but you all’ll be begging to borrow a layer after an hour out there.”

Genevieve poked Eliana in the side and the jacket material engulfed about half of her hand. “You can’t possibly think Tanner will think this is cute.”

“Cute isn’t about what you wear, it’s about who you are.” Eliana flipped her hair over her shoulder with an attitude that made me grin. Em would love her.

I checked the clock on the far wall. My poor phone languished practically signal-less along with all of the others in the cabin.

“Enough about cuteness. We’ve got about two minutes to finish getting changed.”

Redhead blinked at me from where she was fixing her ponytail in front of a small mirror someone had hung from one of the top bunks. “You know, if you put on a little bit of lipgloss, it might get Dev’s attention. And then it’ll be like in the
Music Camp
movie.” She clutched her hands to her chest and made a swoony face.

And…I was back to regretting that I was such an “approachable” counselor. “Um, that’s okay…” I wracked my brain for her name.

“Diana
.” Bethany Two mouthed at me and I smiled at her thankfully.

“…Diana. But believe me, there’s no dramatic high
school romance here. Life isn’t like movies or books,”
Unfortunately
, I silently added, patting
Cradled on the Waves
before standing up. “Okay, we’re going to be late if we don’t get going right now.”

“Tonight, we’re going on a trust walk.” Mrs. Forrester stood with one of the other teachers on one of the docks, holding a bag full of brightly colored fabric strips. “There will be a lot of group projects next year. You need to learn how to trust your classmates.” A groan could be heard from some of the campers and I suppressed a grin. I remembered this exercise. “I need you to pair up in teams of two and your counselors will hand out a blindfold to each team.” She gestured for Dev and me to come forward and gave us each a handful of those fabric strips. “We’ll be watching to make sure no one cheats.”

We finished handing out the blindfolds to our campers and I turned to give the extras to Mrs. Forrester. She took all of them except for one. “You two also need a blindfold.”

I exchanged a glance with Dev, whose frown mirrored mine. “Aren’t we supposed to make sure the kids don’t walk each other into trees or something?”

“There aren’t that many people in this group. Mr. Hamm and I can take care of that part. And you’ll get a chance to try this, too. It’s a fun experience.”

Fun?
I mouthed at Dev, who made a face when Mrs.
Forrester’s back was to us.

“Besides,” Forrester continued, nudging us into line behind the already blindfolded and laughing campers, “it’s not like the two of you should worry. You don’t seem to have trust issues.” She moved on to the front of the line, pausing along the way to check blindfolds.

“I doubt they’re making the other counselors do this,” I said, twisting the blindfold.

“Probably because we’re special.” Dev took the blindfold from me and balanced it in his hand. He bounced on his heels while looking into dark forest path ahead of us. “Ladies first?”

“Thanks,” I said, dryly. I turned around and he slipped the blindfold over my eyes. His fingers gently moved through my hair to keep it from getting tied into the fabric and I hoped he didn’t hear the catch in my breath. The heat from his body left as he stepped away and, for a second, a little bit of panic rose up in me. My hands reflexively went up to the edge of the blindfold. “Frak. I don’t think I like this.”

And then the heat returned, one hand grabbing mine and bringing it down to my waist and an arm wrapped around me so that another hand was on my opposite shoulder. “It’s okay. I got you.”

“I swear to God, Dev, if you walk me into a tree, I’ll guide you straight into the lake on your turn.”

“If I make it a small tree, will you make it a stream instead?” He laughed close to my ear and I turned in the direction of his heat and his voice to give him a piece of my mind.

But Mrs. Forrester’s voice kept me from answering. “Okay, campers and counselors,” at “counselors,” I could hear the giggles of a few of the girls from my cabin. “No cheating with the blindfolds. The purpose of this game is to learn to trust your fellow classmates. Blindfoldees, follow the lead you’re given. Guides, remember—your turn is next. We’re going halfway around the lake for the first group and then we’re switching and finishing up right back here with the second group.”

“Around the lake?” I asked softly in the general Dev direction. “That’s a lot of walking.” I did
not
like the thought of not having control for that long.

Dev leaned so close that his breath tickled my ear. My heartbeat picked up just a notch. “Don’t you trust me?”

I had to pause and gave myself a second—now I understood what Maeve must have felt when Aedan brought her through the Otherland entrance. Goosebumps prickled at my skin even though I wasn’t cold at all.. I choked out my next words. “Says the guy who walked the entire clarinet section into the color guard during Carmina Burana practice.”

“Okay, campers, let’s go!”

Dev’s fingers tightened a and he started moving us forward. “That was a joke.”

“I’m so glad I’m not a marcher.” I stumbled as the path changed to soft sugar sand and Dev quickly righted me.

“With smooth moves like that, I’m glad you’re not a marcher, too.”

“Shut up.” And he did. For a few minutes, I was
surrounded by darkness. I could hear the campers ahead, but, except for the occasional yell from one of the boys, they were hushed as well, all soft whispers. My skin tingled from the pressure of Dev’s touch as he guided me around obstacles in our path.

“See, not so bad.”

“Says you.”

“C’mon. This has to beat hanging out in the corner of the mess hall with your knitting or a book.”

I almost stopped to give him an incredulous look, then realized that he wouldn’t be able to see it, anyway. “Um, no.”

“What’s it about?”

“The knitting?” I asked, and he used our conjoined hands to jab me in the side. “It’s a pair of Celtic knot cabled arm warmers—” he jabbed again and I laughed. “Okay, but you’re going to think that the book is boring and girly.”

“I promise not to laugh. It has to be good if you’re so into it.”

“Oh, it totally is. It’s about this girl whose parents send her up to Canada to help out her uncle for the summer. She plays violin at this ceilidh,” I was careful to pronounce it kay-lee, like in the author’s guide at the front of the book, “—um, like a celtic singing-and-story-and-sometimesdancing show that they put on for the tourists all summer long. And she doesn’t want to be there because it’s not cool like NYC. But then she meets this guy…”