Brittany dragged her eyes from his fingers but only made it as far as his biceps. Unsettled, she forced herself to look up and collided with the heat of his gaze.
She waited for him to look away, but he didn’t. He kept looking at her until her heartbeat was like a pounding drum and it felt as if all the air had been sucked from the room.
Through a fog of desire she could hear Ryan’s voice, but not the words.
Then she heard her name and realized everyone was staring at her.
Everyone except Zach, who finally turned his attention to Emily’s chowder. He picked up his spoon in one hand while with the other he continued to gently soothe Cocoa.
He was calm and relaxed whereas she was a simmering ball of tension.
Aware that she’d missed an entire conversation, she tried to focus. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“That you could have taught archery if you hadn’t broken your wrist. This chowder is delicious.” Ryan smiled at Emily, an intimate glance that briefly excluded everyone around the table.
“Thanks. It was Kathleen’s recipe. Brittany gave it to me.” Emily looked across at her and frowned. “You’re not eating. Something wrong with your appetite or are you just scared of my cooking?”
Brittany blinked. “I— Neither. I was watching Cocoa.” She ignored Skylar’s raised eyebrows. “So what happened to the camp staff? It’s unusual to lose people this late in the summer season. Usually if they’re going to drop out they do it early on.”
Ryan reached for his beer. “Family emergency in one case, illness in another. Why don’t you call Philip? You often helped out in the past and you have all the qualifications.”
It wasn’t her ability to do the job that worried her. It was the fact that spending time at Camp Puffin would increase the likelihood that she’d bump into Zach and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “I can’t teach archery with one hand.”
“Do you have to demonstrate? You can push and pull the kids into position. Use your good hand.” Ryan pushed the bread towards Zach. “Do you want me to take Cocoa? Is she bothering you?”
“No. She’s fine.”
She was more than fine, Brittany thought. Cocoa was in doggy heaven.
“Zach, you know more about what’s going on at the camp than I do.” Ryan cleared his bowl. “You should be trying to persuade Brittany to help out.”
Zach put his spoon down slowly. “I believe people should make their own decisions.”
He didn’t want her there.
It was clear in his tone and his body language.
He might as well have told her bluntly to stay away.
“I loved camp.” Skylar’s cheery voice cut through the tension. “The alternative was spending the summers at home playing mock trials with my brothers so I talked my parents into letting me stay the whole summer. It was at camp that I first made jewelry. Right there and then I knew what I wanted to be.”
Alec glanced up from his food, his gaze lingering on Sky’s silver-blond hair. “Ballerina? Fairy princess?”
Sky’s eyes flashed. “Artist.” She spoke through her teeth. “I wanted to be an artist, although for your information, ballet is a seriously athletic sport and definitely not for wimps. Did you want to be something else when you were younger or was ‘asshat’ always your goal?”
“That’s not a career,” Ryan said mildly but neither was paying attention.
Knowing how easygoing Skylar was, Brittany was puzzled by the tension pulsing between her and Alec. They seemed to have temporarily forgotten everyone else in the room.
Alec’s gaze was fixed on Sky’s face. “For about two terms in junior school I wanted to be a submarine captain. After that, an academic.”
Sky gave him a witchy smile and reached for another piece of bread. “Professor Asshat.” She turned back to her food, missing the appreciative gleam in Alec’s eyes.
“You were telling us about camp, Sky,” Emily said hastily. “You spent your whole time painting and making jewelry?”
Hearing Emily’s conciliatory tone, Brittany concluded this wasn’t the first time Alec and Sky had clashed.
“I found a camp that focused on art and spent most of the time covered in paint or up to my elbows in clay. Bliss.”