Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island 2)

“So he followed you into the house and the next thing you were ripping each other’s clothes off.” Sky gave a slow smile. “Mmm. That is so hot. Definitely time to fetch that ice cream, Em.”

Emily kept one eye on the door. “This is definitely not the time or the place for this conversation. I’m supposed to be sorting out dessert. If we don’t go back in there soon, Ryan will come looking for us.” She pulled open the freezer and dug out a tub of blueberry ice cream emblazoned with the Summer Scoop logo. “I hope everyone likes blueberry. Fetch some bowls, Sky.”

“In a minute. She still hasn’t answered the most important question—was it or wasn’t it?”

“What?”

“As good as you remembered.”

Brittany stared blindly out the window.

“It was nothing like I remembered.”

“That’s to be expected.” Emily opened the tub of ice cream. “You were very young and you’re probably seeing the past through rose-tinted glasses.”

“I think she’s saying it was better,” Sky murmured. “Get her a bigger bowl, Em. She might need to push her whole heated self into the ice cream. And I guess Zach might want the option of licking it off.”

“Better still, I might just push you in there,” Emily muttered. “Cause of death, ice-cream inhalation.”

Sky was still looking at Brittany. “It’s all falling into place. The fact that you had wild sex with your ex explains the smoldering glances and the suppressed tension around the table.”

“I’m not smoldering. And there was no tension.”

“Honey, that look you gave him could have lit a candle without a match and I could have sliced the tension with the bread knife. But I’m starting to understand why you don’t want to help out at Camp Puffin. You’re right. It would be crazy to throw yourself in his path again given that you have no willpower. We’ll get you out of it.”

And that was the sensible thing, of course. The easiest way. So why did she feel a twinge of regret?

She always loved her summers at Camp Puffin. There were plenty of things she’d enjoyed that had nothing to do with Zach. Building camps in the forest, surrounded by the smell of pine. Kayaking in the bay beyond the camp, toasting marshmallows over a campfire and scaring each other to death with spooky stories as night fell. Starlight Adventure had been one of her favorite nights of the year, an overnight camp deep in the forest. And friendship. Talking late into the night with her friend Helen, Ryan’s other sister, and creeping into each other’s cabins after dark for feasting and fun.

The summer she’d worked as a counselor had been happy, too. So happy, that for a short time she’d toyed with the idea of training to be a teacher.

Helping out at the camp would have been the perfect way to occupy her time over the next few weeks. Even though she didn’t have the use of both hands, she would have been able to improvise and find ways of making herself useful.

Only one thing was stopping her from phoning Philip Law and volunteering her services.

Zach.

“We need to go or they’ll send out a search party.” Emily smoothed her hair and opened the kitchen door.

It was like a Shakespearean farce, Brittany thought.

“So what do you think?” Ryan took the ice cream from Emily. “Will you help Philip out for a few weeks, Brit?”

“Ryan, how can she with her wrist in plaster?” Armed with new information, Emily immediately leaped in to defend her. “Be practical.”

Sky nodded. “Em’s right. It’s out of the question.”

Brittany felt a rush of love for her friends. No matter what the situation, they always had her back.

There was a pause while they both waited for Brittany to confirm that there was no way she’d be doing it.

She looked down at the ice cream, slowly melting in her bowl. It was the way she felt when she was with Zach. One look and her insides melted into a puddle.

But that was her problem to deal with.

Why should she stay away from a place that had played an important part in her life, just because of something that had happened ten years ago?

And as for what had happened yesterday, well, that was just sex.