Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island 2)

This time she wasn’t going to make the mistake of dressing it up with roses and hearts in her brain.

“I’ll do it,” she said firmly. “I’ll help out at camp.”

“But—” Skylar looked startled. “Brit, you can’t possibly do it with your wrist in plaster. Everyone understands that.”

“There will be plenty of things I can do. I want to do it. I’m going to do it. Unless Zach has a problem with that?”

Zach’s gaze locked on hers.

Brittany felt her heart start to pound.

He was wondering what she was doing. Probably thinking to himself that she was attaching meaning to what had happened. Perhaps even wondering if her decision to help out at camp was driven by a desire to get closer to him.

The thought of him reaching that conclusion made her squirm.

She wanted to tell him he had no reason to worry. She wanted to assure him she was no longer a naive, dreamy teenager. That she knew his feelings didn’t go deeper than sexual attraction.

She wanted to tell him all that but she couldn’t with their friends looking on, waiting for his response.

Finally he stirred, reaching for his spoon with the same economy of movement that characterized everything he did.

“No.” He spoke slowly and deliberately. “I don’t have a problem.”

BACK HOME, Zach stripped off his shirt and was about to do the same with his jeans when he heard a light tap on the cabin door.

People rarely knocked on his door. His cabin was far beyond the edge of the camp and off-limits. Although he helped out during the day with activities when it suited his schedule, he didn’t have direct responsibility for any of the children. He’d only ever had two people knock, and each time it had been an emergency and the person had been looking for Philip, so he crossed the room in three strides and dragged open the door, anticipating trouble.

Trouble faced him, but not in the shape he’d expected.

“Hi.” Brittany stood there, thumbs tucked into the pockets of her cargo pants, her shiny dark hair illuminated by the wash of light from the cabin. Her gaze slid from his face to his bare chest and then away. “I know it’s late, but do you have a minute? I thought we should talk.”

Talk?

He wondered what it said about him that talking was never the first thing that came to mind when he was face-to-face with her.

“I seem to remember I already suggested that and you didn’t have anything to say.”

Instead they’d found other ways to communicate. Ways that were now lodged in his head, disturbing his concentration and his sleep.

The corner of her mouth tilted into a faint smile. “I have things to say now, unless this is a bad time …” Her voice tailed off and her gaze slid from his bare chest to the snap of his jeans that wasn’t completely fastened and then to the cabin behind him. “You’re busy. You have company and I didn’t think—which was stupid of me—and it’s none of my business who you—sorry—” Flustered, she backed away and he took one look at her face and realized she thought he was with a woman.

He wondered what she’d say if she knew he’d never brought a woman back here.

He should have let her leave, but not doing the things he should have done had been a trademark of his life, so he pushed the door open a little wider, letting her see the interior of the cabin.

“I don’t have company.”

“Are you sure?”

“You think I don’t know when I have a woman in my bed?” His blunt response brought a flush to her cheeks.

“I—” She glanced from the cabin to his face. “In that case, can I come in?”

The cabin was small and rustic. It was big enough for one to live in comfortably. Two, if they didn’t mind an intimate atmosphere.

Given what had happened last time they’d been alone together, Zach decided not to take the risk.

“We can talk on the deck.” He snatched up his shirt from the back of the chair and saw her frown.