Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island 2)

The camp up at the pond consisted of a yurt and several basic cabins. The children slept six to a cabin with two counselors and the yurt was used as a staff room and indoor camp if the weather changed. Because technically he was “extra” on this trip, Zach got to sleep in the yurt.

Judging from the expression on her face, Grace wished he was going to be sleeping in the cabin with her. “Do you believe in monsters?”

Zach stared at the fire and wondered how the hell he was supposed to answer that. He believed in the sort of monster who tried to break through a barricaded door, fueled by rage and alcohol. He’d come face-to-face with that one. Memories darkened his thoughts and then he felt Grace press closer.

“Zach?”

Sucked back into the present he reminded himself that this was about her, not him. “You mean the sort of monster that hides under the bed and comes out in the night? No. There are no monsters in this forest, Grace. Just animals that think of this place as their home. As long we leave them to get on with their lives, it will be fine.”

“What if something comes when it’s dark and we’re all asleep?”

“Then you holler and I’ll be right there.”

“Do you promise?”

Responsibility pressed down on him. He knew all about broken promises, but he also knew how it felt to be scared. “I promise.” His mouth was dry. “And now you need to try and relax and have fun because this is your last night at camp.” Most of the children would be heading home the next day. For them, this final campfire was the perfect end to an idyllic summer.

Zach glanced across at Brittany, who was laughing at something Rachel had said. Her laughter was so infectious he found himself smiling, too, even though he had no idea what she’d found so amusing.

How did it feel to be that trusting? To leave that door unlocked and believe that the person entering would do you no harm?

She held nothing back. Her emotions were open and accessible to everyone. Including him. She opened the door wide and let everyone in whereas he kept the door between him and the rest of the world closed and firmly bolted.

And that lock inside him was the only one he’d never been able to break.

BRITTANY LAY IN her cabin, wide-awake.

Around her the children were all sleeping peacefully, even little Grace Green who’d been stuck to Zach like a Band-Aid during campfire.

He’d been so patient with her.

Thinking about it made her feel hot and bothered, and Brittany turned over in her bunk, unable to settle. Animals and vulnerable children. The two things he always had time for. Which proved that the seemingly impenetrable steel surface protected a soft inner layer rich with kindness and humanity.

She lay there, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the contrasts. He gave the impression of being remote and inaccessible, and yet there hadn’t been a single moment of the trek through the forest when he’d lost sight of Travis. Nor had there been a single moment at the campfire when he hadn’t been watching out for little Grace.

The thought turned her insides to marshmallow.

Giving up on sleep, Brittany slipped out of her bunk, pushed her feet into her hiking boots, pulled a sweater over her pajamas and picked up a flashlight.

Closing the door carefully behind her, she walked a little way into the forest, breathing in the scent of pine and the cool night air.

She’d traveled the world, but there was nowhere like Puffin Island.

Unlike Grace, the forest didn’t scare her and never had. She’d walked here with her grandmother as a child. In the summer they’d hunted for berries and in the winter they’d collected armfuls of pinecones and taken then back to the warmth of the cottage and used them as decorations. They’d piled them in bowls and hung them from the Christmas tree.

The forest had been standing for hundreds of years and she closed her eyes and let the sounds of the night settle her, trying not to think about Zach. Instead she thought about the people who had walked the trails before her.

How had they endured the winters? Had they loved, laughed and cried for their children?

A hand closed over her shoulder and she almost died of fright.

Heart pounding, she turned. “Zach? Are you trying to kill me?”

His fingers were warm and strong through the fabric of her sweater. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why?”