Page 14 of The Summer Intern

“But nothing, that’s part of camp.”I leaned over his tablet and looked at the scheduling blocks we’d been fiddling with all weekend, even though he hadn’t accepted the job yet.“One of the problems we have is there’s no room for the counselors to take breaks.”

“The hiking counselors get a break day when everyone is doing art.”

“That’s an interesting concept.What if we have all-camp days, and we work the counselor break days into those?”I did a little typing, finally seeing how things could come together.

He grabbed the tablet from me.“All camp hike?You’ve got to be kidding me!”Then he did a little typing.

I looked down at the screen.“All camp talent show?Come on.We want to get the kids outside their comfort zones, not torture them.”

“At a talent show isn’t torture!It’s so much fun!”

“Try telling that to a bunch of middle schoolers.”

“Hey, I loved talent shows in middle school.Your experience is not representative of every opinion, Matt Blackstone.”

“Yeah, well, neither is yours, Casey Kim,” I muttered.

A knock on my office door made me realize we’d shifted slowly closer as we bickered, and we both froze like that, bodies inches away from each other.His thigh brushed mine, and he was leaning so close that I could feel his breath as it feathered across my lips.His eyes widened and dilated, and for a minute, I wondered if he was attracted to me.But that would be ridiculous, because surely Casey favored guys who were young and hip and cool… and not lumberjacks.

Not that I was actually a lumberjack.

Shaking the strange feeling off, I took a step back and looked over to see Sutton walking in, followed by my old friend, Wade, in tow.Wade looked… worse for the wear, though from what I’d heard recently, he was going through a tough time.I didn’t know everything that was going on, but when Wade had called and left me a drunken, late-night message, I’d offered him a place to stay.

“Found this guy lurking around,” Sutton said, grinning.“Oh, hey Casey, I didn’t know you were here yet!”He reached out and gave Casey a hug, and I watched my intern simper over him, flirting up a storm.Apparently, Casey liked his guys clean-cut and wildly handsome.No chance for me.

Not that I wanted a chance.

But why did that thought make my chest squeeze in a funny way?

“Sutton, can you and Casey finish working out this schedule?Try to find a way to balance the new arts classes with outdoor activities,” I said.“Wade is a contractor, and I’m going to talk to him about a project I have in mind for him.”

“It better be a damn music classroom,” Casey called after me.

Wade’s eyebrows shot up, and I rolled my eyes and led him out of the office.“Is that tiny man the boss of you?”Wade asked.

“No, but he wants to be.I have half a mind to take him over my knee and —” I cut myself off, because that was not something I should share.“Anyway, how are you doing?It’s so good to see you.”

Wade sighed, raking a hand through his hair.“Not good.Collin fucked me over, and I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming.He was my business partner for years.”

“Sometimes the things right in front of us are the hardest to see,” I said, clapping him on the back.

“Thanks for offering up a place to stay while I regroup.I’ll be out of your hair before the campers show up.”

“Nah, don’t worry about that.I have plenty of work for as long as you need it.The pay is shit, but it comes with a free shitty cabin.”

Wade laughed.“Moving up in the world.I appreciate all the shit, though couldn’t you have given me one with a shower, at least?”

I smiled sheepishly.“None available,” I lied, not entirely sure why I didn’t want to give Casey’s cabin away.He was only up here every other weekend, and the little brat could stand to learn to rough it a little.

“Why don’t you just add on-demand hot water and pop in a little drop-in unit?”Wade asked.This was what Casey’s cabin had, so I knew it could work just fine, though it might be a little less comfortable for a guy as big as Wade.The truth was, we just hadn’t had the money to hire someone to upgrade any of the counselors’ cabins after all we’d put into making the camp more gender inclusive.

“You wouldn’t have the skills to do that, would you?”I asked.

“Of course I do.”

“You know what?You’re welcome to add whatever you need to your cabin.Anything you want to do to fix it up will only make it nicer for the next person who stays there.Tell Jay at the hardware store to put it on the camp’s line of credit.”

“So a jacuzzi tub?”

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