Page 46 of Until Next Summer

“Looks like it’s just the three of us tonight!” she says, and my stomach sinks. “How about a board game at the Lodge?”

Cooper glances over at me, clearly reading the panic on my face. “Maybe another night,” he says to Dot.

“Oh,” Dot says, glancing between me and Cooper. “Ohhhh. On second thought.” She stands up, grinning. “I’m going to go read my book by the fireplace. You two have fun—you want help cleaning up?”

“We’ve got it,” I say, my eyes still on Cooper.

“Good night, Dot,” Cooper says, his lips quirking up in a smile.

Dot chuckles as she walks into the night, leaving me and Cooper alone.Finally.

I exhale, nervous. It’s been more than two years since I kissed someone new—and I’ve never, not once, cheated. Although this isn’t technically cheating. We’re on a break. A break that Aaron suggested. A break that I’m pretty sure I want to make permanent.

“Hi,” Cooper says, suddenly standing beside me. Heextends a hand to help me up, and just like the other night in the hallway, we’re mere inches apart. Close enough for him to smell the garlic on my breath. Then again, he’s the one who put it there.

I must make a face, because Cooper says, “What are you thinking about?”

“The copious amount of garlic I ate tonight,” I admit.

A chuckle rumbles through him, and he reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a packet of breath strips. “Here you go—but for the record, I’m sure you always taste amazing.”

Heat floods my stomach, and any doubt about his definition of “hanging out” evaporates like the breath strip on my tongue.

“It won’t take me long to clean up if you want to wait here,” Cooper says.

“It’ll go faster if I help,” I say. “And I have an idea of where we can go.”

He winks. “Then let’s get busy!”

—

Before long, Cooper and I are walking through the empty camp. It’s so quiet I can hear my breath hitch when he takes my hand. The calluses on his fingers are rough against my skin—so different from Aaron’s soft, regularly manicured hands. I lace my fingers through Cooper’s, excited to discover more ways he’s nothing like Aaron.

We walk, hand in hand, toward the boys’ side of camp, cutting between Cabin Nine and Cabin Eleven. Standing at the threshold between the clearing of the camp and the undisturbed forest, I understand why it’s off-limits after dark. It’s pitch-black in there.

“Any chance you have your phone?” I ask Cooper.

He drops my hand for an excruciatingly long moment, digs it out of his pocket, and turns on the flashlight.

“Thanks,” I say, taking it in my right hand and reaching for his again with my left.

With his phone lighting the way, we retrace the steps I took earlier on my walk. There’s a path for the first little while, but when it curves right, circling back toward the girls’ side of the camp, we keep going straight. After about fifteen minutes, we emerge into a clearing. Across from us, water cascades down the side of a rocky hill into a small lake.

“Whoa,” Cooper says, the same reaction I had earlier.

“It’s beautiful, right?”

“Stunning,” he says, turning to me, standing kissably close.

As much as I want to go for it, I need to make sure we’re on the same page first. My heart pounds, and I force myself to say: “So, your offer is still good? To be my summer fling?”

“So good,” Cooper says immediately, and his enthusiasm makes me grin.

“You should know, I’ve never done anything like this.”

“Nervous?” he asks, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

I nod, my heart rate quickening. “A little. Maybe. I don’t know. Should we have rules?”

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