Page 29 of A Little Campfire Blues

“It’s magic water,” he explained, winking at me before showing me the collection of squeezy flavors he had tucked beside the water.

“Can I have lemonade tea?” I asked.

“You sure can. Axis, Roman, would you like something to drink too?” Mackenzie called.

Axis had to pluck his binky out of his mouth to answer, “Yes, pwease,” before he shoved it right back in again. He was a littler little than me, I could tell. It was so cool, though. I couldn’t wait to play with the bubbles later and try to catch fireflies, though we wouldn’t put them in a jar, even with holes punched in the lid, ‘cause that would kill them. We just wanted to follow and see where they led us, the way we’d done when we were kids pretending they were will-o’-the-wisps come to guide us to fairy country, and maybe they did.

Maybe that was here.

The happiest, most magical place I’d ever been.

Chapter Twelve

Mackenzie

“Alright, you two, settle down and go change, and then we’ll play with the bubble cannon.”

“Yay, bubbles, bubbles!” Axis cheered as he raced from the backseat of the jeep to the steps, bounding up them and into the house to get ready.

Ezzy’s departure was just as exuberant, while Roman sat behind the wheel of Axis’ Jeep, shaking his head.

“I don’t know where they get their energy from,” Roman declared. “I wasn’t even fishing, and I’m exhausted.”

“Because keeping up with those two requires triple-strength coffee and a splash of ginseng,” I replied.

“So that’s your secret! You’ll have to hook me up next time.”

“Nah, I wasn’t smart enough to pick up ginseng before the trip,” I said, chuckling. “But I never go anywhere without my coffee.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have any on you right now, would you?”

“Couple pods if you wanna brew one.”

“I’d love that. Those twelve fish are going to take me a while to clean and gut.”

“Will go a lot faster if you let me help you.”

“How are you gonna help me and keep your promise to play with the boys and that bubble cannon?”

“Because we are going to tire them out so much with the bubbles that they’ll be ready for a movie and maybe even a nap before supper,” I declared.

“We?”

“There are two of us sitting here, aren’t there?”

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts. You’ve been watching over them all day,” I said. “You deserve a chance to play too.”

“I do that, and I’ll be the one passed out on the couch with the movie watching me, and you’ll be the one left with a dozen fish to deal with.”

“So?”

His eyes widened, and the tip of his tongue poked out as he regarded me. “You seriously wouldn’t mind?”

“Nope, not in the slightest. I think Axis and Ezzy would much rather you play with them than sit at the picnic table scraping fish in between watching them run around having fun. Besides, I have an added surprise to go with the bubble cannon, so why don’t you go change into your swimwear and let me get everything set up?”

“Y-yes sir,” he said before getting out far slower than the other two, but I’d seen the spark of excitement in his eyes before he’d turned to go and was proud to have been the one to put it there.

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