Page 18 of It Started with a Sunset
“Okay, we’ve got a big enough group scheduled for campus tours this afternoon that we’ll need three tour guides. Haley, Rhett, and Misaki, you’re up. Paige and Nia, you’ll be at the Welcome Center front desk, and you’ll get to work on putting all those packets together.” She held her arms out toward the huge stack of printed goods that Brock held like she was showing off their prize.
As Nia and Paige headed up to the lobby, their arms laden with the printed goods Brock had handed off to them, Summer turned to the other three ambassadors. “Elle is going to run the group session today. If you need me for anything, I’ll be in the staging area with Brock, getting things prepped for our first Aquamoose Tracks of the school year. It’s next Friday! Are you guys excited?”
The three of them cheered, and Summer waved at them as Elle came into the room and she and Brock headed out.
As soon as they got into the staging area, Brock said, “I know you’re excited for this, but do you think we’ll actually be ready in time? We both have pretty busy weeks with non-Aquamoose Tracks responsibilities.”
She put a hand on his shoulder and looked right into his eyes, sending a thrill right through him. “We’re going to be ready in time. We’ve got this. This is my fourth ‘FirstAquamoose Tracks of the new school year’ I’ve planned. The sixteenth I’ve planned total. If you add the ones I helped with in different capacities as an ambassador, it’s another thirty on top of that. So I can tell you from experience that everything is awesome, and it’s going to go great.”
He smiled, honestly a bit relieved, and looked at the schedule in his hand.
“So, of course, things are going to go wrong.”
He looked up at her in alarm, and she laughed.
“Brock, thingsalwaysgo wrong. It’s a huge event with so many moving parts, it’s to be expected. But those things are going to work out fine in the end, too.”
Part of him believed her. But the other part really just believed that if things went wrong, then that meant that he hadn’t planned well enough or executed things well enough.
“Come in close. Let’s send Pavani an update.”
He scooted in next to her as she unlocked her phone. Instead of clicking on the camera, she went straight into her texting app and chose Pavani’s name. Since he was standing right next to Summer, before she clicked on the camera icon, he saw that the last text she’d received from Pavani said,Thank you SOOOOO much for last night! When I got home, I slept for 12 hours straight. Best sleep I’ve ever gotten. You cured two weeks’ worth of cabin fever in 82 minutes flat.
He looked at Summer. “Wow—you’ve gotten enthusiastic thank yous for last night from both Pavani and Avery. What did you guys do?”
Summer shrugged. “Just an evening of girl stuff.” The smile she gave made him wonder even more what it had been all about. She took a picture of the two of them, making sure to get as much of the ever-expanding supplies that were filling the room in the frame. Then she typed something quickly that he didn’t see and sent off the picture.
He pulled out the schedule, and they started going through each thing one at a time, making sure they had all the supplies they needed for each one. They had only gotten to the second item when Tess popped her head into the room.
“Summer, will you come see me in my office after you two finish up here? I want to talk with you about an email I got from campus security about the incident with you, Pavani, and Avery last night.”
When Tess ducked back out of the staging room, Brock set the schedule on the long counter that ran along one side of the room and turned to Summer, an eyebrow raised. “Your ‘evening of girl stuff’ included an incident with campus security?”
She looked unabashed and lifted one shoulder. “Sometimes, a girl’s got to live on the edge.”
Was it wrong that he was so attracted to her right now?
Yes, it was wrong. He liked when people followed the rules and did what they were supposed to do in the best possible way they could do it.
Except he wasveryattracted to her. More and more so as they got closer to pulling off Aquamoose Tracks. And being attracted to her was a very bad idea. He picked up the schedule again and moved on to the third item on the list, and then the fourth.
“You already have the schedule of which ambassadors will be leading groups on the campus tours, right?”
Summer nodded. “I’ll add it to the shared spreadsheet when I get back to my desk. Let’s take a look at the host assignments and make sure we haven’t missed anything.” A moment after they both leaned over the complicated spreadsheet, Summer stood up straight, pulled her phone out of her pocket, and looked at the screen. “Oh, it’s my dad ‘popping onto your phone to tell you I love you.’ Hang on.” She typed a message in return, then pushed the phone back into her pocket.
He glanced over at her as she leaned in to look at their legal-sized paper. “That’s sweet. You two are pretty close, right?”
She seemed to consider her answer for a bit before she said, “Our relationship is kind of complicated. But he loves me and I love him, so I guess that part’s not so complicated. He was just never around enough when I was growing up, you know?”
“What about your mom? Are your parents still married?”
“They are. That relationship is a bit more complicated. But I guess it’s also uncomplicated in that they still love each other enough to put up with each other.”
She didn’t seem to want to say more, so he didn’t press. She used her finger to follow a line across, and then tapped a part at the bottom like it confirmed what she was checking. “What about your family?”
He looked up, pushed his glasses back to their right spot, and tried to think of a good way to describe his family. “Okay, picture a family with a mom and a dad and two kids sitting down in a pristine house to a home-cooked family dinner where everyone is perfectly behaved, and they always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘may I be excused’ at the end of the meal.” He glanced at Summer and she nodded like it was exactly what she expected his family to be like. “Okay, now imagine the exact opposite of that, and more than double the number of kids. That’s my family.”
Summer laughed a boisterous laugh. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard her laugh like that, but it was the first time he’d been the one to cause it. The feeling spreading through his chest made him want to cause her to laugh like that again soon.
