Page 27 of It Started with a Sunset
As two hundred hands went in the air, Brock couldn’t help but smile at even the sound of Summer’s voice. How had he heard that voice for so many years and hadn’t realized how joyful it sounded?
She must’ve felt his eyes on her because she met his and gave him a smile and a wink that made his heart skip a beat from the backflip it just did.
“Future Aquamoose, do you understand your assignment?”
“Yes, ma’am!” a few of them called out.
“And you’re ready to go?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Most of them said it in unison this time, which was rather impressive in its unplanned-ness.
“Ambassadors, are you ready?” They all gave her the thumbs up. “You’ve got exactly forty-five minutes to get pictures of all the items on campus that are listed in the app and arrive back here. And...” she said, dragging out the word, “go!”
As all of them scattered by groups in all different directions, Brock and Summer started setting up one obstacle course, and Elle and Everett got to work setting up the other one. They had already spray painted the grass to mark where each obstacle went and all the pool noodles that needed to be tied together were already tied, so the setup should go quickly. It was just a matter of getting everything in place on the quad.
As they were hammering in the garden stakes that would hold some pool noodles vertically that the players would have to weave between, and some that would make arches they would have to crawl under, Brock kept thinking about Summer kissing him last night and how amazing it had been. The entire football game had been pretty memorable. In fact, every bit of yesterday had been pretty unforgettable, rain in the ballroom and all.
As they were working together to tie two ropes from a hula hoop to a tree branch that stretched out nearly parallel to the ground, standing so close together, their hands working in the same space, Summer reached out a pinky and linked it in his and then gave him a smile that melted his insides.
He cleared his throat and said what he’d been thinking, even though he hadn’t meant to. Actually, it was just a part of what he’d been thinking, since the other part had been imagining kissing her again. “So, how are you feeling about that kiss last night?”
“Like I’ve spent my whole life not being properly kissed, and now that I’ve experienced it, I’m a bit hooked. Can a person get addicted after just one kiss?”
He chuckled. “I also kissed you at your car last night, so it was two kisses.”
“I was addicted after the first, though.”
“What I wouldn’t give to make it number three right now.”
She bit her bottom lip, and he could tell that she was imagining the same thing. “Okay, setting up this obstacle course isn’t enough of a distraction from thoughts of that. Tell me something.”
“Like what?”
She waved her hand around. “I don’t know. Um...Oh! Tell me about a great day you had as a kid. One where you went to bed just thinking everything had turned out awesome.”
He pulled his head back. “Let me think. Okay, I was in ninth grade, and I had a day where I was perfect. I got a perfect score on a biology test that I had been so stressed about. I played basketball with friends for a few minutes and—I’m not even exaggerating—made every single shot. I had a list of ‘dailies’ that I tried to do every day, and I did every single one of them. I wasn’t late to school or any of my classes, I got all my chores and my homework done by the time I was supposed to finish, and I was in bed by ten. I just lay there before falling asleep, thinking about how every single thing had gone perfectly, and wondering if I could duplicate that success every day.”
Summer chuckled. “Oh, I totally should’ve guessed something like that was your great day. And do you know what? Thinking about fourteen or fifteen-year-old you being so thrilled about a day like that kind of makes me want to kiss you more.”
He winked. “I guess your distraction plan is foiled.” As they moved on to tying the jump ropes (that he had gone back to Taheny’s to buy) between garden stakes, making an obstacle they’d have to step over, he said, “Maybe telling me a great day you had as a kid will help.”
She looked at him for a long moment, her eyes flicking to his lips a few times. “Okay, I’m willing to give it a shot. I was turning eight, and my mom was in Fiji or somewhere, and my dad was super busy with work, and I knew no one was going to plan my birthday party, so I planned it myself. I didn’t just invite my entire class—I invited my entire grade.”
Brock laughed. “Please tell me you planned it for a time when your dad would be home.”
Summer grabbed another jumprope and started tying it to the next stake. “Nope. My parents hired out everything, though, so I planned it for a time when I knew the landscape company would have someone mowing the lawn, and when my nanny would be home taking care of me. I figured the parents of the kids I invited would assume they were my parents and be comfortable dropping their kids off. And they did.”
“Did your nanny know about it ahead of time?”
“I kept everything a total secret. Nobody saw all my preparations for the games, my dad didn’t notice that I borrowed his credit card to order cupcakes online from a local bakery that delivered, and no one saw the invitations that I’d spent days making. It was a surprise to everyone when a total of forty-eight kids showed up at my house. And let me tell you, it was a smashing success. It was all kids talked about at school for weeks.”
“And your dad never knew?”
“Oh, he knew. He canceled a meeting so he could come home early on my birthday to surprise me, and then he got the bigger surprise. I think there was a part of him that was impressed that I pulled off such a great party on my own. I went to bed that night with a giant smile on my face. Not only had I impressed my dad, but I had impressed myself. It kind of gave me the knowledge that I could accomplish anything I needed to on my own. I felt strong and independent and confident.”
He looked at her for a long moment, simultaneously being impressed and sad that she’d had to get that realization at such a young age, and then said, “Okay, well that story makes me want to kiss you, so we are completely failing at this.”
“At least we are winning at this,” she said, motioning to their course. Then she called out loud enough for Elle and Everett to hear, “Hey, slowpokes. How’s it coming along over there?”
