Page 28 of Summer Affair
He grinned. “Never has someone thanked me like that, then again I’ve never kissed anyone like you.”
Well, if that didn’t warm her heart. And make what she was going to say all the harder. “I meant, thanks for offering to help, I appreciate it. But this,” she waved a hand between the two of them, “can’t happen again.”
She was just getting her life back on track and her small business was finally growing wings. She needed a commercial kitchen, not a fling with a too-young, too-good-looking sex on a stick who was moving back to Seattle at the end of the summer.
In case he didn’t hear it the first time, or her brain hadn’t absorbed what she’d said, she reiterated, “It’s a bad idea.”
“Then why have you kissed me three times?”
“My brain and my hormones are currently at war.”
“Let me know who wins.”
Chapter Nine
If you don’t want to be a doormat,
get off the floor.
“There is no way he’s that good,” Darcy said to Jillian, slicing apple rings for the kids. The snack was for Sammy’s new team, a bribe of sorts for the moms working the registration booth. Everyone hated being snack mom, so Jillian wanted to show that she could do her part. She’d picked up apples, peanut butter, and pretzel sticks on the way.
It was also a way to introduce herself since the other kids had been coming to this camp for the past two years. Unfortunately, they took her eagerness to be helpful as her volunteering to be a weekly snack mom for the rest of the summer. But if it meant Sammy was included, she’d do it without complaint. Plus, she had something much more important to complain about.
“Could it be a mistake?” Piper asked. She was dressed in a tank, black jeans, and kick-ass black combat boots, with a collection of cameras and bags slung around her. She was the newest member of their three musketeers and happened to be married to Clay’s oldest brother, Josh.
And … they were three months pregnant. Her baby bump was barely noticeable, but her glow made Jillian reminisce about when she’d been pregnant with Sammy. After three rounds of IVF and one miscarriage, her pregnancy had been wrought with anxiety and stress that she’d lose Sammy too. The doctors had warned her not to get her hopes up, and Dirk hadn’t been the best partner. She’d felt as if she’d been in it alone.
And she had been. From the time of conception until now, Jillian was Sammy’s only rock. She’d do anything for her son, even if it meant maxing out her credit card so he’d have the summer of his little life.
Piper studied the receipt that Jillian had received. “It says here paid in full.”
“And neither of you paid it?”
Piper and Darcy looked at each other and held up two fingers in silent oath. “I swear we had nothing to do with it,” Piper said. Jillian could tell by the look on their faces that they were innocent parties in this puzzling situation.
“I’m stumped.” She’d arrived at the sports park with ten minutes to spare, but the spot had already been assigned to another boy. Desperate, she’d tried to bribe Heather, who was running registration, with a mini cake, but the woman wasn’t having it. Instead, she lectured Jillian about tardiness and commitment. It seemed an hour, in her books, equated to twenty minutes.
Heather was one of those moms who did it all. PTA, Tiny Tike’s vice president, oversight committee, and all-around pain in Jillian’s ass. Ever since Jillian passed on making a cake for her son’s birthday, she’d had it out for Jillian. It wasn’t personal; she’d had three weddings that weekend, but Heather took it personal as hell, even uninviting Sammy to the party. Jillian had been pissed, but Sammy had been crushed. He was the only one on the team who didn’t go.
So when she said Sammy’s spot had been filled, Jillian went above the witch’s head. The camp director had all but fallen over himself, apologizing and explaining that there was a spot on a new team and that her fee had already been paid in full. Which made zero sense, but the director had been adamant that Sammy’s tuition was covered in full.
Sure, Jillian had to volunteer to help with snacks, but that still didn’t explain away the free entry to summer camp.
“What did the registration desk say?”
“Not much. Only speculated that it was some kind of scholarship.”
“Kylie once got a free month of ballet because of a single-parent waiver. Maybe it was something like that,” Darcy offered.
“Or, and this is a big or, maybe Dirk actually came through,” Piper said, sticking the slices together with peanut butter and handing it off to Jillian, who stuck six pretzel sticks in the sides for legs.
“The only reason he’d pay for this would be to hold it over my head somehow,” she explained. Dirk loved to put himself in a position of power, find ways to control her life from the outside. But there was no upside for him here. “Nah, Dirk didn’t even come through on our wedding. All he had to do was handle the flatware. I had already picked it out, but he forgot to finalize the order, so we ended up using those hard plastic plates.”
Darcy gasped. “He did not.”
“Oh, he did. He was upset because he wanted to elope. Since it was his second wedding, he didn’t want to do the whole ceremony and reception. If that wasn’t a sign to run, I don’t know what was. So there’s no way he’d pay for camp unless I hounded him.”
Even then, she had serious doubts that he’d cough up more than his half.
