Page 39 of Sergeant O'
I could tell by her narrow eyes and pursed lips that she was skeptical, so with my right hand, I held up three fingers and said, “Scout’s honor.”
She still didn’t look convinced, but she put the truck in reverse.
“Do I need to call your mother to verify you really were a Boy Scout?”
“Don’t you remember when our troops did a campout at Peyton Springs together?”
“Oh God, you were on that trip?”
“Yeah! It was a blast! Some of my best memories of Scouts were from that outing.”
She offered me a weak smile as we started down the street. “Your middle and high school experiences were vastly different from mine. You were the popular jock, and I was the nerdy wallflower.”
I searched my memory, trying to think of anything bad that had happened on that excursion, but came up blank.
We both waved at Ella and Brad Vega in their patrol cars still blocking the street with their lights on.
“What was so bad about the campout?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, Sunshine, tell me. This whole trip to the Cape will be a circle of trust.”
Her eyes darted from the road to me.
“You really don’t know?” Then she muttered, “Of course you don’t. No one did.”
“No, I don’t know. Tell me!”
I was starting to worry that someone had hurt her.
“You remember when we took canoes to the island for lunch?”
“Yeah…”
“Well after we ate, I went to find a place to pee, and when I came back, everyone was gone. The troop leaders didn’t even realize I was missing until my mom approached them at pickup, wondering where I was. No one even noticed I wasn’t there.”
“But we didn’t get picked up until the next day!”
“I know.” She attempted a smile when she glanced my way. “Obviously that was the end of my Scouting days.”
I suddenly wished I were driving, so I could pull over and hug her.
Chapter Twenty
Jade
“Oh, Sunshine. I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I don’t think anyone did.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know, and I think the troop leaders were more than happy to keep it quiet.”
“Why didn’t you want anyone to know?”
I looked over at him with raised eyebrows. “I was already awkward enough; I didn’t need to add being ‘the girl that everyone forgot’ to the mix.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “That’s why we were assigned buddies we were responsible for on our next outing.”
I shrugged. “Sorry.”
