The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(37)

Matt shook his head and glared at River.

River glared back.

“Matt, are you sure?” Brynn asked.

Matt held his hand out for the stick. “I hurt your feelings because you hurt mine first. You didn’t pick me for your kickball team.”

“Because you told Trevor, who told Harrison, that you didn’t want to be on my team!”

This went back and forth for several minutes, during which it was discovered that Matt had said he did want to be on River’s team. A little detail that had been left off the gossip train. They apologized to each other and resumed their BFF status.

Brynn picked up the forgotten stick. “Anyone else have something they’d like to share and get off their chest? Remember, sharing is caring, and holding on to bad feelings isn’t good for you.”

“Ms. Turner always shares,” River noted.

Brynn grimaced inwardly and took a quick look at Kinsey.

Kinsey took a sip of the drink she’d brought with her while giving Brynn a look that said, Don’t you dare. And damn if that didn’t make her dare. “Actually, I do have a grievance to air. A friend of mine is sick and I want to help, but I don’t know how.”

Kinsey choked on her iced tea, then, with a long look at Brynn, took the stick. “She’s not your friend and she doesn’t need your help. Now for my problem. Someone from my summer camp days thinks I don’t remember how awful she also was.”

Brynn gaped at her and snatched back the stick. “At my summer camp, there was a mean girl who always stole my glasses, even though she also wore glasses and knew how hard it was to see without them.”

There was a collective gasp from the kids. Kinsey didn’t gasp, but once again she choked on her tea.

The kids were watching them like they were at a ping-pong match.

“What happened, what did you do?” Suzie asked Brynn.

Kinsey snatched the stick right out of Brynn’s hand. “She tattled, even though the other girl was younger and none of the girls were nice to her.” She paused. “Probably.”

“You’re supposed to ask nicely for the stick, not just take it,” Brynn said through her teeth. And younger, her ass. There were only two months between them.

“My point is, that other girl’s . . .” Kinsey paused, like she was working on chewing something extremely distasteful. “Sorry. Okay? She’s sorry for taking the glasses, but honestly? She was just tired of all the drama.”

“Drama,” Brynn said, shocked.

“Ms. Turner, you have to wait for the talking stick.”

Kinsey tossed the stick at her and rose to her feet. “I have a meeting.” She grabbed her heels and the lunch box from Brynn’s desk before heading to the door.

Oh no she didn’t. “Kids, let’s talk about something good that happened today. My something good is that I feel very lucky to have such sweet, well-behaved students who always keep themselves in line when I have to step outside the classroom.” She handed the stick to Toby. “I’ll be outside the door for a minute, and then right back.”

“I was drama?” she asked Kinsey’s back in the hall. “Are you kidding me?”

“No.” Kinsey turned to her. “Everything had to be about you, and everyone thought you were amazing.”

Brynn gaped at her. “You made fun of me when I cried because I was homesick. You made fun of me for those completely vegan, weird-looking homemade packages I got from home. No one thought I was amazing, least of all you.” She shook her head and took a deep breath. Dammit, she’d let Kinsey distract her. “Look, forget camp. Forget all of this. You’re sick?”

“Nope, not me. I had my flu shot.”

Brynn crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

Kinsey blew out a sigh and looked around. They were still alone in the hallway. “Yeah, okay, fine. So I’ve got a little situation going on.”

“Really? You call kidney failure a little situation?”

“It’s not kidney failure.” She paused. “Exactly. It’s transplant rejection. And I don’t want to talk about it.”

Brynn crossed her arms. “When?”

“When what?”

“When did you get a transplant?”

“See, normally, ‘don’t want to talk about it’ means no talking about it.”

Brynn shook her head. She was horrified and sad and . . . sad. She’d been here over a week now and no one had mentioned it. Which meant she was literally just the roommate, not friends like she’d hoped they were all becoming. Which also meant that she was still way too trusting and naive.

But none of that mattered even a tiny bit because Kinsey was in trouble. Life-threatening trouble. Which put a pretty damn big damper on hating her.





Chapter 12


From thirteen-year-old Kinsey’s summer camp journal: Dear Journal,

So . . . I’m back, even though I don’t want to be. I almost got out of coming to camp this year altogether because I—shock—got sick. Really sick. Ended up in the hospital, but of course I recovered in time for my mom to ship me off. And I found out why—she gets a scholarship for me to come here. She doesn’t pay a penny of the cost.

She’s in Hawaii, by the way.