Family Camp (Daddy Dearest, #1)(70)

“Cool! Cookies are definitely a priority. Well, let’s go, then. I have a hankering for s’mores.”

“Hankering.” Aimee giggled. “You’re so funny, Uncle Geo.”

Lucy dropped the doll with the “elegant sheath” and ran to Geo. She hugged him tight around the waist and he rubbed her back. She was growing up too, though she was still small for her age. Geo liked to imagine that every hug, every kiss they gave her was an invisible dose of sunshine that helped her grow.

Lucy’s mental development had belied her early diagnosis of attachment disorder. She was, if anything, clingier and more affectionate than other kids her age. Geo figured she had a lot of love to make up for. Unfortunately, her physical growth was not progressing as well. The doctor said it could be a result of not being held or touched enough as a baby. Studies showed that baby monkeys stopped growing when they didn’t have a mother to cuddle them. Lucy was growing now, but she would never recover one hundred percent from those early lost years.

The power of love was an amazing and sometimes terrifying thing—how deeply it could heal. Or hurt.

Geo had cried the night the doctor told him that, and Travis, over Facetime, had gotten teary-eyed too. That had been when they’d still lived apart. God, that had been a hard year.

But while Lucy might never be the tallest person in the room, she was the one with the most heart. She loved animals of all kinds and still cried while watching The Little Mermaid, even though she insisted on seeing it nearly every day.

“Are you ready, munchkin?” Geo asked her.

“Uh-huh. Can Max go?”

“He’s already down there with Travis.”

“Okay! Daddy, tomorrow can I go swimming with Aunt Bridget after crafts? Sam is so cute playing in the water. Today he figured out how to splash! He was going like this…” Lucy stopped hugging him so she could slap her hands on invisible water.

“Wow! That does sound special. Let’s put on your sweater, sweetie.”

Lucy obediently held out her arms as Geo helped her into her sweater. The night wasn’t that cool, but Lucy got chilled easily.

“He almost has a tooth! Aunt Bridget says maybe we’ll be able to see it before the end of camp.”

“Oh wow! A tooth. We sure wouldn’t want to miss that!” Geo said in exaggerated awe.

“I know! Baby teeth, baby teeth, we all love some baby teeth…”

Lucy made up a nonsense song as he finally got the girls herded out the door and toward the campfire.

Bridget and Joe had gotten married over a year ago and their baby son was nearly six months old already. Like how was that even possible? It was crazy how fast time moved, like a family slideshow that just got faster and faster. Like the Camp Evermore song.

As they reached the firepit, Travis stood up from a pile of logs, holding a burning piece of tinder in his hand. Lucy ran toward him, and he held the tinder aloft so she wouldn’t burn herself. But no, she wasn’t aiming for him, she was going for Max, who was lying near a log bench. She hugged the dog as if she hadn’t seen him in years.

“Hey, babe,” Travis said to Geo as he strolled up.

Geo gave him a peck on the lips. “Hey yourself, hot stuff.” He waggled his eyebrows at the burning tinder. “Ca-ching!”

“Funny.” Travis smirked, tossing the tinder onto the logs.

“Do you need any help?”

“Nah, Cindy’s got it all organized, as usual.”

“Okay. Wanna light my fire?”

Travis’s smirk turned into a sexy grin. “Definitely. How ’bout tonight? Meanwhile, why don’t you grab a spot up front before a ton of people get here?”

The campers trickled in, the sun set, and they sang and roasted marshmallows. Geo preferred the brown ones that took a while rather than the burnt and gooey ones Jayden favored. Because the best stuff was worth working for.

When it was time for the Camp Evermore song, Geo stood up with the counselors to lead. For some reason, people thought he was especially hilarious doing the camp song. He didn’t get it—his bunny hop wasn’t nearly as cute as Travis’s. But hey, it made kids laugh so Geo gave them what they wanted.

He still felt a rush of unease when he saw someone filming them with their phones. But then he remembered—they had nothing to hide. They were a family just like any other. And that was truer this summer than it had ever been.

Travis was no longer playing major league baseball. He’d finished “the season of scandal,” as they called it, and played one more year, for which he’d already signed the contract. The Padres could have released him, but they didn’t want to. They liked the extra attention Travis brought to their games and the team. It far outweighed the backlash they got from some of the fans. And at the end of the day, money talked.

Travis had played very well that year—better than he had in a long time, he told Geo. He said he felt lighter. Plus, he had something to prove for his new LGBT fans, for Geo and the kids, and as a finger in the eye to the haters.

The Padres had wanted to sign him for two more years, but Travis declined, much to his agent Marcia’s dismay. The year and a half he’d played while they were dating had been excruciating. They’d rarely seen him during the endless baseball season, and Facetime was only so effective. Once school started, neither Geo nor the kids could easily get away, no matter how much money Travis had to spend on plane tickets. Travis didn’t want to miss any more of the kids growing up.