Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)(88)

He snorted with amusement.

“You’ve got to believe in yourself, Terrance.”

“I know,” he admitted, his grin fading. “Who else will, right?”

Alice thought of his absentee mother, of the fact that he’d essentially been his own supervisor since he first entered elementary school. She didn’t reply. She didn’t think she needed to. Terrance knew better than anyone that if he didn’t step up to the plate and take care of himself, no one else was going to do it. He gave her a pointed sideways glance as they made a turn on the beach and headed back toward camp.

“Did you believe in yourself when you first came here, and had Brooke Seifert staring down her nose at you?”

“Well . . . I might have had a few dark moments when I wavered,” Alice replied with grim honesty after a moment.

“Yeah,” Terrance chuckled. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“You’ll do what?”

“Go out for football.”

“Really?” Alice asked, breaking her stride to do a euphoric little sideways leap.

Terrance grinned. “Brooke is at least the equivalent of the entire defensive line of Metro Tech varsity. I figure if you can do it, I can.”

Alice grinned.

“Look out,” Terrance muttered under his breath after a moment. “Psychotron ahead.”

“Huh?” Alice asked. She followed Terrance’s stare. Just past the marina, the camp had a small fitness course on the beach. Terrance and she jogged past Sebastian Kehoe, who was doing rapid pull-ups with mechanical precision. Alice had to hand it to him. The guy was in major good shape.

She gave an obligatory wave as they passed. Kehoe never wavered an iota in his pull-ups, but his gaze was fixed on Alice, following her as she passed. The exertion he made in his show of considerable strength made his face look rigid and somehow out of alignment.

“What’d I tell you?” Terrance whispered once they were well past Kehoe. “Psychotron.”

Alice rolled her eyes. Privately, she was thinking that once again, Terrance was demonstrating his typical brilliant powers of social observation.


*

WHEN she left the kids that night under Crystal’s supervision, she didn’t walk as briskly or purposefully as she usually did. Dylan was halfway across the nation tonight. She reached into her jeans pocket and slid her fingers across the cool metal of the lighter. She’d been doing it all day, finding the sensation reassuring. He’d given her the lighter to remind her of Alan Durand, but instead, it made her think of him. The feeling of the lighter in her pocket reassured her, but it also made her miss Dylan all that much more.

Farther ahead on the path, Alice saw Thad standing face-to-face with Brooke. In the light of the fading sun, she saw their hands clasped together loosely at their sides. Thad’s head dipped and their mouths met.

So . . . they were no longer hiding their relationship. She thought of what Thad had told her, about how he and Brooke had hooked up every once in a while since they were teenagers. Would they continue to be a couple after camp was over? Something in their manner tonight, their comfort level with one another and their easy intimacy, didn’t call to Alice’s mind a convenient, casual sexual relationship.

Thad looked around before she had a chance to duck onto the path that led to her and Kuvi’s cabin.

“Alice,” Thad called. She waved a greeting and reluctantly approached the couple. “I didn’t get a chance to congratulate you last night at the bonfire. Nice job,” Thad said when she was a few feet away.

“Back at you,” Alice said. “Hi, Brooke.”

“Alice,” Brooke said. Her gaze ran over her. “Are you growing your hair out?”

“Oh,” Alice touched her hair self-consciously. She pushed it behind her ears. “I just haven’t had a chance to get it cut here at camp.”

“Only a few more days left,” Thad said. He smiled, and Alice had the random thought that he seemed more like the Thad of old. A little more relaxed. She wondered if the fact that a limousine had arrived at the camp this morning and a tight-mouthed Sebastian Kehoe had gotten into it had anything to do with Thad’s rediscovered easiness. Kehoe had left for Reno on the company jet today, Dylan at his side. Leave it to Dylan to alleviate his concerns about Kehoe by just picking him up and transferring him to another part of the country.

“Yeah. It’s flown by,” Alice said.

“How are you going to feel about relocating?” Brooke asked.

“Well, assuming I get a spot, I’ll go wherever Durand wants me,” Alice replied. She was a little uncomfortable talking about it. Would Thad, Brooke, Kuvi, and Dave—everyone at Camp Durand—think her disingenuous when the truth came out about Addie Durand? Would they look back on moments like this, talking to her, and consider her a lying fake?

And did Thad suspect at all, given what he’d overheard her saying in the castle hallway the night of the Alumni Dinner? If he had heard, did he understand what it meant? Was that why he felt uncomfortable? She and Thad had been largely avoiding each other ever since then. Alice felt awkward, knowing he knew about her and Dylan . . . knowing he didn’t trust Dylan. Plus, Dylan had told her that Thad had admitted to following her at times. Was he still infatuated with her?

“You’ll get a spot,” Brooke said, her sharp, annoyed glance reminding her of the Brooke of old. She’d noticed Thad was studying Alice closely. Brooke lifted Thad’s hand, which she still held. “So will you. The other seven slots are pretty much up for grabs, though.”