Summer Heat (Cruel Summer #1)(19)

I gulped and barely regained my composure before firing back. “Were you always such a smart ass or is this new?”

“I don’t know, were you always such an arrogant dick?”

I bit down on my lip and smiled. “I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that question, SP.”

“SP?” She repeated in confusion.

I leaned in and winked. “Short for spoiled princess.”

“Is there a point to this little trek?” She put her hands on her hips and tossed her head. Her light hair, piled in a ponytail at the top of her head, swished, and she licked her lips.

“You mean other than the murder?” I asked in confusion, earning a punch to the shoulder.

“Ouch! Shit!” She shook out her hand. “What the hell do you eat now? Steel?”

“Naturally.” I really tried not to take it as a compliment, but warmth spread across my chest uncontrollably. “I mean when I’m not feeding off small children and protein shakes at the gym with my bros getting all…” I made air quotes. “…swoll.”

“Ah, still a nerd I see.” She smiled like she was glad.

I smiled back. “The day I start talking about PRs and how CrossFit changed my life, I’m handing you a knife and letting you throw at will.”

“Did it, though?” She tilted her head. “Because you never really…” The tension in the room wasn’t helping. “I mean you never really.”

“I was tall and had one ab that I was so fucking proud of I think I took a picture,” I admitted, twisting my lips into a grimace. “But we’re getting off track.”

“From what?”

“This.” I walked over to the fridge and pulled it open. We were having cupcakes later that week for dessert. They were pre-made, and since we often celebrated campers’ birthdays if they were with us, I knew where our candle and match stash was.

I quickly set the pink cupcake on a plate and then grabbed the lighter from one drawer over as well as one green candle.

I’d like to think that when she saw the color green she thought of her grass, and when she thought of her grass, she thought of me.

It was stupid.

Just the delirious daydreams from a heartbroken nerd, who’d had one night with the most popular girl in school and was thrown in a locker the next day.

“This.” I lit the candle and held it out. “This is why we’re here.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at the cupcake in wonderment, like nobody had ever taken time to give her something so precious when all I did was steal it from the fridge.

Ray swallowed slowly and whispered, “So that’s what it feels like.”

“What?” I blinked in confusion.

She flashed me a warm smile. “Blowing out candles on your birthday.”

I almost dropped the cupcake. “You mean you’ve never—”

“Never.” She licked her lips. “It was just another reminder to them, that I was alive — that he was dead.”

“He?” The story was getting weirder by the second. “Who’s he?”

“Do you think that maybe I can just blow out this candle and keep this birthday to myself? For once? I know that sounds selfish and you already think the worst of me, but I really, really want my first candle to be for me.”

I felt my throat clog up, and I had no idea why. I finally settled with, “You’re not selfish.”

“SP.” She repeated my nickname for her. “All right, I’m going to blow.”

My body responded in all the worst ways. “Make a wish, Ray.”

Her eyes flew open when she pursed her lips together and blew, and I could have sworn as the flame snuffed out…

A tingling ran down my spine.

Of awareness.

Of warning.

I ignored it all, though.

I ignored it, and I handed her the cupcake. “Happy Birthday, Ray.”

“Celebrating my birthday with my high school arch enemy, nice.”

“You have to be on the same playing field to be an enemy.” I shrugged and then reached for the door so we could get back to our cabins. It was getting late.

And my self-control was almost completely used up.

“Funny.” She dipped her finger in the frosting and brought it to her lips. “Because I was always under the impression we were.” She held the cupcake up. “Thanks Marlo. I won’t forget this.”

I wasn’t sure if I was relieved.

Or even more infatuated with the girl who had it all.

But who’d never blown out a candle on her birthday cake.





I DIDN’T EAT the cupcake.

It seemed wrong.

So that night, I put it on my desk and stared at it like it meant more than it did. The first real cake I’d ever had. The first candle. It felt wrong destroying what was my first. I fell asleep staring at the pink frosting with a smile on my face.

And when I woke up, things didn’t seem as daunting.

Oh, I still had to teach choreography, but at least the vote for whatever musical we were going to do was happening sometime this week. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure how they even narrowed down all the options. Every camper had a different idea about what they wanted to do.