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out , and the longing in his voice almost stops me.
    I turn to him and shrug. “I’m only nineteen. You’ve made your position clear. But I can’t be what you think you need tonight. I can be your friend. But I can’t be anything else. You think I don’t love in the same way you do? That I’m too young to understand? I love you so much I’m giving you exactly what you need right now. A night that you won’t wake up regretting.”
    And with my heart sliced into tiny pieces and scattering at my feet, I walk out the door.

 
Chapter Nine
    Three days. Seventy-two hours. Four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes. That’s how long it’s been since I left Alex. Since I said the L word then walked out. And now it’s Sunday and I have the entire day off. Sam and Jo have switched their days so they can go up to Bayswater for some festival I have no interest in seeing. So I’m on my own. I stare at my laundry bag in the back of the camp wagon heading to town. I have a whole day off and I’m doing laundry. I’ve reached a new low.
    I slide into the passenger seat of the wagon and wait for whoever is dropping me off in town to show up. This is one of the only perks of being car-less at camp. Someone will drop you off and pick you up on your days and nights off. It’s a built in designated driver , and when Jo isn’t around to drive home from the Little Minnow, it’s sort of a godsend.
    I prop my feet on the dash board and stare out the window. The door opposite me swings open.
    “Buckle up.”
    Alex. Of course. FML.
    “You’re the driver? Since when? You hate driving counselors into town.”
    He grins and a piece of my heart cracks off and drops on to the crappy vinyl seat. “Heard you were going to be the passenger so I volunteered.”
    “Huh.”
    So we’re friends again? Maybe. Do I even want that?
    He reaches across me and grabs the seatbelt. His hand brushes against my thigh as he clicks the buckle into place and a warm puddle of want moves from my belly downward. Nope. Friends isn’t going to be an option.
    I inch back, pressing myself against the door. He starts the car and switches the radio on. Some sort of twangy country western thing. I hate Northern Wisconsin radio stations.
    He taps his hands along the steering wheel and pulls out onto the camp road.
    Four minutes into the silence, he takes a right on to the main highway.
    “Laundromat is that way. You know, toward town.”
    “You can do your laundry later. I thought we’d do something else.”
    “We?”
    He nods and continues tapping on the steering wheel. “Yep.”
    I need to get my head in the game. My gaze keeps wandering between his tan legs and strong hands. “How’s Robin?”
    His mouth dips into a frown. “They’re talking about moving her to hospice. Irene is against it, but I think it would be best for her.”
    “What does Robin think?”
    He shrugs. “She doesn’t really weigh in. She’s on a lot of morphine. She’s not really awake. It’s Irene’s call at this point.”
    “Hmm… Well, I guess she’d know what’s best.”
    We drive a few more miles in the opposite direction of civilization before I can’t override my curiosity any longer. “Where are you taking me?”
    “It’s not far now.”
    That’s it. I’m being held hostage by the guy I’ve been thinking about since practically the first day of camp, maybe even before that, and I’m in full-on panic mode. I don’t know how to be with him. My usual banter won’t work because it’s almost exclusively based in innuendo and that ship has sort of sailed.
    He reaches out and pats my leg. “Relax, Kay-Kay. It’s going to be fine.”
    I’m not sure what he means by fine because currently my leg is on fire from where he touched me , and I am four seconds from grabbing the steering wheel, heading into the trees, and tackling him.
    Oh dear.
    A few minutes later, he pulls into a tiny parking lot beside a boat dock. I blink. He opens the door and pulls a