Pucked Up

“Am I getting burned?” She glances at her shoulder.

“You’re okay for now.” I pat the space between my legs, inviting her in.

She eases between them, sitting too far forward for any of our body parts to rub together. Her shoulders are dotted with freckles from being out in the sun so much already. Su

“So I head out to that camp tomorrow,” I tell her, smoothing lotion over her skin.

“I think it’s a great thing you’re doing.”

“Thanks. It’s fun. And I have the time right now.” I make sure I get under the halter strap on her bikini. I love this bathing suit. She was wearing it the first time I copped a quick feel.

“Anyway, I was thinking maybe you’d want to come up and visit while I’m there?” At her silence, I rush on. “You could come at the end if you’re not into the whole hockey camp deal. You could even meet some of the kids if you wanted to, or not. They have cabins, so you wouldn’t have to tent it. Then we could rent a cottage for a few days if you can get the time off from work and volunteering.”

She’s quiet for another moment. “That sounds fun. I wish you would’ve asked me sooner.” Su

Oh shit. I know this look. It’s a bad one. It reminds me of what I probably look like when I’m getting ready to let a honey down easy.

“If getting time off work is a problem maybe I can take care of it—”

“Getting time off work isn’t the issue, Miller.”

“So it shouldn’t be a problem, right? You can come, then. Unless you don’t want to.”

She puts a hand on my knee, squeezing softly. “So . . . you know how all those pictures showed up on the Internet.”

“You said you were over those.” I don’t get it. Last night was awesome, and this morning was awesomer. I haven’t had a chance to mess anything else up yet.

“I am, now, but when I saw them, I was upset. It seemed like you were playing me, and then there was the drunk dialing and—”

“I thought we sorted this out.”

“We did. I’m trying to explain. I’d love to come visit you, but I can’t.”

“Because of the stuff on Instagram?”

“No. Well, kind of. Lily invited me to come camping with her. She asked a long time ago, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Then those pictures showed up, and I decided maybe I should. Just to get away from everything for a while. I already had a light schedule because I knew I was seeing you this weekend. I had my volunteer shifts covered.”

Su

“So go camping with her for a few days and then come visit me.”

“I’ve already committed to it. I don’t want to back out.”

This doesn’t work with my plan. I should’ve asked before I came, but I wasn’t sure what this weekend was going to look like. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, and now I’m screwed. Things start to wind back up for training soon. I have a bunch of endorsement stuff to do. I want to find a way to get her to ditch Lily and come with me instead.

“There’s no way you can cut it short?”

Her eyes drop, and she traces a circle around my kneecap. “Lily’s been supportive through this whole thing. I’m constantly bombarded with all the social media stuff.”

I tuck a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “I’ll be better about that.”

“It’s not just you, Miller. It’s my brother, too. It’s not all bad, but sometimes I need a break from it. I try not to let it affect me, but it’s hard. Lily and I want some time away, get perspective and stuff.”

Lily isn’t my biggest fan. I’m sure she worked hard to get Su

“It’s called Chapleau. It’s about eight hours by car, I think.”

“What about flying? Can I do that instead?”

“There isn’t an airport nearby. We could plan another visit for a few weeks from now, before my fall semester starts.”

No way am I leaving it that long. I need to see more of Su

I’ll take whatever time I can get with Su

“That might be an issue, too. We won’t have an actual campsite or anything. It’s, like, out in the wilderness. I’m not sure how great my reception will be while I’m there.”

“Everywhere has reception. Even the rain forest.” Okay, so that’s not true, but this is Canada. Everyone should be able to use a cell phone, even in the damn forest.

“It’s really far north. People don’t do the cell phone thing out there. It’s all real landlines and stuff. That’s the whole point of getting back to nature, Miller. We’re going to put up tents in the middle of nowhere.”

Having no line of communication with Su

“So how will I let you know when I’m on my way?”

“We’ll probably go into town for food and stuff every few days. There’s one about half an hour away, I think. Maybe we can touch base then? I’m sorry, Miller. I’ve been thinking about backing out since I woke up this morning, but Lily thinks it’ll be good for my soul, and so does Alex. I kinda have to agree with them.” She’s doing that thing with her hair again, wrapping it around her finger and brushing it over her lips.

Fucking Waters and Lily. They must be colluding. This is obviously a sabotage. Where the hell is Vi in all of this? She’s supposed to be backing me up. I need to have a chat with her. It occurs to me that Su

“So it’s you and Lily going? Who’s going to drive? What car are you taking? Does she go camping a lot?”

“Lily goes camping all the time with her boyfriend. She was in Girl Guides all the way to Pathfinders.”

I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like it might be like Boy Scouts for girls in Canada. “So her boyfriend’s coming, too?”

Su

“That’s good. You can all take turns driving. Who else is going?” Lily is the only friend of Su

“Lily’s boyfriend, Benji. You haven’t met him yet, and then there’s Kale.”

Benji sounds like it should be a dog’s name. “Kale? Is that a guy or a girl?”

“Kale’s a guy.”

“And his name is Kale? Like the vegetable?”

“Short for Kaleb. He’s nice.”

Like that makes his name less weird. It’s bad enough that Lily is going to have the week I wanted Su

“We’ve all known each other since high school.”

Something about the way she won’t look at me makes the time-out buzzer go off in my head. “Did you date him or something?” I mean it to come out sounding more like a joke than an inquisition.

Her eyes stay focused on her wiggling toes. “It was a long time ago.”