Page 84 of Off the Trail

“What? What is it?” I ask no one, since no one’s paying me any attention.

Shawn’s head rises above the crowd, his baseball cap clearly visible. He swivels around, spots me, and puts up his hand in victory—that’s when I know the Laurels have won the game. I whoop, and he jogs over.

“Five-three, Laurels,” he says, “and get this, Jett hit a homer!”

I pump my fist and stick two fingers in my mouth to make a celebratory whistle.

“I have to say I’m relieved,” he says, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. “What if they lost, and I wasn’t there?”

“That would have sucked,” I say. “But you’re not their good luck charm, after all.”

“I guess not,” he says.

“Maybe you’re mine,” I say, drawing him close for a kiss. He kisses me back in his thorough way that makes me forget everything else except the pressure of his lips on mine.

“That was cheesy,” he says when he’s kissed all the brains out of my head.

“You’re going to have to get used to it,” I say. “I plan to lay on the cheese.”

“I can’t wait.”

“There’s only one thing that could make this night better,” I say. “And that’s if I had some hot chocolate.”

He smacks his forehead. “Oh, I got distracted. I’ll get you some.”

“How about you stay and watch the fire, and I’ll get some?” I counter, not trusting him to get held up by other enthusiastic Laurels fans.

“Fair. But what am I watching for?”

“You know, don’t let any kids run too close, that kind of thing.”

He makes a worried face. “Okay.”

“You can do this.” I kiss him again, short and soft, then let him do the job I’ve assigned.

Free of my burden for a moment, I walk to the drinks table, get a clean mug from the stack, and push the handle of the hot chocolate dispenser. A dribble comes out, then the flow stops. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nolan went to get more.”

I turn to interrogate the voice and discover it belongs to Josh Morse.

“Josh, hey, good to see you.”

“Hey, Blaze.”

“Didn’t know you were coming.”

“I didn’t want to disappoint Aunt Marika if it ended up that I couldn’t make it. But I was able to get away for the weekend.”

“I’m glad you did.” I observe his face. He’s about my age, but he has dark circles under his eyes and fine lines etched into his forehead. “You should visit more.” He used to spend every summer with his aunt on the lake when we were teenagers.

He smiles ruefully. “Yeah, I send my clients up here to reset, but I never send myself.”

“Ironic.”

“Exactly. Hey, I heard you and Shawn Camden have gotten to know each other.”

I smile at the choice of words. “We have. Do you know Shawn?”