Page 10 of Summer Ever After

Beth stood slowly, smoothing her hands over her jeans. “Thanks. I just… I think I’m ready to go home.”

She wasn’t, not really. But she had learned that she couldn’t hide forever.

“You don’t have to follow me…” She started to say, but both Zoey and Aaron gave her looks and she quickly shut her mouth.

Aaron walked beside her as they made their way down the paths between buildings, the afternoon light fluttering down from between the leaves overhead. The laughter from a group of guests floated in from the pool deck, mixing with the faint chirp of tree frogs and the rustle of leaves in the breeze. A few pathway lights had already come on in the darker parts of the shade, their warm glow dotting the walkway like fireflies caught in jars.

Beth tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans. The hum of camp life really helped to ground her. It always had.

They were halfway to the parking lot when she realized that her hair was still hanging in a chaotic mess from Paige’s enthusiastic braiding job.

God, she probably looked ridiculous. Embarrassment caused her face to heat as she reached up and frantically tried to remove the worst of it. Aaron glanced over at her and chuckled.

“Here, let me help you. Hold still a second,” he murmured and stepped closer to her.

She blinked in surprise as he stopped directly in front of her, a heartbeat away, and raised his hands. He was close enough that she smelled his cologne. Soft, musky, sexy. She could feel the heat from him and willed her knees not to give out on her as she looked up into his sexy blue eyes.

His fingers brushed lightly through the tangled braid, undoing it gently, strand by strand. The sensation made her breath catch, not because it hurt, but because of how carefully he moved. No tugging, no teasing. Just calm hands working slowly in the warm light, like she was something delicate.

“You had a flower stuck in here,” he said softly, voice teasing but kind.

She let out a shaky laugh, one hand fluttering up towards her neck. “Kid-styled hair comes with a lot of accessories.”

When he was done, he didn’t step away from her. Instead, he looked at her for a long moment, the gold light catching the edges of his light brown hair and casting his kind eyes in shadow.

“You doing okay?” he asked softly.

She nodded, heart thudding quietly in her chest. “Better. I think the chaos of playing with the kids really helped calm my nerves.”

He gave a low chuckle and stepped back, his arm brushing hers for just a second as they continued walking towards the lot.

“Kids have a way of resetting emotions,” he said with a sigh. And despite whatever knots remained in her hair, and the ones still slowly unraveling in her chest, Beth realized that she was very thankful that she hadn’t gone home right away.

“Just so you know,” he said, his voice calm, “I didn’t see the car on the footage.” Beth’s stomach sank a little as reality came crashing back to her. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there,” he added quickly. “We’ve got some blind spots in our camera coverage. I’ve flagged the car description to Brett and the rest of the team. Everyone’s watching out for it from here on out.”

She nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek. “Thanks.” She felt like a fool. Even now, she was questioning if she’d just overreacted. Maybe she had imagined the whole thing?

They reached her car, and Aaron stood close, not crowding her but present as she dug her keys from her bag.

“I’ll follow you back home,” he said, reading her silence easily.

She hesitated, then looked up at him. His eyes were so steady. So real. She didn’t feel stupid when he looked at her like that. She felt… safe.

“You don’t have to,” she said again, though her voice was soft. Unsure.

His crooked smile appeared, just a flicker. “I know. Brett’s given me the rest of the day off, so I’m going to count that as a win.” He winked at her.

She unlocked her car, the click echoing between the trees. Before she opened the door, she turned slightly towards him.

“Hey,” she said, forcing herself to meet his gaze. “Thanks… for everything today. You didn’t have to⁠—”

“No problem,” he broke in. “Any time.”

The look Aaron gave her then would be in her thoughts always. Like from the first moment she’d seen him when he’d walked into the main camp building. He was almost always on her mind. He was even in her dreams.

Without saying anything else, she climbed into her car, and when she pulled out of the parking lot, she felt the steady comfort as his truck stayed behind her the whole way home.

Her fingers gripped the steering wheel a little tighter than necessary as she turned onto the narrow street that led to her apartment. The sun had sunk lower behind the buildings. Shadows were her enemies.