getting dark.”
Gabi raised her eyebrows, nodding slowly. “So why aren’t you putting up the tent?”
“We can’t figure it out,” Waverly whined.
“Well”—Gabi took a deep breath—“if you want somewhere to sleep tonight, it looks like you’re going to have to. I need to go make some phone calls in Oliver’s office. While I do that, you put up the tent. Questions?”
“You’re leaving?” Eve gasped, looking around at the poles and canvas strewn all over the platform. “You can’t just leave us here.”
“Can. Will. Am. Luke said the bears don’t generally start roaming around until dusk, but I guess I wouldn’t want to test that theory if he’s wrong. The sooner you have a place to sleep, the better, right?”
Luke had said no such thing. For all she knew, bears slept in their cozy caves all night. But the girls didn’t know that. Leaving them with their mouths hanging open, Gabi turned around and headed resolutely up the hill, not glancing backward once.
She had no phone calls to make, but the girls didn’t know that, either. Her two best friends from Briarwood were on a kayaking expedition off the coast of Maine, or she’d have called them. She’d have pressed her speed-dial button and told them about her hellish first hour at Camp Echo … about a camp that probably should have been closed down years ago … about tents whose holes were so big that she was bound to qualify for her one-gallon blood donor pin within a week … about a tall, dead-sexy camp handyman so full of himself that he was already trying to tell her how to do her job.
She slapped at her arm as a mosquito landed, then eyed the van. Fine. She’d wait out the girls in the BMW. It was going to take every ounce of effort not to drive the thing right back down the driveway without them, though.
As she got to the parking lot and slid into the driver’s seat, Luke’s voice made her jump.
“Leaving already?” He walked out of the admin cottage and toward the van. The same amused smile was still on his face, and she hated that her eyes were so appreciative of the way his five o’clock shadow outlined a sculpted jawline. Thick, dark brown hair completed the package—the kind that begged for a woman to run her fingers through it.
She swallowed, ripping her eyes away. Then she held up the keys. “You caught me.”
“I really thought you’d last at least one more hour.”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “I’m outta here. They’re all yours. You’re not afraid of a few teenaged girls, are you?”
“Deathly. Any man in his right mind would be.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” She put the key in the ignition, and he immediately strode to the window, placing his arms on the frame.
“You’re not really leaving.”
“Try me, mister.”
He smiled. “You can’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’d feel too guilty, for one.”
Gabi shook her head. “At the moment, no.”
“Maybe.” He tipped his head. “But about ten miles down the road, you’d reconsider. You know you would.”
“Not so sure about that. Did I mention I was the one who was supposed to be flying out on vacation tonight, not the headmaster?”
He pulled his arms off the van, like he was mildly disgusted, but trying to hide it. “Such problems.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I heard you. And I imagine the princess posse had other plans, as well.”
“They’ll recover.” She put on her seat belt like she really was planning to take off. “So will you. I’ve changed my mind about staying. I was told to deliver them to camp. You’re camp. So have fun, keep them alive, and I’ll be back to get them in four weeks.”
He smiled, and her stomach did a weird jumpy thing she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. “Right. Well, you have a good trip home, then.”
Gabi felt her eyebrows pull together. He was calling her bluff. Well, she’d show him. She’d call his right back. She’d head on down the road, and she wouldn’t come back till dark. See what he and the girls thought of that.
“Okay.” She put the key in the ignition. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”
“Gotcha.” He slapped the side of the van, then turned to head toward the admin building. “Don’t get lost.”
Gabi turned the key. Oh, she’d get lost, all right. She’d take this van right to a hotel with power and Wi-Fi and food, and she’d stay there, dammit.
Except that the van wasn’t starting.
She was only bluffing, but