really. It was a fantasy, a fairy tale, to ever think otherwise.”
“Oh, babycakes…”
“Stop, it’s fine. I’m not a kid anymore.” Despite his words and calm tone, his eyes zeroed in on John as soon as he came into sight—sitting and laughing with Lukas’s dad on the pavilion where everyone was still eating dinner together. He swallowed and pasted a smile on his face so Kevin wouldn’t hear anything else in his voice. “Part of being an adult is knowing that other people don’t owe you feelings in return. It was a silly crush, and I’m going to get over it.”
Kevin made a noise that said he didn’t believe Lukas, but someone shouted at him in the background.
“It’s fine if you have to go. I’m here anyway and should probably get out of the car and go be social.”
Snorting, Kevin said, “You hate being social. You don’t even know most of those people anymore.”
It was true. When they’d all been kids, brought to the cabins by their parents and forced to play together, they’d found solidarity and companionship. Lukas had still preferred to swim and hike on his own, but he’d at least called the other kids friends. Now? Even with social media, they were barely more than strangers.
“I’ll be okay. Love you, Kev.” He put his car in park at the end of a row of other vehicles, mentally preparing himself for the onslaught of how-are-yous and what-are-you-up-tos.
“Love you too, babycakes!”
They hung up and Lukas turned off his car, grabbed his phone from the cup holder, and hopped out—and nearly bumped into John and his dad. There was a weird moment where Lukas looked at John with wide eyes, then stumbled back a step and looked away quickly. His dad didn’t seem to notice, chuckling at Lukas’s clumsiness and coming forward to give him a brief hug.
“Hey, kiddo. Drive okay?” His dad slapped his back a few times, jarring him, then stepped to the trunk and waited for Lukas to open it.
“Oh, um, yeah.” He scurried forward. The button on his key fob didn’t work anymore, so the trunk had to be opened with the key. “Traffic was a little heavy where there was construction, but the farther north I got, the better it got.” He threw a covert glance at John as he lifted the lid and his dad dug in to grab his bag. “Hey, John.”
“Hey, kid.”
The tiny piece of hope still living in Lukas’s heart shriveled and died. Kid. Right, because that was how John saw him. Just his friend’s kid. Getting caught up in an emotionally charged moment and nearly making the mistake of kissing someone didn’t mean anything to him, apparently. Lukas forced a smile but knew it probably looked fake as hell.
John narrowed his eyes and studied Lukas’s face, then peered into the back seat, brow wrinkled. “You didn’t bring Ruby?”
He scoffed as he grabbed his other bag, once his dad was out of the way, and slammed the lid shut. “No. She’d be terrified of this many people. She and Leeloo are staying with Kevin.”
His dad trudged toward the row of cabins. “You’ll have to bunk with Greg again this year.”
Lukas hid his grimace. “That’s fine. I assumed I would.” He lifted the bag he was carrying and squinted at it, trying to remember if he packed his earplugs.
“What’s wrong?” John’s voice was low and right next to Lukas, causing him to jolt forward to catch up to his dad and put some space between them.
“Nothing.” He reached his dad and matched his stride, calling back to John, “You can go back and finish dinner if you want.”
He glanced over his shoulder and saw that John had stopped in the middle of the path, brows raised and arms crossed over his massive chest. His jaw looked a little tight, but Lukas shook it off. The first step to getting over John was not being around him, but if he had to be—like the next week—he needed to remain emotionally distant. It was the only way he’d start putting himself back together.
“I’ll be right back,” his dad said, grinning back at John. “Don’t even think about touching my piece of pie.”
Lukas turned forward once more and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
Distance. That was all he needed to get over his silly crush.
“Such a fucking idiot.” John kicked at a rock on the path back to the pavilion. Lukas had basically dismissed him, and John couldn’t really blame him. For