10 Weeks by Jolene Perry Page B

already contacted them.”
    “You did what?”
    He looks at my fingers laced through his and traces the bones with his thumb. “I contacted them and asked if I could bring someone with me.”
    “Wait. What?”
    “I told them I was interested in applying for the grant and asked if I could bring someone with me. Like a research assistant.”
    “And they said you could?”
    “Yeah. I mean we’d have to pay for your airfare and food. But I could help you with that. Y ou could stay with me , and I bet you could even get college credit for it.”
    My mind is reeling. “You want me to come with you?”
    He shakes his head. “Yes. Obviously. Why would I bother asking if I didn’t want you there?”
    “But, why?”
    He releases his hand and lifts my chin. “Because, beautiful, I don’t want to lose you.”
    Then his mouth is on mine and we’re kissing and laughing , and everything has been solved at the same time that nothing has. There are so many what ifs still. So many things that could happen in the next year. But none of it seems to matter. Not now. Not when he’s gone to the effort of finding a way to keep me.
    I pull back from him and wrap my arms tighter around his neck. “I told you I’d talk you into me.”
    His deep chuckle lights me up from my toes to the top of my head. Everything feels warm and tingly and full of all the best parts of this summer. “That you did, Kay-Kay. That you did.”
    Jody
    Chapter Thirteen
    I jerk open the shed with lifejackets and tell myself again that Jeff’s busy. Won’t notice me. I’m okay. Arguing with him is exhausting, and I have better things to do with my time.
    I readjust my long hair into a tighter ponytail and start counting.
    The scraping of boat against the gravel pulls me from my trance. I’ve been staring at the long row of lifejackets and I’m pretty sure I lost count after ten. I’ve got to get myself together —camp has just begun . I step out of the shed to see Jeff dragging canoes into the water.
    Of course. There are never enough boats, and we’re always shuttling them back and forth between the boys’ camp across the lake and our girls’ camp.
    He gives me this horrible sympathetic smile, which really makes me want to smack it off his f ace. Thank God he’s heading back to his camp soon . Aside from Alex, who’s old, I’m the senior camp counselor here. Stupid things like ex-boyfriends shouldn’t slow me down.
    Instead of playing cool, I’m fiddling with the ends of my red hair and feeling like I’m four teen again, not twenty-one. In some ways I’m more stuck inside of myself than anyone else I know.
    I step back into the shed, determined to get my count before the girls are up. My run this morning didn’t clear my head the way I needed it to.
    The problem’s that Jeff and I were together for two years, since a year after high school graduation, and our families know each other, and we’ve said things like “I love you” and “forever” so I fell into that comfortable fantasy. When it was pulled out from underneath me, I didn’t know where I belonged anymore. I hate that a man had the power to do this to me.
    I’m not supposed to be the weak girl. And I really should have told him that he needed to find a different job this summer. But the one thing I’ve learned from my parents is that reputation goes a long ways, and I’m not going to have anyone thinking less of m e because of what Jeff says. I know he’d have things to say about my maturity if I told him to work somewhere else. I can’t risk it. We know too many of the same people in our life outside of camp.
    And now I’ve lost count of the stupid life jackets. I start at the top row again.
    Kay-Kay smacks my butt as she steps into the shed next to me.
    I spin to face her, my jaw tight from Jeff and feeling pathetic.
    Her face softens as she takes in my expression and glances back out the door at Jeff tying together canoes. “Let it go. He always was a pretentious