Page 26 of The Perfect Deal

“Great,” she said. “Did you see Elizabeth’s hair when she came down? It shot out around her. That’s gonna be a great shot.”

“Awesome,” I said, having not seen it. “Listen, I don’t want things to be weird between us, but I do want to say I’m sorry if I crossed a line last night. It’s just hard, what with Landon and all.” He’d made me promise never to make a move on her, but I’d done it anyway.

Liberty shrugged. “No, it’s okay. I mean, he’s my brother, so of course I feel it too. It’s a heavy burden to bear.” She laughed a little and shook her head. “No worries.”

“Good.” I wanted to hug her or at least pat her arm, but instead, I just gave her an awkward smile and walked away, cursing Landon under my breath as I went. I couldn’t be loyal to my best friend and still have the girl I wanted—so what the hell was I going to do?

16

LIBERTY

Sitting on my bed in the cabin, I tried to focus on the photos I was editing. I’d taken so many great pictures of the kids, it was hard to choose which ones to edit and which ones to discard, for now. I never deleted any of the photos I took unless they were blurry or had a photobomb of some sort in the background. I never knew when I might want to use those pictures for something. But I couldn’t possibly edit all of them, so I had been choosing ten or twenty per day to edit when I got a chance.

Looking through the pictures from basketball practice, I had some great ones of the girls in my group. There was one of Tessa sinking a layup and another one of Elizabeth setting an amazing pick for Rhiannon. I had to try to be fair and include kids from other cabins, too, but I could use only pictures from these kiddos, and Joshua would have all the pictures he needed for his social media and website.

Thinking of him, my mind went back to the kiss we’d shared in the woods the night before. That same feeling that I couldn’t suck in a full breath had me gasping for air. That kiss had been a long time coming, and I’d enjoyed it, even though it didn’t last that long, and there was no reason to think it would be repeated any time soon, sadly.

Without thinking, I pulled up a picture I’d taken of Joshua the first day when he was speaking to the crowd about how much fun we were all going to have at camp. It was a candid photo, and he was in his element. I loved the look on his face, the way he stood confidently in front of a crowd. He was unbelievably handsome, and his body looked so great, his outfit showing off his strong arms and muscular calves.

“He’s so photogenic.”

I jumped, almost closing my laptop out of fear because I had no idea who it was that had snuck up on me when I was in another world. Looking up, I saw Karrie standing behind me, a dreamy look on her face. My eyebrows shot up as I tried to assess what was happening.

“Doesn’t he look great?” she continued, that soft smile on her face. “I bet he didn’t even know you were taking his picture.”

Pausing, I tried to figure out how to respond. Did Karrie have feelings for Joshua? It seemed pretty evident at the moment that she did, just based on her expression. How had I not noticed this before? Would Joshua ever consider dating an employee? I hoped not because I didn’t want to share him with anyone.

That thought almost made me laugh out loud. How could I share something I didn’t have? “Uh, yeah, he looks great,” I agreed. “I don’t think he knew, but I was taking photos of everyone.” I flipped through to some of the other pictures I’d taken that day, and Karrie quickly lost interest and went away.

With a deep breath, I went back to what I’d been doing, but in the back of my mind, the question was there. What was going on with Karrie and Joshua?

The next day was the basketball tournament. There were plenty of opportunities for me to get in there and take action shots of the kids as they squared off against one another. The girls were playing their tournament on one court while the boys were playing on the other, so at first, I split my time between the two of them, running back and forth to be sure to get photos of every team. I was getting almost as tired as the kids, but I loved it. The athletes were all so excited, cheering each other on and showing great sportsmanship.

After lunch, it was time for the championship games. The girls’ final and the boys’ final would happen at the same time, so I’d have to be quick to get pictures of both games. My girls were in the final, squaring off against Rabbit House, and I really wanted to watch the Bears, but I had to get some good photos of Fox House and Porcupine House in the boys’ as well.

After the first half of the boys’ game was over, I figured I had enough and went to watch the girls. It was a close game, but in the fourth quarter, my girls started to pull ahead. Monique sank two three-pointers in a row before Tessa stole the ball and took it down for a quick layup. I couldn’t help but smile, though I tried not to cheer out loud because I was trying so hard to be impartial. In the end, my girls beat the Rabbits by six points.

The girls gathered together in one giant group hug. Karrie rushed over to get in the middle of it, along with their coach. Elizabeth looked over at me and waved me over, so I went, too.

“We did it, Miss Liberty!” Monique said with a glowing smile.

“I’m so proud of all of you!” I told her, giving her an individual hug once everyone let go. Every girl wanted a hug from me, and even though they were sweaty, I happily wrapped my arms around each of them.

“Who are we playing next?” Tessa wanted to know.

I turned and looked over at the boys’ side and saw Fox House rejoicing as well. “I think you have your answer.”

“Oh, crap,” Rhiannon whispered under her breath. “They’re gonna kill us.”

“Nah, we can handle them.” Monique stuck her fist out, and Rhiannon reluctantly bumped it. “Gotta have faith, girl.”

“Besides, we’ve already won our way into the ice cream pool party,” Tessa added. “So let’s just have fun.”

“There’s an ice cream pool party?” I asked. “That sounds like so much fun!”

“Yep, the two girls’ teams from the final and the two boys’ teams get to go to a pool party after dinner, and we get as much ice cream as we can eat,” Elizabeth explained to me.

“Oh, well, that seems like the real prize. Just go out there and have fun. I mean, I’d love it if you kicked those boys’ as—” I swallowed hard, cutting myself off from swearing in front of the kids. “Butts, but still, if you don’t win, it’s not a big deal. You still get ice cream and swimming.”