Kicking Eternity

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter 16

Drew rocked his chair back on two legs under the yellow circle of light on the Canteen porch. He settled his laptop on his knees and booted up. Night watch wasn’t so bad, especially when he could see the whole camp from here.

Voices punctuated by laughter floated through the screens of the teen cabins. Aly and Gar sat on the stubby bleachers beside the softball field.

He drummed his thumbs on the edge of the keyboard while he waited for his MSN account to load.

An e-mail from Africa Cries Mission Agency. His breath sucked in. His hand trembled as he opened the letter. He scrolled down the page. “Have been praying for a choir director and teacher… Would like very much to see your résumé and a one-page summary of your spiritual journey at your earliest convenience…”

Raine was going to Africa. It ran through his head like a mantra. He rubbed his temples with the pads of his fingers. All he could see was the portrait of Raine in the yellow flowered blouse Cal had painted. He was in no state to Vulcan mind-meld with God. Obviously, he’d watched one too many episodes of Star Trek. If prayer were only that easy.

What had Jesse said to him last time they talked about Africa? Take the next step. If he applied for the job, he could still back out when he was thinking more clearly. He pulled up his résumé.

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Raine’s lips formed a circle, but no sound came out. Cal had flung her into the swirl of a waterspout. He loved her. Loved her. She was dizzy, spinning, the colors bleeding into each other. A moment’s clarity—the smell of soggy, charred wood from the doused campfire, the grit of sand under her fingernails—then swirling again.

Cal reached for her hand, and she gripped his, something solid to hold onto.

“I want to go on record. I’m serious about you.” He smiled, and her heart constricted. He took both her hands loosely in his. She thought how square they were, how foreign. How little she knew him.

“Raine. I love you.” There were the words—not couched in a Calvin and Hobbes quote this time. He waited for her response.

“I…I don’t know what to say.” She’d been infatuated with Cal all summer. But love? Where were the breaks on this twister?

She saw the disappointment in his eyes before he cloaked it. He caught her hand firmly in his and they turned to hike through the soft sand to the seawall. He pulled her onto the seawall, and she had the feeling they’d crossed an invisible line she hadn’t considered.

She glanced over at him, shy, all of a sudden. He was the same guy who’d been stamped to the insides of her eyelids when she fell asleep every night this summer. His hand was sturdy like he was—five-ten, solid without being stocky. His hair was pulled into a ponytail the way he almost always wore it. But he was a stranger.

“What?”

She looked away. “Nothing.”

“Reconsidering the kiss?” Cal grinned at her.

His grin chased away her awkwardness. “Looking at the menu.”

He pulled her closer to his side. “Come meet my parents on Saturday. You already know Jesse and Missy. Mom will faint for joy. You’re exactly what she’s been praying for.”

Her mind reeled. Meet his parents? She was caught up in the current of the spout. They passed the New Smyrna Beach Surf and Sailing Camp sign.

She wanted to break away from Cal. For the first time all summer she didn’t know what she felt about him. One thing she knew—she wasn’t ready to announce to the camp grapevine that she and Cal were a couple. But Cal held on tight to her hand as though he sensed her reluctance.