Cam shifted the sizable tank of the propane lamp in her arms as she followed Sloane back through the sand to her house. As she neared the house she began berating herself for always being so helpful.
Why do I do it? Why do I go the extra mile for people? People I don’t even know?
Because it’s who you are.
You wouldn’t feel right not helping.
So suck it up and deliver the lamp.
They reached the patio and Cam saw the reason for her inner turmoil, the reason why she was suddenly questioning the very core values that made her who she was. How could a woman she’d just met be causing her to question herself? Why was she letting her?
If she’d had her way, she wouldn’t have returned with the lamp, preferring instead to avoid Blake altogether. But the probability of being able to avoid Blake completely was unlikely. According to Sloane, Blake was going to be sticking around for a while, so unfortunately, she did indeed have to suck it up if she wanted to venture outside her home at all for the next few weeks. This was the perfect opportunity for her to try her hand at it. Blake was on the patio, messing with the grill.
She stopped when she heard them and hurried to open the door.
“Thanks,” Sloane said as she grunted her way inside with the twin to the lamp Cam carried.
Cam was right behind her. “Thank you,” she said as she walked through the door.
“No problem.”
Cam paused as the familiar phrase registered. She stole a glance at Blake unsure if Blake was mocking her from their earlier exchange in town. The smug look on her face confirmed Cam’s suspicion. Blake, it seemed, wanted to make sure she knew it, too.
Cam bristled, feeling the need to hold her ground. She held Blake’s stare and was careful not to even blink before she walked on. Blake wasn’t going to intimidate her. This beach was Cam’s home. No one was going to make her feel uncomfortable here. Not even Blake. Her temporary nuisance would be like an annoying gnat is all. Gnats eventually move on. Blake would as well. Until then, there was no way she was going to get the best of Cam.
“Can you put that one on the table next to the couch, Cam?” McKenna asked, as Cam stepped inside the house and turned her attention to her. She pointed toward the living room. Cam rounded the couch and situated the lamp, turning it on to ensure it worked. The soft glow of light and the subtle hiss of the propane were oddly soothing. Her aunt and uncle had used the lamps in their home in Puerto Tranquilo when she was a child. Back before electricity was available to many of the outlying beach residents. She used to sit up at night reading when she visited her aunt and uncle, the hissing lamp her faithful companion.
“Thank you so much,” McKenna said.
“Yes, thank you,” Sloane said as she emerged from one of the bedrooms where she’d placed the other lamp. Cam could see the light spilling out of the doorway behind her.
“It’s no trouble, really,” Cam said. “You sure you don’t want me to go get the other one?”
Sloane waved her off and dug in the deep pockets of her cargo shorts to retrieve the two thick candles Cam had given her. “These will work fine for tonight.”
“We can rough it a little,” McKenna said with a laugh. “It won’t kill us. It might even be a little…romantic.”
Sloane grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Only you would think that spending a night without power is romantic.”
“It can be. Don’t you think, Cam?”
“Uh—”
“You don’t have to answer her,” Sloane said.
McKenna grimaced as if she were offended and swatted Sloane’s behind as she walked past her into the kitchen.
“If you change your mind, you know where to find me,” Cam said, relieved at not having to discuss her opinions on romance at the moment. Especially considering her current predicament involving the woman outside.
“Is there any way I can change your mind about dinner?” McKenna asked.
“Yeah, it’s the least we can do,” Sloane said.
A loud curse came from Blake out on the patio. Cam could see that she was still fidgeting with the grill.
“Thanks, but no. Should you happen to need anything though, don’t hesitate to come knocking.”
“Actually,” McKenna said as she turned and slid open a kitchen drawer. “There is one last thing you can do.” She crossed to Cam and handed her a stick lighter. “You can give this to Blake on your way out. I asked her to light the grill but forgot to tell her she’d have to use the lighter. The starter switch doesn’t work.”
Cam took the lighter but felt her face heat slightly at the thought of having to speak with Blake. And if she wasn’t mistaken, McKenna seemed to be studying her closely as if she could somehow see it.
Cam nodded, lighter in hand. “See you two tomorrow.”
“Night, Cam,” Sloane said.
Cam stepped onto the patio and slid the door closed. She approached Blake from behind, listening to her as she cussed at the grill.
“What the hell is wrong with this thing?” She was kneeling in front of it, messing with a red button and then the valve to the propane tank.
Cam could hear the hiss of propane, so she knew Blake had the valve open okay. When she pushed the red button to light the grill, however, it just made a clicking noise. Cam wondered how long Blake had been at it and she immediately became concerned at the amount of propane that had probably been released. Quickly, she knelt next to Blake and closed the valve.
“What are you doing?” Blake demanded as she straightened to a stand. Her eyes were fiery and full of obvious accusation and what looked to be…embarrassment.
Have I hurt her pride?
“Trying to prevent you from blowing yourself up,” Cam said matter-of-factly.
Blake stammered, as if she were taken aback by her candidness. “I’m just trying to light it. I think I know what I’m doing.”
Cam held up the lighter, somewhat amused that this stubborn and defiant woman seemed to be squirming a little. “McKenna forgot to tell you that the lighter on the grill doesn’t work. You have to use this.”
Blake squinted toward the windows like she was expecting to find McKenna standing there watching them. Cam recalled the way McKenna had been studying her a minute before and for a brief moment, she wondered the same. But there was nothing to be seen at the window. Only the reflection of the ambling sea.
Cam turned her focus back to Blake and Blake quickly tried to take the lighter from her hand. Cam pulled it away.
“You need to wait a few minutes,” Cam said. “You’ve released too much propane.”
“I realize that,” Blake said with contempt, Cam obviously having insulted her intelligence. “I wasn’t going to use it right away.” She attempted to grab it again, but Cam wouldn’t let her have it. She was agitated now and that pissed her off. She didn’t do agitated anymore. But somehow Blake had brought it out in her in a matter of seconds.
“What are you doing?” Blake asked.
“Helping you,” Cam said with a voice that revealed her own contempt.
“I don’t need your help.”
“I disagree.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really care.”
Blake bored a look into her eyes as they stood toe-to-toe and Cam flat out refused to look away.
How long before she finally caves and breaks eye contact?
Will it be before me? Before my mind does its damndest to tempt me into kissing those alluring lips?
Cam blinked the thoughts away, both surprised and appalled at where they’d gone. But Blake intensified things by leaning closer, as if she were taunting Cam and her refusal to look away. She leaned in a little more, their breath mingling. Seconds stretched into eternity and Cam’s gaze fell unknowingly to Blake’s lips. Blake seemed to have noticed before she did because she took full advantage by reaching around behind her, wrapping her fingers around the lighter and quickly snatching it away.
Cam felt the shock and betrayal wash over her face before she regained control of herself and put on a mask of indifference.
Blake gave a short, overly satisfied laugh, however, seemingly to let Cam know that she was wasting her time in her attempt to mask her feelings. Cam’s agitation grew, this time with herself for being so mercurial and so easily discernible. But what soon became more unsettling to her was the way she’d felt when Blake’s body had been mere inches from hers. There was something there. Something powerful. Blake had felt it too, Cam was sure of it. The tough girl act she was continuing to put on couldn’t mask her feelings any more than Cam’s did hers. Nevertheless, Cam continued with her act, too angry and spiteful now to give in.
“Okay then,” Cam said, forcibly calm with a hint of sounding blasé. “Show me how you’re going to use that to light the grill.”
“What?”
She pointed to the trophy Blake was holding ceremoniously in her hand. “Go on, show me.”
Blake opened the lid to the grill as if she were demonstrating the most obvious procedure in the universe. She aimed the lighter between the grates. “In here.”
“Wrong.”
Blake reddened beyond the pink tinge of her sunburn. “What do you mean wrong?”
Cam took the lighter from her and knelt. “You have to slide it into this hole near the base and then pull the trigger.” She showed her, as if Blake wouldn’t be able to figure out how to insert the lighter into a hole, and stood. “If you do it your way, you’ll get burned.”
“Fine. Thank you. I think I got it.”
Cam raised an eyebrow, feeling a little better now that she’d turned the tables a little. “Do you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure you don’t want me to do it?”
Blake narrowed her eyes. “I’m sure.”
Cam extended her hand and opened her palm. Blake retrieved her trophy like it was highly valued property. Property that Cam had intentionally stolen.
“Then have a good night, Blake. Don’t…blow yourself up.”
She stepped off the patio into the sand, leaving Blake standing there with the stick lighter in hand, held like Lady Liberty’s torch.