Four hours later, Gabi was about to dunk Luke and the girls all in the lake. All morning, he’d sat in a lawn chair outside the new bathroom. All morning, he’d sipped his coffee and read the newspaper. All morning, the girls had gotten closer and closer to killing each other.
He’d handed them the plumbing plans after breakfast, pointed them to the parts, and told them they needed to figure out how to plumb the shower. When Gabi had flipped out—just a little bit, mind you—about torches and soldering and the like, he’d given one of those long-suffering sighs he was so good at, and had then pointed at the pile of plastic parts.
“No metal. No fire.”
“You’re having them build a plastic shower?”
He’d put his hands up in the air, exasperated. “You prefer fire?”
So now an entire morning had gone by, and the girls were at each other’s throats. Gabi’d taken a short walk just to get away from the sniping, but now she was back in the clearing, heading for Luke.
“How are they doing?”
A squawk from inside gave her all the answer she needed, and she winced.
He sipped his coffee nonchalantly. “It’s alpha-dog day.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re sick of working cooperatively. Today they’re all trying to be in charge at the same time. It’s not going well.”
“Even Waverly?” Gabi felt her eyebrows rise.
“Nah. She’s just trying to align herself with whoever’s in charge at the moment. Tough morning for her—it keeps changing.”
Gabi looked at him, the picture of relaxation. “You seem awfully amused by this. And unconcerned about your endless list of things that need doing.”
He shrugged, looking back down at his newspaper. “It’ll get done. This is important for them to work through.”
She paused at his words. How did he know what needed working through? And why was he willing to give up his entire day to it, anyway?
She shook her head to clear it. “So how’s the actual plumbing coming? Are they making any kind of progress?”
He looked up. “Desperate for that shower, aren’t you?”
“Yes. And don’t think it hasn’t occurred to me that you must have a perfectly good one in your cabin, because you keep showing up just-showered-fresh, and it’s driving me nuts.”
She felt heat rise in her cheeks as the words came out, and she turned away. Yeah, it was driving her nuts, because when he came in with his hair all damp and his body smelling like the piney outdoors, all she wanted to do was touch the nape of his neck, where the dark waves met skin. All she wanted to do was press her body against his, to see if the muscles in his chest were as strong and solid as they looked. All she wanted—
“Gabi?” His amused voice broke into her totally inappropriate daydream. “You lusting after me? Or my shower?”
“I’m not lusting after any—”
Just then another shriek rose from inside, but this time it sounded like elation, then pounding feet.
The four girls poured out of the doorway, smiles on their faces. “Luke! We’re ready! It’s ready!”
He looked up. “You sure?”
“Yes! Turn on the water!”
Gabi smiled, their enthusiasm contagious. “You guys really figured it out?”
“Yup!” Eve wiped her hands on her shorts. “Piece of cake.”
Luke pushed up from his chair, headed for the water shutoff. “All right. I’ll turn it on. Just one question, though—I see some parts still lying here on the grass.” He pointed down at three pieces of plastic. “You didn’t need those?”
“No.” Madison had a superior look. “We tweaked the design, and used less parts. That’s allowed, right?”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” He motioned them back into the little building. “Okay. Let’s turn this baby on!”
After they’d gone inside, Gabi sidled up to him. In a low voice, she whispered, “Are those missing parts going to be an issue?”
He looked up at her, his hand on the valve, a sly grin on his face. “You’re about to find out.”
He twisted the valve to its left, and there was a pause, then a chorus of screeches. These ones, however, were not the happy kind.
“Turn it off!”
“It’s flooding!”
“Oh, no!”
“Madisonnnnnnn!”
Gabi couldn’t help but laugh as the girls came stumbling out of the bathroom, soaked to the skin, their hair hanging in dripping ropes. Luke stood beside the valve, which he shut off as soon as Madison emerged, the last of the crew.
He walked calmly to his chair and picked up his coffee, then opened the newspaper back up. When nobody moved, he looked up.
“So … obviously something’s not right. Try again. And maybe use all of the parts this time. Designs exist for a reason, girls.”
After they’d picked up the extra pieces and headed—muttering—back into the bathroom, Gabi took a deep breath and plucked his newspaper out of his hands, forcing him to look at her.
“Did you know it was going to be a failure?”
“Yep.”
“So why did you let them continue?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Because that’s how you learn.”
“By failing?”
“Sometimes.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure I approve of your methods, Luke. Don’t you think you should help them now?”
“Nope.”
“You’re willing to sacrifice this entire day to this project?”
“Yep.”
Oh. My. God. She was going to strangle him with a string of his own “nopes” and “yeps.”
“Gabriela, let me ask you this—when they step into that shower tomorrow, will they enjoy it more if they figure it out? Or if I go in and bail them out?”
“I don’t honestly think they’d care, at this point. They just want a shower.”
“Well, if I go help them right now, then they leave the project thinking they failed. If they battle it for the afternoon and win, then they’ve succeeded at something today.”
“They succeed at things every day, Luke. Who exactly do you think you’re dealing with here?”
He paused, and she got the distinct feeling she’d hit another nerve. Then he plucked the newspaper back out of her hand and took a deep breath, meeting her eyes.
“I think I know exactly who I’m dealing with here.”
* * *
“Okay, we’re ready for inspection.” Sam’s voice was muted as she came out of the bathroom to fetch Luke two hours later.
Ten times that day, he’d been tempted to leave the girls on their own and go tackle his own projects, but fear of them taking off had kept him glued to the perimeter of the bathroom. The girls might seem focused, but they were also sly enough that they’d slipped through Gabi’s supervision once. He’d be damned if it would happen again, this time on his watch. Not when he’d worked this hard to gain even a modicum of her trust.
So he’d sat there and pretended to read, for hours on end. He’d listened as the girls had grappled for control inside the bathroom. After Gabi had headed up to the dining hall to start making dinner, he’d smiled as they’d insulted each other with words that would have made even his most hardened students blush.
And then it had gotten quiet. Blessedly quiet. For a minute, he’d worried that they’d headed out a window and down to the lake, but then he’d heard tinkering, and then the oddest sound of all. One of the girls had giggled, and then another, and before long, it had sounded like all four of them had succumbed.
That had been a half hour ago.
And now Sam was fetching him to check over their work. He crossed his fingers that they’d done it right this time, but not just because their mistake had made such an unholy mess the first time. Something deep down made him want them to succeed at this task, both to prove to themselves that they could do it, and to prove to Gabi that he hadn’t been nuts to make them try.
“Use all the parts?” He didn’t get up.
“Every single one, yes.” She nodded. “Turns out, when you look at the plans right side up, things make more sense.”
“Funny how that works. Though I’m not exactly sure how four people your age could possibly not notice it was upside down in the first place.”
“Luke, no offense, but we don’t do a lot of plumbing at Briarwood.”
He pushed out of his chair. “All right. Let me see how you did.”
He walked into the bathroom, where the other three girls leaned against the new stalls. They looked tired and hot and sticky, but also triumphant. Good.
He looked at the piping they’d run, checked the connections, tapped on a few things for effect, then nodded.
“Looks good. All right. You guys stand here. I’ll go turn it on.”
Eve scooted out the door. “Oh, hell, no.”
“What’s the matter, Eve? Don’t trust your own handiwork?”
“I trust my own handiwork just fine. It’s other people’s handiwork I’m not so crazy about.”
“Well, you all worked together on this one.” Luke shrugged. “So I say you all stand right there outside that shower stall and see what happens when I turn on the water this time.”
Eve rolled her eyes, but she headed back into the bathroom to wait with the others. Luke walked around to the back of the building and turned on the valve, bracing himself for the sound of sputtering water, but the only sound that greeted him was silence.
He smiled. They’d actually done it.
“Nothing’s happening.” Waverly’s voice was nervous through the window.
“That’s good,” he answered. “Try the handles now.”
He heard shuffling, then metal on metal as one of the girls turned on the faucet. Then there was a satisfying splash as the shower started.
“Oh, my God! It worked!” Eve shouted.
Madison and Waverly squealed, but then Luke heard Sam’s voice. “Um, problem.”
“What?” the other girls said in unison.
“It’s cold.”
Luke smiled as the girls realized that they had indeed plumbed a shower, but not one with actual hot water.
“Luke?” Madison emerged from the building, hands on her hips. “Did you just design us a cold shower?”
“Nope.” He smiled, and he knew they were going to want to kill him. “Today was shower-building 101. Tomorrow, we add heat.”
“Are. You. Kidding?” Sam’s eyes looked like they were about to spin out of her head. “There’s no heat?”
“Well, let me ask you this—did it occur to any of you that you had no heat source?”
Waverly scrunched her eyebrows together. “What do you mean?”
“Water doesn’t heat itself, girls. Look.” He waved at the faucets. “You want hot water, you need to have a way to make it hot. Tomorrow, we install a water heater.”
Sam flopped on the grass, her arm slung over her eyes. “I don’t care. I hate plumbing. I hate this place. I hate water. And I definitely hate—you.”
Luke laughed. “Good. We’re right on schedule.”
* * *
A little while later, Gabi looked out the huge windows of the dining hall to see the girls trooping down to the water, Luke in tow. All except Sam were in their bathing suits. Apparently the heat had gotten to them enough that they finally didn’t care just how frigid the lake water was.
She wiped her hands on a dish towel, dinner prep finally finished. Two hours ago, Luke had pointed to the menu on the huge fridge, then pointed to the ingredients. “Let me know if you need help,” he’d said.
Not a chance, she’d thought. No way am I going to admit that I don’t have a clue what to do with six chicken breasts, six potatoes, and a bunch of salad ingredients sitting in the fridge.
But she’d figured it out. The chicken was in the oven, a green salad was in the refrigerator, and she’d even made brownies. From a boxed mix, but still. Who said she had no domestic skills?
She headed out the screen door and down to the shore, smiling as she saw Madison, Waverly, and Eve dare each other to jump off the dock. Sam watched from the sand as they held hands and counted to three five times before one of them—Gabi couldn’t tell who—finally dragged the other two into the water. When they bobbed to the surface, letting out the requisite squeals, Sam shook her head.
“Idiots,” Sam muttered as Gabi sat down beside her in the sand.
“You don’t want to join them?”
“Do I ever want to join them?”
Gabi sighed. “Not by choice, no. But it’s really hot. You don’t want to cool off?”
“Ha.” Sam sent a glare at Luke, who was fiddling with something over by the equipment shed. “If I want to cool off, I’ll just go use our brand-new shower. It’s very—refreshing.”
He smiled tolerantly. “Cold shower’s better than no shower, right?”
“Cold shower?” Gabi was confused. “Why do we have a cold shower?”
“Girls forgot a heat source.”
“Girls didn’t know about heat sources,” Sam shot back.
He shrugged. “They do now.”
Sam growled, which made Gabi laugh.
“It’s not funny, Gabi.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m not laughing about the situation. Laughing about you growling at Luke.”
“Well, then you would have been in hysterics if you’d heard me earlier. I might have taught him some new curse words.”
Gabi felt her mouth go tight. “I don’t think that’s exactly the goal here, Sam.”
“Yeah, well, a hot shower was the goal here, and we didn’t get that, either.” Sam tossed a pebble toward the end of her toe, missing widely.
“Hey, Sam! You coming in this time?” Madison beckoned from the water.
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Oh, come on, Sam.” Waverly popped up beside Madison. “You never swim.”
“You’re not afraid of the water, are you?” Madison tipped her head, and Gabi was struck by how clearly she resembled the meanest of the mean girls in the movie they’d watched in the dorm last month.
Sam drew her knees up to her chest. “Not afraid. Just don’t feel like swimming.”
“But you never feel like swimming.” Waverly smiled like a Cheshire cat, and an alarm pinged in Gabi’s gut. “Come on, Sam. Just come in with us.”
“No.” Sam shook her head. “Go find a turtle to torment or something. Leave me be.”
Madison took three steps toward shore, like a piranha going in for the kill. “Oh, Sam. I really think you need to come swim with us.”
One second later, Gabi jumped in surprise as she saw Eve streak around behind Sam. Then, in an obviously rehearsed motion, Madison and Waverly sprinted out of the water, grabbing Sam’s legs just as Eve slid her hands under Sam’s armpits and lifted her out of the sand.
Sam screeched like Gabi’d never heard before, and her arms and legs flailed in the air as the girls carried her down the dock.
“Going swimming with the fishes, Sammy!” Madison sang. “You’ve avoided it long enough.”
“Stop. It. Right. Now!” Sam squawked, and the sound got Gabi’s alarms clanging at full volume. “Put me down!”
“Girls!” Gabi yelled. Sam didn’t look pissed. She looked terrified. “Girls! Put her down!”
But either they didn’t hear her, or they ignored her, because five seconds later, with a mighty heave, they tossed her off the end of the dock. There was an enormous splash, and the girls ran back up the dock toward shore, laughing wildly.
Gabi jumped up, scanning the water. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luke moving quickly down the lawn toward her. Time seemed to freeze as she watched the spot where Sam had landed, and she silently willed her to stop joking around and come back up.
But ten seconds later, her annoyance turned to terror as the surface of the water stayed unbroken.
Sam was down there … and she wasn’t coming back up.