Love Fool (One Night Only Season 2: Hunter's Story)

Chapter Ten

It's a relief to discover an empty camp when I get back from bringing Deni home. Slipping past the door and into my bedroom with no one around to see me means I don't face a barrage of well-intended questions from my family about my afternoon or why I've returned sooner than planned. Mom even stays mum on the subject over supper. I'm more than content to remain quiet and listen to my parents discuss what needs to be done before we leave for town in the morning, and the errands they have to take care of after we get there.

Adam is a different story. The first text from him shows up on my phone around eight o'clock that night.

I'm going to assume your romantic jaunt around the lake went well today, since you two didn't show up at my barbecue.

I might have told Adam a little white lie by promising I would bring Deni to his camp after we finished our lake tour. I had no intention of doing this, even before her panic attack and taking her home early.

It isn't like that, I text back.

Okay, cool guy. Then you have no reason to be upset if I decide to find out what she's up to while you're in town and ask her to hang out.

Adam knows what he's doing. If I admit to being interested in Deni, then I won't hear the end of it from him until I ask her out. He might even let something slip on purpose if he runs into us, and he'll be a billion times less subtle about it than he was this morning. On the flip side, if I pretend there's nothing to see here beyond Deni being my neighbor and new friend, Adam could take it as a green light to shoot his shot, in spite of what he thinks now and what he read into the situation when he saw us on the road. I'm in trouble either way.

She isn't really your type.

My phone dings less than a minute later, signaling his reply. Because she's your type, amirite? Just make a move.

Why are you so invested in this?

You're my best friend. I want you to be happy. I also want you to come to my parties again, hopefully with your new girlfriend.

He's gone from "make a move" to "girlfriend" in under a minute. Adam wastes no time.

I leave his last text unanswered. It isn't like I can march next door this instant, tell Deni I think she's beautiful, intriguing, incredible, and a stronger person than I am for the way she's handling what she's recently been through, ask her out, and then disappear for a few days. But I can do something else.

Maybe all the teen rom-coms from the nineties that my mom constantly watches on Netflix have gotten to me. I can't text or call Deni when I'm in town since she doesn't have access to her phone, but I can let her know I'm thinking of her another way.

I go off in search of the notepad and pen my parents keep in the kitchen for grocery lists. I've made fun of them before for writing these out instead of using their phones, but now I send up a silent thank you for having the paper and pen at my disposal. Once these are in my possession, along with an envelope I also find in a kitchen drawer, I head for my bedroom and shut the door.

It's time for some old-fashioned charm. I'm going to write Deni a letter so she'll know she's on my mind this week, and so Adam doesn't have a prayer if he makes good on his threat to hang out with her while I'm away.

The letter takes some planning before I'm ready to pen the final draft, but it lets me work out what I want to say and how I want to say it. My handwriting is decent, but the letter needs to be free of scratched-out words. I'm going for confidence and humor, and presentation matters.

Good morning. Maybe. It depends when you get this, really, or if a chipmunk takes off with it and shreds it for breakfast. Let's go with the assumption it's morning and you're reading this. Cool?