Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Cisco tried to tamp down his nervous anticipation as he drove. How would Hilly treat him after she'd had a few days to think about their epic kiss? Would she return to giving him the stink-eye like she had before nearly admitting they might have something together, or would she greet him with enthusiasm; as someone she'd pretty much decided to date at the end of her camp season?

It really was a toss-up.

Cisco turned down the road to the camp. He was driving his truck today, because the chief had been correct. Wrestling with his bike would have sucked. Just the amount of pulling he was experiencing while handling the wheel was damned uncomfortable, but nothing would have kept him from making the trip today to be near Hilly.

He pulled up to an entirely different scene from the one he'd left on Saturday morning. He'd thought then, that the camp was a peaceful, serene place, but now…

Children's happy screams rent the air, and small bodies ran this way and that, careening through the woods in gleeful abandon.

Right. This was the kids free time after lunch, if Cisco had memorized the schedule correctly. It was just prior to when they'd go off to do their supervised sports and physical activities, which included his class in self-defense.

Turning the truck off, Cisco gently eased himself out of his cab, grabbing the smaller versions of his RedMan suit, which he'd borrowed from the station. He wouldn't be putting his on today, but that didn't mean the kids couldn't do some light sparring while he did instruction and overwatch.

He walked toward the dining hall, headed for the covered pavilion beyond, that Hilly had designated as his outdoor space, when a stunning brunette sucking on an orange popsicle stepped out of the cafeteria.

She stopped dead with the treat in her mouth, and blinked.

"Hello," Cisco offered with a smile.

The orange confection came out slowly, and she licked her colorful lips slowly and deliberately. "Well, hello. You must be Cisco."

The woman then proceeded to give him an unabashed perusal from head to toe, not even attempting to hide her examination.

"That's me." Cisco suppressed a sigh. He was used to getting this reaction from women in bars, but he hadn't expected it here. And this blatant inspection did absolutely zero for his libido because… Hilly was the only one he wanted looking at him like he was good enough to eat.

Please don't let her make a pass , Cisco muttered to himself.

"I'm so happy to meet you," she finally continued with a huge grin. "I'm Buffy Minton, Hilly's ex-roommate and friend, and for a few months this summer, her therapist extraordinaire for the kids at camp," she enlightened him with mischief in her eyes. She took another lick of her frozen treat, eyeing him again, this time with a different kind of speculation. "And hot damn. I can totally see why you've got my bestie discombobulated."

"Discom… Who says that? And," Cisco swallowed, "What? I do?"

Buffy didn't hesitate. "Oh, yeah. I haven't seen her this befuddled in years. You must have some kind of potent mojo going on, because my Hilly doesn't usually talk anything but crafts, s'mores, and campfires during the summer months."

Cisco couldn't help the smile that came to his lips, hearing about Hilly from this outspoken woman. "She's been talking about me?"

There was not a hint of artifice. "She sure has. A lot, and effusively. But if you tell her I told you that, I'll deny it ‘til my dying breath."

"Your secret's safe with me," he responded, wanting nothing more than to high-five the woman, but he managed to hold back, grinning like a fool, instead. "And Buffy?" He hitched the suits he carried a little higher in his arms.

"Yes, Cisco?"

"Thank you."

"Any time." She popped the frozen dessert back into her mouth and winked before she turned and headed down the path toward the cabins.

Now that was a great way to boost his spirits. In truth, he'd actually been doubting himself, wondering if he'd just built-up the connection he'd imagined between himself and Hilly. Having her best friend confirm that he'd been on Hilly's mind, kept that shameless grin plastered to his face.

"Cisco!"

He shook himself out of his pleasant stupor and turned at the familiar voice. Ellen Sothard was practically sprinting toward him, looking over her shoulder every few seconds before she eventually sidled up next to him.

"Ellen, it's great to see you," Cisco grunted down at her, wondering why she was looking so sneaky.

"I'll make this short," the older woman said, giving him a brief hug, but with her eyes still darting rapidly, side to side. "Hilly really likes you…"

Damn. Another one? Within a matter of minutes? Still, who was he to complain?

"… but she has some issues. Things in her past have made her scared of going with her feelings where you are concerned, so if you're really interested, you have to be patient."

Cisco shook his head. "It seems like people around here know more about what's happening between Hilly and me than I do," he snorted, amused. "Was I part of the morning announcements or something?"

Ellen winked. "Nope. Just a little girl-talk before breakfast. Now I've got to scoot. I don't want Hilly to catch me pleading her case, and I've got supper to prep."

The woman took off at a decent clip, leaving Cisco to ponder everything he'd just been told. Apparently, Hilly liked him. Enough to talk about him, anyway. But the down side—as he'd suspected—was that something she considered extremely foreboding in her history was holding her back from moving ahead with what she wanted. And, of course, neither of her cohorts were talking, which meant Cisco was going to have to pry it out of Hilly, himself.

Cisco loved a challenge, that was true. And when was the last time he'd run into Hilly's kind of truculence while doing the dating-dance? Never, actually. And he'd never tangoed for very long with any woman. Most of the ladies he'd hooked up with hadn't made it as far as dating. Liaisons were normally one-and-done in the sack before moving on to new territory. Which probably made him an asshole, but that wasn't all on him. He'd never promised any of the badge bunnies more than a quick romp. The very few women over his adult years he had agreed to date for a longer term because they were well-skilled in bed, generally parted ways with him as friends.

Cisco pointed his feet toward the covered slab of concrete where he'd set up, while pondering that this situation with Hilly was all new territory for him. She was someone who hadn't been bowled over by any of his overt charms, and she was the first female he'd ever laid eyes on who made him feel something other than his normal, horn-dog attraction.

It was a good thing Cisco wasn't scared to see where he and Hilly might take things. He was thirty-three, and more than ready for what the old goats in town called a "lifer".

Hilly's bright hair alerted Cisco to the fact that she was already in the pole-structure where he was headed, and it looked like she was struggling with a large mat. Just as he was about to call out for her to wait until he could help, a young man—one of her counselors, whose name he seemed to recall began with a V—ran to her side and took the burden from her.

Cisco felt a stab of jealousy that he hadn't been the one to help, but shook off that idiotic green-eyed-monster. Hilly wasn't Cisco's property, and the counselor was a kid. A kid with a crush, if body posture told the story, but the brat was way too young to be any real kind of threat for Hilly's affections.

"Hey, Hilly," he called out as he drew closer.

She stumbled at his voice, and the V kid caught her arm, keeping her from a face plant.

Cisco growled to himself, but managed to keep the smile on his face. "Sorry," he apologized as he walked into the open structure. "I didn't mean to startle you."

The only thing mitigating the fact that the kid's hand remained on Hilly's arm a little too long was that she regarded Cisco with wide eyes and a definite flush to her skin.

As he walked toward her, he saw the pulse in her neck also beating overtime.

Hah. See if you get that reaction from her, you little cur , Cisco scoffed silently.

"You're early," Hilly responded breathlessly, and he didn't think it was because of the mat she'd just been schlepping. "I thought I'd have this whole place set up for you by the time you arrived."

"Thanks, but you didn't need to put yourself out," Cisco lauded her. "I normally organize things myself before I give a class."

"But you're still healing," she chastised in the schoolmarm voice that Cisco already knew was her fallback when she was nervous. "And I don't want you relapsing because of something we have or haven't done here." She turned to the young man who was now shuffling his feet by her side. "Vishon, maybe you can take direction from Cisco and help him place these mats where they need to go."

Vishon. Cisco would have to commit that name to memory as the kid with the crush on Hilly, in case he ever needed to dress the guy down for being inappropriate with her. Still, the youngster recovered fast enough, and turned a fake, but wide smile toward Cisco.

"Just tell me where you want things." He tightened his body; his chest thrust forward. "I work out, you know."

Cisco tried not to laugh when the kid did everything short of flexing his arm muscles to showcase his still-skinny, adolescent physique.

Damn. Had Cisco ever been that shameless?

Probably.

He cut the dude some slack. "Thanks, Vishon. I'd love your help. I'm healing from a gunshot wound, and the doc says I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting for a week or so."

Sooo…posturing?

Yup.

But, top that , he internally dared the kid, full-well knowing it was an asshole move to be playing the "hurt warrior" card, but dick-measuring was clearly something the young guy understood, because he backed off on his bravado, knowing he couldn't beat being capped by a bullet.

"Right. Anything you need, then," Vishon gave in.

Glancing at Hilly, Cisco saw that none of the exchange had gotten by her, and her lips quivered with stifled laughter while she attempted to maintain her professionalism.

She coughed. "I'll just leave you two to it, then," she managed. "I'll be herding the campers around to their assigned, afternoon physical challenges, which means your twenty-five victims should be headed this way, soon, Cisco."

"Excellent," he replied.

He hoped she'd end up watching his class, but since he wasn't going to be an active participant today and couldn't show off, she wouldn't miss much.

Almost an entire hour later, Cisco was deep into it with his group—some campers, some counselors—when Hilly finally made an appearance.

Cisco grinned, anxious to have her see what her kids had learned.

"Kelli? Tori? Why don't you two let Ms. Duncan see some of your moves."

The two young girls who currently wore the padded suits that were lighter and smaller than Cisco's, had been doing an admirable job of following directions, and he gave them their next instruction.

"Let's go with heel palm-strikes, and groin-kicks."

The pair went at it with relish, causing Hilly to gasp.

"Won't they hurt each other?" she asked, sidling up to him.

He tried to ignore her fresh, vanilla-like scent as he answered her question.

"Nah. That's what the suits are for, and they both know to pull their punches. We've already covered eyeball-jabs and nose-crunches without actually making contact."

She nodded, satisfied, saying for his ears only, "They look good. Confident. Which is what we want." She raised her voice. "Nice job girls. But now it's time to wind things down. We're five minutes away from finishing up our sports portion of the afternoon, and when you're done, if you could head into the dining hall, that's where we all are, next."

"Drama classes?" Cisco questioned with an eyeroll, knowing that's what was listed on everyone's agenda.

Hilly beamed at him. "Yes. Followed by?—"

"Swim time," Cisco provided, and he couldn't keep his next query inside. "Do you join the kids in the water?"

Now that was something Cisco would really like to see. Hilly in a bathing suit. His imagination was pretty good, but he'd love to have a real look at her anatomy.

"Sometimes," she shrugged. "But not today. What about you?"

Had her eyes just dropped to his chest? Was she thinking his muscles were something she wanted to see, or was she simply concerned about his boo-boo?

Cisco gave a regretful shoulder shrug. "I'll have to pass until I lose my bandaging. I've already had my fight with dressings for the day, putting on a new one after I got out of the shower this morning."

Of course, if she offered to help him…

She didn't respond, but he hoped that by talking about his shower he'd given her a nice visual.

With the speed with which she turned away, he thought he might have succeeded.

"See you inside." She waved over her shoulder and disappeared quickly.

Cisco held in his chuckle.

"Great job today, people," Cisco praised his class. They'd all paid strict attention, except for the two female counselors who had spent most of his session whispering and giggling. He could do without that shit, but this was camp, not school, and if the pair wanted to slack off, who was he to bitch? They'd get out of their lessons exactly what they put in.

Ignoring the two, and after helping to divest his current, younger combatants of their protective gear, he then tagged a few of the larger kids to help bring the mats back to the equipment box where they were stored. It took a little longer with the little ones than with teenage Mr. Muscle from before, but eventually everything was tucked away, including the RedMan suits which he would also need for his early evening class.

Herding his students toward the dining hall, he wasn't looking forward to drama class. He hadn't been kidding when he'd told Hilly he wasn't an acting kind of guy.

But for her?

He'd wing it.