She stepped onto the as yet unmarked concrete, with Cisco a step behind, looking around with satisfaction.

The structure was a forty-five by seventy-six-foot slab, covered by a roof held up with wooden poles. There were basketball nets hung on either end, with soccer nets also standing at the ready beneath them. As much as Hilly had hated sports in middle-school—they’d always been angst-ridden events; being chosen last to play, having two left feet and getting jeered at—she’d erected this place on purpose.

“We help our campers learn to navigate interactive games without the pressure of peers who might be looking down on them for not being as athletic as they are.”

Cisco walked over to a basket of balls that had been put out just this morning, and plucked out a soccer ball, dropping it to the ground where he proceeded to expertly juggle it with his high, polished boots.

Hilly wanted to say, “like that” but when she looked at Cisco’s face, she could see he wasn’t trying to show off, it was more like…he was going through the motions unconsciously, in the same way someone would bite their nails.

“I could help out with soccer drills,” he offered, then laughed, which made Hilly’s heart pump a little erratically. The man was fine to look at, but when his face lit up with a smile, he stole the sun from the sky. “Just a caveat, though. I’m not all that good at basketball.”

Hilly would bet that was a lie. There probably wasn’t a sport in which the man didn’t excel, post middle-school. But she wasn’t the kid she’d once been, either. During her late high school and college years, she’d had the right mentors and coaches, and was now more than proficient on a basketball court. A little one-on-one with Cisco might…

No. She needed to shut that fantasy scenario down. Even though the one-on-one she’d just imagined was vertical, it could still be dangerous.

Hilly tried to ignore Cisco’s ongoing, fancy footwork, and turned toward her right. “I’ll show you our guest cabins,” she offered crisply.

With one practiced flip of his foot, the ball went right back into the basket.

Of course it did.

“Each of our ten cabins,” she schooled as they approached, “holds five bunkbeds for ten campers, and a twin bed for the cabin counselor. The girls’ quarters are the five cabins to my left, and the boys’ are to the right. The two long buildings you see in the middle of the cabin clusters are our washrooms. Not coed. The boys room has a green door, the girls’, purple. Something you need to remember in case you have need of the facilities while you’re here.”

“Good to know,” Cisco replied, then pointed left, just before the lake. “What’s that big cabin there?”

“That’s our infirmary, and the nurse’s quarters. I’d introduce you to our resident RN, but Ms. Gorner got tied up and won’t be here until later this afternoon.” Hilly hoped she’d kept the disgruntlement out of her tone.

Cisco nodded again while Hilly led him past the washrooms, away from the main body of the camp. “This cozy, private little area over here is for our counselors,” she told him. “It’s a small shelter as you can see, but it will keep them dry in a downpour, and with one side open, they have access to their own personal fire pit. All our counselors are free to use it during their down-time.”

“Do you have fires for the campers?” Cisco asked.

“Come on. I’ll show you. It’s down this trail,” she led him into the woods, keeping the lake to her left and trees to her right. “We have bonfires at least twice a week on the beach down here—weather permitting—with all the fixings like camp-songs and s’mores.”

“I used to love that time of night at camp,” Cisco rejoindered wistfully. “It seemed magical, and still does, looking back on it.”

Hilly would just bet he’d had lots of “magical” times. They probably included teenage groping and kissing in the shadows, but she didn’t call him on it. He was allowed his memories.

Hers…?

Just because she hadn’t enjoyed camp experiences—hadn’t been on the young and randy libido-train that most people her age had enjoyed—didn’t mean she hadn’t known that such things took place.

Hilly sped up her commentary, telling herself she still had a lot to do to get ready for the campers’ arrival in two days, even though that was a lie. She’d been here for weeks, and with her mother and step-father’s help, as well as the counselors who’d arrived a few days early, she had almost everything in place. In reality, it was simply tough spending time with Cisco, watching him laugh, walk, and even breathe. Every little thing the man did made him exponentially hotter.

“Here’s our climbing wall,” she pointed out as she stepped forward briskly, knowing her voice had grown frigid again, but there was nothing she could do about it. The man made her run ridiculously hot and cold. “There’s the bonfire pit, and up ahead is our ropes course.”

Hilly stopped abruptly. “The trail to our right is a half-mile loop around camp, and the one straight ahead follows the lake and leads to a picnic area.

“That’s it,” she ended. “Our camp.”

“And the acreage beyond?” he asked.

“Some of it belongs to me, but after a half-mile to the north as the crow flies, it becomes someone else’s property.”

She turned on her heel, preparing to hoof it back to the dining hall, but before she could take two steps forward, Cisco stopped her with a gentle hand to her shoulder.

A shiver of awareness flew through her body as she paused.

His touch was warm. Electric.

“I want to thank you for the tour, Hilly. I can tell you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into this place, and that you’re clearly all in with your mission. But now that the field trip is over, I have to ask. Why is it you’ve decided not to like me?”

CHAPTER FIVE

Hilly blinked.

Goddammit. Why was she always so transparent? Couldn’t she, just this once, not have every emotion she was feeling show on her face? Hilly knew she had to fix this, and fast, or Cisco might decide he didn’t want the job. Which was kind of what she’d been angling for in the beginning, but after spending an hour with him, she’d changed her mind. He was so…normal; an easy conversationalist, and extremely fine to look at. She didn’t want to welcome a different instructor now that she’d crossed paths with Cisco again and become settled with the idea of having him around. She just hoped her old, inappropriate crush wouldn’t crawl up from the dungeon of her past; coming back to shackle her.

Damage control time.

“I don’t dislike you,” she spluttered. “I simply…”

Damn. It was so hard to get the words out.

“What, Hilly? You can tell me,” he assured her with a soft look in his big brown eyes. “You won’t hurt my feelings. I meet all kinds of people who for one reason or another don’t like or trust cops.”

If only it were that simple.

Hilly, not known for her verbal filtering, ended up putting her thoughts right out there for him to ponder. “It’s not that you’re a cop,” she told him. “It’s that you’re…larger than life. Very good looking, and easy to converse with.”

Cisco grinned, and that damned dimple peeked out again. “And that’s a problem…why?”

“Because…” Now she was reaching; trying not to make it personal. “I’m afraid you’ll turn the heads of our female counselors, and disrupt things around here.”

Cisco threw back his head and laughed. “Not the first time I’ve heard something like that in regard to myself,” he admitted without an ounce of conceit. “But Hilly, I have it under control. First of all, I’d never go there. These girls are college age, and I’m thirty-three. It would be highly inappropriate, and honestly skeevy of me to encourage anything.” He gave a little shiver. “So please believe me when I say I’m very adept at setting boundaries, and I won’t provoke or allow any improper behavior from any of your staff.”

If Cisco had simply said he wouldn’t go there, Hilly might have called him on it. But the man had said he was skeeved, which meant he felt the wrongness of it in the right kind of way.

Hilly knew it was time to give up her over-the-top cranky attitude, and offered him a tentative, tepid smile. “I’m sorry if I implied that you’d take advantage. I wasn’t questioning you. I was simply worried about the dynamics of some uncontrollable teens fixating on you, your uniform, your bike…”

Shit. She was talking too much.

Cisco tilted his head and gave a wry twist of his lips as he studied her. “Then why do I still feel like you’ve got me on probation?”

“I’m…” How much did Hilly want to share without cluing him in to who she really was? Not that she thought her identity would remain a secret forever. Her parents loved to visit the camp, and at some point, they might run into Cisco. Even though he’d never laid eyes on them, it was possible Cisco and her mother might get talking and blow everything up.

Thinking it through, however, it was more likely it would be her new chef, Ellen Sothard who would inadvertently spill the beans. Ellen’s sons worked alongside Cisco, not only on the police department, but on their SWAT team.

Yeah. Guilty as charged. She’d kept track of him.