One Big Happy

-Jacey-

My father started a fire, and soon we were roasting weenies on sticks. Jeanie and my father took one of the makeshift stump-and-board benches near the fire, so Caleb and I were forced side-by-side on the other.

Caleb was roasting his own weenie, and so was I, but my father had stuck two weenies on one stick and had his arms around Jeanie, teaching her to roast as though he were teaching her to golf. Jeanie giggled the whole time.

“Enjoying your birthday trip so far?” Caleb asked in a low tone as he slowly turned his weenie over the fire. They’d come cold, nearly frozen, from the cook tent cooler, so waiting for them to sizzle and split was a bit of a chore.

I set my jaw and didn’t answer him. I didn’t have to. Caleb knew that this was my worst birthday since I’d turned fifteen and foolishly confessed I had a crush on him.

Caleb gently bumped my shoulder with his. “I am sorry about before, Jocelyn.”

“Hmph,” I answered noncommittally.

He leaned closer to my ear. “And I’m sorry about your fifteenth birthday.”

I was so startled, I dropped my stick, hotdog and all, in the fire.

My father groaned. “Jacey!”

“Oh dear. I’m sure I can make you a sandwich,” Jeanie said brightly.

“That’s wasteful. Does it look like we’re anywhere near a Cub Foods?” my father complained.

Caleb stood before I could stop him. The expression on his face told me he might actually walk over and slug my father.

Instead, he deliberately dropped his stick in the middle of the fire.

“What do you want on your sandwich, Jocelyn?” Caleb asked me, turning his back and stalking towards the cook tent.

I stared, openmouthed. My father was so red, I wondered if Jeanie was going to try to smear HIM with sunscreen.

Caleb was looking back at me expectantly.

I had a choice here. I could back down and say I wasn’t hungry and keep my father happy. Or I could show a little rebellion and go with Caleb.

It shocked the hell out of me when I rose to my feet and went after Caleb. Caleb smiled slightly at me and put an arm around my shoulders. It felt both protective and in solidarity.

“Hank, just let them have sandwiches. We packed plenty of food. You know that.” Jeanie soothed my father over the crackling of the fire.

I could hear my father muttering words like “ungrateful” and “disobedient” and “bad influence,” and it made me feel a bit better about the whole situation. I’d never admit it to Caleb, but I could admit it to myself: I was a bit pissed off at my father.

He’d made a huge deal about this happy family vacation for MY birthday but so far had just doted on Jeanie. He was also making Caleb’s camping trip a living hell. As for me...

“Did you tell your dad you’d been hoping for your usual father/daughter trip this year for your birthday?” Caleb asked me softly, as though reading my thoughts. He pulled bread, Miracle Whip, ham, cheese, and a head of lettuce out of the cooler.

“Well... yeah,” I admitted.

“He decided this was better?” Caleb said. He wiped off the folding table we’d recovered from my father’s stash in the woods and began setting out a kind of sandwich station.

“I... think he wanted to show Jeanie this place,” I replied.

Caleb paused. “A place just you and him shared? He didn’t, I don’t know, see there might be a problem with that?”

I drew a little circle in the dirt with my toe. I could feel Caleb’s eyes on me, and my cheeks heated up. “He really wanted to have you and Jeanie celebrate with us. I don’t know. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Bullshit.” Caleb put together a sandwich while he shook his head and slapped it on a plate. He handed it to me.

“I don’t eat—” I stopped, realizing he’d made my sandwich exactly the way I like it.

“You don’t eat cheese,” Caleb finished for me.

I nodded. “You remembered.”

“Hard to forget. Don’t worry, more for me,” Caleb grinned, dropping two slices of cheese on his own sandwich.

I couldn’t help it. I giggled.

Caleb smiled down at me with genuine warmth. Then something in his eyes changed, something that made me feel electrified inside and out.

“We should go sit down, Jocelyn,” Caleb murmured. His eyes were on my lips once more.

I licked them.

Caleb leaned forward.

Just when I thought he might kiss me, Caleb leaned past me and grabbed the knife out of the Miracle Whip jar. He licked the white dressing off it slowly, his eyes locked on mine.

“We’re playing a dangerous game,” Caleb rumbled.

“What... what game?” I whispered. I could smell campfire on him, and that heady, dark scent that was uniquely Caleb.

Caleb’s smile was slow and made my heart pound and my panties wet.

“You know what game.” He took his sandwich out on a paper plate back to the fire.

I had to steady myself against the table for a moment before going back to sit next to him on the bench.

“All I can say is the fishing had better be good tomorrow,” my father grunted, eyeing us and our sandwiches. “Because that’s what we’re eating.”

“I’m sure the fishing will be great, Hank,” Jeanie said, leaning against his arm. They were happily munching on their hotdogs.

“Sandwiches aren’t bad, either.” Caleb was needling my father.

“We won’t be having sandwiches tomorrow,” my father seethed.

Caleb opened his mouth to say some smartass remark, I was sure, but I bumped my knee against his.

“We’ll see,” my stepbrother amended.

When we finished our sandwiches, we threw our plates in the fire. My father stood and took Jeanie’s hand, tugging her toward their tent.

“I thought we were going fishing?” I said.

Jeanie blushed and looked up at my father.

My father smiled down at her and then shrugged at me. “You and Caleb are welcome to go out in the canoe. There should be some good sunset fishing.”

“Oh, okay,” I replied, a bit disappointed. “I guess we’ll just go out bright and early tomorrow morning, then.”

“Well, you got the bright and early part right,” my father said. “But you’re going to be fishing with Caleb.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked, surprised.

“All week,” my father responded. “Somebody’s got to show him the ropes.”

“Even on my birthday?” I asked.

My father sighed. “Jacey, I wish you and your brother would just get along—”

“For Chrissake, she’s not my sister,” Caleb cut in, “and if you want time to fuck my mom, you should just say so. I’ll take Jocelyn out in the boat. You two have fun tonight. But get your fucking head out of your fucking ass, you asshole. Jocelyn wanted to come here with you, to spend time with YOU for her birthday. And you can’t be fucking bothered to take her out once?”

I stared at Caleb. So did my father.

Jeanie burst into tears. “Oh Jacey, I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined your birthday, haven’t I?”

My father’s expression turned positively thunderous. “How dare you speak to me that way? To your mother?!”

“Oh come on, you’ve been riding the bullshit wave all the way here, and I’m tired of it. You’re deliberately pissing me off for your own twisted sense of fun because you think I’m not going to call you on your bullshit. You’ve been treating Jocelyn like crap. Does that make you feel like a big man in front of my mother, Hank?” Caleb yelled.

I thought they might actually come to blows. Jeanie was sobbing, tugging on my father’s arm to stop him from stomping over to Caleb. I put my hands on Caleb’s chest and pushed him back with all the strength I had when he took a step toward my father.

“Let’s go fishing,” I pleaded with Caleb. “Please, Caleb. Let’s just go fishing.”

“You’ll be using Jacey’s tackle because you won’t be using a damn thing I bought you!” my father shouted after us as I slowly managed to get Caleb to walk backward.

“It’s okay,” I murmured. “I have two poles and plenty of tackle. Let’s just go.”

Caleb curled his lip at my father, but he let me take him by the wrist down to the canoe. True to his word, Caleb pulled his own tackle box out of the canoe and dropped it on the shore with a thud. His poles followed.

I winced. “Be nice to the equipment.”

Caleb snorted but was nicer to the boat cushion and his lifejacket.

“We can’t go without your lifejacket,” I said sternly.

“Why not? Your dad bought it for me. And he said I wasn’t going to be using any of his equipment,” Caleb shot back.

I folded my arms over my chest. “My father didn’t mean you shouldn’t wear your lifejacket. Lifejackets are mandatory. I’m not going anywhere with you unless you put it on.”

“Why, somebody die?” Caleb asked.

“Two men. Last year. And that’s just who I know about. Right here, on this lake, swimming from this campsite...” I pointed back the way we’d come. “... to that shoreline.” I indicated the shoreline across from us.

Caleb blinked, then obligingly clipped his lifejacket in place. “Shit. Your dad’s not kidding about safety.”

“We never kid about safety,” I confirmed. I went to the rope and untied us, pushing the metal canoe out into the water as soon as Caleb was situated in the back.

Caleb started the motor in one pull this time and navigated us just far enough away from camp that we couldn’t be seen. Then he turned to me. “How about you drive? I’ll bet you know all the good fishing spots.”

“I do. Most of them, anyway. I mean, there’s TONS my dad knows about that we only go to once in a while that I couldn’t tell you where they are, but the main honey holes, yeah, I know where they are,” I said.

“Honey... holes?” Caleb repeated, his lips twitching.

Oh God. I knew I must be lobster red. “Well, that’s what my dad calls them. See, walleye hang out in holes or drop-offs a lot of the time in twenty to twenty-five feet of water... so when you find just the right spot where you can pull fish almost all the time, it’s called a honey hole.”

“I’m gonna remember that one,” Caleb chuckled. “Anyway, let’s switch spots.”

“Okay, but we’ve got to be careful,” I said. “The canoe’s a lot more tippy than the boat.”

“Noted,” Caleb replied as he leaned over and did a kind of crawl walk with his hands on the sides of the metal canoe, coming toward me.

He sat right in front of me at the bottom of the canoe so I could move out of my seat and maneuver around him. I crouched down and was just getting to my feet when we bumped a rock.

Caleb toppled backward, and I landed right on top of him, pelvis to pelvis, lifejacket to life jacket. If it hadn’t been for those lifejackets, we’d have probably bumped noses, too. As it was, our faces were inches apart.

I licked my lips nervously, again.

“Really wish you wouldn’t have done that,” Caleb whispered as he captured my lips with his.