Strong & Wilde

Three

Three

Cassie

Bringing Cody Wilde on our camping trip was so not cool. Not. At. All.

I sat on a flat rock in front of my tent yanking my hair into tight braids, wishing it wasn’t so thick and wavy hair like Dad’s. The humidity drove my hair wild and it stuck out all over the place. It looked like I’d stuck my finger in an electrical socket or something. Putting it into braids was the only thing that kept it out of my face.

I watched my father, my father, pat Cody on the back, giving him his full attention. They were digging a hole, setting it up to start the campfire. Dad was laughing and smiling, talking about football and whether or not Texas University would have a winning season. Cody, that little stinker, kept looking up at my dad with a stupid grin plastered on his face, hanging on to his every word.

Stupid boys and their stupid football.

“Want me to add the tinder, Deputy Strong?” Cody bent down, his light brown hair falling forward as he gathered up the small twigs at his feet.

“Yep.” Dad stood, brushing the dirt off his jeans. “Call me Dale, Son. All my friends do.”

I huffed when Cody’s blue eyes lit up.

“Sure thing, Depu . . . er, Dale.”

“Now where did I put those matches,” Dad said, searching his pockets.

Cody tossed the twigs into the fire pit. “I got some.” He stuck grubby hands into his pockets. When he tugged out a book of matches, wads of paper, marbles, and a couple of green army men tumbled to the ground.

I eyed the green army men lying in the dirt and then looked at Cody, raising an eyebrow. Still playing with dolls, Tinder Boy?

His face turned red and he quickly picked them up, jamming them back into his pockets.

“Thanks, Cody.” Dad lit the fire and then turned his attention to me. It was about time. It was like I wasn’t even there. “Cassie, stop messing with your hair and hand me the marshmallows.”

I paused mid-braid and scowled.

We looked at each other for a few moments, his face silently communicating to me to be nice.

I didn’t want to be nice. I wanted Cody gone.

“Okay,” I grumbled and quickly finished up the braid.

I always looked forward to my annual birthday camping trip. Dad was so busy with work, especially on the weekends, that I hardly ever saw him. When most parents were watching their kids play baseball or soccer, my dad was busy keeping the peace and order in the county. He loved his job. He loved me too, though I wish we could spend more time together. Our father-daughter camping trips were the only time I had to be alone with him.

Then Cody had to go and ruin it.

Okay, so Dad was the one who invited him.

And to be fair, Cody did turn him down.

And yeah, I did tell Cody I wanted him to come with us. But only because Dad kept poking me in the back! And he didn’t have to give in so fast when Dad urged him a second time.

I snatched a bag of marshmallows from the box of groceries we had brought with us and tossed it to Dad. He caught it and gave me that look again. I sighed and plastered on my best so-happy-to-have-Cody-with-us smile.

It lasted about as long as the bug spray I had sprayed on an hour earlier.

When we finally sat around the campfire, I tried hard not to give Cody the evil eye.

Really, I did.

I don’t think I tried hard enough because as the sun went down behind the trees, Cody kept eyeing me carefully. Each time I looked back at him, he seemed to be sitting farther away from me. It probably didn’t help that I made as much noise as I could getting the marshmallows ready to put over the fire, which was really hard to do because, well, they’re marshmallows.

As I munched on my second s’more, I glanced over at Cody. He opened and closed his mouth nervously, his eyes bouncing between Dad and me. I felt a little bit sorry for him so I gave him a weak smile, which he took as an invitation to speak.

“Uh, I didn’t have a chance to thank you for inviting me. I’ve always wanted to go camping but Uncle Mike’s been too busy workin’ to take time off.”

“It’s a pleasure having you with us, Cody. Isn’t it Cassie?”

No.

“Yeah, sure thing. Want another chocolate bar?”

I tossed him the candy, and he grinned, highlighting smudges of melted chocolate on the edges of his mouth and front teeth.

He looked kind of cute when he did that. Maybe he’s not that bad.

“Cassie and I come every year for her birthday,” Dad said, stoking the fire. “You could come again with us next year seeing that it’s your birthday too.”

My jaw dropped.

No way! He was going come with us every year?

His blue eyes widened when they saw my glare. I might’ve scared him a little when I stabbed the marshmallow onto the stick.

“Uh, I’d have to ask Mom ’bout that.”

Dad elbowed me. “Yeah, you should come again. The more the merrier.”

Boy, that sounded lame. Even I didn’t buy it.

There was a buzzing sound and I felt something on my arm. A mosquito the size of a fly was happily sipping on me. I whacked it.

Take that Mosquito Cody!

“Bet you didn’t know that you two had the same birthday,” Dad said.

“Nope.” Cody watched me carefully as I whacked at another mosquito.

“Here put on some more of this bug spray, Cassie.” Dad handed me a blue can with an orange top and continued his story. “It was late on a Saturday night. I was out on the north side of the county when I got a call that my wife, Ann, was on her way to the hospital ready to have Cassie. I was on my way when I saw your Dad on the side of the road kicking the tires of his old Chevy and smoke coming out of the engine. Seemed like you were ready to come out too. I would’ve taken your mom with me right then and there, but it wasn’t more than five minutes that you popped out. You should’ve seen J.D. he was jumping on the truck bed whooping and hollering, he was so happy to see you.”

“Really?” Cody’s face lit up.

“He sure was. Never seen a man as proud to be a father as your Dad was, except for me of course.” He placed his arm around my neck and drew me to him, kissing my forehead. “It’s getting late and we need to get up early to make the drive back.”

Cody jumped up. “I’ll be back. I gotta . . . you know.”

“No problem. Cassie will help me clean up.”

When Cody was out of sight relieving himself behind some poor tree, Dad turned to me. “What’s wrong, Cassie?”

“Nothing.” I busied myself picking up paper plates, napkins, and candy wrappers around the campsite, stuffing them into a trash bag.

“You’ve been pouting all weekend.”

“I don’t pout.”

He turned me to face him and his finger flicked my bottom lip. I huffed, tucking my lip back in.

He chuckled. “I know I sprung bringing Cody with us at the last minute. You have to understand, Cassie, he’s been through a lot with losing his father.”

I sighed. “I know. But why does it have to be you. What about his uncle or his mom?”

“His uncle’s job on the oil rigs keeps him away a lot of the time. He’s the only one that can work and he’s supporting Cody and his mom. And Cody’s mom, well, she can barely function. They’re all grieving, Cassie. Cody has no one right now. Can you understand that?”

“Yeah, I guess so. It’s just . . . ”

“Just what?”

“It’s not fair. Just because Cody lost his dad doesn’t mean he has to steal mine.”

The moment the words came out of my mouth, I wished I could’ve taken them back. The disappointed expression on Dad’s face hurt me more than any punishment he could ever give me.

“I expected more from you, Cassie.”

“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean it. I’m just afraid that you’ll like him more than me.”

“Cassie, nothing can take away my love for you.”

“Not even if I’m not a boy?”

“Of course not. I love you just the way you are. Nothing will ever change that. Look, I know it’s hard to understand right now, but just because I care for someone else doesn’t mean it lessens the love I have for you.”

He kissed the top of my forehead. “Are we okay?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, try to get some sleep.” I turned and was about to go into my tent when I saw Cody hidden in in the shadows.

By the look on his face, I knew that he had heard everything. I thought disappointing my dad was the worst feeling in the world.

I was wrong.