Touching Down by Nicole Williams
“Failing what?” I asked.
“Everything.” This time, his paddle wobbled. Just for a second, and no one else probably even noticed, but I didn’t miss it. I’d been watching for it. Like me, he had something specific he was afraid of failing. I knew what mine was, but I couldn’t begin to imagine what his could have been. Was he afraid of failing a little brother of his own, too? Failing someone else important? Failing himself? Failing physics? Failing a driving test? Failing his principles?
When it came to failing, the possibilities were endless.
“So what does your name mean, Callum?” Mary Jo’s husband called. I had to shake my head and take a few steps away from him to clear my mind. All I’d needed to find was a Wi-Fi password and a sack lunch—instead I’d stumbled on everything besides those two things.
Callum answered the guy’s question by clamping his mouth shut.
“You spilled the meaning about her name and made her confirm or deny if it was accurate. In front of a whole group of strangers.” The man in the orange running suit opened his arms up. “Seems only fair you do the same in return.”
He kept paddling. “I’m instructing.”
“The life jacket demonstration’s done and you’ve pounded proper paddle stroke and ‘going with the flow’ into our brains.” He circled his finger around the group. “We’re waiting.” Orange Jogging Suit lifted his shaggy gray brows and demonstrated just how ready he was to wait.
A few more shouts of support circled the group, but Callum didn’t look close to caving. At least until he glanced over at me and I crossed my arms over the bulky life jacket and raised an eyebrow. I probably looked like an escaped mental patient in an orange straitjacket.
He shook his head at me, smiling the whole time, before shouting into the crowd, “Dove!”
“I didn’t see it,” shouted one middle-aged camper with the biggest set of binoculars I’d ever seen strung around his neck, his head shooting up toward the sky.
“There are no doves in this part of the country,” added another camper, who had a not- quite-so-impressive set of binoculars around his own neck.
Callum settled his hands on his hips and stared at the group like he couldn’t believe his ears. “My name,” he said slowly. “The meaning of it is ‘dove.’ And you’re wrong about them not being in this part of the country. Doves are a hardy, adaptable breed. They can thrive in any part of the country.”
“Dove?” I felt my forehead pinch together. Callum didn’t sound like it meant “dove” to me.
His expression was of the deadly brand of serious. “Dove.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You know, the common bird that’s associated with the pigeon family that people consider an all-around nuisance and pest?” Callum motioned his hands at himself like he was proving something. “So yeah, totally prophetic for the person I grew into.”
This time when the group laughed, I joined them.
It took me by surprise—the laugh. Until this moment, I’d been convinced I’d spend the summer on a laughter strike. An hour into day one and I was already disproving that whole theory.
I could tell he was trying not to laugh, but one slipped out. It was a nice sound. One of the nicest sounds I’d heard in a long time. It wasn’t the fake kind or the dialed-down kind; it was the real kind.
“So I guess we’re just a couple of birds.” I smiled at him, wondering if at the end of the summer, I’d leave this place with more than just enough money for a beater car.
Don’t miss the summer romance worth swooning over.
Trusting You & Other Lies on sale June 20, 2017.
Visit our website for more details: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/241030/trusting-you-and-other-lies-by-nicole-williams/
Thank you for reading TOUCHING DOWN by NEW YORK TIMES and USATODAY bestselling author, Nicole Williams.
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Other Works by Nicole:
CRASH, CLASH, and CRUSH (HarperCollins)
UP IN FLAMES (Simon & Schuster UK)
LOST & FOUND, NEAR & FAR, HEART & SOUL
FINDERS KEEPERS, LOSERS WEEPERS
STEALING HOME
COLLARED
THE FABLE OF US
THREE BROTHERS
HARD KNOX, DAMAGED GOODS
CROSSING STARS
GREAT EXPLOITATIONS SAGA
THE EDEN TRILOGY
THE PATRICK CHRONICLES
Nicole Williams, Touching Down