Camp Heat (BBW Western Romance) (2 page)

           
The next morning, Carol and Jessica were sitting down in the mess hall for
breakfast. Carol casually mentioned to Jessica the concerns she had about Jessica’s
recent quietness. She proceeded to push more food towards Jessica’s tray. A
biscuit and toast.

           
“I’m not hungry.”

           
“Oh,” Carol said in a mocking manner. “Does it have to do with that rancher?”

           
Jessica sat straight and wide-eyed. Did Carol suspect something happened
between Trenton and her?

           
She finished her second question more quietly. “Did he not agree to watch the
girls on riding visits?”

           
She let out a silent gasp. The way Jessica’s mind was running, she took Carol’s
comment in a sexual context.

           
“He’ll do it,” Jessica replied. She continued to eat some eggs and ignore the
girls’ loud chatting in the mess hall.

           
Carol let out a suspicious-sounding “good” and left the table.

           
Kayla and a few older friends of hers walked up to Jessica’s table. The girls
were all brunettes and wore what Jessica called ‘bad-ass’ clothing. Ripped
jeans and black sweatshirts or muscle shirts. One of the girls –Jessica thought
her name was Jovi after the rock star- placed a moldy piece of toast in front
of her.

           
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said, looking up at the stern-faced Jovi. “Carol can’t see
as well as she used to. I’ll have a talk with her.”

           
“If you’re understaffed,“ Kayla began, “we can do something.”

           
Jessica thought Kayla was the only decent girl who had a heart in the entire
camp. She was so surprised that the teen was willing to do something for her.
But Jessica wasn’t going to have girls do labor work. They were there to learn
and discover themselves – not slave labor.

           
“That’s not your job,” Jessica said. Sighs and disappointing grunts came from
the girls. “What is it?”

           
“We were hoping we could do kitchen stuff,” Jovi piped up. “Instead of taking
those hikes every afternoon.”

           
“Too bad,” Jessica almost laughed, holding a smirk under control.

           
Despite her size, Jessica was proud to lead the girls all along the paths in
the woods. That afternoon, Kayla along with half the camp followed Jessica on a
trail up mountains and along the several creeks that surrounded the lake.
Jessica warned the girls many times to stay on the path. When the sun got very
hot, everyone removed their top shirts to sweat in tank tops.

           
“Who is that?” a girl in the back yelled.

           
Jessica looked in the direction everyone was staring to see a man, Trenton,
standing with his arms crossed. He looked as if he was searching the woods for
something.     

           
“Jessica!” he yelled, waving at her.

           
Great,
she thought,
how am I supposed to explain this guy to the girls?
A few
teen voices ‘oooh-ed’ and whistled playfully. Jessica turned on her heel to
give them stern look and demand that they stay in their place. She knew she had
to go talk with the muscle-man up the hill, and she was embarrassed that she
was a little out of breath once she reached him.

           
Trenton gave a short-lived smile and caressed Jessica’s cheek with his thumb.
But she didn’t want the girls to think the man at camp was bad or involved with
her, so she looked down at the ground. His loving attempts were secretly craved
by her, but she couldn’t make herself stay in place for him. When he leaned in
close to her lips, she took a step back.

           
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.

           
“Is there something you need?” Jessica tried to ask in her most professional
voice.

           
Trenton furrowed his eyebrows. “Somethin’ I do?”

           
Jessica looked back at the girls, who were all staring at Trenton and
whispering in each others’ ears. “Do you want to start tomorrow?” Jessica
continued to pressure. “We’ll have a group of girls come down to the stable
tomorrow.”

           
He gave her a look that she recognized as frustration. She decided to add a
quick good-bye and handshake, but he seemed uncomfortable with taking her hand.

           
He left and Kayla ran up to Jessica once the hike resumed. The two were walking
far ahead of the other girls, so Jessica didn’t feel awkward when Kayla quietly
asked, “He seemed mad at you.”

           
Nonetheless, Jessica had to ignore the teen’s comment and address the other
girls. “That was your new ranch hand who will be in charge of the stable.
You’ll meet him tomorrow.”

           
“I thought guys weren’t allowed on camp,” Jovi complained.

           
“Carol said it was fine, so it’s fine,” Jessica harshly snapped.

           
She noticed Kayla slinked away from her side after she almost yelled at the
girls’ questions.

           
At dinner, Jessica’s worst dwellings followed her. Carol sat next to her at the
table as usual, picking at the corn on her tray. She had a sparkle of distrust
in her eyes.

           
“I know that Trenton came by here,” Carol snarled. “And I may not know a lot
about being with a man but,” she stopped and lowered her voice, “I see you
thinking about him. Too often.”

           
Jessica shook her head in agreement. “I know, I know. We need to be examples to
the girls-“

           
“Not just that,” Carol interrupted. “We can’t show them that we’re weaker than
they are. One girl here beat her parents, remember. We have to be strong.”

           
Though Jessica failed to see the connection between a scary teenager and her
own affair with Trenton, she nodded and left the mess hall early.

           
That night, she tossed in bed, worrying about what would happen with her group
at the stable. She knew she should’ve asked Trenton about his experiences with
kids. But, of course, she wasn’t going to question a guy with such tight ass
muscles and thick thighs. Those things didn’t matter. At least, at the time.

           
With the sun barely up, Jessica found she was up almost all night thinking
about Trenton. Mostly she was thinking about their stable passion, and she
admitted to herself that she wanted more of it. But didn’t want the passion to
show in front of the girls.

           
Kayla’s voice boomed as she knocked on Jessica’s weak screen door. “Miss Jessica!”

           
Jessica jumped out of bed. Had she missed breakfast because she was mulling
over her writhing body against Trenton’s? This wouldn’t fly with Carol.

           
Jessica opened the door and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Kayla nervously
asked, “We missed you at breakfast today. Where were you?”

           
“I felt sick this morning,” she lied to Kayla. “We’ll go to the stable now,
then.”

           
Trenton
should know to be there this morning
, Jessica pondered.
And I hope he’s
wearing tight jeans.

           
For her own role as the hopeful new co-director of the camp, Jessica was
jolting herself out of daydreams. She needed to be professional. Her heart
pounded as she approached the stable. Trenton was standing there with arms
behind his back, stretching out his pecs that shapely formed through his red
t-shirt. Good heavens.

           
There was a moment when Jessica’s eyes travelled down to his jeans when she
pinched herself on the arm. She couldn’t get preoccupied. The only real goal
was to get the girls on the horses and get the hour over with.

           
“It’ll take a half hour to teach the girls about the equipment and get ‘em on
the horses,” Trenton announced.

           
“We don’t need to learn about horses,” spat Jovi from the back of the group.

           
“Hey!” Jessica roared. “Let him do his job. Some of the new girls need to know
this stuff.”

           
Trenton nodded at Jessica and smiled. But his smile quickly faded away, as it
always seemed to do. She figured he had to be nervous about standing and
speaking in front of a bunch of people, especially catty, mean, and tough
girls.

           
“I’m Trenton,” he began in the sexy voice that bellowed over the field behind
them. “But I guess you’ll be calling me Mr. Saunder.”

           
So
that’s his last name.
What a unique one. And so sultry. Jessica found
herself daydreaming again, and this time was about her possible last name.
Saunder. Inside her gut, though, she hated herself for thinking so far ahead
for a wish that looked impossible.

           
Mr. Saunder quickly got to the part in his obvious made-up lesson where he
plopped the girls on the horse. He let the taller girls get on themselves. But
it was entertaining for Jessica to watch his back and arm muscles flex as he
lifted little Tammy – the youngest and smallest - on Freckle’s saddle. Jessica
caught herself breathing heavily and with her mouth open as they stood there in
the barn. She covered her mouth and walked outside into the sun to watch the
first round of girls trot their horses around the fenced arena.

           
“You think I’m doing well so far?” Trenton asked, leaning close to Jessica’s
ear.

           
“I’m just glad you’re here on time, I was vague about when our mornings started
here.” She tried to be equally as quiet but also didn’t want the girls to
suspect anything. So it was probably best that they could listen if the teens
wanted to.

           
“I thought you were mad at me,” Trenton responded in almost a puppy-like tone.
It was as if he wanted something.

           
“Not mad.” Jessica kept up her professional act. But it was hard when he was
standing so close to her with the oils of his body and a hint of some cologne,
maybe, filtering through her nostrils.

           
“Good,” Trenton said more loudly. And though Jessica didn’t look at him and
kept her eyes on the girls, she sensed him shift and stand straighter. Taller.
“Because I wouldn’t want my girl back home to know that I worked with a
horrible boss.”

           
Jessica’s nostrils flared with anger. He had a girlfriend back home? In the
back of her mind, Jessica almost knew the hot night with Trenton was too good
to be true. She watched him turn on his heel and go into the barn. He grabbed
another saddle from the wall and put it on his shoulder. When he returned
outside, he dropped the saddle and unbuttoned his shirt. Underneath was the
same white tank Jessica recognized from their single hot pursuit. But why was
he standing right in front of her?
I get it. You’re hands off
, she
thought to herself. What was the point of telling her he had a girlfriend back
home? Where exactly was ‘back home?’ Jessica surprised herself by asking these
questions instead of focusing more on her feelings of betrayal.

           
It was difficult to talk herself out of falling for Trenton as he acted
carefree and nurturing towards the girls. Even making the sourest teens laugh.
The worst part of it all was that Jessica regretted hiring him and asking him
for his help. She wasn’t sure if she cared about the camp or the camp’s
business that badly. The feeling of sadness didn’t set in until after the
girls’ session and Jessica was walking back up the trail towards the fire pit.
Walking away from Trenton was the hardest thing to do when she really wanted to
yell at him for leading her on and then making her feel awful about herself.
Every time she thought back to the night in the barn, she calculated that
Trenton was the one who had her body, and she never got the chance to really
have his.

           
Jessica saw that Kayla clearly was concerned about her counselor when she asked
Jessica, “Why aren’t we singing the camp song?”

           
The last mood Jessica was in was the mood to sing those silly camp songs about
friendship and sticking it out through the rough times. No one was there for
Jessica to confide in. Carol wasn’t her age and wouldn’t understand her
feelings since Jessica was pretty sure Carol was asexual. And expressing her
deep feelings to the girls wouldn’t be appropriate. She was all alone.

           
In the middle of the night, Jessica woke up from a very real-seeming dream
about Trenton beaming at her for longer than a few seconds as they sat on her
cabin bed, caressing each other’s faces. She felt his soft wavy hair between
her fingers. And he played with her side braid, whispering about how beautiful
she was. Unfortunately, Jessica awoke late again for breakfast but at least
made it to the mess hall to have some toast and sausage.

           
She stared at her link sausage, thinking about Trenton, naturally. It was a
long piece of meat, but she knew it wouldn’t satisfy her needs of Trenton’s
meat. Not that she was actually thinking about using sausage as a replacement
for anything.  

           
“You lookin’ at that food like it broke yer heart,” Carol said, gently nudging
Jessica’s elbow.

           
“I got too much food,” was Jessica’s excuse.

           
“Now I know a broken heart when I see it, now.” Jessica put down her fork and
pushed her tray aside to listen to a lecture she felt coming on from Carol.
“You barely got any food there to eat and you’ve been late twice. Plus, you
were actin’ funny once you got back from the barn.”

           
“Yes ma’am, I’m just-“

           
“You like that man Trenton,” Carol said. Jessica wished Carol had lowered her
voice. “Don’t get that passion too hot, though, now.”

           
“You’re being silly,” Jessica replied. “He’s got a girl already.”

           
Carol pushed her own tray away from her. “He ain’t got a girl. If he does, and
you thinking about him a lot, then he ain’t got a girl for long.”

           
Jessica presumed this was Carol’s way of calling Jessica a beautiful girl who
could get any guy if she put her mind and soul into it. The only problem was
that Jessica didn’t feel like fighting off another woman. She knew that wasn’t
attractive in a lady anyhow.

           
“I don’t have the hots for any guy,” Jessica tried to say while sounding
professionally focused. “He’s just here for the girls. Because I wanted the
ranch shut down for a few more days.”

           
Carol made a snarky reply. “Mmmhhh hmmm.” Jessica didn’t care if Carol didn’t
believe her yet. In time, Jessica was hoping she, herself, would believe that
Trenton was only at the camp for business reasons.

           
“Well,” Carol huffed. “That Kayla told me all about it last time at dinner,
so…”

           
The older woman trailed off in her mumbling as if she wanted Jessica to spill
the details. Instead, Jessica denied everything and made a point to talk to
Kayla later in the day about the bad effects of gossiping. She was a bit angry
at Kayla for spreading rumors that could get Jessica fired.

           
“And she’s got a big bruise on her leg,” Carol said. This part Jessica heard
clearly. “One of the girls told me they saw it in the showers and-“

           
“Who has a bruise?” Jessica asked.

           
“Kayla. Haven’t noticed she was limpin’?” Carol said. “I asked her what was
wrong but… nothing. She’d probably talk to you about it.”

           
Jessica was distracted for a moment from the problems Trenton caused her in her
head. She tried to track down Kayla in the mess hall only to find the teen
walking out of the bathroom after everyone was done eating. Jessica pulled
Kayla aside next to the trashcans. Sure enough, Kayla was walking more on her
left leg.

           
“Why are you limping?” Jessica whispered to the girl.

           
“I just tripped on a branch,” Kayla said, staring at the ground.

           
Jessica couldn’t believe the stress she had to go under with this teen on top
of Trenton’s shadiness. She knew that Kayla was hiding something. “Will you be able
to go riding later this afternoon with all of us?” Kayla just nodded to
Jessica’s question and stumbled outside, holding onto the doorway and ramp. The
leg bruise seemed worse than Jessica had first imagined.

           
Later, after the daily flag flying ceremony, Jessica rounded her group of girls
to head to the stable. It was a warmer day. Almost ninety-seven degrees. So
Jessica revealed her undershirt and didn’t shy away from wearing the only cloth
shorts she owned, which hugged her curves and belly in a way that didn’t make
her feel self-conscious.

           
Trenton wasn’t anywhere around the stable outside, so Jessica searched inside
the barn and found him reorganizing the horse saddles and horseshoes on the
wall. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and had several large bottles of water next to
where his white undershirt lay on some hay on the floor. His jeans’ belt didn’t
hold up his pants; the tan and somewhat dirty crevice of Trenton’s hip and
crotch. Jessica felt her nipples protrude embarrassingly through the thin bra
and shirt. Some girls stopped behind Jessica and stared at Trenton, too.

           
Jessica felt the need to interrupt Trenton after he poured half of a water
bottle over his hair. She watched the water give him goose bumps on the top of
his forearms as it blended in with the sweat that ran down his back and through
the niches of muscles. She coughed to get his attention even though she
could’ve watched him all day rubbing water off his dark hair.

           
“Sorry about that,” Trenton said, approaching Jessica and the girls without any
care of putting his shirt on.

           
He assigned a different horse to each girl and gave directions to walk the
horse before mounting it on their own. Kayla looked like she was struggling
with simply walking the horse.

           
“Kayla!” Jessica called. Kayla slowly noticed and turned her horse around to
walk towards the counselor and ranch hand.

           
Jovi, who was waiting her turn to ride, quickly popped in front of Jessica and
whispered, “Kayla didn’t know what she was doing last time and got kicked in
the shin with Butter.” Butter, Jessica knew, was one of the feistier horses but
couldn’t remember hearing any screaming or mishap with the girls the last time
she brought them to horse hour.

           
Kayla stared at Jovi when she limped with her horse over to Jessica. Trenton
returned a cough that bothered Jessica because she sensed his tone was that of
disappointment or harsh judgment. But she believed that she took good care of
her campers.

           
“My leg does hurt,” Kayla admitted, staring at the ground.

           
“Jovi tells me you got kicked in the shin by Butter last time,” Jessica said in
a low voice. She knew that Trenton, standing next to her, could hear the
conversation.

           
“She said if I told anyone,” Kayla began, “they’d fight me.”

           
“Who said?” Jessica questioned. “Jovi? Don’t worry about her. If you are hurt,
you need to tell someone.”

           
Ironic. Jessica wondered why she couldn’t take her own advice and confront
Trenton about his hurtful attitude lately. Surprisingly, Trenton leaned over a
little to address Kayla.

           
“If you want to hand off your horse to one of the girls,” Trenton said, “then
just say so.”

           
Kayla nodded in agreement and handed the reigns to Trenton. Jessica
purposefully watched his muscular hand grip the reigns tightly, reimagining him
squeeze her bottom and thighs.

           
 Jovi grabbed the reigns away from Trenton and said, “Maybe if you two weren’t
so involved with each other, you woulda seen it happen.”

           
“Hey!” was Jessica’s instinctive response to such a rude comment. But Trenton
waved Jessica aside, so she backed away into the barn, thinking.

           
She stared back at Trenton putting a finger in front of Jovi’s upturned nose.
Jessica didn’t hear what he was saying, though. She was filled with regret and
tried to think about the day before. Was she so enveloped with the man when
they had their more-than-inconvenient conversation?

           
“Don’t talk to her that way, missy,” Jessica heard Trenton tell Jovi.

           
Jovi, huffed and walked away as if she was defeated. It was an attractive asset
to have Trenton in the position of power over the tough and know-it-all teens.
Jessica partly blamed herself for not keeping an eye out on the girls. She knew
Trenton would cause her trouble and there it was. It could cost Jessica her
job. If Carol were to find out…

           
Kayla sat on the same stool Jessica was taken advantage of by Trenton. Jessica
knelt to Kayla’s level and asked to see her leg. Kayla lifted up her jean to
expose her right leg, which had a huge black spot spreading from her knee all
the way down to her ankle. Trenton bent down oddly close to Jessica and propped
Kayla’s leg up on his knee.

           
Jessica didn’t budge. She enjoyed Trenton’s natural scent that was something
like smoke and wood. Kayla gave Jessica a look that she recognized as a mix of
shock and flattery because Trenton was rubbing his thumb along her bruise. Oh,
how Jessica wanted Kayla’s leg to be her own leg. If Trenton were to touch
Jessica’s leg with such care, Jessica would forget about him having a
girlfriend. She would allow him to touch her again. Just for fun. All Jessica
really wanted now was her needs met. Her needs to have a rough man take her and
love her even if it was for a short time.
At least,
she thought,
now
I know not to be too taken away by his handsomeness.

           
The badly bruised leg was tended to by Trenton before he ordered another girl
to walk Kayla back to their tent so she could rest until dinner. Jessica
admired Trenton’s take-charge attitude. For some reason, when Jessica first met
Trenton, she got the feeling from him that he wasn’t really one for engaging
with kids.

           
“It’s good to see you caring about the girls,” Jessica said to Trenton once the
girls lined up by the gate to leave for lunch.

           
“Don’t blame yourself,” Trenton whispered. Jessica assumed he was talking about
Kayla’s leg.

           
Jessica reflexively shot back, “I don’t feel responsible for-“

           
“Jessica!” called one of the girls. Jessica walked out of the barn. “It’s
raining.”

           
Sure enough, Jessica put out an open palm and felt small drops. She knew the
weather would get stronger and had to rush the girls back to the mess hall or
armory.

           
“Here, take my shirt,” Jessica heard Trenton say behind her. He held out his
plaid button-up. “You don’t have anything to cover up in and it’ll get cold.”

           
Jessica was half angry and half grateful for the gesture but still spat out, “I
don’t need it.”

           
“It’ll be cold,” Trenton insisted. He whispered and leaned in towards Jessica’s
face. “Don’t be stubborn. Take it.”

           
Why was he being kind to her? Jessica couldn’t make sense of it since he had
been acting distant. Maybe he did care about her? She threw the thought way
back in her mind and grabbed the shirt to hover over her head. As she walked
with the girls, they copied Jessica’s idea to use a shirt as an umbrella.