Heartbreaker (18 page)

TWeNTY-oNe

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So I’m trying to finish my breakfast while Cam watches me eat every mouth full. I’m finding it hard to swallow, the intensity between us growing by the second. I put the last morsel of bacon on my fork and put it in my mouth and chew and chew. Cam hasn’t taken his eyes from mine, and I can’t help the reflex action to lick my lips when I’ve finished.

Cam narrows his eyes and I can’t help the grin that twitches at my lips.

He reaches across and rubs his thumb across my bottom lip. Holy hell, that’s hot. “I told you to stop that,” he says and I bite his thumb.

He pulls his thumb out o
f my mouth so fast and stands grabbing my plate and rushing off into the kitchen.
Whoops
. I have no idea where that came from. Not like I’m some wanton goddess. I don’t have much of a clue about playing those kinds of games. But that felt good.

I take a breath and try to compose my raging hormones, then stroll into the kitchen to find him washing the dishes. I move to sidle up to him, to help of course, when he puts up his hand. “No. You need to stay on the other side of that bench.”

Huh?

“I told you Bai, I won’t be responsible for what I’ll do, and right now, I’m not feeling real responsible. I want to respect your dad, but you’re making that difficult, we still need to talk.” His jaw tightens and the muscles on his arms flex.

“You weren’t worried about that yesterday as I recall. Tree. Me. You. Remember?”

He turns to give me an intense stare. “I remember alright. I also remember what happened after, and I’m not having misunderstandings come between us anymore. If we want to make this work, and give this another try, we need to lay it all out, and then a stupid bench or even a locked cage won’t save you anymore.”

I swallow as Cam’s eyes rake over me. Shit. I don’t ever remember Cam talking like this before. But I really like it.

“Okay, I’ll be ... good.” I flutter my eyelashes for effect and Cam rolls his eyes, and looks like he’s counting to ten under his breath.

Cam stares at the basin and is meticulously washing each dish when my cell buzzes. I pick it up and see a text from Bennett.

How's my best girlfriend? Had any more fights with the furniture?

He doesn’t know the latest, and I don’t intend to tell him yet, I figure, once Cam and I do talk, then I can fill him in. I text back.

Hey funny boy. Hope you’re looking after my best girl. Will ring you later to hear all the juicy details.

Got it. The C boy must be there still. Big thumbs up. Gerry sends a hug.

I smile, I’m so glad Bennett finally got over his dry spell and he’s giving it a go with Gerry. She is the coolest girl ever and they both suit each other.

“Is that Bennett?” Cam asks.

“Ah. Yeah.”

“Right. And he’s with Gerry this weekend?”

“Yeah, they’re giving it a go. Both of them are pretty tough eggs. I thought Bennett would never crack. He had a few wild years and chased after the wrong kind of girls, so he swore off them for a bit till he got his act together.”

Cam stops washing the dishes, wipes his hands and pulls his fingers through his brown locks. I’m mesmerised by his movements, fast forwarding to when I’ll be allowed to do that.

“Okay, enough. We’re talking and we’re talking now. If you keep looking at me like that, I might just change my mind, and that would be a mistake.”

“Okay, so let’s talk. Let’s talk real fast.”

Cam chuckles and shakes his head. “Yeah. Real fast sounds good to me.”

“So ... where did you want to go?”

“I’ll make us another coffee and meet you in the backyard, usual place.”

I smile. The old elm tree. Our hideaway and spyaway. After grabbing a sweater and blanket from my room I go out back and make my way to the large elm tree in the far corner of the yard. I spread the blanket underneath, we’re too big to climb it like we used to, hanging off a branch watching the world go by. You got the best views of the town on the top branches and we could spy on everyone.

This is where all my firsts happened. First kiss. First time Cam asked me to be his girl
friend. First time Cam and I said we loved each other. First times were the best times. And we never tainted this place with the bad stuff, which I’m so grateful for, because now maybe we can get some of those first times back again.

Cam joins me soon after, with two coffees in thermos type cups that I’ve never seen before. He passes one to me and sits opposite, his legs stretched out.

We smile at each other for a bit. I’m really not sure, how to start and how much to say, there has been so much between us. I take another sip of the coffee. It’s good. Much better than when I make it.

“So, Bennett isn’t your um ... boyfriend?” Cam asks and lets out a small cough, like it hurt his throat to ask.

“Bennett? No. Never.”

“Right.”

“Who told you that?”

“No one told me. I came to Chicago, Bai.”

Hold up.
Cam came to Chicago? He came to see me?

“What? When?”

“I was supposed to be there for your birthday. But I didn’t get there till the next day. I came to your apartment building. Your dad gave me the address. He told me how well you were doing with your new apartment and your job at the bar and night school. I wanted to see if we were really over. I never stopped thinking about you, Bai. I tried. I really did. But I had to give it a shot. I couldn’t move on till I had.”

Oh god. This is hard.

I clench my hands together. “I never stopped thinking about you either. What happened, why didn’t you come and see me?”

“I did see you. I saw you on the street outside your apartment. You were with Bennett. You were holding hands, looking so happy, Bai. And I thought, well I thought you were together ... that you’d found someone else, and you’d moved on.”

“Shit. I wish you had of talked to me, Cam. Bennett was just taking me out for my birthday, I hadn’t told anyone and he kind of missed my actual birthday, so he made a point of celebrating with me the next day. We have always just been friends. Best friends, but only friends. Bennett didn’t want anything else and neither did I. That’s kind of why we gelled.”

Cam stretches his arms above his head and rests them behind his neck, leaning against the back fence. “Yeah, well it looked like a hell of a lot more. And that kind of did it for me.”

“So, you started dating Jennifer Jaimeson?”

“What?”

“I saw her come out of your house Cam. The morning I came to see you.”

Cam shakes his head. “No. I mean she lives with me...”

I scramble to stand up. “She what?” I yell.

Cam jumps u
p and reaches for my shoulders, “Calm down, remember we said we’d talk this out. Let me talk it out, Bai. You need to listen.”

I suck in a huge breath. I’m not ready for this. Cam puts pressure on my shoulders and urges me to sit down, except this time he positions us both to lean against the tree trunk with me sitting between his outstretched legs, my back against his gorgeous chest, and he puts his arms around me.

Okay, well maybe I can stay and listen if he keeps holding me like that.

He reaches around and tugs my hair
, pulling it behind my ear. I hear him inhale and he sighs. “God, I've missed how good you smell.”

A shiver of the nice kind zings its way to every part of my body as his breath coats my ear and neck. I close my eyes and rest my head back, fitting perfectly in the cr
adle of his shoulder. “Are you okay, now?” he asks and I nod slowly. “Are you ready to listen, and not get mad?”

I know I have no right to be mad. I know I left and he had the freedom to live with whoever he wants, but come on
, SWEET CHEEKS!!!

I bite the inside of my lip and force my head to nod again.

I hear Cam swallow. “After you left ...” he clears his throat. “I was ... um ... a bit messed up for a while. I started drinking, smoking, and not the nicotine type smoking. I got high a lot and kind of went off the rails the first few months. Then your dad helped me, got me into the business and I discovered I was really good at carpentry. I always thought I’d just take over the farm after Dad died, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Mom was really supportive and urged me to get my apprenticeship and so I put all my energy into that.”

“Yeah. I kind of know that part. And I’m so glad you did, Cam. But how does Sweet Cheeks fit in?”

Cam chuckles. “If she heard you call her that ...”

I scowl. “After wha
t she called me in High School ... I could call her a lot worse.”

Cam squeezes my shoulder. “I know, but she’s really changed. I got to know her in those wild months. She was a real friend to me, Bai.”

I huff. “I’m sure she was sweet as cheery pie. She’s always had a thing for you, Cam.”

“Yeah, maybe, a long time ago. Not now though. She’s in a lot of trouble and I want to help her. Her family kind of abandoned her and she has no one else.”

I sigh. I know that kind of trouble, and I feel a stab of guilt. I can’t tell Cam. I don’t know how I’d even begin. I just got him back I don’t want to throw that whopper in the mix just yet.

“Okay. But how did she end up living with you? She was the most popular girl in school, she must have other friends.”

“You’d think, huh? Her so called friends dropped her like she had the plague.”

I shake my head. “Karma's a bitch.”

“Hey, you know if you’d been here, you would have helped her. Despite your history, you're not bitter, Bai. You’ve never been like that.”

Well that’s mostly true. But, I’m a little bitter, I mean Sweet Cheek’s has been flirting with Cam, wheedling her way into his life. I bet she was clapping her hands when I left town, and as for the pregnancy. I swallow thinking on that. I have to ask.

“If the baby isn’t ... um yours ... whose baby is it?”

Cam sighs. “Travis.”

“Travis? I thought he’d only been in town a little while.”

“About six months. Basically long enough to leave a trail of devastation. He’s a player, I tried to warn Jen, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

I bite my lip. “Is it possible she did it to make you jealous, so you’d hook up with her, and be the baby's daddy?”

Cam splutters on a sip of his coffee. “That’s a bit extreme. I don’t know any girl who’d go that far.”

“No. Not getting pregnant. I assume that was a stupid mistake.” I nearly spit those last two words out. I know all about stupid mistakes.

“I don’t think so. I think she really liked Travis. Those cookies that day ...” Cam trails a finger up my arm and I shiver. “Those were for Travis. Jen asked me to give them to him.”

“Oh.”

“It was kind of hot to see you all jealous, though.”

I scoff. “I make much better chocolate cookies.”

Cam laughs. “Yeah, and your cheeks are much sweeter.” Cam leans forward and plants a chaste kiss on my cheek.

I turn my head to meet his lips and his lips flutter over mine, giving me the nicest, most gentle kiss in the world. I try and press my lips harder to his but he moves away slightly, his lips still dangerously close to mine. “Not yet,” he says in the softest voice.

I hate waiting. I hate talking.

I turn and lunge forward kissing him again, knocking him off balance so that I’m now lying on top of him, my lips fused to his. And this time he doesn’t resist. I part my lips to deepen the kiss, and I’m sent to dizzy heights as I feel his lips moving in sync with mine. He tastes of coffee and sweetness and I can’t get enough. I’ve missed feeling this way, and my body is responding as Cam trails his hands all over me. His touch sending off waves of sensations to every cell. I know this time I won’t stop and I have every faith Cam won’t either.

Well, we wouldn’t have if the back door didn’t slam and I hear in some far off land, my dad calling my name.

Damn it all. Great timing, Dad.

Now I’m sitting at the dining room table with Dad on one side and Cam on the other. Dad is looking between us while sipping the coffee that Cam made him, after we both scrambled to assemble ourselves faster than the speed of lightening. I feel like I’m fifteen again, after Dad caught us making out the first time under that very same tree. I have to suppress a smile, so I don’t laugh outright at the memory. Cam was more than panicking that day. He’s always liked my Dad, but has always been a little afraid of him. That might have changed now they’re in business together, although Cam looks a bit pale. I flick my eyes to his and see that he’s examining his coffee mug with great interest.