Chapter 11 Cameron
CHAPTER ELEVEN
cameron
“THAT CAT LIKES YOU?” Noah laughed after an extended moment of silence where no one knew what to say, least of all me. “She hates me.”
“She loves me,” Gemma piped in. She leaned forward, looking down the table at her boyfriend with a fair bit of smugness.
“Yeah, well, you’re easy to love, Em,” Noah said, meeting Gemma’s gaze with a look of longing that felt palpable.
I looked back at Chloe, knowing that regardless of the awkwardness, I needed to respond to her. It certainly wasn’t her fault that I’d been crossing the lines of the lawyer-client relationship I had with her mom.
“Tell Annabeth I miss her, too,” I said with a gentle grin.
Chloe seemed content with that reply and moved to sit in a chair next to Noah. Although I suspected it had less to do with Noah and more to do with the baby strapped to his chest. Chloe leaned closer to her cousin, speaking in a low hush, her eyes wide with wonder and adoration.
It was easy to see the truth in what Natalie had mentioned before about Chloe wanting a sibling. She seemed enamored of Delilah. It might have also had something to do with her being the only other child at the table, but still. She clearly longed for some kind of connection.
Taking a sip of my beer, I let my attention wander back to Natalie.
Her cheeks were pink, either from spending time at the rink or Chloe’s blunder.
Whatever the reason, it was delightful. Like, really, truly.
I couldn’t stop looking at how the flush sort of melted down her neck, disappearing into her scrubs top.
“I’m going to run to the bathroom. Chloe?” She looked down the table at her daughter, who perked up at the sound of her name. “Bathroom?”
Chloe shook her head, so Natalie made eye contact with Noah, who simultaneously nodded, confirming he’d keep an eye on his niece while Natalie was gone.
Which meant, with Noah’s attention on Chloe, my attention got to stay on her mom.
I watched as Natalie walked around the table toward the back of the restaurant. She fidgeted with her shirt as she disappeared from sight, into the hallway that led to the bathrooms.
It took everything in me not to follow her.
Everything.
Instead, I took another sip of my drink and tried to focus on the conversation around me.
Gemma and Juniper sat together at one end of the table, hovering close and chatting about something in low tones that I suspected was Natalie-related.
Juniper looked over her shoulder with a concerned expression in the direction that Natalie had gone more than once.
Meanwhile, Julian and Noah were focused on the children.
Noah was busy removing Delilah’s extra clothes, tossing her little hat and gloves on the table, while Julian peppered Chloe with questions about school and her field trip to the zoo.
She recounted the story about the macaw to them, and I sat there pretending that I hadn’t heard it before in between checking my watch too many times.
I knew women usually took longer in the bathroom, but not this long, right? It was busy in the Bellflower tonight, but not that busy. I doubted the bathroom had a line, and if it did, it couldn’t be too long.
When fifteen minutes had gone by and Natalie still didn’t return to the table, I excused myself, muttering that I had to use the bathroom, too. Julian nodded absently, but I suspected he was the only one who heard me, which was fine. It was preferable, actually.
I marched to the bathroom at a speed that was probably unnecessary. But sitting for fifteen minutes had been torture enough, and I didn’t want to waste any more time before I got Natalie into my line of vision again.
Thankfully, after rounding the corner into the back hallway and getting within steps of the bathroom, Natalie rushed out of it, crashing right into me. She gasped, her palm pressing into my chest as though ready to push me away. But I could tell the moment when she realized it was me.
When my hand flew to her waist, steadying her, her body relaxed, the tension slipping out of her limbs.
I pulled her toward me, just a little bit, because I couldn’t fucking help it.
I’d been so good about not letting this happen, not letting us get this close, but there was only so much I could do when fate intervened.
And immediately letting her go when I finally had the feel of her beneath my palms? Hell if I knew how to do that.
“Oh, hi.” Her voice was breathless, like seeing me there had knocked the wind out of her. She stared up at me with glittering green eyes that looked the slightest bit watery. Her eyes dropped to my chest, and when she realized her hand was still on it, she dropped her arm to her side.
Damn.
“You were gone for a while, and I was—” I bit down on my words before I could finish my sentence.
There was no logical reason to be worrying about Natalie London.
It wasn’t my place to be worrying about her, but I seemed to be worrying about her a lot lately.
Certainly thinking about her. In ways that definitely didn’t have anything to do with my job. “Everything good?”
“Yeah, all good.” Natalie seemed more flustered than normal, but she flashed me a not-so-convincing grin.
“I just hadn’t expected to be going out after work and wanted to clean up a bit.
” She fidgeted with the zipper of a light spandex jacket that she’d pulled on, stretchy and white, before looking around me, back toward the table that was out of our line of vision from here. “Chloe’s okay, right?”
“Chloe’s great,” I assured her, forcing myself to drop my hand from her waist and take a step back. “Noah got her a kid’s menu, and they’re doing the word search on the back.”
“Good.” Natalie cleared her throat and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Then she smoothed a hand down her front, pulling at the bottom of the jacket, making me want to frown. It was unusual for her to act self-conscious. “Good,” she repeated.
“You look great, Natalie,” I said because I couldn’t not say it.
“I’m certainly underdressed compared to you.” She forced a little laugh, pointing at my suit and tie.
“We’re both coming from work,” I said logically. “Your work just looks a little different than mine.” And again, because I couldn’t help it, I added, “You look great no matter what you wear.”
“You don’t have to say…” She shook her head, averting my eyes. “You don’t have to do that, Cameron.”
“I know I don’t.” I also didn’t have to fix the lock on her door or put together her daughter’s bookshelf or stay over at her house to have root beer floats. “In fact, I shouldn’t.” I shouldn’t do any of the things I’d done or said. “But you do. You look perfect, Sunny.”
Her lips parted as she blinked up at me, like she couldn’t imagine the honesty I was giving her right now. She looked like she wanted to sink into it, let that reality breathe for a moment, but instead, she sank down to a different place.
“Korey would have been annoyed with me.” Her lips twisted ruefully. “He didn’t like it when I wore scrubs out.”
I gritted my teeth together, trying not to react.
“He can fuck off,” I said under my breath. Real professional-like. But I didn’t really care at the moment.
“He sure can,” Natalie said, also talking in undertones, giving a huff, almost like a laugh but drier and without humor.
Then she flashed me a sweet expression, like she wanted to make sure I knew that her attitude had nothing to do with me.
It was laced with kindness and optimism, more than most people in her position would have.
I adored her for it, for the sunshine she still carried despite all the clouds and rain that had tried to cover her.
“How was work today?” I asked, deciding to switch the topic. I didn’t want to keep talking about Korey, but I didn’t want her to walk away, either.
“Great, actually.” She brightened even more. “We discharged this burn patient who I’d done an escharotomy on last month. They seem to be doing really well, so that was the best part of my day, probably.”
I nodded encouragingly. I had no idea what an escharotomy was, but it sounded important, and it sounded like she did a good job.
She was so fucking smart.
Good with her hands.
Gorgeous.
Fuck.
“That’s amazing,” I said warmly. “Must be a great feeling.”
“It is.” She nodded, a little more alive and animated than when she’d come out of the bathroom, which I was thankful to see. Her head cocked to the side, examining me more closely. “How are you?”
“Can’t complain.” Actually, I could think of a lot of things to complain about at the moment, namely how unfair it was that I was all the way over here on this side of the hallway, and she was all the way over there on that side. “Work was good, everything’s good.”
I didn’t want to talk about me. I just wanted to talk about her. I wanted to ask her what an escharotomy was.
“I’m realizing as I stand here thinking about what to say that I don’t know much about you besides that you’re a lawyer.” She crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring my position. “And you know a million things about me.”
“It’s my job to know things about you, Natalie,” I said steadily. “You have no need to know anything about me.”
I admittedly didn’t mind her wanting to know things about me, though.
“I know, but…” She wrinkled her nose. “Just feels weird, you know? You even know my bedtime routine.” A laugh drifted out of her. It was airy and bright, making light of a night that I thought about all too often.
The corners of my lips curled as I lifted a brow. “If I told you my bedtime routine, would it make you feel better?”
She nodded with so much force that a lock of hair fell out of her claw clip. And just like the other night at her house, I had to force myself to keep my hands to myself, to not push her hair back behind her ear for her. “Yes, exponentially.”
“It’s not very exciting,” I warned her.
“You mean you don’t read sexy tentacle books before bed?” she questioned, narrowing her eyes in keen assessment of my nighttime activities.
I chuckled. “You know, Juniper does lend me her books. And there’s definitely sex. But I haven’t found one with tentacles in it yet.”
Natalie tsked. “A shame, honestly.”
I gave her a look I probably shouldn’t, a little pointed, a little heated, because what the fuck else was I supposed to do when faced with Natalie London talking about sex.
“Is that a shame, Natalie?”
She simply shrugged at me, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes as she suppressed a grin.
“So you read non-tentacle sexy books,” she said evasively, not answering me. “What else do you do at night?”
The real shame was that I couldn’t answer that question honestly.
Lie in bed and think about you would be a supreme answer.
In a world where this woman wasn’t my client, of course.
“I’m a big baseball fan,” I said instead.
Baseball was a very safe topic. “I grew up watching it with my dad. My Pops and uncle, too. So sometimes I catch the end of a game or watch reruns. Get a workout in. I like to run. Shower afterward. Read Juni’s book recommendations.
That’s usually about all I have time for. ”
For some reason, Natalie seemed intrigued by each word out of my mouth. “Baseball, huh?” she said. “I’ve always thought it would be fun to take Chloe to a game at Fenway. But usually when I do have time to take her to sports games, it’s one of Noah’s.”
“They’re a lot of fun,” I acknowledged. “But typically when I catch a game, it’s in New York with my family.”
“You’re from New York? Wait,” she mused. “I knew that, didn’t I?”
A chuckle left my lips, which were curving into a smile, a sort of subconscious thing that happened around this woman.
“I think you know more about me than you may remember.”
A little flush rose on her face, not quite as apparent as earlier, but still very much present.
“You’re probably right. Some of the details are…fuzzy.”
God, I wished I could say the same.
Natalie’s eyes detached from mine, wandering to our surroundings.
A narrow hallway off the bathrooms in the back of a bar.
Double-swinging doors on one end of it, which led to the kitchen, the sound of clanging pots and pans echoing off the walls.
From the other end, music—some kind of vibrant pop—and loud chattering of patrons wafted in our direction.
I knew exactly what she was about to say before she said it.
“We seem to have a thing for hallways like this, don’t we?” she murmured, eyes flicking over me.
I channeled every ounce of my restraint into not stepping forward.
Into not pressing her against the wall like I had that night, my arms caged around her.
I shoved my hands into my pockets instead, using my eyes to convey the closeness I craved, letting them trace the curve of her neck that I’d tasted and the corner of her smile that I longed to.
“Yeah, Sunny,” I breathed, knowing that my voice was the sort of husky mess that gave away too much. “We do.”
My gaze flew to hers, and she held my stare. It was the kind of eye contact that made my mouth run dry, my cock twitch in my pants. Hot, heady, palpable. A caress all on its own.
“I should get back,” she said, the words falling from her lips in such a slow way, like she’d been trying to keep them in, not wanting to release them.
Somehow, I managed to nod, despite wanting to argue.
Somehow, I managed not to stop her when she pushed off the wall and turned to walk down the hallway.
Somehow, I managed to force my own feet to move, following her footsteps.
Until they were stopped short by the approach of someone else.
Someone who squeezed his sister’s shoulder as she walked past and then looked straight at me, gaze cutting right through me.
Fuck.
Noah cocked his head to the side and said, “Hey, man. Got a sec?”
I exhaled a sigh, knowing this wasn’t going to be good, and nodded.