Chapter Two West #2
As it stands, I’m determined to keep my focus on people who do want me here.
I haven’t spent more than a weekend at a time with Dad since he and Pops split up my senior year of high school.
Once he was free of his ex’s disdain for his career’s demands, his work travels picked back up and kept him bouncing around the world most of the time.
Living with Pops was more practical while I finished school, and he became the default afterward.
But I know Dad struggles with the distance between us, as much as he tries to make up for it with frequent calls and texts and visits when we can.
Even through shitty video call quality, I could see tears fill his eyes when I told him I would join him in Italy.
It’s safe to say we’re both looking forward to this chance to reconnect.
I can’t let some tired drama from my past get in my head, or worse, my heart.
Cammie Lovett won’t ruin anything else for me.
I shake my head as the voices I’ve been hearing grow louder, whether because I’m getting close to my targets or they’re working up to a shouting match—either seems possible.
Whatever agenda Dad and Dr. Alex have, I hope they’re already rethinking it.
Squinting against the sunlight, I finally spot them between a couple of lemon trees, two matching heads of auburn hair—one much messier than the other—and my dad’s dark brown hair with an ever-growing bald spot on top.
“Cam, let’s talk about it later, just you and me, okay?
Dr. Danny and I are finishing up our meeting…
” Dr. Alex sounds almost too calm, like if she can give off an excess of soothing energy, her daughter will absorb a little.
Or maybe that’s just the effect of the nearly empty glass of red wine she holds in one hand.
Dad takes a sip from his own glass, the bottle on the bistro table between them. Not their best Serious Meeting act.
“No, really—I’m not about to endure two months of Weston Jacobs.
He’s just, like, visiting for the weekend before he backpacks across the rest of Europe or something.
Right?” Cammie’s voice shakes on the last word.
She has always been easily riled. Quick to spout off, gesture wildly, her freckle-covered face showing every thought in her head.
It’s one of the things I used to think made her exciting. Addicting. Attractive.
I mentally smack myself for the ridiculous thought, then push aside a branch more aggressively than necessary as I step into the small clearing where the one-sided standoff is taking place.
Cammie is braced with her back to me and hands on hips, and I can only imagine the kind of glower she’s giving our unfazed parents.
Then I don’t have to imagine, as both adults’ gazes turn my way.
Cammie whirls around, too, her fierce scowl getting fiercer and scowlier when it lands on me.
“If I’m ever found ‘backpacking’ anywhere, call the authorities, because the rest of my luggage must’ve been stolen,” I offer matter-of-factly. “You know I’m an overpacker.”
This earns a heavy sigh from my dad as he removes his glasses and rubs at the bridge of his nose. I also catch Dr. Alex pressing her lips together as if to smother a grin before I look back to Cammie. The color of her flushed face is creeping ever closer to matching her hair.
“I don’t know a thing about your life, except that it has no business overlapping with mine,” she snaps.
“Camilla,” Dr. Alex chides, just as Dad clears his throat and both set their glasses on the table with a loud clatter.
“Oookay, let’s all just take a breath,” Dad says in his most professorial tone.
“Cammie, West, I know you two have a…complicated history and that this might not be the most joyful reunion for either of you.” Understatement, I think as I see Cammie’s fists clench in my periphery.
“But we’re all here now, and we get to spend the summer in this beautiful place, reminiscing on the amazing events that brought us all into each other’s lives twenty years ago.
Alex and I would love to get to relive some of the good old days, when life was a never-ending adventure around the world with our two favorite kids.
It might be the last chance we get, before those kids are off living their own lives and adventures without us. ”
“No one expects you to snap your fingers and become the best of friends again,” Dr. Alex chimes in, “but surely you can keep things civil. Act like the mature adults you’ve become.”
They’re not exactly easing my suspicions that they’ve been scheming.
Twenty-four hours ago, I would’ve agreed that I’m a mature adult.
But Camilla Lovett reenters my orbit for ten minutes, and suddenly I’m seventeen again.
All these feelings I thought were long buried are back at the surface, nearly as intense as they were the day of our first and last fight.
The one that sent a lifelong friendship—and the fragile beginnings of something more—up in flames.
At least I do a better job of hiding it than the girl beside me, who might as well have cartoonish clouds of smoke billowing from her ears as she looks from her mother to me and back.
Even though my chest is tight with anxiety, I’m surprised to feel a smile trying to break free as Cammie visibly strains to mellow out her expression and relax her posture.
“Right, well.” She finally ends the heavy silence, blowing out an irritated breath before continuing. “For the sake of civility, I’ll plan to avoid West as much as possible, and he can just pretend I don’t exist. He’s perfected that skill the last few years.”
The confusion I feel from the biting remark outweighs the hurt.
I’ve perfected the skill? She’s the one who didn’t want me in her life anymore, who cut all ties at the first rough patch in our relationship.
But I don’t get the chance to strike back, even if I could find the words, before Dad decides to shut down this oh-so-pleasant gathering.
“All right, well, why don’t West and I let you ladies catch up awhile?
” he says like it’s a perfectly natural pivot in the conversation, not a hasty retreat from a battlefront.
He even smiles as he gets to his feet, proving that we’re living two different realities.
The loud scrape of his wrought iron chair across the pavers is a sound I never thought I’d prefer to Cammie’s voice, but the chair can’t insult me, so. Here we are.
I almost miss the conspiratorial look he and Dr. Alex exchange, too brief to read much into. “Sure, that sounds good,” Dr. Alex agrees with a nod. “We’ll see you at dinner later on.”
Offering the Lovetts a final wave that’s downright jaunty, Dad walks out the same way I’ve come in. He gives my arm a quick squeeze as he passes me, and the message in the gesture is clear: Save yourself while you still can, kid.
I should definitely take the unsubtle hint. But I hesitate, even as the soft thuds of his steps fade behind me.
Maybe it’s all the literal olive branches in our vicinity, one of several tree species growing on the villa grounds that feel too Stereotypically Italian to be real.
Or maybe it’s something less benevolent, some petty part of me that just wants to show I’m a bigger person than Cammie.
Whatever the case, my feet stay rooted before her and her mom, and my big mouth opens.
“It’s good to see you, Dr. Alex…” I reach up and scratch the back of my neck, beginning to lose my nerve as quickly as it came. I gulp before adding, “And, uh, Cammie.”
Dr. Alex gives me a small smile and a gentle nod of acknowledgment. “You too, West.”
When my eyes flick to Cammie, it’s an effort not to cower. Her sharp gaze pierces through me like a knife, and then her sharper words give it a twist.
“Go to hell, Jacobs.”
As I walk back to the villa, the sun beating down from above and the hot stone path burning the soles of my feet through my socks, I think I might already be there.