Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Fletch
“Why are they all getting along?” Cam whispers as she looks around the room.
Al somehow talked Joe into letting us use his party room at the tavern down the street.
And all our parents, brothers, Drew, and Al are here eating brunch with us.
Hutch would have joined us but he was too keen to see what he caught on his motion-sensor camera.
Everyone is talking and enjoying each other’s company like old friends.
My grandmother has been asking Cam a thousand questions, and Cam has politely answered each one.
I can tell they like each other and that gives me some deep feelings that I’m not sure I’m ready to think about yet.
“I haven’t the foggiest,” I agree.
“Do you think we can sneak out of here and they won’t notice?” she asks.
I give her a raised eyebrow.
“I really do have things I should get done today. Hugh told me he fixed my cooling rack, but I want to check, and Amber was able to pop in this morning and do some prep work on dough for this week. I really need to hire a second part-time person to help when Adriana is off,” she rattles on with her to-do list.
“I have an idea,” I say in a low voice as I look around the table. Everyone has finished eating for the most part.
“Hey, sorry to cut this short, but Cam and I have some interviews to do before the show releases,” I say as I stand and pull Cam’s chair back. She joins me to a chorus of people asking if we can stay for a little while longer.
“No. So sorry. We really do need to get on this call. This was lovely. It was so nice meeting you all,” Cam says to my family.
“Everyone is welcome back at the apartment. I can crank the heaters on the rooftop,” Al offers.
“We’ll leave you all to it,” I say as I give my mother and grandmother a hug and cheek kiss.
Cam says goodbye to her family. They aren’t at all what I had pictured.
They look like the stereotypical suburban family.
The fact that Winston and Dalton knew each other in college amuses me.
Apparently, Dalton went by D Mac and the freshmen never learned his real name, so Winston didn’t realize he had known a McDowell, and I guarantee my oldest brother was too consumed by partying to have remembered some senior’s’s name.
But seeing Cam’s parents gush over her café and her win in the competition that made it very clear how proud they are of her. I’m not sure why she feels so much pressure to impress them.
We walk back to Cam’s apartment in silence. When we reach the front door, Cam looks up at me.
“That was…” She trails off and tilts her head to the side as if considering her words.
“Fun?” I ask.
She laughs. “Traumatic?” she corrects.
I nudge her arm with mine. “Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
She shakes her head. “It was that bad. We haven’t even had a real date and our entire families just met. It’s like…Alice in Wonderland. Everything is backwards and strange and…” She pauses. “Don’t you feel like we’re doing this all wrong?”
Now it’s me shaking my head. “No. We’re doing this just right.
We are building something between us. There’s not a playbook or directions.
We’re building our own romance, Camryn. As long as it works for us, fuck everything else,” I say as I pull her to me and lean down, ghosting my lips over hers.
“I like our backwards, down-the-rabbit-hole relationship.” I kiss her and she smiles against my lips.
“Why do grown-ups always kiss in front of the building?” Ava’s voice rings out from above us.
We both look up and see her leaning out the window.
“Ava! Get back inside!” Cam yells.
“Only if you come see my new dollhouse,” she bargains. Cam groans and I smirk. This kid is hilarious.
“Ava Louise Maxwell! So help me God. Your mom and I are going to have a long chat,” Camryn yells.
“Please, Miss Cam. You can even bring…what’s your name again?” Ava asks me.
“Fletcher,” I reply.
“Mr. Fletcher can come, too. And I totally won’t tell my mom about that time you let me stay up late and watch that scary movie,” Ava adds.
Cam leans her forehead against my chest. “You want to come with me to see a dollhouse?” she asks.
I press my lips together to keep myself from smiling. “Sure,” I manage.
I follow her inside and up the stairs. I see Ava standing at a door and she ushers us inside.
“Miss Cornelia, I’m having friends over,” she says as she takes our hands and drags us past a half-asleep Cornelia in the living room. She’s facing away from us and watching some reality show. “Ava, you’re supposed to be napping and I’m pretty sure Cam and Fletcher don’t want to play.”
I raise my eyebrows and Cam laughs. “We’ll just be a minute, Cornelia.”
“How does she know?” I ask.
“She was a teacher. I think that eyes in the back of the head thing lasts forever,” Cam explains as we enter a very purple room.
“I’m guessing purple is your favorite color?” I ask Ava.
“No. My favorite color is black because it has all colors, but Mom won’t let me paint my room black,” Ava explains. “Purple is my second favorite color.”
“Right,” I state as I look around. She has a dollhouse on a small table and starts to explain who each little doll is in the house. But something catches my eye. Something that everyone in this building has been looking for and no one has found. A small telephone-shaped saltshaker.
I walk over to where it sits next to a doll. “Ava, what’s this?” I ask as I pick it up. Cam’s still facing the dollhouse.
“Oh, I found that in the hallway by Miss Cam and Mr. Drew’s apartment. Holly Dolly uses it to call her friend Mable Myrtle,” Ava explains as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“What’s that?” Cam asks as she turns and then her gaze falls on the saltshaker in my hand. She rushes over and picks it up, examining it.
“Where’d you find it?” Cam asks.
“I just said the hallway,” Ava says, clearly annoyed we aren’t paying more attention to her dollhouse.
“Outside my apartment?” Cam asks.
Ava nods.
Cam looks over at me and grins. “I must have dropped it when I was carrying stuff upstairs for happy hour. We made margaritas one night and I brought a bunch of stuff. I’d originally packed the saltshaker but decided to bring the sea salt instead.
I thought I put the saltshaker back, but it must have been in my bag and fell out,” she says as she looks at it again.
“I can’t believe it doesn’t have a chip or crack. ”
“Do you want it back?” Ava asks with a frown.
Cam leans down. “How about I find your dolls a better phone?” she suggests.
Ava smiles. “OK.”
“Ava, I’ll come play another day. Mr. Fletcher and I have some things to do,” Cam explains as she walks toward the door.
“Like what? Kissing?” Ava asks. Damn, this kid is sassy.
Cam puts her hands on her hips. “Ava, so help me, if you lean out that window again, I’m going to…well, you’ll be in trouble,” Cam stammers.
My lips twitch. She’s adorable when she’s flustered.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t forget about the new phone,” Ava says.
We leave with a quick goodbye to Cornelia. We make it to Cam’s door and I lean down. “Now, where were we?” I ask as I kiss her. She laughs against my lips and something about today feels perfect. And it’s not even over yet.
“Come on, we probably have at last fifteen minutes before Drew comes home,” she teases as she pulls me into her apartment. I follow her inside and she drags me to her bedroom.
“How about a date tonight?” I ask.
She pauses as she goes to unbuckle my belt. “For real?”
“For real,” I confirm.
“I like dates,” she says coyly.
“Good, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to like taking you on one,” I tease.
* * *
After dinner and a movie, I invite Cam back to my place.
She protested and said it’s not convenient to her café, but I insisted my driver could take her in the morning.
How she gets up at four is beyond me, but I set my alarm as she goes to use the bathroom.
I may have tried to get her to spend the entire weekend with me while I was buried inside her.
My phone buzzes and I look down. It’s a message from Eliza.
E: OMG! I need advice, dating advice.
I laugh. My good friend Eliza is hilarious. I feel like we can talk about anything. What turned out as a weird exchange on a dating app months ago has turned into a friendship like no other.
Me: What’s up?
E: So, I just started dating this guy. And I really like him, but he might have just asked me to spend the weekend with him while we were…well, you know.
I frown. Wait, what the fuck?
Me: Uh, tell me more.
E: What else is there to say? We went to Hannigan’s downtown for dinner and watched some horror movie that just came out and then we…
you know and when we were…you know…he asked if I would spend the entire weekend with him.
Do I say yes? This was only our first date.
And he’s…sort of the enemy I told you about. Well, he was.
Holy fuckballs! I look toward my bathroom where Cam or Eliza or whatever her name is went five minutes ago.
How is this happening? All those texts where I said how to ruin her enemy was me giving her advice on how to end my business.
Holy shit! Spencer and Dalton will never believe this.
They’ve been telling me to go out with Eliza for months now.
I contemplate what to do and decide I shouldn’t tell her yet. I don’t want it to be weird. I’ll have to figure out a way to tell her…later.
Me: Say yes. YOLO.
Eliza: Of course you’d say that.
Me: (smiling emoji)
Eliza: Fine, but if I have a horrible time, I’m blaming you.
Me: What if you have a great time?
Eliza: Then that was all me. (sticking-tongue-out emoji)
I grin. This is going to be fun.