Chapter Twelve #2
As soon as we get to my dad’s, Camden collects Soot’s crate. “I’m going to head out. I need to get this little hellion set up in her new home. Will you be okay with the dogs?”
“I can handle them.” I walk Camden out to the car. Along the way, I try to find the right words for everything the last two days have meant to me. “I’ll text you soon?”
“Oh, be prepared to receive eleven thousand pictures of this cat. You’re going to be getting updates at every hour of the day and night.” He sets Soot’s carrier in the front seat, then turns to give me a chaste kiss.
“You can do better than that,” I tell him.
Camden tips his head to one side. Across the street and cattycorner, Dad’s friend Cash is out watering his lawn. “We have an audience,” he whispers. “Ten minutes from now, the whole team will know I kissed you.”
I lift my chin in a challenge. “Is that a problem?”
Camden reaches up to cup my cheek. “Not for me. But I want to talk about this when it’s had time to settle.”
“Soon?”
“Soon,” he agrees.
And then he’s gone.
I watch his car until it rounds the bend at the end of the street.
I don’t know what to make of this. Is he playing hard to get?
What’s the deal? I don’t know who to ask.
Usually, I’d go to Mira, but she’s hit or miss when it comes to human emotions.
Dad’s out. Talking to Knova, Sofia, or Violet doesn’t feel right, since they’re friends with Camden, too. I need impartial advice.
No. I need wisdom.
I turn and march to Cash’s house.
Cash rolls his eyes when he sees me coming. “Oh, fuck me,” he mutters. “Never should have made eye contact.”
“Hey, Cash, do you have a second?” Cash was Dad’s mentor when they played for the Venom. He’s cranky, but he knows what he’s talking about.
“One second.” Cash looks at his watch. “There you go. Time’s up.”
“Really?” I stick out my bottom lip in a pout. I’ve seen how Knova interacts with him. I know all her tricks. “But Dad says you give the best advice ever.”
Cash releases the handle of the spray nozzle to kill the flow of water. “That’s usually about money or real estate. Do you want to talk about either of those subjects?”
“Not particularly.” Though maybe I should make notes for later.
Cash sighs. “Then what do you need to talk about?”
“Um… Camden.”
He purses his lips and thinks. “He’s a good hockey player. A rising talent. A team asset.”
“No, more like Camden and me.” I adjust my glasses. I’m probably too old to be asking this stuff. Everyone else I know got their first-real-relationship jitters out of the way in high school and college.
“I don’t think you want to talk to me about relationships,” Cash says. “Kingsley puts up with me for some reason, but hell if I know why.”
“That’s not… I mean, it’s relationship-adjacent, but…” Just spit it out, Dot. “What if we talk about guys and sex?”
“Talk to Kingsley,” Cash insists.
I shake my head. “No, you’re a guy. I need a guy’s perspective. I can’t ask my dad, since he’s in the hospital.” I feel a little low for bringing up my dad, but maybe a guilt trip will help.
Cash groans and drags his hose back to the driveway. He lays it out on the concrete, where it won’t touch his precious grass. I follow him up to the porch, where he takes the chair and I take the swing.
Once we’re both settled in, he steeples his fingers. “Clearly, this is important to you. What’s the question? And I can’t guarantee I’m going to answer it. Life was so much easier when I didn’t talk.”
“I only have one question.” I steel my resolve, take a deep breath, and square my shoulders. “Why won’t Camden have sex with me?”
Cash slaps his palm to his forehead. “God damn it. How am I supposed to know?”
“I could tell you what happened?” I offer.
Cash shakes his head. “This is not getting better. This is so much worse.”
My fingers twine together. “It’s not that bad. I just told you that he didn’t have sex with me, remember?”
“I mean, thank Christ for that.” Cash inhales through his nose.
I half expect him to boot me off the porch and send me home.
For all his griping, I do trust his insight.
Who better to dispense life advice than the silver fox who helped my dad figure himself out years ago?
Going to Cash for guidance is a time-honored tradition in the Shaw family.
Like seeking out Yoda in the swamps of Dagobah.
At last, Cash waves a hand to me. “You may proceed.”
Yahtzee. “Okay, so we were in a motel…”
“Words I never wanted to hear.”
“And there were condoms everywhere…”
Cash’s face contorts in horror. “What kind of seedy ass motel did he take you to? I swear…”
“There was a deer head on the wall.”
Cash presses his palms to his eyes and mutters something under his breath. Louder, he asks, “And you chose this place why, exactly?”
“There was a furry convention in the area. Our options were limited.” I hesitate for a moment. “Furries are—”
“I know what furries are, and I think we’ll both be happier if you don’t ask why. Move it along.”
“Right. So, uh, this was the closest place to the shelter. We were picking up the dogs. For my dad.”
“That does not make it better. “ Cash motions for me to get on with it. “Skip the extraneous details. Let’s get this over with.”
“Okay. We were cuddling on the bed while Mira read us a story.”
Cash’s eye twitches. “He took you to a condom-filled sex dungeon where someone was watching you? Shit, kid, if that’s what you’re into, you didn’t have to leave Vegas.”
“Mira is my AI assistant. Like Siri.” I hold up my hands to indicate the size of Mira, which in hindsight probably means nothing to him. “Anyway, I thought we were going to… you know.”
“Say less,” Cash insists.
“But we didn’t. And I told him I’d never done it before. And then he… well, we didn’t.” I sit back on the swing. “So what gives?”
Cash closes his eyes. “Let me make sure that I’ve got this right.
Am I to understand you have a problem with a guy you like and who definitely respects you, not wanting to have your first time happen in a questionable motel room where condoms are scattered about in candy dishes while our future robot overlords record everything you say and do? Sounds like the son of Anders Beck.”
I blink a few times. Respect. Did Camden keep his hands off me out of respect?
More importantly, why didn’t I think of that?
He said he wanted to talk later, once things have settled.
Between the dogs and the accident and my rollercoaster of emotions, I can see why he’d want to take things slow if he likes me even half as much as I like him.
“I see what you’re saying. Okay, I feel better. For now.”
Cash’s other eye twitches. “For now?”
“Yeah. We’re not in Reno anymore. So, if the opportunity arises again, in a nicer location, and he still doesn’t want me, I’ll be back.”
Cash gets to his feet. “Don’t bother. I’m gonna get more sprinklers. And I’m not answering my door.”
My audience is over. Time to skedaddle. I make it to the end of the walkway before he calls my name.
“Hey, Dot?” He crosses his arms and leans against the beam that supports the porch roof. “Tell your dad I’ll be by to visit him this week. If he ever needs anything, I’ll make an exception to the rule about answering the door.”