Chapter 19
Sophia
E ven though Cameron never asked her to, Sophia made a decision not to speak to the guys she was friends with whenever he was around—which was almost all the time lately. Her reasons were two-fold.
Sophia didn’t want to trigger Cameron when he didn’t have any reason to doubt her. It only made him feel worse about himself. The second reason was that she didn’t want whoever it was to be in the line of fire if Cameron ended up doing something he regretted.
The fact of the matter was that he didn’t completely trust her. How could he? Their relationship was built on their mutually flirtatious natures. In the beginning, he’d witnessed just how easy it was for her to draw in any guy she was interested in.
On top of her needing to find a way to show him she was here for the long haul, he was dealing with his own unresolved issues with his brother.
She didn’t know Cameron’s brother, but she got the distinct feeling that it would be good for them both to hash out what had happened.
It didn’t matter that Cameron had said they worked through their stuff.
Clearly, he was still rattled enough that seeing any guy talk to Sophia triggered those latent fears.
She heaved a sigh as she settled back on the couch in her living room. Cameron had to go to an auction in the next town over. He’d gone with Mateo, and the two of them had invited her to tag along, but she couldn’t manage it.
Trying to maintain the peace with Cameron had gotten exhausting. They had been dating for a couple of months now, and she still didn’t feel he was any closer to being healed. Maybe he needed to see someone. There could be more to his issues than just the betrayal his brother had caused him.
“Everything okay?” Roman wandered into the living room with a cup of coffee in his hand. It was lunchtime.
She eyed the mug, her lip curling with a smidge of judgment. “How many cups of coffee have you had so far today?”
Her brother shrugged. “I don’t count anymore.”
Sophia snickered. “The fact that you can sleep at all at night still baffles me.”
He took another sip. “What’s going on? You don’t have your usual shadow with you.”
She huffed and wrapped her arms around her head. “Don’t call him that.” Just because she could tell that something was off about the way Cameron treated her didn’t mean she wanted anyone else to point it out to her.
“What? He is. And I feel like it’s getting worse.”
Her arms fell to her sides. “You do?”
Roman gave her a flat look. “Honestly, I was skeptical about him in the beginning, but I thought that maybe it was just because of the relationship being new. There were times when he was really good to you, too. But…”
“But?” she prodded.
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Doesn’t he seem a little too… I dunno… He’s not controlling, is he?”
Her brows lifted. “Of course not.” At the look her brother gave her, she sighed. “Really. He’s not controlling at all. He just has some issues that we need to work through.”
“Issues?”
It was her turn to shrug. She didn’t like speaking about this with her brother.
He could go tell Mateo the second he heard that something wrong was going on.
Then Mateo would have to sit down with the two of them and work out whatever this was.
Sophia sighed again. “He’s not controlling.
I can promise you that. He’s just a little mistrusting. ”
“He doesn’t trust you?” Roman said, a hint of anger in his voice.
“Not me… I don’t think. Honestly, I think he trusts me. It’s the other guys he doesn’t trust.”
“Other guys?” Roman frowned this time. “You’re not…”
She blushed a deep red color. “No. I’m not cheating if that is what you’re insinuating. And I’m not comfortable giving you his life story. Let’s just say that he has some legitimate reasons to be worried that another guy will sweep me off my feet and he’ll lose me.”
Roman’s frown only deepened. “I don’t know if you should still be seeing this guy.”
“What?” Sophia snapped. “Why not?”
“Because he’s not ready for something serious.”
She scoffed. “What do you know?”
He shrugged before taking another swig of his coffee. “Love can do a lot to overcome things, but if someone has some deep-seated issues they haven’t processed, then they should fix them before trying to bring someone else into their life.”
Sophia chewed on her fingernail as she considered what her brother was saying.
It made sense. Wasn’t that the reason that she’d refused to date anyone for the last several years?
She knew she wasn’t ready for anything serious—not until she’d met Cameron.
She’d needed to heal herself, and that had taken time.
Cameron hadn’t done that yet.
She let out a groan. What was she supposed to do if he wasn’t going to do what it took to get over this? She couldn’t keep living her life avoiding anyone of the male persuasion.
“You know I’m right,” Roman said.
“Yeah, well, doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.
” She stared hard at her brother. “Things are going great between us. He hasn’t had a jealous outburst in a long time.
I can tell he’s really trying.” Especially when she ended up having to speak to some guy who happened to be one of Mateo’s vendors for the ranch.
“All I’m saying is that you really should think about this before you let things go too far. Cameron is a decent guy. I’m not saying he isn’t. But there are just some parts of our souls that should go through the healing process before we finally give it to the person we love.”
Ugh. She hated that he was right. But how was she going to bring it up to him? Cameron would probably think she was breaking up with him instead of insisting that he work on himself.
A sigh built in her chest.
“If you need help talking to him?—”
“It’s fine ,” Sophia said. “I’ll figure it out.”
The music in the country club wasn’t enough to distract Sophia from what she knew she needed to bring up with Cameron. She was terrified about how he would react, and she couldn’t find the words she needed to say to get him to understand she still didn’t plan on going anywhere.
Sophia downed the water bottle that she’d gotten a few minutes ago, much to Cameron’s amusement.
“Easy, tiger. You’re going to get a stomachache.”
“Too late for that,” she said.
Cameron frowned. “Everything okay?”
Her eyes darted to anywhere in the building but him. This was a difficult conversation, and she wasn’t sure having it here would be the best idea, but having it at the house wasn’t a good option either. The last thing she needed was for her brothers to overhear any of it.
She cleared her throat and shook her head.
“What do you need?” His voice was immediately concerned, and it made her feel loved and wanted all at once.
Sophia lifted the empty bottle. “Do you think you could go get me another one? I think I’m just dehydrated.”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.” Cameron moved through the building toward the counter where they sold beverages, and she watched him until he disappeared into the crowd. Maybe talking to him at home would be best after all.
If she said the wrong thing here, then they’d have the most miserable car ride home.
“Is that Sophia, I see?”
She stiffened and glanced in the direction the voice had come from.
Then her stomach dropped. “Brent?” Her hands curled into fists at her sides, though she fought to have her expression remain neutral.
It had been nearly a decade since he’d cheated on her.
Nearly a decade since she’d had to see him face to face.
He’d left town, and she’d thought that was the end of it.
“In the flesh.” Brent pulled her in for a hug, but before she could shove him away from her, he was yanked backward by the collar of his shirt.
Her eyes flew to the cause, and then they widened when she took in the anger emanating from Cameron’s face. The way he looked at her was as if he believed she’d been the one to instigate this situation. He was hurting, but he was covering it up with an anger so hot that even Brent looked worried.
“Look, man, I don’t know who you are?—”
“Keep your hands off of my girl.”
His girl? The way he said it made her sound more like property than an actual girlfriend. And while there was some small part of her that wouldn’t mind seeing Brent roughed up a little for what he’d done to her, the more reasonable side of her knew this wasn’t right.
“Cameron,” she snapped, but he didn’t look at her. He was still glaring at Brent like he was planning on sending him to his maker for trying to hug her.
He shifted so he stood between Sophia and Brent, and then he gave the guy a measurable shove against the chest. Brent stumbled back a step, and his foot caught on something, sending him sprawling to the ground.
The fight caught the attention of several people nearby, and Sophia fought the embarrassment flooding her face when their eyes turned to her with curiosity.
“Cameron!” she attempted again, but he was standing over Brent, his stance daring the guy to get to his feet.
Still, people gasped and murmured as Brent garbled out some nonsense and Cameron continued to lay claim to her like she wasn’t anything more than an object.
She let out a strangled sound and shoved past Cameron to the door. She could feel his attention before she heard his voice. “Sophia!”
The crowd parted for her as she made her way to the exit, phone in hand. She had an Uber ordered before she made it to the bottom steps of the country club. And they were only two minutes out by the time Cameron stood beside her.
He touched her arm, and she yanked it away.
“Red,” he whispered, “you have to understand?—”
She whirled on him. “I don’t have to understand anything, Cameron. What you did in there wasn’t appropriate. You should have never laid your hands on him, no matter who he was.”
“Who he was? You know him.” It wasn’t a question, more like an accusation.
Sophia huffed, pulling her eyes from him to stare at her phone.
“What are you doing?” He made to reach for her phone, and she dodged his attempt.
“I’m getting a ride.”
“I’m your ride.”
“Not tonight, you aren’t.”
“Sophia,” he tried again, but she held up a hand to stop him.
“We’re not going to talk about this here. All I’m going to say is that you promised you wouldn’t make a scene like that. You promised,” she said, her voice cracking.
“I know,” he said, his shoulders sagging. Before he could say anything else, a car pulled up and a girl rolled down the window to look at them.
“Sophia?”
Nodding, Sophia moved to the car, but Cameron stopped her.
“Please, can we?—”
“Later, Cameron.”
“Sophia, I…”
She paused with her hand on the door.
He swallowed hard. “You’ve done a number on me, Sophia. You’re my reason for living.”
Her expression softened, and as much as she wanted to accept his confession of his feelings for what it was, she knew it wasn’t enough.
They would still need to discuss how to fix this.
They just couldn’t do it here, and she was too exhausted to do it tonight.
“We’ll talk about this later.” With that, she climbed into the car and the driver pulled away.