Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
“Mmhm. Anyone else not accounted for?”
My father was using his “don’t fuck with me” voice. He sat down on the edge of his mahogany desk that was lined with pictures of me, Alex, and the twins and started to tap his legs up and down.
My stomach felt queasy, and my head was throbbing. Stress and anxiety clawed up my back.
What if it was Luke? What if it was Luke and the last thing I’d said to him was, “I met your pregnant wife today,” and that was it.
What if he died thinking I hated him? It shouldn’t have mattered what he thought of me or if he knew how I felt about everything, because the fact still remained—he had a wife.
But I cared about him, and that was something I couldn’t change.
Sure, a relationship between us might not have worked because I was not down with the whole Sister Wives thing, but I still cared about him, and it would still inevitably and irrevocably destroy me if he died over there.
“What is his last name, Cammie?” my father asked, voice still stern .
I breathed, “Wells.”
God . I took another deep breath and ran my hands harshly over my face. I looked up at my dad after he repeated the name. His brows furrowed slightly as he listened intently.
“Let me know if you hear anything else. Thanks, Captain.” Then, he hung up the phone and met my gaze. I broke out into a cold sweat.
“No one by the name of Luke or Lucas has been reported. He wasn’t in the raid that got bombed. It was a small group of men that went, four of them.”
I let out a huge breath and pinched the bridge of my nose. I looked up at the bright, white ceiling when tears started to blur my vision. I jumped at the sudden pressure of my dad’s sturdy hand on my shoulder.
“Is this the man I talked to a while back?”
I nodded, closing my eyes and dropping my head.
“And you love him?” he asked softly.
I choked on a bitter laugh. He released my shoulder, and I walked away from him, leaning against the closed door.
“It doesn’t really matter if I do.”
He eyed me warily, pleading for me to spill.
I looked into his big, brown eyes that were uncannily similar to Alex’s . God, I wish he was here. He would have known exactly the right thing to say to me. Or he would have made me laugh. He would have made me feel better.
“It doesn’t matter because I found out something about him that wasn’t exactly a good thing, so we’re not together…” I trailed. “But I just had to make sure he was okay.”
My father looked around his office, avoiding my eyes. I leaned further against the doorframe, prepared to go upstairs to start packing (or to escape the conversation), but he spoke again, this time in a softer voice. It was vastly different from the tone he had just used on the phone.
“Cammie, sometimes things aren’t always what they seem to be.”
Moments passed, and I expected him to have a follow-up statement, but he didn’t. I crinkled my forehead and nodded, turning on my heel to open the door and exit his office.
I paused with my back to him when his voice started again. “Give him a chance to redeem himself… I was in a similar situation once.”
And that was all he said before I ran upstairs like a bat straight out of hell.
When I checked my phone after landing at the Charlotte airport, I had two missed calls from JoJo and an unopened text. I quickly whipped it open, annoyed with the jerking movement of the airplane as it stopped, and yelled, “Shit!”
The little girl beside me gasped loudly and turned around to tattle to her mom, who was sitting three rows back. I ignored her and her two pigtails and reread the text three more times before trying to figure out my freaking life.
JoJo: He’s home.
That was it. Two words and I had started sweating like I’d just finished running a marathon.
Now what? I figured his deployment would have been longer than four months, but then again, it had just been support for another unit.
He had told me it may be a short one and that he’d let me know when he was coming home (or a roundabout date).
I’d deleted my email before he could tell me when he’d be done, so…
Surprise, Cammie! Welcome home. Here’s Luke, the guy who lied to you and broke your heart.
I ignored my dad’s voice in the back of my head, telling me to give him another chance. I didn’t think he would be saying that if he knew about my little run-in with Luke’s wife…whom I’d known nothing about.
But then again, he and Luke had something in common. My dad did cheat on my mom with Carrie.
I wondered if Carrie had known that my father was still married? Had it mattered to her? Had she felt guilty when she found out the truth?
Because that was what I’d been carrying around for the last month. A huge, heaping pile of guilt resting so heavily on my shoulders.
I pulled my car up to JoJo’s apartment and hopped out, leaving my suitcase in the back.
I looked like a hot mess. A stretched-out T-shirt hung loosely from my body, a jacket with a brown coffee stain on the front was pulled tightly over my shoulders, and then I paired that with some old leggings.
My hair was, no doubt, greasy and so was my face (the number one reason I hated flying).
JoJo had seen me a lot worse, though, so I swung open her door, walked inside, and yelled, “JoJo! What the hell do I do now?”
I almost fell backwards when I saw a bare-ass male standing in the kitchen. His butt was facing me, and his posture went rigid when he heard my voice. I slapped my hand over my eyes and shrieked, “EW!”
“Jesus, Cammie. Do you knock?” Ryan yelled.
“Why are you naked?” I squealed.
“Well… ”
JoJo’s voice was full of laughter. “Go get dressed, Ryan!!”
As soon as he left the room, she lost it, causing a few small laughs to escape my mouth, too.
“Okay, coast is clear.”
I slowly peeled my hand away from my face and raised my eyebrows at JoJo.
“We’re gonna have to break the news to Ryan that his apartment with you is more like his apartment with us . Even when you two are married, I’m still going to come over unannounced… all the time.”
She smiled and pulled her light-pink robe a little tighter around her body. “We’re gonna have to set up some type of system.”
I nodded, jumping up onto the counter. “I can’t go home.”
She cocked a hip against the wall, crossing her arms. “You’re going to have to at some point.”
“I know that, and I’ve already come up with a plan.” I steepled my fingers. “I’ll park a few streets away…” JoJo’s brows furrowed. “And then I’ll sneak into my house so he doesn’t know I’m there.”
Silence passed between us, and I was pretty sure she was waiting for me to tell her I was kidding.
But I wasn’t.
I didn’t realize Ryan was standing in the doorway—fully clothed now ( thank God) —until he chuckled.
“That is not going to work.”
I crossed my arms. “Why not?”
“Cammie, come on. Just face the music. Slap him in the face and then walk away. I’ve been slapped by you before; it stings.” Ryan ran his hand over his cheek as if he could still feel the sting .
I did slap him once, when he made JoJo cry many years ago. No one messes with my best friend, even if they are in a relationship.
I looked around their tiny apartment, shooting down my other plan of moving in with them. That would be awkward. JoJo had informed me on several occasions that she was very… loud in bed, and hearing them have sex would only remind me of how pathetic my love life was.
Even before Luke, my love life was shit.
I’ll just be a crazy cat lady. Maybe Ms. Deacon will give me some of her cats to start my collection.
“I have an idea,” JoJo said, looking up from her phone.
She pattered over to me and tilted the screen up to my face.
My eyes scanned it quickly, and I looked back up at her.
She smiled convincingly, and Ryan rolled his eyes at us.
“You can stay here for a few nights, then we’ll make you look hot as hell, and we’ll go to the coming home party that…
”—she looked down at the event on her social media account again—“Ember is throwing for the support team, and you can face him there. You won’t be alone, and Ryan will punch him if need be. ”
Ryan interjected, “Hey! I can’t punch him!”
JoJo gave him a pointed stare, and he rolled his eyes again. “Fine. I’ll punch him if you want me to, Cammie.”
I thought about it for a second and then nodded. “Okay...but will you guys make a pact to only have sex when I’m at work? I don’t want you to rub salt in my wound.”
They both laughed and looked at each other adoringly. Then Ryan winked at her. They were cute. Why couldn’t I find a love like that?
Instead of this fucked-up marriage debacle that I was in right now…