Chapter 29
Sunday afternoon, Cam found himself surrounded by his friends at Derek and Slone’s house for a little get-together. Although they wouldn’t admit it, he knew they planned it the moment he landed back home Friday and had to face them with the disastrous truth of the end of his spontaneous vacation. They could say it was already planned all they wanted, but he knew them enough to know this was pulled together last minute to keep him from sitting at home by himself sulking.
Not that he’d admit to sulking, even if he did spend the flight home Friday and all day Saturday feeling like he’d had his heart ripped out. For someone who was known as being a nice guy, he sure didn’t make himself any friends while traveling home as he’d had a permanent scowl on his face.
One that apparently hadn’t left him yet, as his friend Gary clasped him on the shoulder on his way to take a seat. “You look like someone ran over your dog,” he proclaimed.
“Nope.”
Gary’s brow rose. “That’s it?”
“Yup.”
His friend chuckled, even if Cam was being an asshole. “Whew, she really did a number on you, didn’t she?”
“Who did a number on who?” Derek asked, coming outside with a tray of salsa, hummus, and other enticing-looking dips. Nate followed with an oversized bowl of chips and Jim behind him. They all took up seats among the patio furniture.
“No one did any numbers,” Cam growled, not wanting to get into this. He knew he’d have to face his friends at some point, especially since the last they’d heard all was great back in St. Croix. They were as surprised as him to learn he’d be coming home heartbroken.
“That glare says otherwise,” Nate said offhandedly as he reached for a chip and dunked it into a cheese sauce of some sort. Cam only shook his head.
“I thought you two finally hit it off,” Jim questioned, but before Cam could respond, he heard Katie’s shout from the doorway behind them.
“Hey, I thought we agreed you’d wait!”
“We are, babe. Just getting him warmed up.”
Cam looked at Nate with disbelief. Nate only smiled and shrugged.
“Don’t say anything else until we get out there,” she warned.
Derek’s brows rose as he looked at Nate. “If any of your employees slack off, I suggest siccing Katie on them. She’d whip them in shape real quick.”
They all laughed, Nate included, especially since he knew his girlfriend’s marketing team would be baffled to have her yelling at them like that. However, the same couldn’t be said for their friend group which was more like family than anything.
“Maybe we should have her question your newfound love, ask her why she dumped your ass,” Gary joked to Cam.
He wasn’t impressed by the joke. That was a terrifying idea. “No, Katie would like her too much. Hell, all the women would probably team up and kick me out of the friend group and bring in Emma as my replacement.”
Jim huffed out a laugh. “What’d you do wrong to deserve that?”
Cam sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly, I didn’t,” he trailed off as he rehashed everything in his mind. “I guess my mistake was thinking it could work out.”
Derek reached over and slapped his knee before going for some chips. “Nah. That big ole heart of yours hasn’t steered you wrong yet. Once the women get out here you can start from the beginning. We’ll get this thing figured out.”
He looked up at the sky and groaned. “No, there’s nothing to figure out.”
“Sure there is,” Nate said. “You’re sitting here all banged up over this Emma woman, and you have friends who know how to make a woman swoon.” He looked at Gary, the only other single one besides Cam, with a grin. “And then you got Gary.”
That raised some chuckles. Cam frowned. “You don’t know how to make women swoon,” he countered. “Derek had to go chase down Slone from across the country, you about lost Katie by omitting the truth, and Jim, well, I think you just got lucky. Annika is too good for you.”
The man held up his drink. “Don’t I know it,” he laughed. They all did.
“Yeah and look at us now,” Derek countered with a smile. “They couldn’t imagine life without us,” he joked.
The women were walking outside when they overheard the tail end. “More like you’re too big of pains in our asses to ship back where you came from,” Slone teased, giving Derek a playful smile.
All three of them settled in, and Cam could feel the expectant weight of their eyes as all attention shifted to him. Who said having friends was a good thing, he wondered with humor. It only meant having to face a group of people who believed he deserved the world, even if that possibility was snatched right out of his grasp.
He let out a sigh and did the only thing he knew he could to get through this. He told them about Emma.
◆◆◆
By the time Cam’s lunch rolled around on Monday, he didn’t have food on his mind. It’d been a grueling morning having to catch up on a week’s worth of work. Not only that but there had been plenty of gossip about Cam having spent vacation with one of their bigwigs. He shut the conversations and questions down and not solely because he didn’t want to think about his time with Emma. He’d never been a fan of workplace gossip, whether it was about him or anyone else.
Now, as he leaned back in his chair, he stared blankly at the screen in front of him. He was dreading the call he needed to make, but not as bad as the one he would place tonight.
He’d reached out to Lulu to see what time her lunch was and if he could give her a call. She’d told him and he’d orchestrated his day to line up with her break. He felt bad doing this during the work day, but he needed more time over the weekend before facing his actions. Besides, there was no way he could handle both Lulu and Henry tonight. He still felt ashamed for lying to everyone and for letting Lulu go along with it. But he couldn’t ignore his actions and just go back to work like it never happened. He had to face the consequences.
As his personal cell lit up with the incoming call, he picked it up, sliding to answer it as he grabbed his car keys and headed outside for the privacy he wanted for this phone call. No sense in stopping curious questions if he was going to chat on the phone where others could potentially overhear.
“Hey,” he answered. “Thanks for calling.”
A light laugh crossed the line. “Of course,” Lulu said. “I was expecting to hear from you sometime this week.”
Cam let out a sigh of relief at her friendly tone as he made his way out into the parking lot. “Sorry I didn’t reach out sooner.”
“Why?” she asked. “If you had, you’d probably been ignored. I spent most of this weekend catching up on sleep. I need a vacation from my vacation.” They laughed. “Especially from that fight,” she added a little less enthusiastically. “That was definitely draining.”
He exhaled. “That’s why I wanted to talk,” Cam said, heading for his car. “I wanted to apologize for roping you into the middle of it.”
He could practically see her frowning through the phone. “You didn’t cause that scene,” Lulu replied.
“I played a role in it.” He unlocked his car and slid into the driver’s seat.
“We all did,” she insisted.
“I just want you to know that I’m sorry for my part in it,” he tried. “If I hadn’t been willing to lie, then you would’ve never been put in between Lauren and Emma.”
Lulu let out a laugh. “Did you miss the part where that wasn’t the first time I’ve been in the middle of things?”
He couldn’t help but smile, whether from the relief at her good humor in all of this or the fact that it meant she wasn’t mad at him, he didn’t care. It just felt good to know things were going to be fine between them, even if that made a certain dark-haired beauty pop into his head, crushing his heart to know that the same couldn’t be said for them. He pushed back the thought.
“Still,” Cam insisted. “It wasn’t fair to put you in that position, especially with your family.”
“I knew what I was signing up for,” Lulu replied. “You don’t owe me any apologies. Are you planning to talk to my dad about it?”
He nodded, not that she could see it. “Yeah. I was going to wait until after work tonight.”
“That’s smart. Are you nervous?”
He huffed out a laugh. “Hell yeah I’m nervous.”
She laughed. “Don’t be.”
“Easy for you to say.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “He’s a fair man, and he’ll respect you for reaching out to him.”
“Any tips?” he asked.
“Sleep with one eye open.”
Cam laughed at that one. “You can count on that.”
“Oh, I’m kidding. Just be yourself, you’ll be fine. Besides, he doesn’t let his personal life affect the workplace.”
Cam sighed, deciding he didn’t want to think about the call any sooner than he had to. “How’d it go after we left?” he asked.
“Eh,” she started. “Let’s just say there was no wedding.”
“I’m so sorry,” he began, guilt washing over him again at his part in ruining Lauren and Asher’s special moment.
Lulu seemed unfazed. “Don’t be. Lauren was picking a fight with everyone after you two left. I was the evil sister who let her look like a fool. Dad the overbearing one who just had to force you along on the trip. Asher for not speaking up at all or coming to her defense.” She let out a sigh that made Cam think she was reminiscing fondly. “It was a sight to see,” she said.
He shook his head but a smile formed on his face. “You seem unscathed by it all.”
“Like I said, not my first rodeo.”
He wished he’d felt as unfazed about it all as she did.
“It’ll all come to pass sooner or later and we’ll drink margaritas together and laugh about how ridiculous we all were,” Lulu said confidently.
“You’re really not worried about it?”
“No,” she admitted. “There’ll be some tough conversations to be had and maybe some awkwardness to smooth over, but we’ll get through it. We all love each other.”
He smiled. Somehow he felt better knowing Emma would have open arms ready to welcome her when she was ready to face them.
“Speaking of love,” she cooed. “Have you talked to Emma?”
He frowned. “No.”
“Did you guys get into it?”
He sighed. “Let’s just say when it was time to leave, we didn’t leave together.”
“What?” She sounded shocked, then her next words came out more gently. “I know she threw you under the bus, but–”
“It wasn’t that,” Cam interrupted. “I mean, yeah, I was pissed off about it, but I was hoping we could talk it out.”
As if understanding, Lulu said, “Give her time.”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Lulu. She looked at me like the week hadn’t meant a thing to her.” That’s what he’d tried explaining to his friends last night as they assured him it could all still work out. They’d insisted that once she was back in the States, he could fly to North Carolina and work it out with her. Maybe it was still too soon to be hopeful, but he just didn’t believe it was possible.
“Trust me,” she insisted. “I’ve known her almost all my life. She likely needs time to sort through the mess as much as the rest of us.”
Ironic, he thought, considering Lulu seemed just fine, but then again he knew better than to believe anyone came by wisdom and understanding without some suffering of their own. He nodded with his phone pressed to his ear.
“Does it make me pathetic if I admit that I hope you’re right? That I’m hoping the three months in Europe has her missing me?”
“No,” she said kindly. “It makes you a man who recognizes a good woman worth waiting for.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that. “That she is,” he agreed.
They chatted for a bit longer before Lulu wished him luck with his call to Henry later and then hung up the phone. Cam felt a little lighter heading back into work for the day, but there was still that heavy ache in his chest that had formed from the moment Emma told him to go.
Time, he tried telling himself. Maybe she just needed time. He only hoped it was wise to give it to her and wouldn’t result in her forgetting about him.