LAILAH
SEVENTEEN
“You really don’t have to help if you want to take the night off. This was my crazy idea, after all,” I told Sarah.
“Yeah, way deep down in the basement under piles of cement,” Cami chimed in, tying on the ridiculous apron she got just for today.
I couldn’t help but laugh when she showed me. It was neon pink and had Sorry, your opinion wasn’t in the recipe written on it. Knowing my love of sassy t-shirts, she got me one as well. Mine was a pastel blue, and my saying was All this . . . and can cook!
“Why are you so amazing!” I said, wrapping Cami up in a hug.
After the crazy past two days, it was doing me good just to have time with Cami and not worry about school, boys, or being Synergy.
Today was all about Thanksgiving and stuffing our faces with food.
I let my teachers know that I was still sick and wouldn’t be in class today and asked if they could email me anything I needed to know.
I just wasn’t up to dealing with it today.
“The turkey is in the roaster, freeing up both ovens for us to use on other things. What should we start with first?” Sarah said, looking over the different recipes I had laid out on the counter.
“Cami, why don’t you wash, peel, and cut the potatoes for us to boil. Sarah, I’ll put you in charge of green beans and stuffing for now while I work on the pies,” I delegated, knowing that I was the only one who knew my mother's methods to make her pie crusts.
In true Cami style, she turned on some music, dancing and singing along while she peeled.
We chatted and laughed as we worked, making it feel just like it would back home.
Cami had already warned me that she wasn’t going to be much help but for the chopping part of things.
She could handle a knife just fine, but other than that, we were putting the food at risk.
Sarah and I worked together as if we had been doing it forever, just like my mom and me.
“So are you going to spill the details about you and Brayden yet?” Cami asked as she started washing up some of our mess.
I grinned over at Cami. “I’m amazed it took you this long to ask me about it. I for sure thought you were going to corner me yesterday when you got done with classes.”
“Trust me, I would have if a certain sister of mine hadn't told me to leave you alone for the day. Beth said you had some kind of mental breakdown?” Cami questioned.
“I wouldn’t call it a mental breakdown,” I said, kneading the dough for the rolls.
“It’s hard to explain, it was more like having a dream while awake.
I felt like everything was really happening, but it wasn’t.
It scared the shit out of me, Cami.” I shuddered at the lack of mercy I’d felt towards everyone in the cafe I was about to destroy.
“Do we know what caused it?” Sarah asked.
Even though Sarah was part of the Elementi, I still wasn’t sure what her clearance was to know all the information Beth told us. “They have a few thoughts, but truthfully, more questions than answers at this point.”
“Everything will work out in due time, dear,” Sarah said, patting my arm reassuringly.
“And that’s enough heavy, depressing topics, let's talk about something more fun, like you and Brayden,” Cami said, bringing us back full circle.
“Let’s just say that Brayden and I bonded on a spiritual and physical level the other night,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat with my blush.
“Thank the lord. It’s about damn time you both gave in to the epic amounts of sexual tension between the two of you,” Cami crowed and did a little happy dance. “I won’t ask you the dirty details, because I know you won’t tell me, but I have to know one thing.”
I stopped working on the rolls and turned to look at her when she didn’t ask right away.
Cami walked up to me and grabbed both my hands in hers and looked me dead in the eye.
I was beginning to worry that this wasn’t going to be a good question, the way she was acting.
Cami only became serious when it was about my safety.
“Am. I. Going… to be your maid of honor?”
My mouth fell open at her question. “What? Why would you ask me that? How did this turn into Brayden and me getting married?”
At this point, Cami lost it, and peals of laughter flooded out of her. Tears started to seep out of her eyes as she continued to laugh, keeping hold of my hands as she slid to the floor, still carrying on.
“Cami,” I groaned, still not following her crazy logic.
“The money I would pay to go back in time and get a picture of your face when I asked that. I don’t think I have ever seen you more terrified in my life.” Cami finally stood and used her apron to wipe her eyes. “You poor thing, you have no idea what you’ve done, do you?”
“Now what does that mean?” I demanded.
“I know Beth told you that the Bond is forever, right?” I nodded when she paused for my answer.
“Since you and Brayden have done both, you're practically married. Hell, you're more than married, you couldn’t even get rid of the guy if you wanted. I mean, I guess you could kill him if you really needed to…” Cami said, getting lost in her thoughts until she turned back to me.
“Okay, okay, take deep breaths, Lala. Thatta girl. Maybe you need to sit down.”
Taking Cami’s advice, I slid down the wall of the counter and sat right there on the floor, staring off into nothing while my mind finally caught up.
Beth tried to explain this to me yesterday, but I was so overwhelmed with everything else we had to talk about that I didn’t really dwell on things with Brayden.
“Holy shit,” I finally said when something else clicked into place. “He knew exactly what he was agreeing to and still did it.”
Cami squatted down in front of me and placed her hands on my knees, grounding me.
“Yeah, I kinda figured you weren’t really understanding things with how calm you’ve been.
If it’s any help, that boy has been head over heels for you since the moment you ran into each other at the fountain, he just didn’t know it till after your lame coffee date. ”
“How could you possibly know that?” I asked, dumbfounded.
Cami grinned at me. “You forget, I’ve known these boys almost all my life.
Brayden never makes the first move, aka giving you his number.
He never has to wait for a girl to text or call him back.
Lala, he had to remind you that you never did.
The other reason is that Brayden doesn’t do girlfriends.
He has girls that he spends time with and takes on dates, but he is never real around them, and he definitely never talks about his brother with them.
We don’t even know the full story about that situation, but I bet my sparkly ass you do. ”
I let my head fall back against the wall as this all settled in. “What am I going to do now? Beth wants me to be fully bonded with the others sooner rather than later. That means I will be more than married to five guys?”
“Now the lucky bitch gets it,” Cami said with a wink.
I laughed just like Cami hoped I would, then she jumped to her feet, hands on her hips. “What the hell do you think you're doing? This dinner isn’t going to cook itself, now is it?”
She pulled me to my feet, and I took a deep breath, then let it out. “Right, let’s get to it. We don’t have tons of time before the boys are back and demanding to be fed.”
Throwing myself into the meal, I shut out dealing with my personal life until I could talk to Brayden, and focused on right now.
With Sarah’s expert skills of figuring out how to stage what went into the oven, things went without a hitch.
As we waited for the last few things to finish, my stomach growled with all the delicious-smelling food around.
We decided to skip lunch, knowing we would be eating dinner much earlier than usual.
I had Beth text all the guys, telling them they had to be home by three for something important.
We tried to make it look like Cami and I were hanging out in the kitchen while Sarah cooked and kept all the food hidden away in the warmers.
Jay was the first one home, but he went right to his room, so we didn’t need to worry about him.
Hudson was next, but he had his head stuck in a book and headed for the library, mumbling about something I didn’t understand.
The next three were the ones I was worried about spoiling the surprise.
“What if we just tell them they can’t come in from the garage? Then we don’t have to worry about them seeing a thing,” I suggested.
“No, that would never work. The moment we do something like that, they’ll know,” Sarah said, making a good point.
“When Micah gets here, I’ll just piss him off so he doesn’t even care to know what we’re doing here,” Cami volunteered. “Then you can just drag Brayden out of here with the promise of a make-out session.”
“Let’s be honest, Parker is the one who will be the biggest challenge,” Sarah said. “He has this ability to know when I don’t want him to find something in the kitchen.”
“Oh, I can play video games with him!” I smiled, knowing that would get him for sure.
“Not if you’re getting hot and heavy with Brayden,” Cami said, wagging her brows at me.
“Who’s getting hot and heavy with Brayden?” Parker asked, leaning on the counter next to Cami.
“Fucking tits on my ass, Parker,” Cami yelled, almost falling out of her chair.
“When did you get here?” I asked at the same time Cami was swearing.
Parker just propped his head on his hand like he was an innocent little cherub. “You guys seem to be plotting oh-so-carefully over here, you didn’t even notice me walk in. I have to admit, it hurts a little right here,” he said, pointing to his heart. “Care to fill me in on the juicy deets?”
“Parker, the nineties called, they want their slang back,” Cami said, rolling her eyes.
“Burn,” I added, unable to stop myself, causing Cami and I to burst out laughing.