Chapter 7
“HONEY, I’M HOME.”
Cam
Fisher comes into the interrogation room, sits in the chair across from me, and sighs.
“What? Just tell me.”
He looks up and smiles. “Thank your best friend Fisher for bailing you out of trouble again.”
I stare at him for a beat. “He caved?”
“Yes. So again… thank your best friend Fisher.” He points at himself, his smile wide and annoying as all hell.
“Thanks. Although you could’ve been nicer when you arrested me. You didn’t even let me get a shirt.”
He stands and I follow suit. “I can’t treat you differently than I would anyone else. People wouldn’t vote for me next year.” He shrugs.
“I hit somebody to protect the honor of your sister.”
I don’t miss the way his jaw tightens at the mention of what happened to Chevelle. “I didn’t know that. I thought maybe you got drunk and got into a fight.”
“Derek was at Mandi’s wedding as Chevelle’s date. When he pressed charges, what did you think?” I shake my head as we leave the interrogation room. At least he never put me in an actual jail cell. I can just imagine him snapping a few pictures and spreading them around town as a joke.
“Well, I’m a little busy and sleep deprived with, oh that’s right, raising twins. Do you know how hard it’s been since they started to crawl? And Allie called this morning after I left to say Laurie has started running. My life is officially over.”
I laugh because he’s so dramatic. “It’s supposed to be a blessing raising kids.” I slap him on the shoulder. “Thanks again for springing me. Drive me home?”
He stops short of the door and his eyes crinkle at the sides. He puts his fingers on the bridge of his nose. It’s his way of saying there’s more he has to tell me. “So, your dad called me because he wanted to know if he should send a lawyer over.”
“I knew he wouldn’t stay mad at me.” I reach for the door.
“I told him we worked it out, and he thanked me and asked if you could stay in the apartment above our garage. He’s having a crew box up the stuff from your apartment and he’s taking the car back. You’ve been cut off.”
My head rocks back. “I thought for sure he was bluffing.”
Fisher shakes his head. “But I found you a better place to stay.”
“Better than above your garage? I’m sure I’d find it comfortable there.” I shrug.
“Yeah, the apartment is filled with a lot of storage right now. And you know… Allie and the twins—you don’t want us to bring down your social life.”
“I don’t?” He clearly doesn’t want me to live with them.
“Chevelle has the entire house to herself, and you can walk to the marina from there. Problem solved. Not to mention, the girls have left all their furniture behind, so bonus for you.”
“You want me to live with your sister?”
Hearing him say this is almost like a dream. I thought for sure Fisher saw right through me and knew I’ve wanted his sister for a while now, but I guess I was wrong. I’m surprised Chevelle would even agree to it, and I can’t help but wonder why she would.
“You’re family, Cam.” He hits me on the back as he opens the door to the outside. It’s still cloudy and foggy, as if the sun decided not to show today. “The only thing I’m worried about is getting calls from the neighbors when you two fight.” He laughs and climbs into his sheriff’s truck.
I get into the passenger side. “Can you take me to my apartment to get my clothes and stuff?”
“Sure.”
As we pull away, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that he set it up for me to move in with Chevelle.
This has to be a joke the universe is playing on me.
I’m gonna have to see her in her pajamas, and please tell me she’s not a tank-top-and-panties girl because I’m going to be living with blue balls until my dad takes me back into the fold.
“Why do you seem stressed? You should be relaxed that you’re in the clear.” Fisher turns down my street.
“I’m not. It’s just… I’ve never lived with a girl before.”
His forehead crinkles when he glances at me as he stops at a stop sign. “It’s my sister, man. It’s not like it’s a girl you’re, like, hot for or anything.” He laughs, but my stomach sours.
If he only knew.
“Yeah, but still. I’m an only child. I don’t want to offend her or anything.”
“Chevelle?” He laughs again. “You know her. She’ll tell you if you’re pissing her off.”
Since I have no other options, I sit in his truck, stewing over the fact that I’m going to live with Chevelle. Stupid things can happen when you lust after someone, and the Greenes are like family to me. Fisher isn’t just my best friend, he’s like a brother. I cannot fuck this up.
Fisher stops outside my apartment, and sure enough, my dad’s Range Rover is parked outside. He’s probably dictating to the movers exactly where to move my stuff.
My neighbor’s door opens, and my dog, Gunner, runs out to greet us before I make it into my apartment. Chip agreed to watch him overnight since I was expecting to be home late.
“Hey, boy, did Chip treat you well?” I run my hand over his yellow fur. He wags his tail and pants excitedly.
“Since I was nice enough to take him in for the night, I think I deserve to know why you were arrested?” Chip comes out wearing his robe.
He’s Nikki’s sidekick on the morning show of the local radio station and an active participant in Nikki’s gossip segment, Scandals of Sunrise Bay.
“And now your dad is in there.” He nods toward my place next door. “What’s up with that?”
“I’m sure Nikki put her own spin on it.” Fisher disregards Chip and heads into my apartment.
Gunner follows him because Fisher always gives him too many treats.
“Cameron?” Chip gives me the eye. I do feel bad that Nikki always has the gossip over him. And he’s always been good with me when I needed him to watch Gunner for a night.
I step closer and lower my voice. “I hit one of the fishermen and he pressed charges.”
“Why?”
“That I can’t say. I don’t want to bring anyone else into it.” Nikki will dig and she’ll probably put Chevelle and me out there anyway, but I don’t want to be the reason the information is out there. “Believe me, you don’t want in first on this story. Hank Greene won’t be happy if it gets out.”
Chip nods and retreats toward his apartment. “So, you’re moving?”
“Being evicted. My dad just cut me off.”
His eyes light up because he scored some gossip. Whatever. If the town stays talking about me and not Chevelle, then I’m happy.
I wave goodbye to Chip and walk into my apartment. Sure enough, half my shit is in boxes. I should be furious, but honestly, I don’t even care at this point.
“Got out, huh?” my dad says.
“Cam did the right thing, Mr. Baker,” Fisher says.
My dad doesn’t really see Fisher as the sheriff of our small town because he’s the guy who initiated our senior prank of putting a petting zoo in our gym.
Not to mention he was the planner of most of our bonfire parties.
Let’s just say Fisher and I weren’t exactly excelling in academics and the sheriff at the time always came to us first when something happened around town.
“It’s good now that his sidekick is the sheriff, you can get him off instead of me having to step in.” My dad pushes a rolling suitcase my way. “Here are your clothes. There are two more suitcases in the bedroom. Everything else is going into storage.”
I shake my head over my dad doing this over me sticking up for a woman.
“With all due respect,” Fisher says, but my dad puts up his hand, not wanting to hear another excuse for my behavior.
“No, Fisher.”
“He did it because that asswipe hit my sister.”
My dad sighs and looks at me. “I heard, and it’s admirable.
I’m glad it wasn’t a bar brawl, but if you’re going to run the marina, you can’t be popping off like that.
You have to keep your emotions in check.
It might not seem like it now, but I’m doing this for your own good.
I should’ve done it when you came back from college. ”
“It’s fine.” I shrug, not wanting my dad to see my true irritation.
“Fisher, give us a minute.”
Fisher bends down and pets Gunner. “Come on, boy. Let’s make sure they didn’t pack away all your snacks.”
They leave in the direction of the kitchen.
“Listen, Cameron, I understand why you did it. I know you’ve had a…
” He looks in the direction Fisher went.
“Thing for the Greene girl, but you can’t go around assaulting people.
Since the situation wasn’t what I thought initially, I’m gonna give you an opportunity—run the fishing boat, get it going, make it a success, and you’re back in the fold.
You can have your place back, the car, your trust fund, and the marina. ”
He leaves me no choice but to do what he says.
All the money I had in savings is tied up so I can’t even use that.
Wait until Chevelle finds out I’m starting up a competing business.
No way she’ll let me stay at her place then.
A million scenarios run through my head, other options for a future, but at this juncture, I have no choice if I want to stay in my dad’s good graces.
And right now, I don’t have another option.
Not one I know I can count on anyway. I like working at the marina and feeling like part of the community there.
I just wish I didn’t have to run it the way my dad does.
“Fine, I’ll do it.” Somehow I manage to keep my voice even.
He gives me the smile I hate, the smug one that signifies he got his way. “I’ll meet you first thing tomorrow morning to go over logistics. The locks to your office have been changed, so meet me at my office.” He walks toward the door. “And call your mother. She’s worried.”
Once he leaves and shuts the door, I plop down on my chair and throw my head in my hands. I still need him and this opportunity. I just hope Chevelle understands.
Fisher comes back into the room. “Allie called and I gotta stop and get diapers and drop them off at the house. Supposedly, I opened the last box and never told her.” He rolls his eyes, although he probably did. “I packed Gunner’s stuff for you.” He holds out a garbage bag.
I mumble thanks as I take the bag, and we leave my apartment that’s now full of boxes. In the sheriff’s truck, Gunner sandwiches himself on my lap, panting at the window, so I roll it down and he sticks his head out.
Fisher stops at the driveway of where all the Greene girl siblings have lived at one time or another. It’s directly across the street from their parents, who look down over town from their house on the big hill.
“I gotta go before Allie blows up my phone again.” He takes two of the suitcases, puts them on the doorstep, then shakes my hand and pats me on the back.
“Thanks for getting me off.”
He winks. “It’s what best friends do.”
After he pulls away, I knock on the door.
No answer.
I frown and ring the doorbell.
Gunner sits next to me, his tongue hanging out, waiting patiently for the door to open. He loves Chevelle and has probably picked up her scent already.
I pat his head. “I know. I feel it too.” My heart thumps, and there’s this weird fluttery feeling in my chest, as if my heart has grown wings. Am I really going to live with Chevelle Greene?
I’m about to ring the doorbell again when the door springs open and Chevelle is standing there with only a towel wrapped around her body.
Fuck me. My dick twitches in my pants.
“Honey, I’m home,” I say, trying to get my reaction under control and trying not to think of what she looks like underneath that towel.
She narrows her eyes. “Of course you pick the worst possible time.”
My jaw clenches when I clock the bruise on her face again.
Gunner hops up at her and his paws get stuck on the top of her towel.
“Shit.” I step forward to help her, but she gets him down without needing me.
“Jeez, your dog is just as horny as you.” She turns down the hallway. Jesus, that towel couldn’t be any shorter.
Gunner looks up at me. I pet his head.
“I know, the dog park has nothing on her,” I mumble and bring my bags into my new place.
God help us all. I already feel the blue balls starting.