Chapter Nineteen
NINETEEN
brEAKFAST WAS JOYOUS. No one mentioned Spence or the press or the freight train barreling toward her. Life could almost be described as normal. Almost. It wasn’t her “norm” to be surrounded by billionaires and superstars.
Mimi called Roxie, the latter wandered outside to the patio to have the conversation in private. Okay, that was fine… wasn’t it?
Sure, yes, paranoia tingled her senses, but there was no real reason to assume conversation was about her.
Zairn and Knox did some mumbling between themselves, choosing to take their secrecy upstairs.
Everyone was popular. And discreet. Dalton’s name flashed on Cam’s ringing phone, and he answered while going downstairs.
There she was, all alone.
Peace.
Felt a little itchy.
Tripp materialized from upstairs.
“Morning,” she said, holding up the coffee pot. “Java?”
“That’d be great. Thanks.” As she poured, he sat at the end of the island. “Everyone gone already?”
“No,” she said, putting the coffee pot down to swing a hand in the air. “They’re all around… somewhere talking to people. Do you want something to eat?”
“Nah, this is the middle of the night for me. I never eat at this time.” But did enjoy swigging his coffee. “You worried about today?”
“Wary might be a better word.”
“Honey is a sweetheart, she won’t railroad you. And everything is off the record unless you say otherwise.”
“It’s not easy to talk about it with Cam, and I know him. I don’t know how I’ll talk to a stranger about it.”
“Look at it this way, she has no skin in the game. Honey has no agenda. You’ll be talking to a blank slate. She’s not on your side, she’s not against you. Honey’s neutral and damn good at her job.”
“Cam says she’s kind and honest.”
“Yep,” Tripp agreed with a head bob and drained the coffee into his throat then held up the cup. “Any more?”
She didn’t mind topping him off, it gave her a distraction while asking, “Did her and Cam ever…?”
“Hook up?” he asked. “No. Casp had his eye on her for a long time. A long, long time.”
“She broke his heart?”
“It never got off the ground. Casp liked the idea of her, but they’re different, way, way different. Short of her marrying some bear in the woods, Casp is as wrong for her as any guy could get.”
“Does he still care for her?”
“Can’t remember the last time he lifted his head from whatever was on his desk at CollCom. The wedding? Maybe for a half hour, it was only his own brother’s wedding after all. I guarantee he was still working in that ballroom. Guy’s missing what the rest of us call life.”
And that was sad. “I’d like to meet him.”
“Things heat up with you and Cam, it’s guaranteed.” His eye twitched. Did her body language reveal something? Her expression? “You calling it quits?”
“If I stay in Cam’s life,” as an employee or otherwise, “I won’t be able to avoid being seen. Someone else will eventually figure it out.”
“Eventually,” he said, putting the coffee down. “Rox has a lot of events. Family shit happens all the time. If you’re Cam’s girl, you’d be a part of it too.”
“What if I was his friend?”
“Nothing is mandatory. You can be his friend, his girl, and if you don’t want to show somewhere, don’t show. It’s Cam, he’s about as laid back and accepting as a person can be.” He smiled. “Present company excluded.”
“It feels wrong to cast him aside because his identity is inconvenient.”
“Do you want to be hiding in the shadows the rest of your life?” he asked. “And you’ve got another problem too.”
“Another problem?”
“Roxanna Lomond.”
“Roxie’s amazing.”
“Yeah, and she doesn’t let people go easy. Especially isolated people or people in trouble.”
“Cam isn’t—”
“You,” he said, his lips warming again. “Roxie imprints on people almost instantly. You’re part of her circle now, whether you’re in Cam’s or not.”
Shunning Cam wasn’t the only issue now. If she chose to leave Boston, more than just their relationship would be over.
No one ever cared about her walking away before.
No one worried about her wellbeing. Other than Spence and he was always there.
Being apart wasn’t an option for them, it just wasn’t discussed.
“Do you have family?”
He snickered. “Just a little.”
“Mine was never close. Spence’s cut out on us. I’m not used to… People.”
“People, the general population, don’t matter.
Forget about people. You’re not doing this for them.
None of us are doing this for them. Zairn and Roxie have a line, they say, ‘what we are is not their business.’ The masses don’t have to know the truth.
You’re not taking a polygraph, the truth is flexible. ”
She squinted. “You’re telling me to lie? If this isn’t for the masses, who is it for?”
“The people you care about. Give the public just enough information to satisfy their curiosity, get them off your back. After that, you can live your life free. Cam chose a life away from the limelight. If he wanted to go back to LA, he could. If any of the Colliers wanted to hit the red carpet every night and have their lives plastered all over gossip mags and internet blogs, they could. They could be famous and hounded; they choose not to be. Cam went even further and chose a life as far away from that as he could get.”
“He didn’t ask for this, neither did I. I don’t want to disrupt his life. This isn’t my idea of a good time.”
Another smile. “Which is why you give the public just enough information to satisfy their curiosity.” Tripp repeated himself.
Saying it again was… for emphasis? Too bad Cam beat him to it.
Though it was reassuring to get the same hope from two separate sources.
“Give them the broad strokes and get them off your back. Then you can live your life and Cam can live his. And if the two of those happened to line up, have at it.”
“You said Roxie is in my life now.”
“She is. And if you satisfy that curiosity, the public will be bored of you and you can show up at events, red carpet or not. The media might say your name or point you out, but they’ll move on to something more salacious.”
“You’re all so practiced.”
On an exhale, he scooped up his coffee cup again. “You pick up a few things over the years. Choosing the Colliers was canny, no better life raft.”
Horror flared her eyes. “I didn’t pick—that’s not why I—I didn’t even know who Cam was.”
“Figuratively. You better learn not to get so offended when the media’s a part of your life. Baiting you is half their job, don’t do the rest for them.”
They weren’t the only ones curious.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked. “Being here for Cam I understand, but you don’t have to help me.”
“It’s what I do.”
The knowing glint in the corner of his eye stoked intrigue. Was this another guy with an identity she was missing?
“Or…” she drawled, “you want to fill Cam in on whatever I say.”
She jumped when he let go of the coffee and threw his head back to laugh.
After a few seconds, on a whining inhale, he relaxed. “Baby, you have a lot to learn. Why do you think they call me Priest? I’ll take your words to my grave.”
“Look who chose to appear before the clock struck noon!” Roxie sauntered in from the patio, heading over to kiss Tripp’s cheek and lay a hand between his shoulder blades. “What’s so funny?”
He nodded at her. “Ariella thinks I’m a spy, squirreling away information I can trade to others for smokes.”
“I didn’t—”
“Why do you think we call him Priest?” Roxie asked. “You don’t have to worry about his loose lips. Nope. He’s a vault of secrets.”
“Vault of your secrets too, Rox Out. You out of bed before noon means no future planning.”
“There was subtle and quiet future planning,” Roxie said, trailing her fingers through her hair. “There can’t be loud, vigorous future planning under a saint’s roof.”
As Tripp’s lips thinned, amusement raised his brows. “Crack on that firepit and grab the s’mores, I feel some Cam tales coming on.”
“Yeah, right. Like we believe you’d blab, Priest.” The beauty stuck out her tongue after exaggerating his nickname.
“He’s boring. Vault of secrets. Yawn. You can share your secrets with me.
Tripp does listening and sex, blah, boring when you don’t need the latter.
I converse, communicate, reciprocate. If you need to talk it out—”
“She’ll talk it to death. And save it up. You’ll get an overload of Ariella’s life story when you sit with Honey today, Rox Out,” Tripp said. “When’s she due?” And right then, there was a knock on the front door. “Ah, another gorgeous woman come to join our cult…”
Already on his feet and strolling that way, he went to welcome the guest.
Though there was no guarantee Honey was on the other side of the door. “That might be—”
“The press?” Roxie anticipated her. “It won’t be.
Honey’s never late. Time to kick the guys out and get drinks.
” Roxie took her hand. “Remember this happens at your pace. If you don’t want to get deep and want to talk about…
insert random sports team, we can do that too.
” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know any sports teams.”
“Me either.” She laughed. Roxie did know how to relax people. “Let’s do this.”
If doing this meant Cam’s life would be better, that they could move on, it would be worth it. Did she know for sure it would? No. All she had to go on was the word of the people in the building, some of whom she’d known less than twenty-four hours.
Cam. That’s who she’d focus on. He trusted this process, and she had to trust him. Wow, fast or not, this ride was in motion. It was up to her when it stopped, until the media got hold of it anyway. Shit, this better work out.