Chapter 26
Cameron
C ameron hadn’t planned on spending any additional time with Sophia’s brothers. After the night at the country club, he decided that he wasn’t going to push Sophia anymore. He’d lost. That much was clear.
He’d resigned himself to finishing out his contract with Mateo and then he’d get out of Copper Creek and disappear. She wouldn’t have to see him anymore. She wouldn’t have to look at him like the monster he was.
And yet, here he sat in the coffee shop across from Roman.
He must be a glutton for punishment because this was the last place in the world Cameron wanted to be. He stared hard at his coffee cup. He’d been caught off guard enough to accept Roman’s offer when they bumped into each other in town.
What had he been thinking? Roman probably hated him. Why was he insisting that they have a chat? They could have talked a hundred times over since the last time he’d refused to grant access to his sister.
Why now?
What had changed in the last two weeks?
“Are you going to talk or just stare daggers at your coffee?” Roman quipped.
Cameron lifted his sour gaze to the man seated in front of him. “I’m not the one who issued the invitation to coffee.”
“No, but I know you want something.”
Eyes narrowing, Cameron scoffed. “You can’t be serious.
What is this? Some sort of carrot you’re dangling in front of me?
I might still want Sophia more than breath itself, but that doesn’t mean I get to have her.
She made her choice.” He reached for his cup and moved to stand, but Roman’s words cut through him like a sharpened blade.
“She’s not happy.”
Cameron’s eyes flitted back to Roman’s face, half-expecting to see fury there. Glee perhaps? Anything but the concern and pain that was currently shining in his eyes. He shifted back into a more comfortable position and waited expectantly for Roman to continue.
The man sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “She’s miserable, honestly. She misses you.”
Straightening slightly, Cameron allowed himself the smallest glimmer of hope. “Does she want me back?—”
“No.”
His expression faltered, and Cameron scowled at the man. “Then what in heaven’s name are we here to talk about?”
Roman waved a finger in Cameron’s direction. “She doesn’t want this version.”
Cameron scoffed.
“She was right, you know. There are a few things you need to work on before you try to win her back. She’s made that perfectly clear. You can’t keep behaving like you did when you knocked your brother to the ground.”
It was hard to meet Roman’s eyes. Hot, mortifying disgust ripped through his body as he recalled the way his brother had looked at him from the ground.
That had been rock bottom, and Cameron had known it.
Since then, he’d focused all his energies on remaining calm—no easy feat when all he saw was the woman he loved in the arms of others.
“There’s nothing I can do about that, Roman,” he said quietly.
The man before him snorted, then choked on the coffee he’d been drinking. He pounded his chest and shook his head. “If you truly believe that, you’re an idiot. She practically gave you step-by-step instructions.”
“What? That therapy suggestion?” Cameron snapped.
“It wasn’t a suggestion,” Roman said. “It was a good idea. You need it.”
Cameron didn’t bother responding to that statement.
He wasn’t a psychopath. Did he get jealous?
Yeah. Had he overreacted with his brother?
Perhaps. But he’d gone over that day in his head, and for the most part he felt he was in the right.
His brother had all but stolen the affection of his first girlfriend.
And he’d been at it again. It wasn’t unheard of for Cameron to do something to protect what belonged to him.
“Stop that,” Roman grumbled.
“Stop what?” Cameron hissed. His eyes bore into Roman’s with a challenge.
“Stop making excuses for yourself. I can tell that’s what you’re doing, and no matter how you try to spin it, you’re wrong. Sophia deserves better.”
Cameron shot to his feet, his palms rattling the table as he leaned over and glowered at Roman.
“Don’t you think I know that? She deserves the best. And me?
I don’t even begin to get close to it. I was lucky she gave me a chance at all.
” He was breathing heavily, and several people in the coffee shop were looking at them now.
His eyes darted around the room before he slowly lowered himself back into his seat.
Then he leaned forward. “And if you think therapy will change that, you’re the idiot, not me. ”
Roman didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. “Why are you so scared about talking to someone?”
Cameron settled back in his seat. He wanted to say he wasn’t, that being scared of a therapist was absurd. But that wouldn’t be true.
He was scared to open himself up to something like that, only because he didn’t think it would do any good and he’d end up discovering that he was broken beyond repair. He shifted his focus to the coffee cup and turned it in his fingertips. “Did Sophia tell you about how we met?”
If Roman seemed surprised over the change in topic, he didn’t show it. “Something about a convention a couple years ago.”
Cameron nodded. “I knew from the moment I saw her that she was special. I knew I wanted to sweep her off her feet and live happily ever after with her.” He could feel the warmth crawling up the back of his neck at such a confession.
“I was ready to follow her to the ends of the earth if it meant she would be mine.” He leveled a firm stare at Roman.
“Less than a week, Roman. That was all it took for her to steal my heart. And then she was gone.”
Roman frowned. “Sorry, man.”
Shrugging, Cameron shifted his thoughts back to Roman’s original question.
“It hurt, but it had been irrational to have such feelings anyway. That’s what I told myself.
Then I found her again, and I had been living in fear that I’d lose her again.
It was like I had been barely breathing during those five years while I looked for her.
Then when I saw her at your place, oxygen was breathed into my lungs and my chest didn’t hurt anymore.
” He clutched at his chest with a fist, his eyes closing with the ache that rested beneath the surface.
“My heart has been yanked around from the moment I met her. It’s not her fault. And I know I have my own issues. But…”
Roman remained quiet throughout the story. He didn’t push even as the silence between them stretched.
“But what if I do what she says and it’s still not enough?” His voice cracked. “What if I do everything she wants and she still can’t love me.”
“That won’t happen,” Roman said, drawing Cameron’s focus. “Because she’s still in love with you.”
Cameron shook his head in clear argument.
He didn’t have to tell Roman that Sophia had reverted to her old ways.
She’d started going out again, flirting and dancing with any man who gave her attention.
It made Cameron sick to his stomach. He couldn’t handle the attention of other women.
So he hadn’t gone back to the country club even though he knew that was where Sophia would be throughout the week.
“Yes, she is. She’s trying to cope. She’s trying to give you space. But…” Roman sighed. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
Cameron waited, holding his breath as if the next thing Roman would say would be enough to stop the world from spinning.
“I’ve heard her crying. A few times.” Roman flushed and stared over to the door as it opened, and a pretty blonde entered.
Crying ? That didn’t mean she was crying over him.
“I’ve never seen her this torn up over a guy. Not even Brent.”
Cameron bristled. He hated that name more than he hated his brother for what he’d done to him.
“All I’m saying is that you need to reconsider this whole therapy thing.”
Grimacing, Cameron halfway snatched his coffee from the table and took a drink.
“Okay, let me ask you this. If seeing a therapist meant winning Sophia back would be a sure thing, would you do it?”
“Of course,” Cameron snapped. “But that’s just it. There are no guarantees.”
“You’re right. There aren’t any guarantees. But there is the chance that she’ll take you back.” Roman gave him a pointed look. “Cameron, that isn’t the reason you should go.”
He lowered his gaze, hating the turn this conversation had taken.
“You’d do anything for her, right?” Roman asked.
“Yeah,” he ground out.
Roman sighed. “Why can’t you do the same for yourself?”
Slowly, Cameron lifted his gaze to Roman.
“She wants you to get better—to get over whatever it is that’s holding you back.
If you’re willing to do anything for her.
Then make that happen.” He lifted placating palms. “That’s all I wanted to say.
” Roman glanced once more to the blonde who’d entered a little while ago.
They exchanged smiles, and she looked as though she wanted to stop by their table to talk to him.
Was she a potential girlfriend? Or just an acquaintance?
It didn’t matter. She slipped past them with nothing more than a nod in Roman’s direction. Roman’s eyes followed her out the door before returning to Cameron.
“Anyway, if you decide you need a recommendation, I’m sure I could help you find someone.
And if you decide you hate my advice?” He shrugged.
“Then I guess we know where the cards have fallen.” He got to his feet and retrieved the hat he’d placed on the chair at his side.
“Just think about it, okay? I don’t like seeing my sister hurt so much. ”
Cameron grunted. He didn’t stand or watch Roman leave. He just stared at his still mostly full coffee cup.
He’d watched her with all those guys last weekend.
And each time he’d had to shove his hands deep into his pockets to stop himself from intervening.
It had taken all his energy to not pull her into his arms when he’d gotten her alone.
He’d felt like a fool afterward—the way he’d begged her to take him back.
At least he hadn’t taken a swing at anyone. And he hadn’t dragged her out of there caveman-style. That was an improvement, right?
Maybe Roman was right.
Cameron had tried every other avenue. Perhaps this therapy thing was the route he’d have to take.