by J. Kenner
She frowned, knowing that in-person would be better, but also relieved that she wouldn't see that look of disappointment on the team's faces--just like the expression she'd seen on Cam's.
Dammit, she wasn't supposed to be thinking of him.
That was the promise she'd made to herself last night. Today she had only one goal. Get ready to catch tomorrow morning's nine o'clock flight. That was it. Simple. Once she was on that plane, she'd have at least four hours to think about everything else before she landed. And Cam was at the top of her agenda.
Naturally, she blew that plan all to hell as thoughts of Cam filled her head when she finally peeled herself out of bed and made it into the shower.
The thing was, she loved him. She was certain of it. But if she stayed because of that, then she was making love a prison, and how could that be good? After all, her mom had loved her father, and when it fell apart, she was left with nothing.
Mina couldn't risk being like her mom. And if she stayed because Cam wanted her to--or even because she loved him--sooner or later, she'd resent him. And he'd feel the same if she begged him to move to LA, even though yesterday she'd shamelessly begged him to do just that.
So how did they work it out?
Was it even possible?
What she really wanted was to talk to Darryl, but she'd dug her own grave there by not clueing him in from the beginning.
Then again, what did she have to lose now? She'd already lost Cam--or she was in serious danger of it. And she'd sacrifice one hell of a lot more than her pride if she could figure out a way to get him back and make their lives mesh.
Her big brother had always been her savior before--and she'd always resented the hell out of it.
Now, as she thrust her arms in her light summer rain jacket, she desperately hoped that he'd put his arm around her, kiss her forehead, and make all the hurt go away.
* * *
"Darryl!"
Mina wandered the rooms of her family home, realizing for the first time in her life that the place was ridiculously big for only three people. What had her father been thinking? And how the hell was she supposed to find anyone in these walls?
She scowled at the intercom button mounted near the entrance of every room, and wished that she and Darryl had been a little less rambunctious as kids. But they'd pushed that button with such abandon that her father had ultimately disconnected the entire system, vowing not to restore it until they were both adults.
Either he still considered them both children or he'd forgotten to get the system repaired.
Not that it mattered, the bottom line was that she couldn't find Darryl.
Since he'd started his clerkship, he'd left work promptly at five and come straight home. He'd told her this was the only law job that supported bankers' hours, and that his judge actually encouraged an eight-to-five schedule. So she expected him to be in the house.
But maybe he'd gone out for a drink with his co-clerks. Or grocery shopping. Or anywhere.
Which would make sense on any other day. But he knew this was her last night in town. So why wasn't he home to see her off?
Worried, she pulled her phone out and dialed him--which, actually, she should have thought of before, since calling or texting was a handy way of finding him in the house--but the phone went straight to voice mail all three times she tried.
"Fine," she muttered. "You want to be overprotective? I can, too."
Darryl had insisted they share their locations years ago. "You'll be walking around campus after dark," he'd said. "Don't be stupid."
She trusted him to not track her on a date, and she'd never looked up his location either, except for the one time he showed her how to do it.
Today, however, qualified as an emergency. And not just because he wasn't there the night before she left. No, a growing knot of worry had taken root in her stomach. She didn't know if it was paranoia or a twin thing. But she was certain something bad had happened to him, and she stared at the phone screen, waiting for the little dot to place him somewhere.
When it did, she cringed.
Dell Seton Medical Hospital.
And although she couldn't know for sure, she was desperately afraid that the little red dot that represented Darryl was right smack dab in the emergency room.
Chapter Fifteen
"I wish I had better advice," Kiki said, her voice sounding far away through the speaker of Cam's phone.
"That's okay," Cam assured her. He was in his too-soft bed leaning against the dingy gray co-op wall that matched his mood. "I shouldn't be calling you with personal stuff before you have to perform, anyway. I should have just waited until you get here tomorrow."
"From what you're telling me, she'll be in California by the time I make it down from Dallas."
"Yeah," he said, then put his forehead on his knees and sighed.
"Cam?"
"Just feeling sorry for myself. How do you and Noah handle it?"
"What? Our crazy careers? It's hard work, I won't lie. But we respect each other's goals, and at the end of the day we both know that the other comes first, before all the work stuff and everything else in the world. Even you, little brother."
He knew that was supposed to make him crack a smile, but all it did was twist his insides up again. "That's what I want," he told her. "That's how I feel."
"Is it?" she asked. "I don't see you packing up for LA."
Her words brought him up short. "You think I should?"
"No. But I'm also not saying that you shouldn't. You're the only one who can answer that."
He grimaced. "What the hell is the point of having an older sister if you don't boss me around?"
She laughed. "I don't know. To send you stupid text messages at least once a week and buy you lame Christmas presents?"
"Really? Damn. I thought there were more perks."
"Rough gig."
He smiled, then sighed as his thoughts invariably turned back to the Mina problem. "I guess I'm afraid it's one-sided. That I'll go, and I'll always be second to her career. That I'll always be the one making compromises."
"She's staring at her dream, Cam. You can't know right now what's truly important to her. Hell, she doesn't even know. But what you have to ask yourself is does it matter? You're pretty damn dedicated, too. Are you really going to pull out measuring sticks and try to figure out if you or work measures higher? How would you even tell?"
"Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that I want to wake up beside her. And I want to watch movies with her and roll my eyes at the way she criticizes the cinematography or the script. And I want to listen when she talks to herself while she's puttering around the house. I want a history with her, Kiki. And I think what I'm most afraid of is that her leaving means that she doesn't want one with me."
"Then you've answered your own question."
He stared at the phone. "I have?"
"Well, yeah, dummy. If that's the life you want, no way are you having it in Austin if she's moving to Los Angeles. So take a risk, get your ass to California, and figure out the answer for yourself."
* * *
The fact that Darryl was perfectly fine, with only a couple of abrasions on his calf and a mild concussion, did not ease any of Mina's fears or worries.
"I could have lost you," she said, for at least the hundredth time. "What the hell would I do without you?"
Just the thought made her want to curl up in a ball and moan. Losing Darryl. Losing Cameron. It was all too much to process, and she was compensating by going Mother Hen on him to the max.
As soon as they'd gotten back to the house, she'd made Darryl stretch out on the sofa in the living room with an ice pack on his head, a heating pad on his leg, and a big bowl of ice cream on a tray in front of him. "I'm okay," he protested again. "Although I'm happy to pretend to be an invalid if it gets me more ice cream."
"Do not even joke about this," she said sternly. "And what the hell were you doing cycling in the rain?"
"I
t wasn't raining when I went out after work. Just overcast."
"Even so," she said obstinately.
"Good point. I'll only bike when the sky is perfectly clear and little cartoon birdies follow me to provide any necessary assistance."
"Dammit, Darryl, a car hit you. You could have been killed. And why were you out with so little battery on your phone?"
She hadn't been able to reach him because his phone had run out of charge just moments after the driver who'd hit him had taken him to the ER to be checked out. Darryl had gotten his insurance information and assured the guy he was fine, then told him to go ahead and leave.
But he hadn't yet called Mina, and by the time he thought of it, his phone was dead and the driver was long gone. And while the nurses would have surely called, Darryl waited until after triage to ask them.
By that time, Mina had arrived.
"Obviously, I didn't realize it was so low on battery. But thank goodness for that last known location feature, right? I mean, technology." He held his hands out at his sides in a happy-go-lucky gesture. "Gotta love it, huh?"
"Stop joking about it." Tears trailed down her cheeks, and his expression immediately shifted from amused irritation to concerned contrition.
"Oh, hell. I'm sorry I scared you," he said gently. "All he did was clip me on a corner. Yes, it could have been worse, but it wasn't. He could have just as easily hit a pedestrian. Come on, Mina. We both know there aren't guarantees."
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just--" She sat at the foot of the couch, careful not to bump his leg, then grabbed a tissue from the coffee table and blew her nose.
"Just having a rough day overall?"
She sniffed, then looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
He tilted his head, as if considering how to answer. "Moving to LA. Leaving me. Leaving--you know--your friends. The internship at The Fix. All of that. It's gotta be hard."
Cam loomed in her mind, and she nodded. "It really is." She sucked in a breath. Time to bite the bullet. "Listen, I've been thinking about it, and I'm not--"
She stopped, her head turning toward the entry hall. She couldn't see the front door, but she distinctly heard the sound of someone punching in the unlock code.
Frowning, she met Darryl's eyes. "Dad?"
He shrugged, and she was just about to call out to their father when Cam's voice preceded him into the room. "Darryl! Do you have Mina's flight information? She's not home, and I need to get a ticket for tomorrow, and--Oh."
He looked between the two of them, as Mina stood up and went to him, not even caring that Darryl was watching every move.
"Hey," she said. She expected a similar reply. Instead he took her face in his hands, held her steady, and kissed her so thoroughly that she thought her legs might melt.
When he finally released her, he glanced over at Darryl. "I'm dating your sister."
"Well, I hope so. Otherwise we need to enroll you in an etiquette refresher course. Because your greeting skills are a little over the top."
"What are you doing here?" Mina asked, still floating about ten feet off the ground.
"Coming to tell Darryl that I'm following you to LA. I'll find work somewhere--maybe The Getty--and I'll get my doctoral applications in as soon as I can. We'll make it work."
She took his hand, because if she didn't, she'd float even higher. She drew in air, as happy as she could ever remember being. "No," she said, "you're not."
"The hell I'm not. I've been thinking about this--"
"I'm staying here," she said, effectively cutting him off.
"What? Why?"
She pulled him over to the couch. There wasn't much room, but that was okay, since Mina was mostly sitting on Cam's lap.
"What happened to you?" Cam said, peering at Darryl, and apparently only now noticing his invalid state.
"A car ran me over," Darryl said dismissively. "Who cares? I want to know why she's staying."
"Fair enough," Cam said. "Not that I'm arguing, but why?"
"Because I don't want to lose you," she said, feeling his reaction to her words in the way his grip tightened, pulling her even closer. "Because I don't want you to have to sacrifice even a year of your education so I can chase a dream in LA when I could chase the same dream in Austin."
"You don't want to move to LA?"
"Oh, sometime, yes. But right now, this is home. You, Darryl, our friends." She lifted a shoulder. "I have a life here, and I want to build onto it. With you," she said, then brushed a kiss over his lips. "And when you're done with school," she added lightly, "I'll expect you to look for jobs in Southern California."
He laughed. "Fair enough."
"Were you really going to move out there for me?" she asked.
"There's not much I wouldn't do for you."
"This is all very heartwarming," Darryl said. "But what about the stellar job out there? Are you just going to turn it down?"
"I already did," she said. "I sent an email from the ER." She lifted a shoulder, then met Cam's eyes. "I never did decline the job offer here. His accident distracted me. And it's a much better opportunity anyway. Lots of hands-on experience. And that exec in LA is probably lame like you said. Coffee and dry-cleaning and then he tosses you out and drags in a new PA. Not even worth my time."
"Except you know he's not," Cam said, and her heart picked up tempo. She'd learned the truth from Griffin just a few hours ago. But how the hell had Cam?
"He really is a stellar exec," Cam continued. "Yes, the job is a lot of fetching coffee--I was right about that--but his former assistants have gone on to write scripts, produce movies, create television shows."
His brow furrowed, and she felt her eyes prick with tears. "You're walking away from all that? You're sure?"
She leaned forward and kissed him. "Yeah," she said. "I'm sure. I'll still end up in Hollywood. I'll get there with a great resume full of real experiences and not coffee and dry-cleaning. And I'll make contacts from Austin, too. And when I do go to California, I won't be alone. I'm absolutely positive." She drew in a shuddering breath. "I love you, Cameron Reed."
"Oh, baby. I love you, too."
"How did you know about the exec?" she asked.
"Griffin told me. Said you wanted to know what the buzz was about him. Then he said that if he was in my place, he'd want to know that it was a good job and you'd make great connections."
"But--wait. I don't get it. Why would he even think to tell you?"
"Probably because I told him you two were dating," Darryl said.
Mina gaped. "Wait. What?"
"Well, it came up. I was chatting with him about the work you did for him. He thinks you'll go far in the biz, by the way."
"Came up? But how did you know we were dating in the first place?"
He pointed to his head. "Slightly concussed," he said. "But not blind. I've known for ages. Why do you think Zach blew off my party? I might have told him you two were involved, and the twerp wasn't interested enough in just coming to celebrate me."
"And you don't mind?" Cam asked. "It's not weird?"
"You're both weird. You're also two of my favorite people. Now I don't have to worry about either one of you hooking up with a loser." He looked between the two of them. "Just lock your doors if you're having sex, okay? My eyes are still burning."
"Asshole!" Mina said, then threw a pillow at him.
"Love you, Meanie," he said, holding up his fingers in the I Love You, sign.
"Love you back, Dickbreath," she said, returning the sign.
Darryl snorted. "So is it safe to assume that you two have made up now?"
Mina looked at Cam, who nodded. "Oh, yeah," he said.
"Definitely," Mina agreed.
"Good. Then go have wild make up sex, okay?" He grabbed the remote off the coffee table. "There's a show starting that I really want to watch."
And since Mina couldn't argue with that, she stood up, took Cameron's hand, and led him back to her apartment.
Chapter Si
xteen
Cam's eyes locked on Mina's as he filled her, taking his time as he thrust slow and deep, wanting to make this last. Hell, wanting it to never end.
She was his. And, yes, he was hers. Fully. Completely. And with a lifetime of adventures spread out in front of him.
He still couldn't quite believe that she was staying--much less that she was staying for him. But then he looked deep in her eyes again and saw the love reflected there, and knew that it was true.
"Come with me," he whispered, the passion in his mind filtering down to his body. He had to claim her now. Had to see that same joy and release on her face that he felt in himself.
She nodded, her lips parted, her breath coming ragged. "I love you," she whispered, and that was the final straw--the intimate touch of her voice that pushed him over the edge, and he lost all control as he exploded inside her, his climax triggering hers, so that she went over when he did, her core tightening around him, her muscles drawing him further in as her fingernails dug into his back, pulling him closer and closer, as if at any moment they would become one person.
When the explosion settled and he felt whole again, he rolled next to her, exhausted, then took her hand. "I love you," he whispered, because he really couldn't say it enough.
"I know," she said. "I love you, too." She sighed, then sat up. "I have something for you."
"Yeah?"
He watched as she got out of bed, then went naked to her dresser. She opened a drawer and pointed to it. "I emptied it out. It's yours. I figure you can leave some stuff here. For when you sleep here instead of that ratty co-op."
He sat up, amused. "This entire huge apartment, and I only get a drawer?"
Her brows lifted. "Wouldn't want to move too fast."
"We've known each other our whole lives, Mina," he teased. "There's no too fast in this equation."
She came back to the bed and sat beside him, her hand sliding down to cup his cock. "Good point. Prove your worth, and I'll clear out some space in my closet, too."
Laughing, he tumbled her onto the bed, then got on top of her. "I can do that," he said, then kissed her lightly. "And by the way," he added, as she writhed naked beneath him. "I really do love my drawer."
* * *
Cam stood in the office at The Fix on Wednesday afternoon going over details with Nolan, Tyree, Brooke, and Jenna. "I just want to make sure it's okay if Nolan puts my bit during the contest on Mornings With Wood." He glanced at Brooke. "There's not any sort of conflict with your show, is there?"
