by Alexia Purdy
“Hey, Cam, do you like Italian food?” I bent down to squat at his level. He searched my face, looking slightly petrified and relieved at the same time.
“Yes,” he whispered. His shyness made his face spring a darker pink as he stepped behind his father’s leg.
Definitely not one for words, I thought.
“Great! Me, too! It’s my favorite.”
“Mine, too!” He smiled, and I offered him my hand. He accepted, slipping his tiny fingers through mine. Standing up, I found Seth looking no less than shocked.
“He doesn’t really talk much,” he offered, following behind us.
“Neither do I, thank goodness!” I laughed, which brought a wider smile to Cam’s face. “Talking gets kind of noisy, doesn’t it?”
He nodded madly and skipped ahead, reaching the doors and shoving with all his little, bony body’s strength. He was a cute one, and I hoped he wouldn’t be too mad if Seth and I didn’t work out. That little possibility made my stomach clench, but I tried to ignore it. The future was so murky right now and it was better to try not to think of it.
“I think he likes you,” Seth said, leaning in as we watched Cam find a spot on the bench for patrons awaiting to be seated.
“Nah, he’s a kid, they love getting asked questions, in my experience. Leah’s like that. Quiet as a mouse until you get her talking. Then…watch out, never stops chatting after that!” We both laughed and watched Cam peering over the side of the wall behind the bench. He watched the people eating their lunches with great interest. “No, I mean, he never warms up to anyone. Ever.”
I peered curiously at Seth. His words made me wonder what was going on with him. Seth was chatty, but he wasn’t an open book. He went deeper than I’d ever thought, and it made me curious.
“What do you mean?”
“His teachers, they say he never speaks in class, not even to his classmates. Sometimes I wonder, you know, if he remembers his mother and all that happened, and it somehow affected him.”
“Maybe. Kids are smart; they understand more than you know. Maybe he’s just shy. Not that I would really know anything about kids.” I bit my lip. Why was I offering advice to a parent when I wasn’t even one? I kicked myself mentally for opening my big fat mouth.
“I wonder sometimes,” Seth said, unaffected. “She had an abusive boyfriend who’d yell at him a lot. I really tried to get custody faster, but she was stubborn. Then, she got sick, her boyfriend left her and she was all alone with Cam. I did what I could to help and ended getting him a lot more of the time than I thought I would, almost full-time right away. I wasn’t prepared. She and I just weren’t a good couple, and she never wanted to try harder to make it work. At least we got along in the end, for his sake.” He paused as the hostess approached and immediately directed us to an open booth.
Trying to change the subject, I scanned the room, feeling somewhat underdressed. “Why didn’t you tell me to wear something nicer? I didn’t know we were going out to eat.”
He laughed, making me feel even more self-conscious. “This is Vegas, Penny. Everyone is in shorts, tanks, bikinis and flip flops in July. You’d only be underdressed if you were in a bathing suit without a cover up.”
I frowned and picked up my menu. He was right. No one dressed up at restaurants here, especially family ones. Only the fancy Strip Hotel restaurants got that strict.
I settled in when I felt a small finger tap my arm. “Can I sit by you, Miss Penny?” I turned to find Cam standing next to me and I nodded, shifting over to make room for him. He’d taken to me quickly, and got himself comfortable next to me. I lifted an eyebrow toward Seth. He just beamed like I’d given him a million dollars.
Picking the menu up again, I scanned it, unsure of what to eat.
“The Alfredo pasta is my favorite!” Cam exclaimed, as if reading my mind. It sounded more like “afado” when he said it, which brought a smile to my face. His own face was brilliant, just like Seth’s, and it melted my insides. I’d only been close to Joss’s daughter, but I liked babysitting her whenever Joss had needed one. The kid really knew how to melt my heart. It made me wonder if Cam would be the same.
“Really? That’s great, because I didn’t know what was good here. I think I’ll get that, too.” I winked at him, and his face lit up even more. He grabbed the set of crayons and coloring menu placed before him, looking determined as he began scribbling.
“See? He likes you.” Seth’s grin was as bright as a thousand-watt floodlight—and contagious. It was hard to not smile at him when he looked so handsome with his teeth flashing and his eyes brilliant. Why did he have to be so intoxicating? It made me lose focus every friggin’ time!
“Thanks for inviting me to lunch.”
“My pleasure. I should be thanking you. It’s always nice to have such enchanting company.” His face was serious now, and I tried in vain to rip my eyes away from his. “My two favorite people in the world having lunch with me. What more could I want?” Those jeweled orbs sucked me in, and I wanted to melt into them right there and then. It made me think that maybe, just maybe, he knew what he was doing, and I was the one falling for game plan that wasn’t mine all over again.
No. I looked away, acting like I was still studying the menu. He wouldn’t get to me again like he once had. Not that deep. It was just for fun now, right? I could do this. I could be the heartbreaker for once, couldn’t I? If either of us walked away this time, it would be me doing that first.
Glancing toward Cameron, I wasn’t so sure about anything anymore. Every step I took in the direction I wanted to go kept leading me around to a place I never expected to be. Why did it have to be so hard? Why did I feel like I was being pulled along by some unseen force? Maybe I needed to let go. Maybe it was something I had to keep an eye on. Maybe I wasn’t as sure of myself as I’d thought I was. Whatever it was, it was confusing as hell.
Cam’s little blue eyes flicked up at me and crinkled with his wide grin. One pair of indigo eyes was bad enough, but two? That was just a fatal amount of blue. The fates were messing with me epically this time and I was pretty positive they were rolling around laughing at my dilemma like nobody’s business.
Lunch ended up pleasant if uneventful. Back at my apartment, I bade them goodbye and watched as Seth led little Cam away. Toward the end of our meal, the little guy had been chatting my head off about his drawing, what color was his favorite and why, all while managing to get me to name five types of pasta. I couldn’t believe it, the kid was a little walking genius, still wet behind the ears. I was impressed, but I hadn’t had any time to talk with Seth.
But he hadn’t seemed too upset about that; in fact I’d never seen him look so happy. I hoped that next time I’d have a little more time with him. He was addicting and each time he came around, it was getting more and more difficult to push him away. I wanted to see him again, even Cam too.
Watching the car pull away, I was pretty sure there would definitely be a next time and it made me smile as I clicked the door shut and leaned against it, sighing with an unfamiliar kind of happiness.
Chapter Eighteen
Seth
“WHO’S THIS GIRL now?”
My cousin Nicolai was throwing another bag of stuffed animals into the pit behind the water table of the Snag O’ Fish Game. I’d been refilling the tiny tub full of rubber ducks with a hose I’d dragged over from the last game of water balloons. The hot morning sun was already melting my skin, and sitting under the canopy while splashing some of the water onto my neck and head were the only relief. The fair was due to open in an hour, and we were scrambling to finish stocking the stalls as the many fairgrounds workers poured in and checked their assignments.
He had called me in to help again because he was short on the days when the trucks brought in the shipments of stuffed animals and other supplies he had to distribute across the enormous fairgrounds. It was usually once every two weeks, like the afternoon I’d finally run into Penny again. It was worth hel
ping him out to get away from the insanity of the coffee shop, even for just a few hours. Nicolai was the only family I had in Vegas, and it was a good time to catch up without being too formal.
“Penny. You know…the girl I dated in college.”
“Oh, that skinny brunette with the big eyes?”
He had a way of describing people that made them sound like aliens.
“Um…yeah. The one I was dating when I had to return to Moldova when my father got sick.”
Nicolai stopped to grab the hose from me and took a long swig of the cold water before splashing some onto his face and neck. His face was bright red and I wondered how much sun he’d already gotten today.
“She was a hot one, ey?” He laughed, his accent was much thicker than mine since he’d moved here when he was eighteen. Even so, his English was very good.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat and shut off the spray from the nozzle as I wound the hose and dragged it to the storage shed behind the stall. “She’s still gorgeous.”
“She give in to you yet, or still think you a jerk?”
I bit my lip and sighed, wiping my sweaty hands on my jeans. “I hope she doesn’t still think that. I’ve been making it up to her, but it’s been difficult. She doesn’t trust me anymore. She has every right not to.”
“Why’d you leave her anyway? I thought you were going to marry that one.”
I shaded my eyes from the scorching morning sun, blinding as it made its way higher into the sky.. “Yeah well. I thought I wasn’t going to be coming back here any time soon.”
“Not a really good reason to let her go.”
“I know that, thanks for rubbing salt on the wound.”
Nicolai slammed his hand on my back, giving me a hard slap. “Just kidding, cousin. Women. You just can’t get right with them, no matter what, no?” His laugh echoed down the row of games and I wanted to shake my head and go home already, but there was one more truck load to empty before the patrons started pouring in.
“She have a friend or sister?” Nicolai let his eyebrows wiggle at me and I shook my head. Not that he wouldn’t be a good husband, but he had a tendency to be a playboy at the moment. We looked similar, but his frame was huskier than mine, and his blonde hair was shorter with darker streaks through it. He needed to get his wandering ways out of his system before I was going to go around setting him up with anyone decent.
“No.”
“Ah, too bad. Mindy dumped me last week. Missing the feel of a woman already.”
It was my turn to slap him on the back. “When you decide to settle for one lovely woman, I might help you then. Right now, you’ll scare them off like a piranha.”
“Aw, come on!” Nicolai rubbed his scruffy stubble and sighed. “Okay I get it, you don’t want to ruin no friends around me but I’ll make sure to remind you to get me a good one when I’m done having my fun.”
“You do that.”
“Now that Penny…you got to be adventurous with her. Take her sky diving, that’s always scary enough to through them into your arms afterwards. That or take her kayaking in the Colorado. I bet she’s the outdoor type—daring, adrenaline junkie.”
I shook my head, chuckling at his suggestions. “Nope, she’s definitely not the outdoorsy adrenaline junky kind of girl like you tend to date, Nikolai. What happened to that one crazy chic that used to drag you on hikes and liked to rock climb? Anna something?
“Amanda Ryles. Whoa, she’s a hot one, man, but I can’t keep up with her.” Nicolai tapped his belly where a few too many beers had settled. “She’s an animal in bed, wears me out every time.”
“Sounds fun.”
“You’re right, she’s insane, but man…I do miss those crazy, daring things she dragged me into. Kept me fit. I should call her, she was always up for a romp. Hey…” He paused and tapped me on the shoulder. “I think I should invite Amanda to dinner tomorrow. She’ll come. I know she always had a soft spot for me. Why don’t you bring that girlfriend of yours over so we can have some nice dinner times again, like we used to?”
I scrunched my eyes together, feeling the sweat beads forming on my forehead as I thought about his offer. Bring Penny around my obnoxious, but well-meaning cousin? Why not, right? “Yeah, okay. Sounds good.”
“Awesome. See you tomorrow at six, my house. Oh, bring some wine or whatever you want to drink. I just have beer.”
I smirked. “I know. Can’t wait.” He thought beer was a food group and it was always either that or water when hanging at his house. Note to self, definitely bring some more palatable beverages.
The morning dragged on as we finished the last load before I waved goodbye to my cousin. It was good to hang out with him. It reminded me of home in a way. Sometimes Nicolai would slip into Romanian while we spoke, but for the most part, we spoke English. We’d been in the United States long enough to default to it. Still, it was nice to let the familiar language roll off his tongue now and then, and get me jabbering in it too. It’d been a while since I’d been back home, and I was feeling the bitter tendrils of homesickness now and then lately. Maybe if things worked out, I could take Penny back home and introduce her to my mother.
The thought made me grin and sent a surge of excitement through me for the future. I really wanted to take Cam back home too. He’d been there as a baby, but only briefly and my poor mother was always sending me messages through my brother Sergei to visit again with Cam. It was hard with all the responsibilities I had in Vegas, but it was something I needed to do soon, before my mother got too old. I definitely didn’t want to leave Penny again before I solidified our relationship, either. Somehow, I’d find some way to convince her to take the trip with me soon. It was important, and there was no better reason than to have the two most important women in my life meet before my mother died.
Time was always racing against me, but I was determined to get the best of it for once.
Chapter Nineteen
Penny
“I STILL CAN’T believe that this is your house.” I peered around the foyer and took in the expanse of staircase that made up the entire front entrance. It was enormous and looked like it was pulled right out of a plantation in Gone With the Wind. The banister was polished to a bright, reflective shine, and the travertine tiles extended in an ocean of stone from the foyer to deeper into the house. It was a mini mansion, and I’d never stood in such a big house before.
I felt underdressed, like I had just stepped into a movie star’s home. I peeked down at my shorts, tank top and plain flip flops and really felt like I was slumming it a bit too much, even for a hot Vegas evening. I’d only seen part of the house the day I’d spent the night, and it had been mostly the bedroom. I’d left through a side door off the kitchen which led to the driveway and hadn’t looked back as I drove away. Who knew the place was so big? I fought the urge to spin around and fly out of the house as fast as I could. I hadn’t paid much attention when we’d arrived that night either, too involved in kissing Seth and making it to the bed right away.
The thought made me blush, and I turned away from Seth so he wouldn’t notice.
“Yep, had it custom built. Though I think it’s way too much house for just me and Cam.” Seth walked back into the foyer and handed me a cocktail. I stared at it with a slight horror in my eyes. It was four in the afternoon. Way too early to get slammed, especially after what happened the last time I drank around Seth.
“What’s this?”
“A Shirley Temple. You like those, don’t you? Virgin Cocktail.” He winked and downed his drink. From the smell of it, his was hard liquor. I wrinkled my nose at the realization that he’d given me a virgin drink, knowing how bad drinking was for me. It was a tough pill to swallow, but he was in the right. I was not a good drunk person. I accepted it and sipped slowly.
“So why’d you get such a big house made, then? Seems like you’d get a smaller one if you didn’t want such a big place.”
Seth laughed, his smile revealing a small dimple i
n his right cheek. “It was more of the future I was looking at. I always wanted a bunch of family and friends at my house. Doesn’t seem to be the way things are going, though. So far, it’s just me and Cam, for now. Sometimes my cousin hangs out, but not too often, he lives across town.”
I finished off my drink and he promptly took it from me and hurried away. I followed behind him and found myself at a bar next to an indoor swimming pool. A humongous indoor swimming pool.
My surprise must’ve been written on my face because I caught Seth smiling as he mixed us more drinks. “Good golly, you have swimming pool?” My eyes widened at the expanse of blue before me. “So you like swimming?” Goodness, I really was going for dumb and dumber here. Who’d have a swimming pool inside their house if they didn’t like to swim? Geez.
“Yeah, but I don’t get to jump in nearly as much as I’d like.” He handed me a fresh Shirley Temple and turned to stare at the glistening surface of the water.
“Honestly, Seth, I didn’t peg you for a rich boy.” I leaned across the bar and watched him in my periphery. He was lost in his thoughts.
“I’m not a rich boy. I grew up poor, you know that. Lots of hard work and luck got me here.” He turned and studied my face, looking like he was searching for something. “I didn’t peg you as someone to settle for a job you don’t really like and give up on your dreams of traveling the world and having a family.”
I flinched at his accusation, though his eyes remained calm and studious. “You don’t know anything about me.” I slipped the second empty glass toward him on the counter, feeling glum at his observation. Maybe he was right, but I sure as heck didn’t want to admit it.
“I know more than you think I do. I know you don’t really care for dealing with sick people all the time. I know you used to tell me you dreamed you’d have a huge family one day, and I know you haven’t seen the world like you said you would, just part of the US. We dated, remember? You had dreams, you had aspirations. How’s that for knowing you or not? Why haven’t you seen the world, Penny? You don’t have any responsibilities or family to anchor you down. What’ve you been doing all this time?” He sipped his Scotch, watching me as I squirmed at the edge of the bar.
