"Uh huh. You better watch it boy, or it's swirly-time," Cameron laughed, taking the exit to the bathroom and letting Mac and his son go on without her.
***
Walking back from the bathroom, Cameron stopped to watch Mac as he tapped the end of Logan's nose with a corn dog before neatly biting off the end as Logan laughed. They had chosen to sit side by side, leaving the other side of their table open for her, and as they got down to the business of eating, Cameron couldn't help the smile that widened her mouth, or the little tingle that settled in her stomach.
They nudged each other often as they ate, and by the relaxed set of Logan's shoulders, she had to assume that he and Mac had talked and that all was well between them. Still, she wondered about the man she'd seen talking to Mac, and she wondered about the boy, Kenny, that had once been Logan's friend. Making a note to ask Mac about it, Cameron started walking again, but stopped slightly before she'd reached them as she heard her name.
"Yeah, I like Cameron a lot, Dad," Logan was saying. "She's pretty, and it's funny when she gets scared of the animals and stuff. She really thought the camel was gonna dump us off, and I had to tell her it would be okay."
"Hmm," Mac answered. "And did she believe you?"
"I guess. That was when she looked for you. I guess she missed you. And she saw you with stupid Kenny and his stupid dad," Logan grumbled.
"I see. I wondered what was wrong with you after the camel ride, if maybe you disagreed with Cameron or something."
"No, she's really great, Dad. I think she likes me, too," Logan said, and Cameron smiled. Already, she was in love with them; both father and son had thoroughly won her over. "She asked me who you were with though."
"Oh. What did you tell her?" Mac asked.
"I told her about Kenny being a stupid jerk about my mom and that I hate him and I hit him that one time, and she said that hate is a strong emotion. Just like you, Dad." Cameron grinned again, watching Mac nod and slip an arm around his son's shoulders.
"It is a strong emotion, like love. Neither of those are to be taken lightly, ever," he counseled.
"Do you love Cameron?" Logan mumbled around a mouth full of corn dog. The question froze the air in Cameron's lungs, and suddenly she couldn't breathe as she waited for Mac to answer. She couldn't say for sure yet that she loved Mac, but she knew she couldn't say she didn't either. All she knew for sure in that moment, as Mac slowly turned to face Logan, was that she wanted him to say yes; she wanted him to tell his son that he loved her and wanted to be with her.
"You know, kid, I can't really say for sure," Mac said. “And it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you if I haven't told her yet. But I can tell you that I like her an awful, awful lot, and that I want her to stick around for a long time. If I don’t love her yet, I can say honestly that I’m really, really close."
"And she’d be like a mom?" Logan asked.
Mac fidgeted, trying to find the right words. "Well, kinda like a mom, I guess."
"Oh," Logan said. "But I don't want her to be my mom."
Cameron's heart shattered, her hand finding its way to her chest without her realizing. She stood there, frozen, watching as the little boy rejected her, unable to stop it or say anything. She told herself that he was young, and that he'd only lost his mother in the last few years. She told herself that maybe he wasn't ready to accept another woman in that place in his life. She told herself she understood, and that she was okay with it. But none of that stopped the quick tears that sprang to her eyes.
"Really?" Mac asked. "I thought you liked her a lot, like me."
"I do," Logan said. "But Kenny says mom died because she didn't like me for a son."
"Kenny's a little shrimp," Mac retorted, and Cameron admired the clean language. She had a few other choice words for the boy Kenny, and none of them were as kind as 'shrimp’.
"What if Cameron wouldn't like me for her son either? And then she dies?" Logan asked.
Cameron wrapped an arm around the pole she was leaning against, holding herself back from going to the boy and reassuring him. Mac knew just what to say though; he pulled his child close to him and said, "Logan, Cameron could die at any time, or live for years and years, and that wouldn't have anything to do with how she likes you. Which, she does. And someone’s health is not really affected by how much they like someone else, it doesn’t work that way. But you know that all moms don't always get sick. Remember, we talked about this before? Like my mom, she's not sick."
"Kenny's mom isn't sick," Logan said.
"Exactly, and Kenny's mom has a lousy son," Mac said. "I’m sure she loves him, but she probably doesn’t like him sometimes either, so it doesn't mean anything. And I think you're a good son, and that Cameron would love you very much, if you give her a chance."
"Well, she rode a camel with me. She was scared but she did it anyway. That means something good, right?"
"I think so. Eat your lunch, kid, and we'll go hunt her down so she can eat, too. And then we'll see if we can find something to scare her with." They laughed together, the seriousness of the mood floated away, and Cameron was able to regain control of her emotions. Wandering over to the table, she huffed a breath and plopped down across from them.
"Shoo, it was so crowded in there!" she lied. "Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys." Refusing to meet Mac's eyes, she lifted the bottled water he pressed toward her and drank thirstily. "Yum, for me?" she asked, watching his hands as he pressed a tray of corn dogs within her reach. Lifting one, she shot a wink to Logan, dunking the corn dog into a puddle of ketchup before taking a bite.
The boys waited politely for Cameron to eat, joking and playing together through the rest of the meal. Once she finished, they cleared the table, and Mac sent Logan to the corn dog stand to get his soda refilled before they walked on to other things. With Logan out of the way, he turned to Cameron, running a fingertip over the heated round of her cheek. "You're all red and looking like you're thinking stuff. You okay? Overwhelmed?"
"Actually, not as much as I thought. I've had a good time, and you have done a good job with Logan, Mac. I think I love him already, he's too cute." Mac took a breath, his eyes warming as he opened his mouth to answer, but they were interrupted by Logan's boisterous return and the subject was closed.
The rest of the afternoon was spent watching animals roam, birds fly, and water creatures swim. And by the end of the day, Cameron had fallen head over heels for Mackenzie Caswell and his young son.
***
Cameron grinned to herself, spearing another bite of the squash casserole she'd brought with her to the Kingsley house. Her brother and sister were at it again, and everyone around the table sat quietly, waiting for the moment when Eva would lose her patience.
"No way!! You are so full of yourself it makes me sick, Evan. I am not going to that game, just to watch the stupid cheerleaders fall all over themselves to get to you. It's ridiculous, and it seriously makes your ego too big. Like, intolerably big. Like, it's a wonder your head doesn't explode with it," Harmony grumbled. It was a typical Kingsley family dinner, and the two youngest members of the Kingsley clan had been arguing for the past half hour.
Eva scowled at her two youngest children, while her husband Adam smirked down at his plate. Cameron and Michael exchanged a look and then lowered their eyes as well; they knew what was coming. "If you two don't stop ruining my dinner with this atrocious arguing, I am going to lose my patience," Eva lectured. "And you will each take your potty attitudes to eat alone. In separate bathrooms. I'll bet you feel different about eating peacefully together when you're sitting alone with your dinner plate on the back of the toilet," she threatened. This was the same threat she'd given to any children fighting at the table. Sibling rivalry was not something that Eva liked seeing amongst her children, and it was something she had never been willing to tolerate over a meal. Eva made good on her threats, too, when she needed to. Bathroom dinner was the same threat handed down in her family from generation to
generation. Each of them had been forced to endure it once, and it had only taken one time to accomplish the goal.
Evan groaned into his glass of water. "Sorry, Mom," he muttered, in answer to Eva's raised eyebrow.
"And Harmony, your brother used to go to your meets all the time. Now that you've switched to training, maybe he's not there, but don't you think you owe him some support?"
"Please, mom, he didn't come to the meets to see me compete. Evan only ever went so that he could sit in the stands and watch girls in spandex dance around and do cool tricks. He told me once that he --"
Evan choked on his water suddenly, pounding his young chest as he coughed. His eyes were wide as he turned to Harmony, his face shocked. She grinned at him wickedly and returned to her dinner, mission accomplished.
"And Cameron, what have you been up to?" Adam asked, reaching out to pat Eva's hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming her temper, and then her green eyes settled on Cameron's face.
"Please tell me you've been doing something more productive than arguing like these two," she said, hiding her humor as she waved her hand to indicate the youngest Kingsleys.
Cameron gulped, swallowing the bite of food she'd been chewing. "Well," she answered. "I've been pretty busy actually. There are two new weddings coming up that are pretty high-profile, so Tabitha and I have been running crazy to put everything together."
"And how are things with Mac?" Adam asked, lifting a brow.
"Things are good, Dad," she answered, placing her fork next to her plate and gathering her hands in her lap. She knew her father was about to interrogate her, and she wanted to get through it without choking to death if he asked anything embarrassing.
"How good? I have heard talk about the morning after Drew's wedding, my girl. And now, I know you're a grown woman and these are modern times," he went on, waving his hand as Cameron's face flamed, "but I'd like to know you're being careful."
Evan snorted, trying to fight back his laughter, and Harmony nearly buried her face in her dinner to hide the wide smile she couldn't stop from spreading. Only Michael was stoic, slipping his hand over to grasp Cameron's hands under the secrecy of the dinner table. He didn't speak, but she felt him lending her support, and she took a breath, wetting her lips before she answered her father. "I'm careful, Dad, thank you for your concern."
"Good," Adam said. "And what are this man's intentions?"
"Well, Dad, I don't know exactly." She met Tabitha's eyes across the table, but Tabitha quickly turned her attention to her own dinner, her eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter.
"I see," Adam said. "So he's just flying by the seat of his pants, is he?"
Cameron rolled her eyes, frustrated. "No, he's just being careful, Dad. He has a son to be concerned about, and he doesn't want casual relationships affecting his kid. So he's careful who he lets close to him."
"Casual relationships? Are you in a casual relationship, Cameron? Do you feel casual?”
Sighing, Cameron raised her fork again, stirring her dinner just for something to do. "No, I don't feel casual. And I'm not sure he does either. He's talked to Logan about me. His son, you know? And I've met him now. Twice, actually."
"The little boy?" Eva broke in excitedly, ignoring the scowl she received from Adam. "What's he like? And what does that mean about Mac's feelings? I mean, you said yourself that Mac is cautious. Is he thinking he wants this to get serious? Like, you know, serious?"
Cameron looked desperately across the table to Tabitha, hoping she would break in and change the topic of conversation. Unfortunately, she looked just as curious as Eva, and had propped her hands on her chin as she waited for Cameron's answer. Thanks a lot, Cameron thought, shooting Tabitha a silent look. Tabitha answered back by raising her eyebrows and forming a pout with her lips. Sighing, Cameron turned back to her mother.
"I don't know, Mom. He hasn't said anything about getting really serious, but if I had to judge by the fact that he's brought Logan into this, I'd say Mac is at least thinking that we have strong potential. He wanted to see how Logan and I would get along," she finished.
"And?" Eva asked impatiently.
Cameron's face softened, telling her parents all that they needed to know. She was in love with the boy as much as she was in love with the man. Finally, they might see their daughter abandon the trauma of her past, so that she could build herself a future.
"Well," Adam asked. "How do you like Mac's son?"
"He's sweet," Cameron answered. "He's nine, and he looks a lot like his mom did; he's a real cutie with these big dark eyes and he's got just the hint of a dimple in his face. A real charmer, he is."
"Hmph," Adam grunted, hiding his smile behind his coffee cup.
The conversation moved on to other topics, and as the Kingsley family finished eating, Cameron couldn't stop thinking about what her parents had been asking. Without the words, they'd been asking her if she might be married too, someday. They'd been asking if she wanted Mac to stay in her life; they'd been asking her where her heart was.
Retracing the conversation in her mind as she took charge of cleaning the kitchen, Cameron realized more and more clearly that she did want Mac. She wanted to wake up with him as she had on the yacht; she wanted to listen for his motorcycle roaring as he came home at the end of his day. She wanted to hug his son goodnight, help him with his homework.
Lost in the background noises of Evan and Harmony shouting over Guitar Hero, Cameron finished the kitchen, loading the dishes and starting the dishwasher. She scrubbed the stove down, wiped all the counters, and cleaned the table. In the back of her mind though, she wondered ...
If Mac bought her an engagement ring someday, what would it look like? Would it be large and sparkling, or more subtle? It occurred to her that if he were to ask what she preferred, she wouldn't be able to give him an answer. Dropping the still wet cleaning rag on the counter, Cameron pulled her phone from her pocket and leaned over the counter, bracing her forearms as she pulled up the web browser on her cell phone.
Engagement rings, she typed, tapping her fingers on the counter as she waited for the search results to load. She scrolled through the images, stopping here and there to look extra long at one ring or another.
And that's how Tabitha managed to sneak up on her, while she was engrossed in the sparkling image of a platinum band, sporting a perfect diamond with tiny emeralds clustered around it.
"What ya got there?" Tabitha asked, leaning over Cameron's shoulder.
Cameron jerked, bumping her elbow on the edge of the counter and dropping her phone in her hurry to turn around. "Jeez, you can't be sneaking up on people, Tab!" she gasped.
Tabitha only laughed. "Engagement rings, huh?" she asked. She turned, opening the refrigerator to take out a tray of parfait cups. Cameron's mother had made them for dessert, layering bits of cake with juicy strawberries and thick whipped cream. "Coming to eat one of these?" Tabitha glanced over her shoulder, stopping to add spoons to the tray.
Thankful for the change of subject, Cameron nodded. "Yeah, I'm coming," she said.
***
Sitting by the river, Cameron soaked up the musical sound of the water as it flowed with its wild current. She kicked her sandals off and worked her feet through the grass below the bench she'd perched herself on.
"I don't know," she wrote, "I just don't know. The idea of getting married is terrifying. What if he changes after? What if I don't like being married? What if Logan and I don't get along once things get serious? Oh God, what if his mother hates me? I sure as hell don't want one of those mothers-in-law."
Cameron looked up with a sigh, watching geese and ducks mingle together along the river's edge. The ducks' quacks mixed noisily with the honking of the geese, and Cameron smiled a little to herself, tapping her stylus on the edge of her tablet before getting back to her journal.
"Maybe it won't be like that, though. I doubt Mac would let any members of his family treat me less than kindly, especially a
fter my own family has taken him in so quickly and easily. Then again, if they are less than kind to me, what kind of wife would I be if I told him? Could I put myself between them like that? And maybe none of this even matters. Does he even want to marry me? Would Logan like it, or would he see me as an interloper in his mother's house? He did seem like he wanted a mother, that day at the zoo ... but what if I'm wrong? What if I'm reading them wrong? Oh, I just don't know."
Saving the journal entry, Cameron stowed the stylus, slipped the tablet into its sleeve and tucked it away in her bag. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she stood and started walking along the river trail, leaving the ducks and geese to splash behind her. Walking always seemed to help her clear her mind. Wandering along, she listened to the river as it flowed in the other direction, the rushing of the water reassuring and relaxing her, the water sounds mixing with the rustling of the trees overhead as she approached a nature walk that followed the edge of the river.
Prescription For Love (The Kingsley Series) Page 22
