The Summer I Loved You

by J. L. Lora

  "I was sad and crying a lot."

  He frowned. "Why?"

  She peered at him under her lashes with eyes full of yesterday’s regrets. "You left."

  "You told me to leave and never come back, Adri."

  She nodded. "I know. I just never thought you would actually do it."

  It had been the most ridiculous fight two people had ever had. His stupidity and quick temper that day still plagued Cameron.

  Her gaze dropped to her feet. "I was seventeen and immature. When I got mad, I would tell everyone I didn’t want to see them again. I said it to Tommy with every breakup. I said it to my boyfriend in first grade. I even said it to Nathan, that time we kissed when we were ten. You were the only one that listened. You, who followed me around all the time, chose the one time I didn't mean it to listen to me."

  She shook her head and shot him a sad smile. "The next day, I went to Tommy's house early in the morning and told him we were never getting back together and I was in love with someone else. Your parents were there having breakfast with his. I figured they would tell you they saw me crying when I left and then I planned to make you suffer before I forgave you. I was so ready for you to come crawling and asking for forgiveness."

  He looked down. "When they got back from Tommy’s parent’s house, they were talking to Luciana at the table and telling her you and Tommy reunited and seemed really happy. I told my father I would take the baseball contract and left that day for New York."

  She waited until he looked up. "When I found out I was pregnant, I came by Mr. Blake’s office. I told him I needed to talk to you, that it was urgent. He told me you had taken the contract with the Emperors. That you needed to focus on what was important. I broke down and told him about the baby. He said he would call and tell you. He called the next morning and said you didn't think the child was yours and offered me money for an abor—"

  Cam didn't let her finish. He shot up from the couch. "I'm going to kill him."

  Adrianna got up and went to him. "He's your father. You can't kill him…"

  "No, he's not! He’s never been. A father is someone who loves and supports you. I was just a pawn to him and my mom. I spent my whole life trying to please them and he convinced me to take the fucking contract. I never wanted to play. You know that."

  Adrianna nodded.

  "I'll kill him with my hands. He took everything from me." He clamped a hand over the back of his neck. "You don't know the things I did."

  She crossed her arms in front of her. "Killing Walter won’t give you any of it back. You can’t get the time you lost with Bron, but if you kill him, you'll have no future with her either.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and the other to his cheek. “Now you have a chance to be in her life and help me raise her. Don’t let Walter take more from you than what he already has."

  Her eyes sparked with warmth and somehow, they were closer than before. He rubbed his cheek against her palm. She’d been one of the things taken away from him. No, he had been stupid enough to let her go.

  He reached for her, but she took a step back and cleared her throat. “We can work out ways for you to start getting to know her and spend time with her.”

  He stamped a foot on the desire surging through him. There were more pressing things they needed to decide. “Okay, let’s talk.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Cameron’s brain was clogged with so many thoughts and emotions, he found himself reeling. The door to the limo had barely closed, but it was like he’d been caged for years. He was practically jumping out of his skin.

  Something he couldn’t name came over him when he thought of Bronwyn. So small, so smart, so beautiful. If he had ever thought of having a kid, she’s the kind of kid he would have wanted. But he’d never wanted a kid and now he had one.

  With Adrianna.

  He laughed out loud. Life sure played an ugly joke on him. All these years, he and Adri had had the strongest of ties and he hadn’t known it. He hadn’t known it because one person had kept it from him. Walter. His father had always been Cam’s biggest nemesis. Cam didn’t prepare to face the Red Sox with the intensity he had to talk himself into, just to go to his parents’ house.

  He’d taken the baseball contract to please them. How encouraging and proud Walter had been the day he’d left Acacia for New York. It was the only time in Cam’s life when he had behaved like an actual father, instead of a tyrant who ruled over his children with an iron fist.

  Cam had been fooled for a long time and even told himself how whatever he was suffering over his breakup with Adri was worth it because he’d made his dad proud.

  It’d taken him six months to figure out the truth. That was when the money Walter had gotten illegally from Cam’s agent ran out. Walter had been up to his neck in debt, with bookies calling around. Cam’s ears still rang with the desperate calls from Walter and Marilyn, saying if he didn’t pay the people he owed, they’d harm them or his siblings.

  Cam couldn’t let that happen. Chase and Lux were younger and he’d do anything to protect them. He’d completely thrown himself into preparing. He had no life except training and breezing through the Emperors’ single, double, and triple A farm systems. Thanks to his talent he was one of the youngest players to make it to the majors. That’s when the endorsements started to trickle in.

  Walter had used Cam as his cash cow. He’d done it for years, getting into impossible situations with his gambling and forcing Cam to bail him out. It’d lasted until Cam had enough and set him up with a monthly stipend. He didn’t want to deal with the phone calls, or the visits, or the worry it put on Luciana. He needed to center his efforts on keeping Chase from getting killed.

  He’d parented everyone except for his child. Bronwyn.

  All because he hadn’t known. Because Walter kept her from him, so he’d still have access to Cam’s money.

  Do not call him. But his thumb scrolled through his contacts until Walter’s name appeared on the screen.

  “Cameron, this is a surprise.” Walter always sounded like a debt collector. He was pleasant to start every call until you told him what he didn’t want to hear, then came the threats.

  “The surprise was all mine. She’s a bouncing nine-year-old and laughs like your daughter.” The acid churning in his stomach mixed with the wonder that still swirled in Cam’s heart when he thought of Bron.

  “Excuse me?” Walter asked, confusion stumbling on his words.

  “I found the secret you kept from me, Walter.” Cam wouldn’t ever call him father again.

  Walter’s hmmph echoed through the line. “Now, Cameron, don’t jump into conclusions. Let me explain first.”

  “Explain what? You kept a child, my child, from me.” Heat clouded Cam’s vision. He had to take a breather. “It’s an asshole move.”

  “Watch your mouth, boy. You weren’t ready to be a parent. Neither was that girl. You threw tantrums at the smallest provocation. What you were was a legend in the making and nothing was going to ruin that.” Walter said.

  The worst part was that his father wasn’t wrong. Cameron had been an over-sized child at the time and, had he not been so impulsive in his fight with Adri, things could have gone differently.

  But that didn’t erase the wrong Walter had done him and Cam wasn’t going to let him weasel or insult his way out of it. “That wasn’t your call to make. It was mine. I deserved to know.”

  “I’m your father and I made the best decision for you. That’s what a father does. He chooses the well-being of his children above everyone, including young girls whose mothers don’t teach them the basics like making sure the boy wears a condom. You had a brilliant future and I wasn’t going to let Fausto Hayes’ brat get in the way of it. Plus, for all I knew that kid was Tommy’s.”

  “You’re lying, Walter. Adrianna went to you. She told you it was my baby. Tommy hadn’t been around all summer.”

  “Women lie, Cameron. Even pretty ones with d
oe eyes and long legs. Who the hell knows who else she was opening them for? You couldn’t have thought you were the only one.”

  The condescending tone made him want to punch a hole through the car window. “Adrianna didn’t go around spreading her legs. I know she’s not lying about this. You do too. You haven’t even bothered to deny you knew.”

  That’s what was pissing him off the most. Walter was cynical enough he didn’t care that Cam knew.

  “You think Adrianna doesn’t lie? Then why didn’t you believe her when she told you she had broken up with Tommy all those years ago? Because I remember you being really upset about it. You were so worked up, you signed a contract without reading it and left town right after.”

  It was a sock to the gut. Walter wasn’t wrong about that. He hadn’t believed her then. He’d thrown a tantrum and walked away. “I didn’t believe her. You’re right. I was stupid then but that doesn’t change the fact that you exploited it. You encouraged me to leave and later, without me asking, you told me she married Tommy and she never did. She had a baby, my baby, and you hid it. Just so you could have access to my money. So you could milk me at your will whenever your fucking addiction got the best of you.”

  “I’m your father, Cameron. You need to respect me.”

  “No, you’re not my father. You’re not anything to me. You lied and used me. And since you deprived me of what could be the most important thing in a man’s life, I’m going to take what’s most important in yours. The only thing you’ve ever loved.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Cam chuckled, the sound so ugly it turned his own stomach. “Find a way to fund your gambling elsewhere, Walter. As of today, the stipend stops. I’m taking your name off the credit cards. You won’t get another dime from me. I hope you don’t fucking owe anyone shit.”

  “You can’t do—”

  Cam didn’t let him finish. He cut off the call and threw his phone on the other side of the seat. It began to vibrate again almost immediately. Walter’s name appeared on the screen time after time. Cam ignored it the rest of the way to D.C.

  •••

  Adrianna sighed and shot to her feet. She strolled to the window and looked out into the square. She twirled the stem of her wine glass around her fingers. Canton was practically dead on weekdays unless the Orioles or Ravens were playing. It was a shame. She could have used a little distraction tonight, and people watching probably would have done the trick. She wasn’t holding her breath.

  Neither music, TV, nor yoga had done the job of calming her nerves. Usually, she could lose herself in the lotus, downward dog, and tree pose positions and let them empty her mind. But there was too much there. Too much emotion, too much fear, too much Cam.

  He’d strolled back into her life with the finesse of a category-five hurricane, blowing everything all over the place. The life she kept as meticulously organized as her dresser was now turned on its side with all her feelings hanging out from the drawers.

  This wasn’t about her. It was about Bron finally getting to know her father and Cam finally knowing the truth. Adrianna just happened to be stuck in the middle, trying to shield her daughter from getting hurt and preparing for Cam’s anger. It would come. She knew it would. He would want all the answers but she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

  The buzzing of her phone had her whipping her head around. Her pulse rushing, she stared at it for a couple of seconds. It couldn’t be Cam. She wasn’t expecting to hear from him until tomorrow. Plus, they’d exchanged numbers and she didn’t recognize this one.

  She crossed the room and grabbed it. She didn’t even get to greet the caller.

  “You just had to look for him, didn’t you?” The thick voice was familiar. Not because she heard it every day but because Adrianna had only heard it a handful of times in the past ten years. It was flat and dry like surgical soap. Walter Blake was always frigid with her. He’d been that when he’d recommended she get an abortion, and with the same tone when he threatened to destroy her and her mother’s lives if she went near Cam.

  She should be used to his tone. She wasn’t. She still got lightheaded. Her knees gave out and her butt plopped on the ottoman. The wine swirled and spilled over the rim of the glass. Red droplets landed all over Bron’s school newsletter. It was the same one Cam had been rifling through on the coffee table.

  She took a deep breath and recited the same mantra she had for years. You are not a pregnant eighteen-year-old girl. He can’t hurt you or Bronwyn. Except he could.

  “I didn’t go looking for him. I told you that if Cam ever came, I wouldn’t lie to him.” Nice and steady, you have to stay that way.

  “Liar,” Walter spat on the other end of the line. “But you’re not going to get his money.”

  “I. Don’t. Want. His. Money.” She made sure to enunciate every word. “I don’t need Cam’s money or your family’s. My daughter and I live very well. We’re not rich like you but we don’t need to be.”

  “Go feed that hogwash to someone who doesn’t know a Hayes like I do. Your kind sells their own flesh for a few bucks.”

  Ice coated her stomach hard and fast. Yes, that had been her father’s legacy but she had her mother’s. Those roots were stronger. She’d always put Adrianna first and that’s what Adrianna would do too. She’d always put Bron’s interests first.

  “You should know a Hayes better than anyone, Mr. Blake. But I’m no longer that. I also don’t have time to talk to you right now. Don’t call me again.” She was so proud of how firm her voice came out.

  “Walk away now. Send Cam away and tell him it’s not his kid. You don’t think I’ll make good on my promises but I can go to the police any day. I will destroy you. You know I can. And what’s going to happen to the kid then?”

  The air wooshed out of her lungs. Anxiety scaled the walls of her chest but she banished it with a forced breath. Bron would never be alone. She had made provisions for that and she needed to stop reacting to Walter’s threats. He was nothing but a sixty-something-year-old bully.

  “Leave us alone. I didn’t go looking for Cam. He came here. I kept quiet and never did anything, but I can’t control what your son does.”

  “I don’t care. You need—”

  She cut off the call. She couldn’t stand to listen one more second.

  Her hand still shook and she punched the wrong numbers and had to erase and type again. She started talking as soon as Lauren picked up. “Are you still downstairs? I need to talk.”

  Thirty minutes later, after closing, Lauren sat on the other end of the couch, the spot Cam occupied a couple of hours ago.

  “Adri, you have to stop getting all worked up when that old bastard calls.”

  “I know but I can’t help it. He said he would make good on his promise. I can’t let that happen. I just…” Adrianna buried her head in her hands and breathed.

  “He’s not. He’s had years to do this and you’ve kept your end of the bargain. Shit, you made me keep that promise when all I’ve wanted for years is to go slap him. Plus, Cam knows about Bron. There’s nothing Walter can do. Even if he could, Cam won’t let him.”

  “Cam wouldn’t be able to do anything, Lo. Walter can still hurt us.”

  “He won’t. What you need to do is tell Cam everything. Why didn’t you tell him today?”

  Adrianna shoved a hand through her hair. “I don’t know. There were too many revelations and he kept saying he was going to kill Walter.”

  “Listen, for the past ten years, that man has made you afraid. He’s threatened you and made you keep Bron away from her dad. What he feared so much has already happened. Now all he’s doing is talking shit. Don’t let him scare you anymore. When will you see Cam again?”

  “Tomorrow. He’s going to come to talk about what will happen when he gets back from New York. I imagine he’ll want a paternity test.”

  “Wait, what? Why? Does he have doubts?” Lauren s
tarted getting up.

  Adri’s hand clamped over her wrist. “I don’t think he does but this is only normal. Athletes always have kids coming out of the woodwork. I’m sure his lawyers will advise him to get the test. We can’t blame him if he wants that.”

  “I don’t like him or anyone having doubts about our girl.”

  Adrianna smiled. Our girl. Yeah, Bron was Lauren’s girl too. “I know but I don’t want anyone to ever point fingers at her. I want it to be left all in the clear in case his parents decide to start something.”

  “His fucking parents. Tomorrow you need to cut all that shit at the root. Walter has to stop being a pain in our ass.” Lauren leaned in. “How was everything? The bistro was so busy all day I didn’t get to call. What else happened with Cam?”

  Adrianna remembered their afternoon and evening, his interactions with his daughter. She smiled. “He’s in awe of Bron.”

  “Well, duh. She’s the most amazing girl in the world.”

  “That’s what he said. You should have seen them. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. They talked paintings and baseball all afternoon. He taught her stuff and talked about his playing years. It was a bit off because it was like he didn’t really want to talk about that.”

  “Why would he want to talk about baseball? He found Bron…” Lauren shot her a saucy smile. “…and her hot mama. I’m sure the only thing he wanted to reminisce about was that summer and afternoons by the falls—”

  “Stop. Don’t put things in my head.” The last thing she wanted to think about was anything like that. Because she and Cam would never be like they were that summer. “Cam wasn’t thinking about that and neither was I. We just happen to have a kid together. He’s just…”

  “Your baby daddy? He was totally checking you out when you headed up here. And I dare you to tell me you didn’t notice the way he fills out that shirt or, dearly lord, those arms.”

  Adrianna’s mouth drifted open but her denial never came. Yes, she noticed how much bigger his shoulders were and how his pants clung low to his waist and those thighs against his trousers, or the pangs of raw need in her belly when he got closer…