“What happened between you two?” I asked softly, taking another step toward him, trying to make him feel like our conversation was private even though we were standing in the middle of my backyard.
He shrugged. “We hung out a few times. Nothing serious.”
“Is that why you’re always looking at her with sad puppy dog eyes?” I joked, trying to get a genuine smile from him. Luckily for me, it worked.
“I do not,” he said with his handsome smile across his face.
I’d gotten to know Justin a little over the past few months, and even though he seemed a little aloof sometimes, he was obviously a good guy. Still very much in his bachelor stage, but a good guy regardless. But it was strange how fascinated he was with Hadley and how little time of day she gave him. It wasn’t unlike her, but something about her attitude toward him, her indifference, didn’t ring true all the time. It felt forced and artificial.
However, I had my own damn problems to worry about without trying to figure out why they couldn’t get their shit together.
“Hang in there,” I said, patting him on the bicep. “She’s not all bad. If it’s meant to be, she’ll come around.”
“Thanks, Riley.” His tone was solemn, but then he turned to me and I watched as a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Do you want a burger or a wiener?”
I gave him a playful wink. “Don’t ask me questions you already know the answer to.”
He laughed as I walked away, and I was glad I could give him just a little bit of a mood lift.
I walked into the house and took a moment to just look around. The floor was empty, everyone still outside except for Camden and his mom, who I assumed were upstairs by that point. There was light coming in the windows, and the sounds of people laughing outside. I imagined many weekends filled the same way, with friends and family here, enjoying this crazy house that I never dreamed I would ever own.
My future happiness has never been wrapped up in possessions, or even my address. I didn’t need a house in a fancy neighborhood. But what I hadn’t realized was that I wanted a home and a family. Could I be just as happy someplace else? Definitely. But for whatever reason, Camden wanted this to be our home. And even though it was sappy and mushy, I was home wherever Camden was. So if I had to live in the big beautiful house to be with him, then I’d suffer through it.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to see I had a text from Rose.
**Please advise any clients you may have meetings with this week that you’ll be out of town Monday and Tuesday. We need to take another trip to Arizona. Just a quick dress evaluation and catering appointment. Flight leaves at nine Monday morning. Meet you at the airport at seven.**
I sighed after reading the text. Another trip to Arizona was inevitable, but I’d been hoping to stay away a little longer.
**Message received. I only had one meeting that was high priority, and I’m sure Rachel can handle it for me. See you on Monday.**
At least I’d have the weekend to relax before being thrown back into the lion’s den. The last trip had gone okay as long as I kept my distance from Penelope. That was my plan going forward as well. I let Rose do her thing, took notes, and offered suggestions when they were needed, but it was definitely a different role than I was used to. When I was planning an event for a client, I was in beast mode. I had dedicated folders full of information: quotes, bids, renderings. Sometimes I even had collages if I felt the client was particularly visual.
Luckily, Rose seemed to be playing down our involvement as planners, but I wanted to focus on the planning so I didn’t focus on Penelope. Or, to be completely honest, so Penelope didn’t focus on me.
I heard footsteps upstairs and went to find Camden.
“This would be a wonderful room for a nursery, Cam,” I heard Meg say just before I pushed the door to the spare bedroom open.
“Yeah,” he said softly, not sounding too committed to the agreement. “When the time is right, maybe. We’ve got plenty of time for kids though. I kind of just want to spend some time with Riley, have some time where it’s just the two of us for a while. Maybe travel a little.”
I smiled at his words, loving his vision for us in the foreseeable future. I did want kids with Camden, but I agreed with him—there was plenty of time for that.
“Hey,” I said as I stepped into the room, trying not to startle them.
“Hey, babe,” Camden replied, his face softening as I entered the room. “We were just talking about you.”
“Good things, I hope.”
He lifted his arm slightly, just enough for me to press into his side. “Always.”
“I was just telling Camden how this room would make a wonderful nursery,” Meg told me.
“Mom,” he warned.
“You think?” I asked sincerely. “The other spare room is much closer to the master, so I figured we’d make that into the first nursery.”
“First nursery?” Camden asked, clearly surprised by my response.
I gave him a wink.
“Oh, I didn’t even consider that,” Meg said as she walked out the door to inspect the other room.
Once we were alone, Camden looked down at me. “Are we really going to need more than one nursery?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “I have no idea. I’m not even sure the other room is closer.”
“So you don’t want a house full of babies?”
“That sounds horrid.” I couldn’t help the laughter that erupted from me, or the visual his sentence conjured up.
“You know what I mean,” he said, smiling while rolling his eyes at me.
“I want kids. Someday. Not any time soon though. There’s no rush.” I gave him a gentle pat on the chest to try and ease his worries. I didn’t want him or me to stress about that; we had enough on our plate at that moment. “Oh, before I forget, Rose just texted me and needs me in Arizona again Monday and Tuesday.”
I watched as his eyebrows drew together.
“You’re going out of town again? In, like, two days?”
“Yeah,” I said softly, looking up at him. “I know it’s bad timing, what with the house and all, but I have to go.” He didn’t respond right away, not with words anyway. But I could see in his eyes that he was working something out in his mind. Almost as though he were weighing whether or not to say something. I wanted to know what he was thinking, wanted him to just come out and say it, but not if he wasn’t ready. “Will you be all right here by yourself?”
He turned toward me fully, taking my face in his hands and looking me right in the eye. “I’m never okay when you’re not with me. But yeah, I’ll be all right.” He moved in and pressed his lips against my forehead, resting them there and breathing me in. “Maybe I’ll stay at the condo.”
“Why?” I was itching to be in the new house, to move all our stuff in, to make it our own. To see Camden walking around in his boxer briefs in our home.
“Doesn’t seem right to sleep here without you.”
And like so many times in the last eight months, Camden left me speechless and emotionally raw with just one sentence.
“I’ll never understand how, in this entire huge world, somehow I managed to find you. And what’s even more mind-blowing is that, out of every woman on this huge world, you want me.”
At my words a smile spread across his face. “Do you remember our first kiss, babe? Who wouldn’t come back for more after that?”
Oh, I remembered all right. So did the other twenty thousand people at the arena that night.
“It was pretty impressive. For a first kiss, anyway,” I teased.
“All our kisses are impressive,” he argued.
“That’s true,” I relented. And almost as if he was trying to prove his point, he bent at the knee and captured my mouth, pulling me closer with his arms snaked around my waist. I let him lead the kiss, let him show me how he was feeling through it. The kiss was hungry and a little urgent, as though he was trying to keep me close.<
br />
We both heard his mother’s heels on the hardwood floors, the sound getting louder as she got closer the room we were in. He tugged gently on my bottom lip with his teeth, sending shivers to all the good places, then pulled away, scraping his teeth along my lip as he went.
“You’re terrible,” I rasped, hating the fact that he knew he’d gotten to me with that lip bite and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it with all our friends and family around.
“I think you meant to say ‘impressive.’”
Chapter Ten
Camden
The sun was setting over our new backyard, flames roared out of our fire pit, everyone had a drink in their hand, and the night was perfectly warm. It was, by all accounts, pretty fucking perfect. Exactly as I’d imagined it when I’d explained my plan to Justin.
“Thanks for pulling all of this off,” I said as I turned to face him. We were sitting on the patio, looking out over the yard where everyone else was. Riley, Hadley, Rachel, Jasper, and Tripp all sat around the fire pit chatting, laughing, and smiling. Justin and I hung back though, as I figured he was trying to keep his distance from Hadley.
“Hey, man, no problem. It’s not every day your best friend buys a house.”
“Let’s hope not,” I said, lifting my Guinness in a cheers and watching as he did the same. We both took healthy pulls from our beers, but then we were quiet again. When I’d called Justin the day before and laid out my whole plan, he’d been onboard from the first word. My condo didn’t have an outdoor patio, so pretty much everything I saw around me was brand new. I’d ordered it online and Justin had gone today and picked it all up. We’d still had to enlist a little more help with all the food and beverages though.
“Did you have a hard time working with Hadley?” I asked, never quite sure if I was going to get the laid-back Justin or the Justin who was transparent about his feelings for her. It was a toss-up, really.
He sighed. “She basically said just enough words to get the job done.”
So Justin was being a little transparent today.
“Have there been any developments in that department?”
“You mean the department where Hadley won’t give me the time of day? No. No, there hasn’t.”
“And how do you feel about that? Usually you’d be moving on before you even got your pants all the way back on.”
Justin’s eyes met mine and I was surprised to see he looked a little bit angry.
“I can’t really explain it, but man, she’s driving me crazy by ignoring me. Do you think she’s doing it on purpose?”
My eyes swept over to Riley and Hadley, the fire casting an orange hue around their faces, both of them laughing and talking. Hadley looked happy. Completely carefree.
“Of course she’s doing it on purpose. Women talk. If she weren’t upset with you, she wouldn’t be avoiding you or ignoring you.”
“See, and the stupid thing is I know that. I understand that on a basic level. But I still can’t get her out of my mind. What’s her deal?”
“I’ve got no idea. But Hadley is, for the most part, a great girl. So if she’s really this adamant about not giving you a chance, well, you kind of have to let her go and give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with you. Maybe she’s hung up on someone else and doesn’t want to string you along.”
“Did Riley say she’s hung up on someone else?” he asked, his voice suddenly full of rage.
“No, man. Chill out. No wonder she won’t talk to you—you’re fucking psycho.”
Justin let out a large breath and took another pull from his beer.
“I think you gotta move on. It’s obviously not going to happen.”
“We’ll see,” he mumbled under his breath. I wasn’t sure if he knew I could hear him, but I didn’t give him any indication that I had. Justin and Hadley needed to figure out their own issues. Either that or Justin really needed to get over Hadley.
Movement from the campfire drew my gaze that way and I saw Jasper rising from his chair, then hauling it behind him as he made his way toward Justin and me.
“I am legit the fifth wheel over there,” he said as he dropped his chair next to Justin and took a seat.
“Tripp and Rachel seem to be getting to know each other pretty well,” I said before taking another drink.
“They’re real close to planning a double wedding with you and Riley,” he replied, sarcasm clear in his tone. “Anyone want to take bets on whether Rachel is leaving by herself tonight?”
“Nope,” I replied. I didn’t know Tripp very well, but even I could see the two of them were minutes away from jumping each other.
“I think I’d rather take bets on how long until they make some excuse to leave.” Justin’s tone was much more upbeat, and I was glad Jasper had come to distract us from his woes with Hadley.
“Twenty minutes,” Jasper said quickly.
“Ten,” Justin countered.
“I’ll be a radical and call thirty.”
We all chuckled, but then a silence fell over us. It wasn’t awkward—quite the opposite, in fact. I was watching Riley, loving the smile on her face and knowing it was because she was surrounded by her favorite people. Justin was watching Hadley—I didn’t have to look over at him to know it. He was probably trying to figure out what he had to do to crack her open. Jasper was probably watching Rachel, deciding whether he needed to be protective over her. He was probably fighting the urge to drive her home himself. He, Rachel, and Riley were a close unit, and I knew he felt like a brother to the girls. He might wear suspenders and bow ties, but I knew without a doubt that he would protect my girl at any cost. And the same went for Rachel.
“Tripp’s a good guy,” I said coolly, trying to ease any tension Jasper might be feeling about Rachel and Tripp spending time together. Or a night.
“I’m sure he is,” Jasper replied quietly. “But it’s not Tripp I’m worried about. Rachel’s innocent, ya know? I mean, she’s no virgin, but she’s not the kind of girl to just sleep with someone and not catch some feelings.”
“I hear you,” I said with a nod. And I did.
“Maybe Hadley could teach her a few things.” Justin’s words were cold and angry. I knew he didn’t mean them, but it didn’t mean I’d excuse him for saying them either.
“Dude,” I snapped. “Let it go. If she doesn’t want anything more from you, move on. But don’t sit here and bad-mouth her.”
Justin put his beer to his mouth and drained it.
“I’m out of here,” he said grumpily.
“Dude, don’t leave angry,” I said, even as he stood and put his phone in his back pocket.
“Nah, man, you’re right. I shouldn’t be here if I’m going to be an asshole. I need some distance.”
“Justin, after everything, she’s just another girl.” I held his gaze and watched as his shoulders slumped.
“I wish that were true.” He gave us a nod and then disappeared into the house.
“Well, that was dramatic,” Jasper said, nearly making me laugh.
“Yeah, that’s not like him. He’s usually pretty easygoing.”
“Sounds like someone’s salty.”
That did make me laugh.
“I think he got more than he bargained for with Hadley. He thought they’d have a good night together, and then it turned into more. Maybe. I don’t even really know what happened. Neither one is talking about it.”
“Well, they’re adults. They’ll figure it out. Or they won’t. But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.”
“I’ll drink to that,” I said, lifting my beer again and tapping it gently against Jasper’s martini glass. “What are you drinking?”
“Dirty martini,” he deadpanned.
“Of course you are,” I responded with a chuckle. The quiet came back, but I took the opportunity to focus on Riley, to listen for the lilt of her laughter. If there was one thing I could count on with Hadley around, it was Riley la
ughing. “Can I ask you something?” I said to Jasper after a few quiet minutes.
“Sure, Cammy. You can ask me anything.”
I shook my head and laughed at his nickname for me, then got on with my concern.
“How’s Riley doing? You spend a lot of time with her at work—how does she seem to you?” I watched as his face moved from playful to contemplative.
“You know, the last few months she’s been pretty determined to prove her worth to Rose. I think she wants to make sure Rose doesn’t regret promoting her or giving her the opportunities she is, like the whole Arizona thing. And I think it’s stressing her out.”
“Yeah?” I said with a sigh, even though it’s exactly what I suspected.
“Yeah.” He sighed too, and it reminded me of how much Jasper had grown to care about Riley in the last few months. “She puts a lot of things on the back burner in her personal life to make sure she’s doing well at work.”
“Oh, you mean like a wedding?” I asked sardonically.
“Perhaps.”
Truth be told, I didn’t care when Riley and I got married. We could’ve gotten married five years from then, or the next week. I just didn’t want to watch her keep putting it off because it was another thing weighing her down. I knew she loved me and she wanted to marry me; she just couldn’t take anything else on. I wanted our marriage to be something she enjoyed and remembered fondly, not something she dreaded.
“But to be honest, Cammy, springing this house on her didn’t help any.”
“She could have said no,” I said in defense.
He raised one perfectly coifed eyebrow at me. “Really? Come on, you know she would never say no to you if she knew a yes would make you happy.”
“She also knows she doesn’t have to pander to me.”
“Okay, Mr. Lawyer.” Jasper rolled his eyes dramatically. “She loves you, more than she’s ever loved anything, and if I know Riley, she’s worried, somewhere deep down in there, that you’ll wake up one day and realize you want something different. So when you tell her you want this big extravagant house, something she’d never be able to give you on her own, what did you expect her to say? Did you expect her to argue? To say no? Of course not. You wanted the house, and she wants you to be happy. So she said yes.”
Riled Up (With A Kiss #2) Page 10
