“Nobody’s asking you to do that,” he whispered. “Honestly, Cam, I don’t even want to pressure you about it right now. I told your grandpa that I would relay his message, and I have, and now I just want to enjoy reliving your shining moment, okay?” Leaning back, I looked up into those brown eyes and sighed.
“On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Make me forget it.”
“What?” He laughed and gave me a puzzled expression as I grabbed ahold of both of his arms right above the elbows.
“Use your imagination, Casanova,” I demanded, earning a fantastic smile.
“My imagination, huh?” he asked, closing his eyes. “Alright, you’ve got that red dress on…”
“Always with that red dress,” I sighed, pulling his head down for a kiss. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground, holding me tightly against him.
“Charlotte is going nuts!” I heard Rachel yell. “Stop making out and get in here already!”
“Kids are always popping up at inopportune times,” Cole laughed, rolling his eyes.
Oh, you have no idea how true that might be.
Stepping alongside him, we walked hand in hand to the front porch, where Charlotte couldn’t contain her enthusiasm anymore and burst forth from the house, wrapping her arms excitedly around one of each of our legs simultaneously. Cole hefted her into the air, throwing her above his head for a split second, and she squealed with delight. When he settled her back on the ground, I knelt in front of her, rubbing her thick brown braid between my fingers.
“Hi, Aunt Cammie,” she said breathlessly. “I saw you on TV today. You throwed up in a flower bush.”
“Really?” I laughed. “Are you sure it was me?”
“Oh, yes, it was you that throwed up, I know it.” Taking her hand, I let her pull me into the house, where there was scattered applause when I walked through the door.
“Tell me you got my autographs,” Rachel teased, winking at me almost immediately. Shirking out of my blazer, I turned my back to her and pointed to my t-shirt.
“How will this work?” I wondered. “I went all redneck and had them sign my shirt.”
“Nah, you’re not fully redneck until you have them sign your belly,” Jeff told me with a smirk. Shaking my head at him, I felt Rachel grab ahold of the bottom of the fabric, inspecting those names.
“Where’s Trent?” she wanted to know. “You didn’t get Trent’s autograph?” She let her hand slide away, and I turned to face her again.
“You know, after you vomit in front of someone, it’s a little difficult to recover from that enough to ask them for favors.”
“What’s Tilly like?” Sara wanted to know. “Is she down to earth and nice like she seems on TV?”
“I don’t know, she didn’t seem to want to talk to me very much off camera.”
“You were great on Tilly, Camdyn,” Liz added, smiling at me. “We were really proud of you.”
“Thanks,” I breathed, trying to take in all their excitement.
“Did you meet the guitarist on the Jamie Price show?” Tony wanted to know. “That guy is so incredible.”
“Yeah, I met him briefly,” I admitted.
“Alright, just leave her alone for a minute and let her breathe,” Rosalie insisted, motioning to where she had dinner waiting. The kitchen table had been pulled into the dining room and butted up to the bigger table in order to accommodate everyone, and I started to walk over, preparing to find myself a seat. As though on cue, Rita chose that moment to emerge from the back of the house, only walking to the kitchen, but I locked eyes with her for a split second. She looked down guiltily, and I turned quickly back to my real family – the ones who had been there for me all along. They were the ones who deserved my attention for loving me the way a family should. Still, something inside made me glance over at her one more time, seeing the way her back bent slightly as she poured herself a glass of tea.
The truth was, we kind of were breathing the same air at that moment, and we were in the same room, and I didn’t want to scream at her or throw her out the door. Maybe I was seeing her through Grandma Isabel’s eyes – seeing Darlene – but in that instant I didn’t even want to be angry with her. I didn’t want to talk to her, and I didn’t want to sit by her or hear her side of the story. No, I simply wanted not to care, but it was something.
Rosalie caught the direction of my eyes and stepped up beside me, taking me by the arm.
“Is everything okay?” she wanted to know. Nodding, I gave her a sad smile.
“Um, maybe she…” I began, but my heart constricted a bit and I had to force a deep breath in my lungs. “Do you think she already ate?”
“This is your big night, honey,” she whispered, hugging me close to her side.
“I know,” I acknowledged, “but I can’t imagine doing anything bigger.”
“Bless you, sweetheart,” Rosalie told me, kissing me on the cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing. Just sit yourself down and have a good time.”
Settling into my chair, I watched as Rosalie stepped across the house and walked up to Rita, pointing to the table. For one more moment, Rita and I had locked our eyes again, but then she was nodding at Rosalie and moving toward us. Rosalie sat her at the opposite end of the table from me, near Lily and Jake. Rather than feeling annoyed by her presence, I found myself feeling pensive and quiet. Turning to Cole, I tried to shake it off. Regarding me with sympathetic eyes, he leaned in to kiss me and held my chin in his hand for a moment.
“I’m phenomenally proud of you,” he whispered, turning away just quickly enough that he didn’t see my eyes fill with tears.
“Okay, okay, since everyone’s here finally, there’s something I need to say,” Rachel announced, suddenly assuming a very proper manner. Standing in front of her chair, she tapped her glass with her spoon ceremoniously, trying to obtain everyone’s attention. When both tables were quiet, she stood there with a rather silly smile on her face.
“Well?” Ted popped off.
“We’re going to have a baby!” she exclaimed with a laugh. Liz shouted, and a couple of the others clapped, while everyone began chattering and expressing their congratulations. Instinctively, I placed my hand over my abdomen.
“Actually,” Sara stated, standing up on the opposite side of Rachel, “it’s really funny that you said that, Rachel, because I’m pregnant too!” Tears filled her eyes, and she laughed excitedly. More congratulations went around the table, and I smiled tremulously.
So, everyone got pregnant on my honeymoon.
“What about you, Camdyn?” Ted wanted to know, looking at me mischievously.
“I’m…” I hesitated, looking at Rachel and Sara’s beaming faces. “I'm so happy for you all, honestly. This feels like a monumental day, doesn’t it?”
“Monumental,” Cole agreed solemnly, taking my hand.
-§-
Several hours later, I found myself seated on the couch with Charlotte dozing on me, waiting to watch myself on television. Dinner had gone fine, with only the occasional glance at Rita. She barely said a word, and she certainly didn’t attempt to talk to me. Truth be told, I hadn’t said much myself. Maybe I was tired, or perhaps all the talk about pregnancy had caused me to be meditative, but I just wanted to sleep for hours in my own bed and wake up with a fresh day and no responsibilities. One more little television viewing experience, and I would obtain my wish.
The instant the music started for Jamie’s show, there was a mad rush to find seats in front of the TV. Since I was holding Charlotte, no one bothered me, but Cole lowered himself beneath me in front of the sofa, while Rachel pressed in next to me.
“It’s Almost Midnight with Jamie Price,” the announcer said as some nighttime scenes of New York flashed across the screen. “Tonight’s guests: the New York Mets All-Stars, Camdyn Taylor, and musical guest Michael Bublé.”
“Oh my word, Bublé?” Rachel squealed.
“Yes, I nea
rly lost my wife today,” Cole muttered under his breath, earning laughter from his dad.
“Hello, hello,” Jamie Price said to the camera as he walked out from behind a curtain wearing a black suit and tie, the gray at his temples mysteriously gone. “How are you all doing this evening?” The crowd reacted, and he nodded slowly. “Of course you all are doing great, because that weather out there is marvelous. If you can get past the stench of the city, it’s almost perfect, am I right? I’ve got to tell you, I think we have a fantastic show for you tonight. The Mets All-Stars are going to talk to us about a charity they’re promoting, and then of course we have Michael Bublé, who is simply fantastic. I tell you, though, I am pretty intrigued about this Camdyn Taylor. I didn’t know who she was until today. Turner, did you know who she was?” The camera panned to the director of the band, and he shook his head.
“No, not a clue,” he answered.
“Well, apparently there’s this famous author named C.W. Oliver that has all these bestselling books, which of course I know nothing about because I can’t read,” he joked, earning a few laughs. “Anyway, just yesterday was the public outing, so to speak, of the person behind that name, and it’s this lady named Camdyn Taylor. So, she’s on this morning with Trent Bauer – how many of you saw this?”
There were a few slight laughs, but not many had apparently witnessed my embarrassment.
“Get this, Turner,” Jamie continued. “She’s on with Trent, they’re having a conversation, and suddenly…” He begins to roll the video behind him, and I looked over at Rachel and cringed. “She retched right there on Trent’s set. Is this amazing or what? I had to meet this girl. It takes a lot of nerve to puke on national television.”
“You got that right,” Turner replied.
“Poor Camdyn,” Liz muttered, giving me a sympathetic look.
We watched the Mets talk about their charity without really listening, since Cole and I had already seen their talk live, in addition to having the pleasure of meeting the players in person after the show. When Charlotte lolled her head over, I adjusted her on my lap and took the opportunity to peek behind me where Rita was sitting at the table. It didn’t escape my notice that Rosalie was near her and they were sharing a little small talk. I was wondering whether Rosalie had tamed Rita a bit, or whether Rita had simply managed to convince her to let her guard down when Jamie returned to the screen, and Rachel clapped excitedly beside me.
“Our next guest is a bestselling author named C.W. Oliver, and up until yesterday, no one knew the person behind that name,” Jamie began. “Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Camdyn Taylor.” There was applause, and then suddenly there I was walking out to meet Jamie, wearing that red dress that Cole apparently couldn’t stop thinking about.
“Whoa, heartbreaker, you look like you were born to be on TV!” Jake joked behind me.
“Well, blame that dress on Cole,” I slung back at him. “He is the one that had to buy it. It was calling his name.” Rachel giggled a bit beside me, but then she shushed me quickly. I watched as Jamie did that same fake kiss thing that Tilly had done the day before, and then I saw myself sit in the brown chair next to his desk.
“Are you good?” he asked. “Any nausea, headaches, medical problems of any kind?”
“No, Jamie, I think I’m fine,” I stated with a laugh, shaking my head.
“She thinks she’s fine,” he informed the audience. “Well, I will be the first to tell you, you are fine. That’s a conversation for a different day, though. You write books, are you sure? I’m thinking maybe this is a ruse. Maybe this C.W. Oliver dude is a hunchback who lives in a cave, so they figured they would send you out as the spokesperson. Is that it?”
“No, I do write the books, scout’s honor.”
“But you’re not a scout.”
“No, I was just using it as a metaphor.”
“I’m not sure you’re allowed to do that,” he complained. “Is she allowed to do that?”
“I’m sorry, should I use a different phrase?” I wondered with a smile. “I write the books, personally guaranteed. Cross my heart. No doubt about it.”
“Okay, okay, I believe you,” he stated, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Not really, but I’ll say I do so we can continue our conversation. People read your books?”
“Um, yes…” I said, laughing a bit and pushing my hair behind my ear.
“Lots of people, it sounds like. Two of them are going to be made into movies, isn’t that right?”
“That’s the rumor I hear…” I stated with a smirk.
“I heard that rumor, too. If you hear a rumor from two places, that makes it true. I’m pretty sure that’s the rule. So you’re going to star in these movies, I hope – I’d go to see them if you did.”
“Absolutely not!” I chuckled. “The first one is about a Native American woman, and the second one is about Martha Washington. I’m pretty sure I don’t fit either one of those two roles.”
“I’m disappointed now, truly I am,” he stated, crossing his arms against his chest. “What was with this C.W. Oliver thing? You assume when someone has a pen name they want to hide for some reason.”
“Yes, I wanted to hide,” I stated with a laugh, and for some reason the camera panned very close to my face. “There’s something very intimidating about being in the public eye, and I didn’t want that kind of scrutiny. The thing about me is, I have a tendency to make a mess of things sometimes.”
“Barf kinds of messes?” he wanted to know, and I smiled again, that camera remaining very close to me.
“No,” I began, then looked up with a sigh. “Actually, yes, people who know me would tell you that I make physical messes all the time. Not throwing up – that was new – but tripping, spilling things… More than that, though, I wanted a pen name because sometimes I have a tendency to make a mess of things emotionally, as well.”
“Okay, now you’re getting too deep,” he informed me. “I just want to keep things light, because I think you’re super-cute. Plus, you can’t have had a great day, right? What went through your mind this morning, you know, when you upchucked in front of Trent?”
“Well, I think that was a banner moment for me, don’t you?” I asked, pretending to be serious. “It’s the kind of moment you spend your life dreaming about.”
“She has some strange dreams, this one,” Jamie told the audience. “Seriously, though, that had to be mortifying.”
“Trust me, I wasn’t feeling too hot about myself after that.”
“But you’ve had these mega-embarrassing moments before,” he suggested, and I watched myself cross my legs and lean against the arm of the chair.
“Sure, who hasn’t?”
“You seem to have a number of them, though,” he said with a grimace. “We dug up this little gem…that’s you, isn’t it?” The screen switched to a shot of a baseball stadium, and instinctively I flashed back to the slight instant of panic I felt when Jamie started to show that video. I had suspected when they printed my name as Camdyn Taylor that I would eventually have to deal with this information, but not on my first big day of press.
“Yep, that’s me,” I stated cheerfully. “There I am sitting peacefully watching the World Series, minding my own business. Oh, and here he comes up the steps there. In case you’re wondering, that guy was not my boyfriend. He had a serious case of misguided devotion. Yep, look at that! Down on one knee. Wait for it… I’m mortified, can you tell? See me shaking my head there, backing away? That’s kind of my trademark move. Now I’m running up the steps.”
“So this dude proposes to you during the World Series, and you destroyed his hope,” Jamie concluded. “You’re a heartless little thing, aren’t you?”
“I spent the last three innings of that World Series game standing outside the stadium waiting for someone to come pick me up,” I argued. “I’m pretty sure he destroyed my hope.” The audience began to laugh, and I smiled in that brown chair as I glanced out at them.
“I feel sorry for that poor guy,” Jamie stated, “I really do. So, what about this other dude?” The next proposal video began, and I saw the choir singing and my blonde curls poking around the doorway of that music room.
“Oh, this guy wasn’t my boyfriend, either,” I laughed. “Isn’t that nuts? I came to the school to tell him I was leaving town, actually, and he’s got this whole elaborate thing set up. As you can see, I kind of enjoyed it at first, until I realized what was actually happening. Right here – that’s the moment that I saw him. There, see it? Backing away again. And, running.”
“I find you absolutely fascinating,” Jamie stated, placing his chin on his hand and staring at me.
“So did they,” I joked, causing the audience to laugh again.
“How many times have you been proposed to?” Jamie wanted to know.
“Too many to admit,” I told him.
“More than twice,” he surmised.
“Yes,” I admitted. “The last time I was proposed to was by my cousin’s cousin in a cemetery.”
“This just keeps getting better and better,” Jamie exclaimed, setting his open palm on the desk. “Let me guess – backing away, running…”
“Actually, that time I pounced on him and drug him to the altar,” I stated with a smile. “He’s right there, totally embarrassed.” The camera panned to Cole, and suddenly there he was on the screen, giving that smile and shaking his head. Jeff and Jake were laughing behind me, and I tried not to chuckle myself.
“What’s this poor guy’s name?” Jamie wondered.
“Cole.”
“Cole, brother, I feel your pain,” he stated with a nod of his head. “You fell madly in love with her, didn’t you buddy? I’ve only been with her five minutes, and I’m already in love with her.” To his credit, Cole smiled and shook it off. “So, do you have any other talents, besides bewitching men? Do you sing and dance?”
“I can do a moderately good Gwen Stefani impersonation,” I suggested, earning giggles from the audience.
“Can you?” he sounded surprised. “She was here just a couple weeks ago, and she happens to be a huge fan of yours.”
A Reason to Forget (The Camdyn Series Book 3) Page 30
