Chapter 29

Xander

It pissed me off when Cami told me I didn’t have to stay with her. Our friendship was more complicated than it had been a week ago, but we were still friends. No matter how much I wanted her, I wasn’t going to try to seduce her while she had a concussion. She couldn’t possibly think I was the kind of asshole who’d take advantage of her situation. Had she only dated assholes, I could blame it on her past, but from what I could tell, most of the guys she’d dated were decent, even if some of them were a little strange.

Was I letting any of my annoyance show? Nope. I was smiling and acting like Mr. Nice Guy as I drove Cami back to her place.

“You’re irritated,” she said as I parked in her space at her condo.

“What makes you think that?” My voice was calm and pleasant.

She let out a huff of irritation. “Come on, Xan. We’re close enough that you don’t need to play this game with me. I know you’re annoyed about something. It’s why you’re trying to keep the conversation going constantly. You always talk this much when you’re nervous or pissy, and you don’t seem nervous.”

With my hands still on the steering wheel, I contemplated refusing to talk about what was going on in my head. It definitely wasn’t the best time for it. Cami needed to get upstairs and sleep. She was exhausted. Hell, I was exhausted. Still, I knew her well enough to realize she wouldn’t let it go.

“Let’s go up to your place first,” I told her.

“Okay,” she agreed.

Once we were inside, Cami set her stuff down and collapsed onto her sofa. “I’m so glad I’m home. Thank you for picking me up.”

“Any time, babe,” was my soft reply.

I took a seat in the armchair close to the sofa.

“Before I crash, please tell me why you’re in a mood,” she prompted.

“I don’t want to talk too much about this now because you need your sleep. When you were arguing about me not needing to stay with you, it irked me. Things got a little awkward, but I thought we were working through that. No matter where things go between us, you are my friend. That’s not going to change. If you need a ride in the middle of the night or need someone to stay with you, you can count on me. I’m not some asshole who’s going to push things when you’re injured.”

“I’m sorry, Xan,” she said quietly. “You’re right about our friendship. I also know you’re not a jerk—not that kind of jerk, anyway.”

“Hey!”

My indignation earned me a weak laugh. “You’re an endearing jerk. You say things that you should probably keep to yourself, but you’re still a good guy. I’m sorry for acting so weird about you staying with me. It honestly wasn’t about you. I’m just terrible at letting people take care of me.”

“You’ll have to get used to it. I always take care of my friends. You look like you’re about to drop, so why don’t you get some sleep?”

She nodded and stood. “You can sleep in my spare room. There’s just a twin in there, but it will still be more comfortable than my sofa.”

“You have a spare bedroom?” I couldn’t figure out how I didn’t know that considering how often I was at her place.

“Yes, I do. My cousin stayed with me for a short time when she was going to college,” she explained. “It didn’t work out, so she decided to go to college elsewhere, but the bed’s still in there. It’s on the other side of the living room, just past my office.”

“Huh.” I looked in that direction. “I always thought that was a closet.”

“You might still feel that way once you see it. It’s not a very big room.”

“That could be why your cousin left,” I remarked. “Maybe she didn’t like being put in the closet.”

Cami grinned. “That might be why I put her there.”

I chuckled and walked over to kiss her forehead. “Sweet dreams, babe. If you need anything, yell.”

“Thanks again, Xan.” On those words, she headed off to her bedroom.

It took me quite some time to doze off once I settled into bed. My mind kept going over Cami’s accident. She might be right about me watching too many detective shows. That could be what made me wonder if someone had intentionally put oil on the stairs so Cami would fall. It was always possible I was looking for some nefarious plot when there wasn’t one. Finally, I decided that I’d talk to Cami more about it in the morning. Her office building had security, so they might even be able to figure out who’d spilled the oil in the stairwell.

As I finally drifted off to sleep on the twin bed, I thought about how glad I was that Cami had called me. She might not see the significance of her actions, but I did. It felt pretty fucking awesome to know I was the one she’d called.