Kate

So, as it turns out for the Atwood’s, a progressive dinner was nothing more than a tour around their neighborhood in Kentish Town just outside of the Camden Market area in northeast London. I quickly learned that this was where Cam’s mother and late father had met at a local pub that his mother had worked at and his father frequented when they were younger. They’d had such fond memories of their courtship there that it became the namesake of their middle child, the terror that I now simply called Cam.

The tour consisted of stops at various homes within a one-mile radius or so of Cam and Lizzy’s childhood home with a gaggle of hilariously boisterous Brits that included family friends, aunts and uncles, cousins, and a portly old Scotsman named Angus. Angus had apparently been Cam’s soccer coach—or—excuse me, football coach, when he was a kid, and was now sort of an adopted grandfather to both Lizzy and Cam. I had to admit that I enjoyed the tour immensely. I had gotten to see where the Atwood kids had gone to school; the corner market and the bakery next door with the most beautiful tarts and scones in the window; the local pubs their family and friends had frequented; and all of the quaint, three-story terraced homes that seemed to be far more than just neighbors’ houses, but rather almost, extensions of the Atwoods’ own home on Prince of Wales Road.

The bitter pill of this little tour down memory lane, however, was the food. At each home, we were served a new course of food, each seemingly fouler than the last. I had heard that traditional British cooking could be a bit of an acquired taste, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the pitiful culinary display at each of these homes.

The first stop was the home of Mary and Stuart Abbott, whose eldest daughter, Libby, had been one of Lizzy’s very best friends growing up. Lizzy and Libby—I could only imagine the terrors these two must have been. The Abbott’s served prawn cocktail, which was more of a tiny sketchy shrimp display served with an odd sort of mayonnaise sauce. Gross.

Then we moved on to Angus’s house, who presented the group with “bubbles and squeak,” which was a sort of fried mash of potatoes and leftover dinner veggies including cabbage which may have been alright in another circumstance, but Angus was clearly not a chef and presentation was not exactly his forte. He plunked giant, heavy globs of the stuff on everyone’s plates. Ugh! At Cam’s great aunt Madeline’s house, we were served a somewhat frightening looking blood sausage patty known as black pudding that I tried one bite of and immediately began strategizing the best way to rid myself of discreetly.

Cam and Lizzy were of course now dying of laughter at my reaction to the food at each house. This went on through seven houses, each offering seemingly more questionable fare than the last. There was, however, a healthy supply of wine and beer at each home. By the time we reached the final stop of the night, everyone was “bloody well sloshed,” to use Angus’s words, which seemed to mask the debilitating indigestion that was slowly setting in.

The final stop of the night was at the Atwood home, of course, where it was decided that everyone would visit for the rest of the evening as they enjoyed the actually quite delicious trifle dessert that Mrs. Atwood had made from scratch. As much as I hadn’t wanted to be there in the first place, I was having such a lovely time and was especially loving all of the hugs that Mrs. Atwood gave me over the course of the night, thanking me for delivering Cam back home to them.

I hadn’t grown up like this—with family and friends all around. It had just been me and my crazy mother and whatever loser she was dating at the time. I’d had no idea what I had been missing. You could just feel how much love these people had for one another, and I was nothing if not a little envious of this tiny enclave that the Atwood’s had here.

Cam, of course, was the center of attention, being passed from person to person, who hadn’t seen him in years and wanted to hear all about his adventures in Hollywood. He wasn’t a star here. He was just the boy whom they had known way back when, who had come home to momentarily roost, and everyone was thrilled to be here to witness it.

As I watched Cam laughing with his family and friends, I was approached by Aunt Madeline, whose mobility wasn’t terribly good at this point in her life. She had nearly run into me and seemed to simply be using me as a convenient crutch to hold herself up as she made her way to the dessert table. I smiled at her, totally enamored of this tiny hobbled woman.

“So, are you Camden’s new girlfriend, then?” she said pointedly.

I smiled at her. “No. I’m just a friend.”

“Not for lack of trying, Auntie!” Cam yelled over to us jovially.

“Hang in there, ducky!” Madeline yelled back to Cam with a fist-wave in solidarity. “I like this one!”

Cam smiled over at me as I blushed a bit in embarrassment.

“You make him happy,” she whispered to me. “I haven’t seen him smile like that since Jules.”

Madeline patted my hand and then hobbled off, likely in search of more trifle of which she’d already had two helpings.

Not wanting to interrupt the family reunion any further, I wandered around the Atwood’s cozy living room and admired the framed photos that adorned every spare surface and sliver of wall space. There were pictures of Cam in action at his football games, Lizzy in ballet recitals, photos from family trips and holiday dinners. On the piano, in what felt like a place of pride, there was a large framed photo of a handsome man who I could only assume was Mr. Atwood. He had a kind face but had that sort of gleam in his eye that foretold a wicked sense of humor. I’d had a weird feeling that he and I would have gotten along famously and smiled a bit to myself as I regarded him. I was however a bit caught off guard as Mrs. Atwood came along beside me as I examined the photo.

“That’s my husband, Edward,” she said with a sad smile. “He died when Cam was just sixteen and Lizzy twelve. They barely had any time with him, but he was their whole world when they were kids. It was so unfair that he was taken so soon.”

“How did he pass, if you don’t mind me asking?” I said carefully.

“Cancer. We had a rough go of it after he passed, but Cam really stepped up and took care of us. Taught Lizzy to drive, took me to grief counseling, even helped Ethan get his first job. I think he was determined to fill the void, so to speak.”

“Really?” I laughed, imagining Cam doing everything he could to make others happy and it didn’t seem that far off from the man who seemed happy just watching me smile as he read me a book.

“Cam’s the caregiver in the family. He knew we were all hurting and wanted to be the one to keep us strong. I’m afraid he always puts everyone else’s happiness above his own.”

I smiled at her as I regarded the portrait once again. “He was very handsome,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

“He was. He’s where Cam gets his good looks, I expect,” she laughed.

I moved along the line to another family photo of a man and woman with an adorable baby girl sitting on a picnic blanket outside in a picturesque country field somewhere.

“Who’s this?” I asked.

“That’s…Cam and Lizzy’s older brother, Ethan—and his wife Jules and their daughter, Maggie. Isn’t Maggie just beautiful?”

I froze and stared at Mrs. Atwood for a minute. She looked puzzled by my expression.

“I’m sorry, did you say, Jules?”

“Yes, that’s Ethan wife.”

All I could do was stare at Mrs. Atwood for a moment.

“Cam’s Jules?”

Mrs. Atwood was clearly taken aback by my question.

“He’s told you about all that?”

“Apparently not all of it,” I said, looking back at the seemingly happy family photo.

“I’m surprised he told you any of it. He really never talks about it.”

“So, Ethan is Maggie’s father?”

“Yes,” she said with a joyless smile. “Cam doesn’t really speak to Ethan anymore if he can help it, and rightfully so, but I’m afraid I just couldn’t turn my back on my very first grandchild, no matter how she was brought into this world. She’s been such a joy though. I just wish that her existence and Ethan and Jules’s relationship hadn’t pushed Cam so far away from us. It’s hard for him to be here, I can understand that. When he’s in LA, it’s out of sight, out of mind, I guess,” she said with a sad smile as she regarded the collection of family pictures on her own walls. “Cam never ceases to help where he can, though, and Jules is more than happy to take it,” Mrs. Atwood said with a huff, shaking her head in irritation.

“Are you saying that Cam provides for them?”

A wave of panic washed over Mrs. Atwood’s face. “Oh, please don’t tell him I told you that. It’s not something that he’d ever want advertised. I shouldn’t have…”

“Of course not, Mrs. Atwood. My lips are sealed,” I promised her as relief began to set in. She glanced over at her son, who was now laughing loudly with his cousins across the room.

“You know, Maddy is right. This is the happiest I’ve seen him in a long time. I know he wouldn’t be here if not for you,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Thank you.”

And with that, she headed back over to her son, and I watched as she gave him a huge, sloppy kiss on the cheek, which Cam dutifully pretended to be disgusted by. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him reconnecting with his family, now knowing the whole unfortunate story.

My wine glass was now empty, and I toyed with the idea of a refill as I headed toward the kitchen but nearly bumped into Lizzy in the tight quarters of the house on my way.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Lizzy said with a grin. She was obviously filled to the brim with happiness to be at home with her family, and I couldn’t be anything but happy for her. “Are you having an awful time?” she asked. “You can be honest.”

“I’m actually having a wonderful time. It’s been really fun seeing where you and Cam came from and to meet your loved ones. You are both incredibly lucky. I feel like I know you and Cam a bit better now.”

Lizzy’s expression became more serious now. “Kate, I know that my brother probably came off horribly to you when you first met him, but he really is honestly the very best person I’ve ever known. He’s the glue of this family even if he can’t be here every day.”

“I can see that now,” I said reassuringly.

“Look, I don’t know what the situation is between the two of you, but I can tell he’s absolutely crazy about you.”

I sighed, now feeling a bit uncomfortable. “Lizzy, I…”

“I know this is absolutely none of my business whatsoever, but if you’re holding back with him because of the Camden Atwood you met in LA, you should know that that’s not him. That’s Cam right there,” she said, pointing at her brother who was now unceremoniously licking a glob of whipped cream off of a plate rudely while his cousins laughed hysterically at him.

“Charming,” I said with a laugh.

Lizzy’s brow furrowed at her brother in disgust before returning her attention to me. “You know what I mean,” she said in frustration as she stifled a grin.

“I get it. It’s just—it’s really complicated for me, Lizzy.”

“I know,” she said a bit sadly. “I’m glad you came, though, even if you were tricked into being here.”

“So am I,” I told Lizzy as I hugged her just before I asked her to point me in the direction of the bathroom, now desperately needing a moment to myself to regroup.

Per her instructions, I headed upstairs into a long, narrow hallway of bedrooms, briefly peeking into each along the way. Toward the end of the hall, there was a room with a big bumper sticker that read “Camden” in big block letters across it and another sticker below it that read “Keep Out.” Hmm, wonder whose room this is? I couldn’t help but creep my way in. It was a typical teen boy’s room. Movie and sports posters adorned the walls, and there was a bulletin board over the desk full of Cam’s photos with friends. He had clearly been popular, and the confident look on his face led me to believe that his inherent cockiness was not a recent development. I grinned at his precocious little face.

“Can’t you read, Prescott?” came that same familiar cocky voice as I turned to find Cam standing in the doorway pointing to the “Keep Out” sign.

“When have you ever known me to listen to you, Atwood?”

“Fair point,” Cam acquiesced with a bit of fatigue in his voice as he sat down on the floor, leaning against his bed with his legs bridged as though this was his most frequented spot in the room. I could feel his eyes on me as I continued to snoop around the tiny room that somehow seemed far too small to hold the personality of the Camden Atwood I now knew.

“Kate?”

“Hmm?” I said, now fully distracted by all of the knickknacks and memorabilia around his room.

“Are you still mad at me, love?”

I turned to look at him. He seemed so young at that moment, leaning up against his own childhood bed, staring up at me hopefully. I’ll admit it; I melted a little as I looked down at him. His worried eyes drew me to sit next to him on the floor.

“No,” I said quietly as I rested my hand on his thigh, stroking it gently with my thumb as he gazed at me. In an instant, he picked my hand up in both of his and kissed it, closing his eyes momentarily as he held my hand to his lips. He then brought my hand back down to rest on his lap, not letting it go as he stroked it sweetly with his thumb.

“Do you know why I shoved Matt Castell last night?”

“Testosterone?” I said, trying to keep the mood light.

He smirked. “Besides that,” he said, looking down at his own hand as it clasped mine like some sort of treasure he didn’t want to have taken away from him. It was a look that stilled me as I regarded the seriousness with which he was now regarding me.

“Why?” I said softly.

“Because I hate that you have a karaoke song with him,” he said as he caressed my hand, never letting his eyes move from mine. “And I hate that he knows how many Chili’s baby back ribs you can eat in one sitting. And I hate that he probably knows how you take your coffee,” he said now studying our entwined hands for a moment before pinning me with his gaze. “Kate, I want to be the man who knows all of those seemingly inconsequential things about you–and I want to be the only one who does. Because all of the little things that make you up, make you the most beautiful person in the world to me.”

My heart stopped. I couldn’t believe what he had just said, and I could tell that he meant every lovely word of it. This wasn’t a joke to him. I wasn’t a joke to him.

“Cam…” I said in a bit of a daze.

“Look, before you say anything, I know that I have gone about all of this in the wrong way, but I’m crazy about you, Katie-cat,” he said laughing at his own joke as I gently stroked his sweet face. I watched as he leaned into the contact and closed his eyes for a brief moment, seeming to luxuriate in my touch. When he finally reopened his eyes, he just shook his head as he gazed into my eyes. “You surprise me every single day, Kate. You make me laugh like no one ever has and fuck if you don’t get me hot and bothered every time you walk in a room,” he said with an amused chuckle. “I haven’t felt like this in such a long time, maybe ever. You have to give me a chance to show you that I can be…”

And that was it. I couldn’t hear any more. The days of me denying myself of this beautiful man were over. I took his face in both of my hands and pressed my lips to his, immediately melting into the softness of his lips and instantly becoming aroused by the roughness of his light stubble as it grazed my skin, suddenly making me feel all kinds of dizzy. As we feverishly explored each other’s mouths, I hoped that he could feel even half of what I was feeling for him in that moment. And when I felt his hands grasping greedily at my back, pulling me so close that I could barely breathe, I knew that he could. We kissed for what could have been five minutes or an eternity, savoring each other’s lips, and when I gently sucked on his lower lip, he moaned as though he were experiencing the sweetest torture. And when our lips slowly parted, Cam’s eyes remained closed as a little smile sparked on his lips.

“Mmm, I love when you do that,” he said a bit dreamily.

“Do what?”

“Shut me up with a mind-numbing kiss.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “So, I have done that to you before! I knew it.”

Cam closed his eyes tightly as his face contorted in agony. “Fuck! Did I ruin this again?”

I shook my head as I continued to stroke his cheek with my thumb and cradled his face with one hand. “No. I’ve got you figured out now. You’re an idiot, and I’ll just have to cut you a lot of slack.”

Cam laughed and immediately went in for another kiss, this time starting with short teasing nips before running his fingers gently through my hair and locking our lips in another brain-scrambling kiss. While he continued to massage my lips with his, I quickly flung my knee over his legs, so I could straddle him, giving him better purchase to hold me even closer to him in his lap. He gripped the nape of my neck as he snuck his other hand up the back of my shirt, sending a shiver up my spine at the first brush of skin-to-skin contact. I rocked forward in his lap ever so slightly, just getting a hint of the already rock-hard erection beneath his jeans. I could feel him smile just a little at the sensation as he doubled down on the kiss now grasping my ass as he pressed me more firmly toward his greedy cock. I groaned at the contact, and my pulse began to race. His breathing was becoming hot and heavy as he devoured my neck, and I arched into him, giving him more skin to run his slickened lips over as he unbuttoned the top button of my shirt to get just a little more. The heat between us was just beginning to reach a fever pitch when I could vaguely hear a rustling in the hall outside of the room.

“Cam! Mum wants you to come back down and say goodbye to…”

Reality suddenly set back in as we turned to find Lizzy staring at us from the door frame. Her jaw was agape in utter shock.

“Bloody hell, Lizzy!” Cam spat out in frustration.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” she said, now covering her eyes as Cam and I rather unsuccessfully tried to find a more dignified way to present ourselves while remaining entangled in one another.

“I will just tell Mum you’re in the middle of something,” Lizzy said with a stupid grin.

“Don’t tell her that! We’ll be down in a second,” Cam said in frustration.

“Yes. Yes, of course!” Lizzy said happily before disappearing down the hall.

Cam and I eyed each other for a moment and then just burst out laughing in unison.

“I’m sorry, I just have to say that I think this is bloody brilliant,” Lizzy said, peeking her head back in the room one last time.

“Lizzy! Will you please leave!” Cam yelled, sounding like a teenage boy yelling at his kid sister to stay out of his room.

“Okay. I’m gone.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Lizzy headed off down the hall but soon found myself mesmerized by Cam all over again. I couldn’t believe the way he was looking at me at that moment. It was as though there was nothing else he’d rather be gazing at. Cam and I just stared at each other, silly grins slowly blossoming on our faces.

“I’m so happy, right now,” Cam said, never taking his eyes from me as he slowly ran his hands up and down my thighs gently.

“So am I,” I said as I took his face in both of my hands once more and dropped a soft, slow kiss on his lips, holding my forehead to his when our lips parted. We were silent for a minute.

“So, Claridge’s, then?” he asked.

“As soon as humanly possible,” I said as I climbed off of him and rose to my feet, offering him my hand so he could get up, too, but he didn’t take it.

“I might need a minute,” he said as he glanced down at the pitched tent in his lap.

I tried to stifle a grin. “Why don’t I go start on our goodbyes.”

“Yep. Sounds like a good plan.”