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 laughing. “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.”
“I want Riley to be happy,” I said defensively, and loudly. Loud enough that the other conversations in the yard stopped and all eyes darted to me—including Riley’s.
Jasper leaned over the arm of his lawn chair and whispered, “I know that, and so does she. But you asked how she was. She’s overwhelmed, Camden. People keep dropping things in her lap instead of trying to unload her burden.”
Before he even finished his statement, Riley was walking toward us, a worried expression on her face.
“Everything okay over here?” she asked, her eyes darting between Jasper and me.
“Everything’s fine,” I replied before Jasper had a chance, opening my arms and giving her the cue to sit on my lap. “We were just discussing work, and it seems Jasper and I both care very much about your happiness.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked sweetly as she took a seat, her legs dangling off the side of my leg. She wrapped an arm around my neck and looked at me like I’d just dropped another weight atop all the others she was already carrying around.
“Nothing, babe. I just don’t want you overworked or overstressed.”
Her hand came up to my cheek and her brow furrowed.
It still baffled me sometimes how strange the notion was to her that someone wanted to take care of her.
“I’m fine, Camden. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“The thing is, babe, you wouldn’t tell me if there was something to worry about.” She opened her mouth to argue but I continued. “And that’s mostly because you push and push and give and give until there’s nothing left.” My hand twined its way into the hair at her nape, pulling her closer. “You give so much of yourself to others, and I’m afraid you don’t have enough of yourself left over for you.”
“Camden,” she whispered, resting her forehead against my own.
“I’m worried about you.” My voice sounded even smaller than hers, and I realized it was because I was afraid that what I was saying was truer than I could even comprehend. Riley would push herself past her own limits and no one would ever know because she was so good at hiding it—even from herself.
“We’re gonna head out,” I heard Hadley say softly from somewhere behind us.
Riley started to sit up fully and make her way off my lap, but Jasper intervened.
“No, Riley, it’s fine. We’ll show ourselves out.”
“Thank you for coming,” Riley said softly. “And Hadley, thank you for everything. It was amazing.”
“Anything for you, best friend for life.” She blew Riley a kiss and then made her way into the house with Jasper following behind.
“I’m going to take Rachel home,” Tripp said as he and Rachel headed toward the house too. I noticed her hand was firmly clasped in his, and I tucked that away in the back of my mind as something to worry about later.
“Wait,” Riley cried. “We hardly got to talk at all.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Where are you staying tonight?”
“Camden said I could crash at his place.”
“Oh,” she said on a sigh, relaxing a little.
“See you later, sis,” Tripp said just before he placed a kiss on her cheek.
“Bye, Rachel. See you next week.”
Rachel gave a shy wave, and it was obvious she felt weird about leaving with Riley’s brother. But not weird enough to find a different way home. I gave Tripp access to my condo, but I suddenly wondered if he’d be staying there alone.
“Come on, let’s go upstairs.”
“What’s upstairs?”
“You’ll see,” I said softly as I brushed a tendril of her dark brown hair behind her ear.
She stood and I followed, her hand in mine as I led her to the house. I took her up the stairs to the master bedroom where the air mattress I’d purchased was fully inflated and covered in fluffy blankets and a mountain of pillows. I couldn’t get our actual bed there in time, but this would do.
“I wanted to spend the night with you in our new house,” I said when her eyes fell upon the setup.
Her mouth parted slightly but no words came out. She looked at the makeshift bed, then back at me. Then back at the bed for a moment. Then back to me.
“I can’t with you.” Luckily, she said the words with a smile, then wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her face into my chest. “Why are you constantly doing things like this? I can’t keep up with you. I never know what to expect.”
“Just expect to be happy,” I said against her head, running my hand down her soft hair.
“How happy?” she asked, pulling back and looking at me with all kinds of seriousness across her face. “On a scale of one to ten, where should I expect my happy-ometer to be?”
“If you’re not at a solid seven for eighty percent of the time, I’m not doing my job.” I pulled her closer, peppering kisses from one side of her jaw to the other. I couldn’t fucking handle it when she tried to be cute.
“And when should I expect to be in the eight-to-ten range?” Her words were breathy and she pressed her breasts into my chest as her hands slid up my shoulders and her arms wound around my neck.
“Whenever I’m inside you,” I growled.
“Can we arrange for me to be at a nine-point-five in about ten minutes?”
“I think I can make that happen.”