Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Cam, about damn time you surfaced. Where the hell are you?”
“I knew you didn’t want Jo and me together, but this is low, even for you, Bennett.” Cam pulled the trigger on all the anger and resentment building in him over seeing the photos. “A romantic double-date getaway in Dubai, huh?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Walsh put his voice on ice. “I brought Jo on vacation with us so she wouldn’t waste her time wallowing over your sorry ass.”
“Exactly, and while you were at it, you played matchmaker. Peter is exactly the kind of guy you want for her, isn’t he?”
“If you mean someone who cares about her, treats her with respect, and is a decent guy, then, yeah. He’s precisely the kind of guy I’d want for Jo.”
Cam had suspected it, had even thought it himself, but hearing it from Walsh, after all they’d been through, hurt like a hornet sting.
“But.” Walsh allowed the conjunction to dangle over the long-distance connection. “She wants you.”
Cam pulled a sharp breath through his nose and forced it out through his mouth.
“Still? She isn’t into him?”
“Can I be honest without you blowing a freaking gasket?”
Cam remembered the cracked iPad and his enraged exit from the terrace.
“Of course. I’m a reasonable man.”
“No. You’re a lunatic, but I’m hoping we can converse like civilized human beings.”
“Now that I know you didn’t undercut me with Jo, we can.”
“I didn’t undercut you with Jo. She invited Peter.”
Cam absorbed that bit of disturbia, forcing back all the questions that clamored up his throat.
“Honestly, if you weren’t in the picture, I have no doubt they’d get together. They have great chemistry, similar interests. It’s obvious he’s crazy about her.”
“You’re not really helping with that whole not-blowing-a-gasket thing, Bennett.”
“It’s obvious she loves you. She misses you. She wants you, so where the hell are you?”
“You know what happened.” Shame curdled in Cam’s belly every time he remembered holding that gun to Jo’s head. “Don’t pretend you want me anywhere near her.”
“I want you to get help, which it sounds like you’re doing. Dr. Stein helped Kerris a lot. How’s it been?”
“Cool so far.” Cam tucked away as much of the emotion he felt as possible. “We’ve been meeting by Skype. Next time I’m in Rivermont, we’ll have a session face-to-face.”
“And when will you grace the Rivermont city limits?”
“I don’t know. Christmas?”
“That’s over a month away. Will you at least call Jo? Talk to her?”
Cam already knew if he talked to Jo he’d cave. His need for her was desperate. Not just sexually, though if his balls got any bluer they might just fall off, but the need for her company. He loved being alone with her. Sitting in silence with her. Listening to his vinyl records while she knit. Yeah, no calls quite yet.
“I just need to see where I am at Thanksgiving, and I’ll determine then what I need to do.”
“I’m going to be honest with you. Peter hasn’t given up. I know Jo has loved you a long time, but everyone has their limit. You might want to at least call.”
“Walsh, I held a gun to Jo’s head.” The words burned his tongue like hydrochloric acid. “I just…I’m not ready to talk to her. She should hate me. If she comes to her senses, she might.”
The silence over the phone filled up with all the fear and shame Cam had hidden in some catacomb of his head. Walsh had always had a way of cracking him open, without really even trying. Cam both loved and hated that about him.
“Cam, you’re dealing with your past, and it’s about damn time. Do you want a future with Jo?”
Did he deserve one was a better question, but that was probably beside Walsh’s point.
“And speaking of the future,” Walsh plowed on, apparently prepared for and used to Cam’s reticence. “I see the way Jo looks at Harlim and Brooklin. She’s amazing with them. She’s almost thirty. I know she wants kids of her own. Are you going to give her that?”
Jo didn’t just want kids of her own. She wanted his kids. Cam knew it. He wanted that, too.
“I need to go.” Cam pushed back the emotion working its way up his throat like chimney smoke.
“Should I tell Jo we spoke?”
“No, not yet. I’ll reach out to her soon.”
“Don’t wait too long, or she may not be waiting anymore.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Wanna grab lunch?”
Jo looked up from the adoptive parent application, rationing a percentage of her attention for Peter’s question.
“Um…we’ll see.”
“You’re losing weight, Jo. You’re working too hard and skipping meals again.”
It wasn’t work as much as misery that had her dropping pounds everywhere except her ass. Of course, that stubborn appendage wasn’t going anywhere no matter how thin the rest of her got. If ten miles a day didn’t budge her butt, a few skipped lunches certainly wouldn’t.