Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Clara raised her left eyebrow. “Like hell you don’t. You can’t stay away from her. You hung on every word she said. I don’t blame you. If I were into women, I’d have claimed her and put a ring on it by now. But under all that tough exterior, she has a lot of past pain and hurt. Cam is what saved her.”
There was that damn name again. A man I had yet to see around, but when people spoke of him, they acted as if he were some fucking hero. Brielle wasn’t that damn perfect. She’d cheated on Cam. Did her fan club know that?
I was letting a hot piece of ass that had some good qualities cloud my judgment. Sure, Brielle was a good friend and thoughtful, but she wasn’t innocent. She did shit like the rest of us. She should think of being as thoughtful to her boyfriend as she was to the rest of the people in her life.
“Maybe someone should worry more about Cam getting hurt,” I said before I could stop myself.
Clara frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
This wasn’t my business. Brielle hadn’t done anything to me. I didn’t need to butt in on her personal shit. Just because I kept getting a hard-on for her didn’t mean I could get nasty and share her dirty laundry.
I just shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Oh no. You don’t get to talk about Cam and not explain,” she said, her tone slightly angry.
What was wrong with her? Damn women were fucking confusing.
“I don’t know what kind of relationship she has with Cam. I can’t say because I’ve never even seen the man with her. This isn’t my business.”
Clara stood there in silence for several moments, and I turned to leave, not wanting to get hammered with more questioning. Thankfully, she let me go without any more annoyance. Mrs. Jo was hugging Damar, then Jim, thanking them for their present as they stood at the open door to her apartment.
Brielle was gone. I was ready to leave too.
The silence in my apartment seemed like a welcome friend now. I needed it to think and process. To get my head back on straight where Brielle was concerned.
ten
brielle
“Your ass had better be awake,” Clara’s voice called out, and then I heard the front door close.
I stepped out of the bathtub and wrapped a towel around myself.
“Seriously! I have to tell you something, and you want to hear it!” she said, her voice coming closer.
I walked into my bedroom just as Clara entered through the hallway entrance.
“Good. You’re awake,” she said, looking relieved. “I was probably going to wake you up if you weren’t.”
I hadn’t expected her back here tonight. After leaving her with Dean to wash dishes, I figured they’d end up together. Maybe they had, and she was coming to give me details. Although I hadn’t been gone that long, so it couldn’t be a lot of details. Either way, I didn’t want to hear about it. There were some things we wouldn’t share. Dean Finlay sex details were one of them.
“You didn’t leave with Dean?” I asked, trying to sound as if I didn’t care. Because I shouldn’t care. It was dangerous to care.
She plopped down on the edge of my bed. “No, I didn’t leave with Dean. You’re the only female that man wanted to leave with. Jesus, Brielle, did you not see the way he was watching you? Like, he watched your every move. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”
I didn’t want to believe that because doing so would mess with my head.
“He’s old,” was my reply. It was a stupid response and something I didn’t care about. Age was just a number—or at least, that was what someone had told me once.
“Shut up. He’s Dean fucking Finlay. He will be hot when he’s seventy. Besides, fifty-three is not old. It’s just seasoned,” Clara replied.
I shrugged because I didn’t have the energy to argue against something I agreed with.
“He thinks Cam is your boyfriend, or you’re in some relationship with him,” she said, grinning brightly, as if this were the best news ever.
“I know,” I replied.
Her smile fell. “You do?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yep. He walked in on me talking to Cam on the phone. He assumed I was talking to some guy I was dating. Cam hadn’t called me during his drive to camp. I had told him to check in every two hours. I was panicking. Dean made a snide comment about my being controlling or something. It annoyed me. I disliked him on sight.”
Clara was staring at me like I was crazy. “Okay, wait. First off, you’ve known about Dean Finlay living in this building since the day Cam went to camp, and you didn’t tell me? And why didn’t you tell him who Cam was?”