When We Left

by Elena Aitken

  “I’m on my way.”

  It was only once he was driving down the highway that Evan realized he no longer knew what kind of woman Cam was.

  Cam flipped through her tiny closet one more time, this time pulling out her favorite black skirt. “It’s not like I’ll be wearing it anywhere else.” With a sigh, she tossed it on the bed behind her and once again faced her closet.

  When she’d left Portland, she’d only packed a few bags and there wasn’t much in the closet that would be appropriate for her new job at the End of the Road. Not that she’d have anything appropriate if she’d brought her entire old wardrobe, anyway.

  Her old clothes were more dinner party and fancy fundraiser appropriate. Not exactly what she would think of when looking for waitress attire at a bar.

  A sleazy bar. She shuddered a little as she remembered the girl on the stage taking off her top for an audience of two. Two very indifferent men. Cam forced herself not to think about how sad it all was. Besides, she wouldn’t be taking her clothes off. She was serving drinks. And even that was temporary until she could find something she was more qualified for.

  She ignored the fact that she wasn’t actually qualified for anything.

  The last time she’d had a job was…well, long before Morgan was born. And that had only been answering phones at a car dealership part time in her freshman year at college. And even that only lasted a few months before she got pregnant.

  No, Cam had traded in any dreams of her own a long time ago in exchange for the coveted position of Ryan Spears’s wife. Maybe it wasn’t coveted but at any rate, there was at least one other woman who’d wanted the job.

  As far as Cam was concerned, Chastity Newberry could have it.

  She selected a sleeveless silk blouse from the closet and then abandoned it in exchange for a simple black t-shirt. Oh yes, Cam had come a long way all right, but not at all in the direction she thought she’d be going.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Cam moved to the mirror and pulled her hair up into a high ponytail before letting it fall down around her shoulders again. “I’m going somewhere now. Even if it is just to the End of the Road.”

  Cam laughed at her own terrible joke. It was better than wasting time feeling sorry for herself. And that would be way too easy to do. In her dusty little apartment, with less than two hundred dollars in her bank account, having just secured a job as a waitress, there probably wouldn’t be too many people who would blame her at all if she bought a few extra tickets for the pity party merry go round.

  But the truth was, despite the fact that her situation was far from ideal, she didn’t feel sorry for herself. Not at all. Quite the opposite, really. Sure, there were going to be challenges—her daughter being her biggest one—and certainly it didn’t sound like it would be easy to navigate a divorce, and make ends meet. But for the first time her adult life, that’s exactly what Cam was going to do. And she was going to do it on her own.

  She was long overdue for an opportunity to stand on her own two feet, and really, she probably should send Chastity a thank-you note for having an affair with Ryan and getting pregnant. There was no coming back from that. Not as far as Cam and her marriage were concerned. Maybe if she’d been a stronger woman, she would have been able to leave their loveless marriage a long time ago. But she wasn’t. At least not then. And maybe not even now, but at least she was a whole hell of a lot closer to being the person she needed to be.

  And her job at the End of the Road was going to go a long way to feed that independence. No matter what Evan thought about it.

  She’d done her best not to think about Evan, or his overprotective display in Daisy’s earlier that day. And she was definitely not going to read too much into it either. He was just being a good friend. Nothing more. Because there wasn’t anything between them. That door had shut a long time ago.

  Or had it?

  Even if it had been left slightly ajar, it was nowhere near the right time to even think about exploring what might be between them again.

  Or still.

  Not at all. Cam shook her head and left the bathroom mirror to lay out the supplies she’d gathered for the celebratory dinner they were going to have. After all, if the first day at a new school along with a brand-new job in a new town didn’t call for a celebration, she didn’t know what did.

  She took a few minutes laying out the dishes, some pretty napkins she’d found at the grocery store, along with the rotisserie chicken and some pre-mixed Caesar salad, and glanced at the clock over the stove again.

  It was already after five. Morgan should have been home by now.

  Home.

  She looked around the small one-bedroom apartment and shrugged. For lack of a better word, or a better place, that’s exactly what it was. It definitely wasn’t much, but Cam had meant it when she’d told Morgan they could spend a little bit of money to fix it up. She was sure Junky wouldn’t mind if she put a coat of paint on the walls and maybe Christy would have some extra throw pillows for the sofa bed where Cam was sleeping. Or maybe she could find a lamp or area rug or something at a yard sale. Something with a little color

  That’s really all the place needed. A little color.

  She was fully aware that she was looking at everything through rose-colored glasses, but they were the only pair she had, so she would wear them as long as she could. Or until things actually started looking brighter on their own.

  It was almost five thirty when Cam started to consider going out to look for Morgan. She wasn’t answering her cell phone. It was probably dead.

  Maybe she’d forgotten her way back to the apartment.

  That was unlikely too. It wasn’t that big of a town.

  Maybe she’d made a friend and was hanging out. It was wishful thinking, but stranger things had happened.

  She didn’t need to speculate any further, because only moments later there was a knock on the door.

  “It’s open, Morgan.”

  Another knock.

  “It’s open,” she called again, but was also on her feet, crossing the room to open the door for herself. “It’s not like Portland,” Cam started to say as she opened the door. “We don’t lock our doors in—”

  The rest of the sentence died on her lips when she saw Morgan and…

  “Evan?”

  Her eyes went first from her old boyfriend, who looked remarkably more serious than he had earlier that day, to her daughter, who stood with her hip cocked and her chin held defiantly.

  A bad feeling crept down her spine, like a spider through sap.

  “What’s going on?” She tried to force some cheer in her voice despite the fact that her heart was sinking fast. “Did you get lost, Morgan?”

  “Not unless she was lost in the aisles of Dale Gordon’s store with five bottles of nail polish in her pocket.”

  “Dale Gordon?” Cam looked from her daughter to Evan. “Timber Trade?”

  “That’s the one.” Evan nodded.

  “Morgan, you didn’t?” Cam shook her head, but she knew it was true the way that parents always knew the bad stuff even if they didn’t want to believe it. “Morgan.”

  Her daughter shrugged. “I was going to pay.”

  “After you went outside?”

  Morgan pulled away from Evan. “I told you I forgot.”

  “Which is it?” Evan’s voice was authoritative and strong, and unlike anything Cam had heard from him before. If it hadn’t been her daughter who was the subject of his authority, Cam may have been impressed. “You’ll have to get your story straight, Morgan.”

  “Whatever.” She shrugged down into her jacket and tried to look tough, but Cam could see she looked scared. The protective mama bear in her wanted to pull her daughter close and tell her everything would be okay. But the other part of her, the mother who was exasperated and at the end of her rope with her daughter, wanted to yell and lecture. Or at the very least get some kind of reaction out of her.

  She chose to turn her attent
ion to Evan instead. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “What happens now?”

  No doubt they’d have to go down to the police station and Morgan would be charged with something. It would be a misdemeanor certainly, but still…maybe it would be enough to—

  “Nothing.” Evan interrupted her thoughts. “I’ll let her go with a warning this time.”

  There was no way she’d heard that right. “A warning?”

  Evan nodded, the strong authority figure gone, replaced by the warm, approachable guy she’d known and loved. Liked. Known and liked. Cam shook her head and focused on the situation.

  “Surely she’ll have to make amends or do some community service at the very least.”

  Evan raised his brow and glanced at Morgan, who was doing her best to ignore the adults right in front of her. “Maybe it’s best we talked about this alone, Cam.”

  She nodded. “Morgan? Could you go put your school bag away in your room?”

  With a grunt, Morgan did as she was told, which in of itself was a miracle. The fact that she didn’t have a school bag with her didn’t seem to matter to anyone. As soon as she was out of earshot, Evan focused on her.

  “Come on,” he said. “It’s the end of my shift soon and I’m going to go down to the Log and Jam. Remember Ben Ross? He’s the—”

  “You want me to go to the pub?” How could he possibly think she would just forget the fact that her daughter had been caught breaking the law and go to the pub with him?

  “I’m trying to do you a favor here, Cam. Don’t fight it.”

  “A favor?” She shook her head. “Why?”

  She’d expected him to say it was because of their past history, the fact that they’d known each other better than anyone once upon a time. And she was ready for it. She didn’t need his pity.

  “Because it’s her first day at a new school in a new town and she’s clearly been through a lot. It’s okay to cut kids a little slack sometimes. After all, I—”

  “Are you a parent?” The words came out much harsher than she’d intended and maybe if she’d had a moment to think it over, she wouldn’t have reacted the way she did. Or maybe if it was anyone else but Evan Anderson in front of her telling her what was and was not okay to do when it came to raising kids, she might have caught herself before exploding.

  But she didn’t.

  “No,” he answered in a measured voice. “I’m not.”

  “Then I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what I should and should not do with her. And as I told you the other day, I think it’s important for Morgan to learn the consequences of her actions.”

  “Her actions?”

  “She stole, Evan.”

  “I’m aware of that. I took the call.”

  “She shouldn’t be able to get away with that. She’ll only do it again.” Cam didn’t know whether that was true or not but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. And once she got going, she was convinced that a punishment of some kind really would be the best thing. “I need to teach her a lesson, Evan. She needs to understand that—”

  “Okay.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay. I give. I’ll take her to the station. Will that make you happy?”

  Cam nodded.

  “Okay.” He sighed, but Cam didn’t miss the little smile on his lips as he shook his head. “Go get her. I’ll call Judge Stewart and see what he wants to do with her.”

  It was the mention of the judge that gave Cam pause. But only for a minute. Being a parent wasn’t easy, but what she did know was that she needed to nip this behavior issue in the bud before it got too far out of control. And she’d take whatever help she could get in that department. She was only less than a month into her life as a single mom, but already it was harder than she’d ever imagined.

  Evan shouldn’t have been surprised that Cam would be the type of parent to insist that her daughter get taken in after a minor offense. Secretly, he was proud of her. Not that he knew anything at all about parenting, but it was a good decision. At least in his opinion.

  In his line of work, he’d had the opportunity to see it all and he could tell from experience that the kids with strong parental support at home were far less likely to have a return visit in the back of his patrol car.

  Hell, maybe if he’d had someone at home who cared enough to check on him, and make sure he was at home doing his homework instead of running all over town causing trouble, things would have turned out differently for him.

  “Now, I don’t want you to worry, Morgan,” he said as he opened the back door of the cruiser for the girl. Underneath the eyeliner and brooding stare, Evan was struck at how much Morgan looked like her mom at that age.

  Did she look at all like her father?

  Ben’s words flashed through his head again, taking him off guard. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about Cam over the years. He had. A lot.

  But this line of thinking was dangerous. He needed to stop it before it got out of hand. Particularly considering he had a job to do.

  “I’m not worried.” She slid out of the car and moved past him a few steps.

  She had a lot of attitude, but Evan wasn’t new on the job. He knew a worried kid when he saw one. And whether she admitted it or not, Morgan was worried. He took her arm gently and led her into the office.

  “Judge Stewart is a very reasonable guy. He’s tough. But he’s fair.”

  “I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for my mom.”

  “No.” He stopped walking abruptly. Morgan jerked to a stop. “I’m going to stop you right there. You wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you and your poor decision to take the nail polish. Don’t forget that little detail.”

  Chastised, she looked at her feet. Evan resumed walking down the hall until they reached a bank of chairs. A moment after Morgan took a seat, Cam walked through the front doors of the small office, followed moments later by Judge Stewart.

  “Anderson, you do realize it’s dinner time.” The judge, an older man in his mid-sixties, nearing retirement, who resembled Santa Claus more and more every year, filled the room with his presence. “And Monday nights are pot roast. Have you ever had Mrs. Stewart’s pot roast?”

  “No, sir.” He hadn’t been thrilled about calling the judge at home. But he was even less thrilled about dragging out this little situation with Cam and her daughter for another day. “I have not had the pleasure.”

  “We’ll have to have you over someday.” The judge clapped his hands once and turned, acknowledging Cam and Morgan for the first time. “Now, what do we have here?”

  He addressed the question to Morgan, but it was Evan who answered.

  “This is Morgan and her mother, Cam Riley. Dale Gordon caught Morgan with a few bottles of nail polish in her pockets earlier this afternoon.”

  “Cam.” The judge’s smile was warm. “I remember you as a girl. It’s nice to see you again.”

  Cam smiled nervously before the judge turned his attention to Morgan. He nodded solemnly and considered the girl, who, to her credit, looked suitably chastised. Maybe Cam had been right; if Evan had let her off with only a warning, the lesson wouldn’t have sunk in. The angsty teenager had a much different attitude standing in the station than she had in the apartment.

  “Is this the first offense?”

  This time he addressed the question to Evan and turned to wait for Morgan to answer.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Next to her, Cam nodded and worried her bottom lip.

  “I see.”

  He nodded again and fell silent for a few long moments.

  Evan was used to the judge’s quiet consideration, but Morgan, obviously worried, began to fidget and shift from foot to foot.

  Finally, after what must have been an eternity for the girl, the judge spoke to Evan. “Officer Anderson, what are your thoughts? Is Dale pressing charges?”

  “He is not.” The old shopkeeper had plenty of experience with teenagers and their sticky fingers o
ver the years. It was a rare occasion when he was fed up enough to press charges.

  “I see.”

  The judge gave Evan a questioning look.

  “If I may, Judge?”

  Judge Stewart nodded.

  “Morgan is new to town, and I feel that this may have just been a bad judgment call on her behalf.” Next to him, Cam made a noise of disapproval. “That being said,” he continued and cast Cam a look. “I think it’s important for Miss…” He realized a moment too late that he didn’t actually know what the girl’s last name was and hoped he hadn’t offended either Cam or Morgan. “For Morgan to understand that we don’t tolerate that kind of behavior in Timber Creek.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  He wasn’t suggesting anything. In fact, after watching Morgan’s reaction since setting foot into the station, he felt confident he’d made his point. But he also had a feeling that he’d hear about it from Cam if he didn’t say anything, and for some reason the idea of upsetting her or disappointing her was completely intolerable to him. He took a breath. “Perhaps some community service wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

  Judge Stewart clapped his hands. “I like it.”

  Evan nodded. He heard Cam sigh. And Morgan groan.

  “Do you understand the severity of stealing, young lady?” Morgan nodded and twisted her hands together. “Not only is it illegal, it is immoral and does not speak well to one’s character. Do you understand how important character is?” She nodded again. “I understand you are new to town, and for that, I’m willing to be lenient. However, that fact also makes it extra important that you make a good first impression. It is very hard to change people’s opinions of you once you’ve demonstrated you are of poor moral character. Do you understand all of that?”

  “I do, sir.” Her voice wavered, but just a little as if she were holding back tears.

  “Good.” The judge smiled kindly. “In my years, I have also learned that actions go a long way in demonstrating character. Much further than words. Have you ever heard the phrase, actions speak louder than words?”