by Elena Aitken
“You could definitely say that. In fact, you really surprise me, Evan.”
“I do, do I? And what is it that surprises you? Is it the fact that I grew into my rugged good looks? Or maybe that I’m still living in this little town that I swore one day I was going to leave. Or is that—”
“All of that,” Cam said quite seriously. “And so much more.”
“I’m so glad you could stay.” Morgan’s new friend Jess threw her book bag on her bed and proceeded to flop down next to it. “But whatever you do, don’t tell my mom you’re doing community service. She would die.”
Jess certainly didn’t have to worry about that. The last thing Morgan wanted anyone to know was that she picked up trash for two hours a few times a week. After all, it was hard enough to be the new girl in town. She didn’t need to be the new girl who was in trouble. Taking the nail polish seemed like a good idea at the time. Especially if it would piss her mom off. No doubt her therapist back in Portland would say something about not all attention being equal and she should try to get positive attention instead of negative or blah blah blah. Whatever. Who would’ve thought that the cop in such a backward small town would be the ex-boyfriend of her mom’s? Not that she was complaining, Evan was pretty cool. She actually enjoyed talking to him during their community service hours.
“I’m actually kinda surprised my mom agreed,” Morgan said. “She’s been so crazy about me being home for dinner, making sure that I’m staying out of trouble and everything. She’s probably just happy that I have a friend.”
Jess laughed and rolled over to look at the ceiling. “You don’t have just any ordinary friend,” she said. “You are friends with the key to the most exciting social scene Timber Creek has to offer.”
“Is that right?” So far Morgan hadn’t seen much in the way of anything resembling a social scene, but she was definitely willing to explore the options. More than willing. “What kind of a social scene are you talking about? What goes on in this town anyway?”
“So much.” Jess rolled her eyes. “Well, not so much. I’m sure it’s nothing compared to Portland. But you haven’t seen any of the bonfire-bush parties yet and Jason Sinclair has the best parties. And oh my God, I just had the best idea!” Jess hopped up from her bed, opened her bedroom door a crack and peeked out before closing it and hopping down cross-legged in front of Morgan. “You think your mom would let you sleep over this weekend?”
Morgan shrugged. “Maybe. I’ll ask—oh shit!”
“What?”
“I’m supposed to be seeing my dad this weekend.” Morgan groaned and dropped her head into her hands.
“That sucks.” Jess looked genuinely disappointed. “But at least you get to go back to Portland, right?”
“Nope.” That was the worst part. The night before, her dad had called and made some lame excuse about how it wasn’t probably for the best if she came to the house. The house. Which meant his new house with his new girlfriend in a new neighborhood that would be perfect for their new life. A life that didn’t include her.
“What do you mean? You’re not going to his house?”
Morgan knew Jess was just trying to be a friend, but she wasn’t used to talking about her dad. Not with anyone. Except maybe her therapist back home. But even then, she didn’t like to tell her everything because even though Lucinda Davis promised there was client confidentiality, Morgan knew she was on the phone with her mom the moment she left Lucinda’s office.
Morgan shrugged. “He’s going to pick me up and we’re going to go to some place called RiverBend for the weekend.” Morgan had looked it up and discovered it was another random, small town in the middle of nowhere. But it was halfway between Portland and Timber Creek, so apparently it was some sort of compromise or something.
“RiverBend?” Jess made a sign of pretending to throw up. “There’s nothing in that town.”
“As opposed to Timber Creek?” Morgan raised an eyebrow and they both started laughing.
After a moment, Jess rolled over. “Still. That sucks. But there’ll be other parties.”
“Parties?” Morgan groaned again. Just her luck that there’d be a party on the only weekend she was supposed to see her dad. Not that she didn’t want to spend time with her dad, but still…her life was here. That thought stopped her cold. Her life was in Timber Creek. She shuddered, but it was true. Her life had changed dramatically and there was no point pretending it was still something it wasn’t.
“What kind of party is it?” Morgan knew she was torturing herself, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She needed to know.
“It’s at Jason’s. His parents are out of town like every weekend. But this was just going to be small. Like only a few guys…and a few girls… You know what I mean?”
Of course she knew what Jess meant. Jason was friends with Trent. He’d only spoken to her a few times since that day in the park. But every time they did speak, Morgan got that stupid butterfly feeling in her stomach. Now she wanted to go even more.
Chapter Seven
The moment Cam walked into Christy’s kitchen on Friday afternoon, she was immediately greeted by the sounds of gossip and laughter she hadn’t heard for more than a decade.
The girls were there.
There was nothing quite like old friends who knew you before life had a chance to squeeze and shape you into someone else to make a girl feel like she was finally home.
“What are you doing here?” Cam’s voice was part squeal, part laughter as she stared at Amber Monroe and Drew Ross, the other half of their foursome. “Christy didn’t tell me you were—” She looked at Christy, who beamed.
“Surprise.” She waved her arms. “They came in early.”
“We thought it might be fun to have a few days before the anniversary stuff got crazy.” Drew’s smile lit up her face.
“Come here and give me a hug,” Amber demanded. She’d always been the bossy one out of the four, a trait that served her well as a hotshot corporate lawyer in San Francisco. Cam did as she was told and crossed the room to give Amber a hug. Drew squeezed in too, and then Christy, and the four of them hugged it out the way they had so often, so many years before.
“How long has it been since we’ve all been together?” Drew asked when they finally untangled themselves from each other’s arms and had settled into Christy’s padded kitchen chairs. “Eight years, right?” She looked around the table. “At my wedding.”
Cam shook her head. “No, Amber couldn’t make it.”
Amber flushed. “I still feel bad.”
Drew waved her away. “It’s all good.”
“How about I promise to be there for your silver wedding anniversary party?”
Drew’s smile faded a little bit, but she nodded and agreed before resuming her line of questioning. “So, has it really been since high school that we’ve all been together, then? Really? That can’t be right.”
“I think it is.” Christy put a pot of tea on the table, followed by a plate of cookies and scones. “But it doesn’t matter, because you’re all here now and it really is the best thing. Cam, the girls are staying here with me—you have to sleep over tonight. It will be just like old times.”
“I…” She looked around the table at her friends’ expectant faces. “I…Morgan.” But as soon as she said her daughter’s name, she remembered that Ryan was supposed to pick Morgan up for the weekend. “Well, maybe I could, actually. Morgan’s spending the weekend with her dad, so…”
“Perfect.” Christy clapped her hands together and it was agreed on.
“Speaking of Morgan’s father…” Amber never was one to beat around the bush. “What the hell happened, Cam?”
“Are you okay?” Drew reached over and grabbed a cookie. “It can’t be easy to go through a divorce.”
It wasn’t and Cam knew she’d probably feel better if she talked about it with her best friends, but just the way she couldn’t seem to deal with the divorce papers her lawyer had sent over earlier t
hat week, it just seemed easier to ignore things.
It’s not that she didn’t want the divorce over and finished with. She did. It was more that now that she was in Timber Creek, and starting over, things felt…different. Like a fresh start at life. A life she didn’t want Ryan intruding into. Even in the form of divorce papers.
It was ridiculous. She knew it.
“It might actually help to get it out.” Christy hadn’t pressed her into talking about it, but Cam knew she’d been dying to know the details. She looked around the table. Her friends clearly wanted to know what was going on.
With a sigh, Cam stared down into her coffee cup and started talking. They already knew how she’d fled Timber Creek heartbroken and how she’d met Ryan almost right away. What they didn’t know was that despite what Cam had told them, she’d known from the very beginning that she shouldn’t marry Ryan. It was a secret that she’d kept even from her closest friends, but she hadn’t known what else to do. She was young and pregnant and if it hadn’t been for Ryan, she would have been completely alone. Her parents had just announced that they were going to retire early and follow their dream of moving to Arizona. She couldn’t burden them with her poor decisions. As far as she could tell, she didn’t have any options besides marriage.
And it wasn’t as if Ryan wasn’t a good man. He was. He just wasn’t the man for her. More importantly, he wasn’t the man she was in love with. Now, years later, Cam finally confided in her friends the way she should have all those years ago.
She told them about Ryan’s infidelities, the way Cam was left mostly alone to raise Morgan and how although he was still a good father, how he’d grown more and more distant with Morgan. She told the girls how despite the fact that they’d had their share of good times over the years, she’d always known she wasn’t going to be married to Ryan forever. The divorce was inevitable, and ultimately she was okay with it. In fact, she felt better and more at peace than she had in a long time.
The women were quiet for a moment when Cam finally stopped talking. Drew spoke first. “Do you still love him?”
Cam’s eyes shot up and she looked directly at her friend, who still looked as young and doll-like with her long, dark hair and beautiful brown eyes as she ever had. Drew always had a way of asking the questions that were the hardest to answer, and all these years later, she clearly still had the knack because Cam knew it wasn’t Ryan she was asking about.
Still, she played stupid. “Ryan? No.”
“That’s not what I—”
“How is Evan these days, anyway?” It was Amber who asked.
And Christy who answered. “He’s changed so much,” she said. “Can you believe he’s local law enforcement now?”
“No.” Amber laughed. “I totally cannot believe that.”
Cam herself was still having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that the rebellious boy she’d known—and loved—had transformed himself into an upstanding pillar of the community.
Amber and Christy launched into a conversation about Evan and how much he’d changed that then morphed into talk about other people they’d gone to school with, but Cam wasn’t listening because Drew was still watching her, no doubt forming her own, probably accurate answer to the question she’d asked.
“I’m surprised you agreed to come out here today.” Ben cast his line and began the quick, methodical jerking to bring it back in before casting again. Evan had no doubt that he’d have a fish on the pole within a few minutes. Normally it was a bit of a competition to see who hooked the first one, but Evan was distracted and it was taking him forever to get his gear organized.
“You know I never pass up an opportunity to chuck some line.”
Ben laughed and flicked his rod back into a graceful arc. “Right. Well, that was before.”
“Before what?” Evan knew without asking, exactly what his best friend was trying to say.
“Before Cam Riley came back to town.”
“Cam has nothing to do with anything.” It was a lie and they both knew it. The truth was that Evan couldn’t stop thinking about her and the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled, when he made her smile. The way her hand had felt in his and how she hadn’t pulled it away but let him hold it when what he really wanted to do was pull her in for a hug and hold her close. After they’d finished dinner a few nights earlier, and Evan had walked Cam to her vehicle, it had taken all the self-control he possessed not to reach out for her, tug her into his body and kiss her.
But he hadn’t. It wouldn’t have been right. As much as he wanted to, and as natural as it had felt to be with her, he needed to remember that time had passed. She was no longer the young innocent girl with her whole future ahead of her. She was a single mother going through a difficult divorce and rebuilding her life from the ground up. So no matter how much he wanted Cam back in his arms, he had to remember that things were different.
He was different, too. It may have come almost sixteen years too late, but Evan had finally become the man Cam deserved. Now he just needed to convince her of that.
“Okay,” he admitted to Ben. “It has everything to do with her.”
His friend only raised his eyebrows in response and continued to fish.
“It’s just so crazy, don’t you think? That she’s back here after all this time. It’s like it was meant to be.”
Ben tugged on his line and reeled it in before he turned around and looked at him. “Do you know what’s crazy?”
Evan ignored him but he continued anyway.
“You talking like this. After all this time, it’s taken you over a decade to get over her and now you’re letting yourself get all worked up again.”
“I’m not getting worked up.”
“Bullshit. The last time I saw you like this, you were sixteen.”
Evan shot him a look.
“Just remember,” Ben continued. “You’re not kids anymore. It’s different now.”
“It is.”
It was very different. That was the whole point, Evan thought. What if after all these years, the timing was finally right?
“I’m not the same person,” Evan said after a minute.
“Right.” Ben shook his head. “But neither is she.”
“It sucks that you can’t sleep over tonight.” Jess fell into step beside Morgan as they walked together back to Junky’s and the little apartment that, despite herself, was actually starting to feel like home to Morgan. “But you’re going to have fun with your dad. That’s cool that he’s coming all the way out here to get you.”
Morgan shrugged. It’s not that it wasn’t cool, but it was the least he could do after blowing apart their family the way he did. It’s not like it was Morgan’s choice for him to go and get a girlfriend who wasn’t even that much older than her. Never mind the fact that they were going to have a baby. The whole thing was so gross. Of course Morgan was expected to be happy that she was going to be a big sister. She sighed and shook her head. “It’s whatever. It just sucks that I’m going to miss the party.”
“There will totally be more.” Jess smiled and Morgan tried to smile back. She didn’t want to seem high maintenance or anything. “And besides, being a little unavailable is never a bad thing. It’s just going to make Trent want you even more.”
Morgan blushed and looked at her feet. “He doesn’t want me.”
“Oh yes he does.” Jess grabbed her arm and squealed. “He totally wants you. He was telling Jason about how cute you were and—”
Morgan’s phone rang, cutting off whatever her friend was about to tell her. For a moment, Morgan contemplated ignoring it completely, but it was probably her mom and if she ignored her mom…it just wasn’t worth it most of the time. She pulled it out of her back pocket and looked at the caller ID.
“It’s my dad.”
“Your dad? Isn’t he supposed to be—”
“Yup.” Morgan pushed the button to accept the call. “Hey, Dad.”
“Hi, princess.”
Morgan hated when he called her that. She tried not to be annoyed.
“What’s up? You aren’t early, are you? Because I haven’t really packed yet. It won’t actually take me very long, but I don’t want you to—”
“No,” he said. “I’m not early.”
Something in his voice stopped her. She froze on the sidewalk.
“Are you going to be late?” Morgan already knew the answer as she waited the phone shaking slightly in her hand.
“Well, about this weekend…”
She dropped her head and shook it slowly back and forth. Morgan hated that she could feel the hot prick of tears at the back of her eyes. She did not want to cry in front of her friend.
“It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to make it out there this weekend, princess.”
And there it was. The words she didn’t want to hear, but had been expecting all along.
“But I haven’t seen you in—”
“I’m really sorry, Morgan. I am. But it’s just been kind of crazy around here with work and the baby. Chastity has been feeling really sick with her pregnancy and I don’t think she should travel right now.”
“Was she coming?” Morgan’s head snapped up. “I thought it was just going to be the two of us anyway. Why was Chastity going to come? I want to see you, Dad.” Morgan hated the way her words were coming out whiney and needy. “Are you sure you—”
“We’ll do it again another weekend, okay, princess? Soon. I promise.”
“Sure.” She nodded in agreement because there was nothing else she could do.
“You know I love you, right?”
She didn’t know that. Not really. But her dad didn’t wait for an answer.
“I’ll talk to you soon, princess. Have a good weekend, okay? And let your mom know for me, all right?”
“Yeah,” Morgan said dumbly. “Okay. I will.”
The call ended and Morgan stared at her cell phone for a moment before Jess wrapped her arms around her and hugged her. “I’m sorry, Morgan.” The hug was so unexpected that at first Morgan didn’t know how to react. In fact, she didn’t know what to feel about anything. Of course she was upset. She wanted to see her dad. But there was part of her that didn’t either. Confused, she shook her head and forced a smile.