“We’ve decided to remind you of what an idiot you are and point out all your flaws until the day you marry Shelly. On that day, we’ll throw up our hands in defeat and pray the only person who gets hurt is you, and not Emma. I’m afraid it’s too late for Marti. You’ve already decimated her.”
Jack poked a finger into Cameron’s chest. “You asked if I was going to keep rubbing salt in the wound, don’t do that to Marti. She’s taken enough from you.”
“I can’t let her go.”
“You don’t have a choice, brother.” Jack put his hand on Cameron’s shoulder and shoved him away from the door and toward his waiting fiancé.
“Happy cake shopping.” Jack went in to see Marti. Cameron had made his choice and it didn’t look like any amount of arguing would change his mind.
Stubborn, single-minded idiot.
Chapter Twenty-Three
* * *
JACK BROUGHT HER back to George’s almost two weeks ago. She thought it would be the end of seeing Cameron. She would miss Emma, but confusing the child by allowing her to think there was any chance she’d be the mother she wanted was wrong. Shelly was going to be her mother, the end.
If only that was the end of the story, Marti thought sadly. Instead, Cameron found all kinds of ways for her to be with Emma, and therefore with him in most cases. He made it seem like he needed her help with Emma, but he was using it as an excuse to see her. She knew and went along with it anyway because she was as hungry to see him as he was to see her. She saw it in the way he looked at her, in the way his deep voice filled with emotion when he called to ask her for a favor. It’s for Emma, he’d say. Every time, Marti went along with it, only to feel her heart break a little more each time she saw Cameron, so close and always out of her reach.
He’d come to dinner with George almost every other day. She knew he wanted to spend as much time with George as possible.
George’s health steadily deteriorated and his son and daughter came by the house often, though not as much as Cameron and Emma. George’s son made her uncle look like a saint. He constantly made snide comments about her being George’s mistress and using him to get his money. Whenever they were at the house, she usually disappeared upstairs to the room she’d turned into her studio.
Since she couldn’t sleep for thinking about Cameron and Emma, she spent many hours working late into the night fulfilling her publisher’s request for the books she’d promised to finish. Her grandmother would be happy to know she was painting again. She’d completed several canvases and two more books for her publisher. She was ahead in work and had enjoyed the creative outlet.
Her back ached from standing at the easel for several hours when her cell phone rang. Who would call her after two in the morning?
“Hello.”
“You don’t sound like you’re sleeping.”
“Cameron?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Why aren’t you asleep?”
“I’m working.”
“Working?”
“Contrary to the fact that you think I’m at your beck and call, I do have a job.”
“I never really thought about it. You’re always there when I need you.”
“I’ve noticed. Why are you calling me so late?”
“I need your help.”
“Nothing new there,” she said resigned, because she wouldn’t say no. She couldn’t. She wondered what a therapist would say about her sadistic behavior. Self-torture was not a good thing.
“What’s up?”
“Emma is sick, and I’m in Japan. Jimmy has been with her all day, but now he’s not feeling too hot, and he needs someone to relieve him. Emma’s upset and crying. She can’t sleep. She wants me home, but I can’t get there anytime soon. I’m in a bind. If she can’t have me, she wants you.”
“Why don’t you call Shelly and have her go and be with Emma?”
She already knew why. He didn’t trust Shelly with Emma and Emma didn’t want Shelly with her. She wanted him to admit it.
“You know why, and it sucks, and I suck, this whole thing sucks. I’m in Japan until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest. Can you please go and take care of Emma? I’d ask Elizabeth, but she has her daughter, and I don’t want them getting sick. Jack and Jenna went back to Colorado a week ago, so I only have you.”
I only have you. Indeed.
“I’m holding onto my temper, Cameron. Choose your words more carefully.”
He knew what she meant. He had her doing everything he asked for him and he gave her nothing but grief in return.
“One of these days, I’ll figure out a way to make things right with you. I promise you that. Right now, I need you.” I need you in so many ways.
“The only way to make this right is for you to let me go. Let me go, Cameron. I just can’t bear to watch you with her anymore.”
“I can’t. Please don’t ask me to. You’re my every thought, my every hope, and my every dream. Seeing you and watching you with Emma is all I can ever have. It’s the only thing that makes this whole damn mess bearable. I can’t give that up. I can’t give you up.”
“It’s all you choose to have with me,” she said, letting some of her anger out.
“This is the same conversation we’ve had before. I can’t abandon the baby. I’ve watched Emma grow up without her mother. She never even saw Emma, she was so out of it during the delivery. She only lasted a few moments after Emma came into the world. I grew up without a father. I had George, but it isn’t the same. I want this baby to have a mother and a father, and I have a chance to make it happen.”
The baby would have a mother and a father without Cameron marrying Shelly. She knew it and he knew it, but he refused to budge on the issue. He wanted his baby to have everything Emma didn’t. Without love between Shelly and Cameron, the baby still wouldn’t have what Cameron dreamed, and the baby and Emma would be the ones to pay the highest price.
She let the subject drop. She couldn’t convince him to be with her. If she kept after him, she’d just sound desperate and pathetic.
“Call Jimmy. Tell him I’ll be there in about thirty minutes.”
He let the change of subject pass. No point talking about it anymore. He wouldn’t abandon his baby to a life of being shuffled back and forth between parents. He’d make a real home for Shelly, Emma, the baby, and him, starting on the day he married her. On that day, he’d give up Marti. Until then, he would take every opportunity to spend time with her. Hopefully, he’d gather enough memories of her to last him a lifetime. He only hoped Emma would understand when Marti was gone. He didn’t want to hurt Emma, but he couldn’t marry Shelly and keep Marti in his life. He knew that now.
His chest went tight and he couldn’t breathe through the raw ache.
“What were you working on? What do you do for a living?”
“Cameron, it’s after two in the morning, I have to get to the city to be with Emma, and you want to play twenty questions with me about my job? Go work, go sleep, go do whatever you’re supposed to be doing, besides bugging me.”
“I like it when you’re grumpy. You sound so disgruntled. It’s cute. I also noticed you hate answering questions about yourself.”
“I just don’t see the point. In little more than three weeks, you’ll have yourself a wife and it won’t matter who I am or ever was to you.”
“That’s not true, Marti.” Anger filled his voice. How could she think she meant so little to him? “It matters. It matters now, and it will matter then.”
“I’ll see you Wednesday when you get back. If Jimmy isn’t feeling well, tell him I’ll stay with Emma until you get home.”
“He’ll appreciate it. Thank you. I know I have no right to call and ask you for anything. I’ve done it a hundred times over the last two weeks just so I’d have an excuse to see you. I don’t deserve you.”
“Sometimes I feel the same way about you.”
The sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. He laughed. It was ironic. He didn’t deserve to
have someone as special as Marti in his life. Someone he kept taking and taking from. She didn’t deserve to be treated the way he treated her. He knew it, but couldn’t help himself.
“I’ll see you Wednesday.” More softly, he added, “I miss you.”
Marti hung up, but was reluctant to release the phone. Just like she was reluctant to release Cameron. She was holding onto him as hard as he was holding on to her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
* * *
LIVING IN CAMERON’S home without him there was strange. She’d spent all day Monday begging Emma to drink some broth to settle her stomach. By Monday night, the little girl was finally feeling well enough to sleep without waking several times during the night. Marti had slept little Sunday or Monday herself.
The doorbell to the penthouse rang and she set her morning coffee down on the marble countertop.
She didn’t know who to expect, but Shelly certainly wasn’t high on her list.
“What the hell are you doing in my fiancé’s house?”
Here to cause trouble, of course Shelly knew Cameron was out of town. The bitch wanted to mark her territory.
“I’d invite you in, but Emma is sick. We wouldn’t want you and the baby to get sick too,” she said and looked pointedly at Shelly’s flat stomach. “How far along are you?”
“It’s very early in the pregnancy. That’s why Cameron and I are getting married so fast. He wants me to be thin and beautiful on our wedding day.”
“I’m sure that’s his first concern about your wedding.”
She blocked the door, refusing to allow Shelly in. Spiteful, but something small to repay her for all the unkind things she’d said and done to her.
“Let me in.”
“No. Cameron isn’t home, Emma is sick, and I don’t want to talk to you.”
Shelly was losing her patience. She wanted to get into the penthouse while Cameron was away, a perfect opportunity to look around alone and decide what changes she might want to make, how she’d like to redecorate. She also wanted to see all the lovely, expensive things Cameron had in the house.
“I’m Cameron’s fiancé. If I want to come into his house, I can.”
“If he wanted you here when he wasn’t, he’d have given you a key.”
“Things have happened so quickly for us, he overlooked it. He didn’t want Emma to be confused by my coming and going.”
“Cameron has good sense when it comes to his daughter. Like I said, she’s sick and needs to have quiet so she can rest. Cameron will be home tomorrow night. I’m sure you already knew, however.”
“Of course I did.”
“What are you doing here now, when he told you he didn’t want you coming and going and confusing Emma?” She used her sweetest voice to irritate Shelly even more.
Marti got a sweet sort of satisfaction watching the woman steam outside the penthouse door. She was sure at any moment her head would explode. Her ears went red with rage.
“I want to come in and look around before we hold the ceremony in a few weeks. I need to make sure there’s enough room for everyone.”
Marti couldn’t help herself. She glanced over her shoulder at the huge living area and decided a hundred guests would fit comfortably.
“They’ll be plenty of room,” she said.
About to close the door in Shelly’s face, she took a determined step toward her and braced her hand flat on the door.
Down the hall, another door opened and a beautiful brunette woman came out and walked down the hall. Two twin little blonde heads peaked out the door before Jack grabbed them.
“Hi, Jack.”
“Hi, Marti.” He scooped up his little boys and took them back inside.
The amazing Jenna Turner was about to make her introduction. Marti heard a lot about her from Jack, Sam, and Cameron while they were on the ship and over the last few weeks.
“Marti, I’m desperate,” Jenna said and looked Shelly up and down, making it clear she didn’t approve. “Could I borrow a cup of sugar?”
Marti choked back a laugh, didn’t so much as crack a smile. “I’m sure you know where Cameron keeps it. Please, help yourself.”
When Jenna reached the door, she passed Shelly without so much as a hello and stepped past Marti into the penthouse.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have company.” Marti closed the door on Shelly’s gaping face.
Marti assumed Shelly knew just who the woman was who entered the penthouse. Shelly couldn’t make a scene in front of Cameron’s boss and she knew it.
Ah, revenge is very sweet.
Marti turned from the door. Jenna sat in the chair in the living room facing her. She looked regal with the bank of windows behind her.
“She’s probably pissed you know where the sugar is and have been inside Cameron’s house and she hasn’t.”
“I have no idea where the sugar is, but I have been in here a lot. My boys love to play with Emma. We often swap play dates when one or the other has another appointment or engagement. I’m Jenna, by the way. Jack’s wife.”
“I know. I’m Marti. It’s nice to finally meet you. Thank you for coming over to rescue me. I think she was ready to shove me out of the way to get in here.”
Marti sat on the sofa nearest Jenna and smiled.
“I find it interesting Cameron had you come to stay with Emma and not Shelly.”
“Tell me about it. I love that little girl, but sometimes I want to ring her father’s neck.”
“We’re all feeling the same way lately. I understand why he doesn’t want to trust Shelly with Emma after what happened on the ship. It makes me wonder what he’s going to do once he marries her.”
“I don’t know. At that point, I won’t have the ability to protect her. The only reason I’ve stayed involved this long is because of Emma.”
“The only reason?” Jenna saw exactly what Jack meant. Marti was beautiful and had a good heart. She’d heard the exchange in the hallway with Shelly and thought poor Marti had put up with a lot over the last few weeks.
“No, not the only reason. I’m sure Jack told you I’m in love with Cameron, and he’s in love with me.” She shrugged and got more comfortable on the sofa. Jenna was easy to talk to, and she needed to talk to someone about this mess.
“I’ve tried to convince him, the rest of you have, Shelly is using him. He’s convinced he has to marry her for the baby’s sake.
“I think letting him go would be easier if I truly believed there’s a baby. And if he cared deeply for Shelly. If I knew for sure she’d be a good mother to Emma and the baby.”
“That’s a lot of ifs,” Jenna said. “Shelly is manipulative and deceitful. She’ll do everything she can to make sure this wedding happens.”
“Cameron is just as determined to see it through.”
“You know about Emma’s mother? She died having Emma.”
“I know. Cameron harbors a lot of guilt. He thinks he can alleviate the guilt over losing his wife and leaving Emma motherless by giving the new baby both a mother and father and providing Emma with a mother at the same time. Shelly is no kind of mother at all, and it makes me angry. It breaks my heart to think in a few weeks, I’ll have to leave Emma to Shelly’s care. I won’t have a choice then.”
“None of us will. Jack, Elizabeth, Sam, and I will all have to accept Shelly as Cameron’s wife.
“I can only tell you the rest of us will do our best to watch over Emma. I wonder what will happen if he marries her and finds out later that she isn’t pregnant.”
“I’ve wondered the same thing. I can only say it’ll be his problem. We’ve all tried to tell him.”
Marti didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Cameron said you and Jack went back to Colorado.”
“We did. We go back and forth between here and the ranch. I came back because I promised Cameron I’d take over the charity benefit he sets up every year. It’s the night before ‘the wedding’ and he doesn’t have time to plan both. I need to line
up some artwork to display and an auction. The auction is the easy part, Cameron collects things from all over the world all year for the auction.
“I’ve contacted several museums and private collectors to see if I can borrow some art. I wanted to find an artist who is well known and will draw a large crowd, but also has a set of paintings themed around children.”
“Why children?”
“The benefit is for his foundation. He raises money for the neonatal unit at the hospital where Emma was born. She was premature, and they saved her life. He’s had a benefit every year since, and donates all the proceeds to the hospital. The foundation is called the Emma Shaw Foundation.”
“Wow. Very admirable.”
“Yes, and just one more reason he won’t give up on the baby Shelly is carrying. If she’s carrying.”
“Have you had any luck at all getting some art?”
“Lots of people want us to display their work. It’s just, this is a big event in San Francisco, and I’d like to have something spectacular, something that will draw a huge crowd. You know, the kind of crowd with lots of money to donate. Cameron works so hard and travels so much, he can only do this once a year. Whatever he raises now will have to be enough, until he can do it again next year. The hospital would like to update some of their older equipment and hire two more full-time doctors. If we can raise enough money, they can do those things and more. Whatever is left over, Cameron rolls over to the children’s cancer ward.”
“You’ll find what you’re looking for soon.” Marti would make sure of it.
If Jenna wanted a famous artist with a set of canvases depicting a child theme, she knew just who to call. She’d contact the curator of her grandmother’s art collection and have him call Jenna.
“I hope you don’t mind being here with Emma. It’s kind of my fault. I sent Cameron to Japan. Obviously, I didn’t know Emma would get sick. I thought a few days away to clear his head would do him some good.”
“It probably won’t change his mind. I don’t mind staying with Emma. She’s still asleep, but she’s feeling better. I’ll keep her home from school again tomorrow, but she should be right as rain by Thursday.”
The Right Bride: Book Three: The Hunted Series Page 13