She believed him. And she felt a strange mix of gratitude and affection and silly suddenly. “I’m making a big deal out of lemonade on the patio, aren’t I?”
He shrugged.
She was. Not because those women would automatically like her because she was charming and funny and they had a lot in common. Those things weren’t really true. But they would like her because Cam liked her. They loved Cam and Cam cared about Whitney and so those women would care about her because of Cam if nothing else.
That was friendship. That was love. That was acceptance.
She was catching on. She could learn this.
Those women were important to Cam and he would like nothing more than to see Whitney hanging out and getting along with them. So she could do this. For him.
She lifted on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his quickly. “I’ll be okay,” she said as she pulled back.
He nodded. “You will.”
“But thanks for giving me the option not to be.”
Something flickered in his gaze. She thought for a second he was going to grin and say something flirtatious.
Instead, he said, “You can always be not-okay with me, Whit.”
Her heart squeezed hard and for a second she couldn’t take a deep breath. But she knew exactly what to give him in return. She nodded and said, “I know.”
His gaze intensified and she knew she’d said the right thing. He leaned in and kissed her again, then set her back from him. “Go hang out. We’ll head home in a bit.”
Home. Together. She was shocked by how good that sounded.
They were friends. Hell, he might be her best friend. Yes, she realized a moment later, he was her best friend. He knew her, well, and he liked her anyway. She could be herself with him. She could be raw and real.
But they were more than friends. Already. Without getting naked. Without it being official.
But she definitely wanted to get naked with him. More now than before.
They needed to do that soon.
“Heading home sounds nice,” she told him. “So yeah, give me a little bit with the girls, but I’ll be ready whenever.”
He looked at her a moment longer, then nodded. “Good.”
Yeah, it was good. It was all good.
Or, it would be after this patio thing anyway.
18
Whitney took a breath, then turned and opened the back door. She stepped out onto the patio, pulling the door shut behind her, closing her off from Cam. Her lifeline.
No, that was stupid. She wasn’t scared to be out here. She wasn’t in danger. Except of making an ass of herself.
Zoe, Jane, and Josie all looked over. With smiles. Whitney felt some of the tension in her shoulders ease. These were Cam’s friends. Family. Even the two that weren’t his blood relations. She could spend time with them.
“Here, sit with me.” Josie reached out and snagged Whitney’s hand, tugging her down onto the love seat she was occupying.
Zoe and Jane each had a chair. The patio furniture was gathered around the stone firepit on the back patio. There was a fire but it was turned low and giving off little to no heat. Clearly it was for ambience as the night was warm.
The women all seemed relaxed, their drinks still mostly full.
“We were just talking about how amazing it is that Josie kept this engagement a secret from us,” Jane said to Whitney. “She’s the romantic of the group and I cannot believe she didn’t call us immediately.”
“She was just about to tell us how Grant proposed,” Zoe said.
Josie cast Whitney a look, then smiled.
Jane’s eyes narrowed. “Hey, what was that?”
“What was what?” Josie asked, her eyes round with innocence. She lifted her glass for a sip of lemonade. Or to hide her expression.
Whitney also took a drink. Did Josie know that she and Cam had known about their marriage and “divorce”? She assumed that Josie knew about Cam’s involvement, since he’d been the attorney to draw up the papers, but did she know Whitney had been in on it?
“That look you gave Whitney,” Jane said. She sat forward, looking at them both with suspicion. “What do you know?” she asked Whitney. “You two have a secret.”
Whitney’s eyes widened. “Um.”
Josie shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told Jane.
But Jane focused on Whitney. “Did you know they were engaged before you came to dinner tonight?”
Whitney thought fast. Had she known they were engaged before she came to dinner tonight? No. Because they weren’t engaged. In her mind. Because she knew they were already married.
“No,” she said truthfully.
But she made the mistake of taking a beat too long. And glancing at Josie right after answering.
Now Zoe sat forward too. “Nuh-uh. There’s something going on.” She wiggled a finger back and forth between Josie and Whitney. “What’s up?”
Whitney really wanted Josie to take the lead here. This was completely Josie and Grant’s secret. They should tell—or not tell—whoever they wanted to when they wanted to. Oh, man, she could not screw this up.
“Nothing is up,” Whitney said. “I had no idea that Josie and Grant were going to announce they were engaged at dinner tonight.” Totally true.
“But you showed up tonight for the first time,” Zoe said, her expression suspicious. “That’s just a coincidence?”
Whitney nodded quickly. “Absolute coincidence.”
“So you know nothing about Josie and Grant being engaged and planning to get married?” Jane asked.
Whitney lifted her chin, in that way that Cam called her on. Yes, it was the way she summoned her moxie. He’d told her not to do it with him and no, she knew she didn’t need to anymore. But with these ladies? Oh yeah, she needed all the spunk she could muster to hold her own.
“I know that Josie and Grant are perfect for each other and I’m thrilled they’re together.” She glanced at Josie. “No matter how it happened.”
Josie gave her a big grin and Zoe and Jane looked at one another. Then Jane nodded. “Nicely done.”
Whitney lifted a brow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we know that you already knew they got married. And you managed to keep their secret and not flat-out lie to us. I’m impressed.”
Whitney felt surprise course through her. “Wait, you know they’re married?”
“I confessed earlier before we came inside,” Josie said.
Whitney slumped back against the cushion behind her. “Thank God.”
They laughed and Whitney felt a funny feeling of accomplishment. “You were testing me?” she asked.
“Of course,” Zoe said. “If you’re going to be a part of the group, we have to know you can keep secrets.”
Another emotion surged through Whitney. Was she going to be a part of the group? That sounded so nice. At her age, she should not want to be included and liked this much. It was pathetic. But it was still real.
“But not flat-out lie,” Whitney said. “That could be complicated sometimes.”
“Oh, you might have to lie sometimes,” Zoe said.
Jane nodded. “Sometimes.”
“Really? Like when?” Whitney asked. She needed to understand these rules if she was going to be a part of the group.
She lifted her glass to hide the smile that thought brought to her lips. She wasn’t twelve and being asked to sit at the cool-kid table in the cafeteria.
But it felt like she was.
She’d been one of the cool kids for God’s sake. She’d been fine in high school. Which meant she was one of those sad women who’d peaked in high school, stayed in her home town, and never quite gotten past those years. Ugh. She really hated that. These women had all stayed in their home town—the same one incidentally—but they’d changed and gotten better.
Whitney regarded them as she thought about that. Zoe and Josie still worked at the same bakery they’d always wor
ked at. They were still best friends, just like they’d been in first grade. Zoe lived a block away from her parents and was now involved with a guy who had been a part of her life as her brother’s best friend forever.
Josie lived in her grandparents’ house, worked in the bakery she’d started working in after school as a a teen, and saw her family every day.
Jane worked in the factory, where she’d worked since she’d been sixteen, and, again, saw her family all the time.
Still, they were content. Happy. Had grown and changed and didn’t see the things that hadn’t changed as failures. They actually protected them. Jane was a huge advocate at Hot Cakes and continued to work there even though she was engaged to a millionaire. Zoe had always fiercely protected her bakery and its reputation. Josie, too, took Buttered Up and its place in the community very seriously, guarding its recipes as if they were her own.
Whitney could learn a lot from these women, she realized.
“Okay, times for lies,” Jane said. “Like, if I say, ‘is it time for strawberry pie yet?’ The answer is always yes. Even if it’s four a.m.”
“But,” Whitney said, pretending to be confused, “that isn’t a lie. It’s always time for strawberry pie, but especially if you’re asking at four a.m.”
Jane grinned and lifted her glass. “Exactly.”
Whitney took a deep breath. This was going well.
“So we know that you already knew Josie and Grant were married. But I want to know how you knew,” Zoe said, glancing between Josie and Whitney. “Have you been baking for her on the side?” Zoe asked Josie.
Josie worked for Zoe but she also had a side baking business. One that she’d kept from Zoe for a long time. It had never been anything that competed with the bakery. Josie only made things that Buttered Up didn’t offer. Zoe had been a stickler for following in her grandmother’s footsteps right down to every single recipe and every single product on the menu, so that hadn’t been difficult.
But Josie had come clean about a month ago and now worked part-time for Buttered Up and part-time for herself.
Whitney shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Grant was in my office discussing the launch of the new snack cake when Cam came in and told him the insurance claims had all been paid and handed him the divorce papers.”
“Insurance claims?” Jane asked.
“For her gall bladder surgery,” Whitney said. “Since they’d just gotten married for the health insurance, Cam was letting Grant know it was all covered and over with. Cam handled all of that paperwork and drew up the divorce papers.” She smiled. “Well, kind of.”
Then she realized the other women weren’t smiling. She looked from Jane to Zoe and then to Josie.
Josie was draining her glass of lemonade.
“What did you need health insurance for?” Zoe demanded.
Oh. Crap.
Whitney grimaced. “You hadn’t told them that part?” she asked Josie.
Josie swallowed her lemonade and vodka. “Nope.”
“Shit.” Well, it had been going well.
“It’s fine.” Josie took a breath and quickly explained that she’d needed to have her gall bladder removed and had been worried about it because she didn’t have health insurance through Buttered Up. Grant had stepped up and offered the idea of getting married, temporarily, so she’d be covered under his.
“But we fell in love and it all worked out wonderfully,” she said. “So the gall bladder thing doesn’t matter.”
“But you were going to get divorced?” Zoe asked. “Cam even drew up the papers?”
“Well, they were really just cat adoption papers,” Whitney jumped in, hoping to help the situation. “They weren’t real divorce papers.”
Zoe and Jane both looked at her with confusion. “Cat adoption papers?”
Whitney nodded quickly. “He came to me upset because Grant thought he wanted to go ahead with the divorce.” Dammit, that didn’t sound right either. She swung toward Josie. “I mean, he didn’t want to get divorced, but he did because he wanted to give you the chance to date him and fall for him for real.” She grimaced. “I mean, not that you didn’t have real feelings for him… he wanted to be sure that you were together because of real feelings rather than because of the insurance.” Dammit, she wasn’t saying this right. She grabbed Josie’s hand. “He knew that he was in love with you,” she said. “When I talked to him he was really torn up about it all. He just wanted a fresh start. To have the relationship develop from the beginning without the money and everything in the way. He didn’t want you to need him. He just wanted you to want him.” Fuck. This still sounded wrong. “I mean… Dammit,” she finally said out loud. “I’m messing this up.” She took a deep breath. “Grant was in love with you and he just wanted to be sure that he was doing the right thing.”
She finally stopped, pressing her lips together.
No one said anything.
She lifted her glass and took a huge gulp, welcoming the feeling of warmth from the vodka spreading down her limbs. And hopefully stopping her runaway tongue.
Finally Zoe spoke. “Wow.”
Yeah. Well, that wasn’t a terrible summary.
“So these cat adoption papers,” Jane said. “Is this why you have Melody, Val, and Alan?”
“Melody, Val, and Alan?” Whitney asked.
“The cats. Two girls and a boy,” Jane said. She grinned. “They’re named after characters from Josie and the Pussycats. Of course.”
Whitney laughed out loud. “Of course. That’s awesome.”
Josie looked pleased. “Grant’s idea, but I think it’s hilarious. Was the cat adoption your idea?”
Whitney shook her head. “Cam. He knew he needed to give you papers for you to both sign, but didn’t want them to be divorce papers.” She looked at Zoe and Jane. “He knew that as soon as Grant and Josie thought they were officially divorced, they’d realize they didn’t want to be. But I agreed. And I helped get them back together by keeping Grant busy at work while Josie planned their romantic dinner.” She looked back to Josie. “And I’ll admit that the three cats might have been me.”
Josie grinned. “Good call.”
“Wait.”
They all looked at Zoe.
“So you’re telling me that my brother, Camden asshole-extraordinaire-never-met-a-fight-he-didn’t-want-to-have-will-argue-with-anyone-about-anything McCaffery recognized that Grant and Josie should be together and worked to keep them married?”
Josie and Whitney both nodded.
“But… asshole extraordinaire is a little harsh isn’t it?” Whitney asked.
Zoe shook her head as if still processing what they’d told her. “Are you trying to tell me that Cam might be… romantic?” She wrinkled her nose as she said it, as if it were just too hard to believe.
But no one answered her. Instead they all looked at Whitney.
She lifted her glass for another drink.
Her last.
There was no lemonade and vodka left when she lowered the glass.
“Well?” Jane asked, lifting a brow. “Is Cam romantic?”
“And why are you assuming I would know?” Whitney asked. Asking a question rather than answering a question turned out to be a great way to avoid lying. She would have to remember that.
The three women snorted.
“Sure, no reason,” Josie said.
“He’s been… sweet. Very supportive. Helpful,” Whitney hedged. Was that romantic? He’d been hot and dirty a couple of times. Sweet and charming several times. But romantic? That she wasn’t so sure of.
“He’s been making you cookies and cake and bars,” Josie pointed out.
“Yeah, Aiden told me about the apron and everything,” Zoe said.
“Oh, Dax told me too,” Jane said. “The housekeeping too. And of course, Didi’s been singing his praises every time we see her.”
Whitney couldn’t help but smile. “Like I said, sweet, and supportive, and helpful.”
&nbs
p; “And romantic,” Josie said.
“Dusting my house and sitting up late with my grandmother is very nice,” Whitney said. “He’s been a good friend. That’s what we’ve been working on. But I’m not sure I’d call doing laundry and taking my grandma to yoga romantic.”
But suddenly she wanted these women to tell her it was romantic.
The things Cam had said, the way he’d looked at her, the way he’d kissed her—even tonight when she’d showed up here—the way he wanted her to succeed, the way he wanted her to have girlfriends and feel supported at work… those were all… something. Was that romance?
Hell if she knew. Just like she didn’t know how to do girl talk, she really knew nothing about romance.
“It is,” Zoe said. “It’s how he loves people. He takes care of things. He gets things done. He takes care of their problems so they can do the things they want and need to do. It’s why he’s the company’s attorney. He does the messy legal shit so the other guys can do the creative stuff. Or, in Aiden’s case, the leadership stuff he loves. Or so Grant can just play with his spreadsheets and calculator all day and not worry about the contracts and stuff.”
“He doesn’t like the legal stuff?” Whitney asked, realizing that had never occurred to her.
“He does,” Zoe said. “Because, like I said, he loves confrontations and fights. He likes the legal stuff. But what he loves is being a part of something with his friends. Taking care of stuff for them. Making their jobs and lives a little easier. I’ll bet he loved doing the insurance paperwork and the divorce-slash-cat-adoption-paperwork for Grant and Josie. That way Grant could just concentrate on what was making him happy… Josie.” Zoe gave her friend a soft smile.
Whitney thought about all of that. The way Cam had been happy to stay at the house with Didi, not caring about not being in the office, fine with some of the other in-house attorneys doing some of the legwork so he could be with Didi.
So it wasn’t the actual legal work he liked. It was the taking care of the people he cared about that he liked.
That fit, she realized. Of course. The guys had met in college when they’d been undergraduates. He and Aiden had started in business classes together and they’d met Grant and Dax and Ollie in their second year. Dax and Ollie had already created the beginnings of Warriors of Easton. They hadn’t known the game would take off like it had, but she could imagine they’d all sat around and dreamed of turning it into something big and talked about what each of them could contribute. It had been clear, she was sure, that Dax and Ollie were the creative parts of the team. Grant was older and was clearly the financial mind of the group. Aiden was a natural leader and CEO type. Cam had possibly chosen law as the piece that was still needed and that he could fill in order to contribute and be an integral part of the team.
Semi-Sweet On You: Hot Cakes Series Page 26