“Looking for? Cam, you don’t come in a place like this to look for something specific. You come in and explore and then surprise yourself when you find something that you absolutely have to have.”
Cam didn’t need a store to do that. He’d already found something he absolutely had to have.
Lily.
She dragged him around and commented on just about everything they saw. The way her whole face lit up with each new thing she discovered had Cam smiling as well. It was hard to stay serious and stern when she was bursting with excitement. Cam wanted so badly to be able to free himself up enough to find something that made him so happy and carefree. Something that would make him grin from ear to ear when he saw it.
Something like the woman standing in front of him wearing a sparkly tiara and posing like a princess.
Cam took the tiara off her head and led her to the front of the store. When they approached the registers, she blushed as she watched Cam pay for the tiara and then hand her the bag.
“Thank you,” she said as she leaned in close and got on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. Once they were back outside, she looked around, trying to decide which direction they should go to find a place to eat. “Okay, what are you in the mood for? Italian? Burgers? Steak?”
He chuckled at the fact that she mentioned burgers, even though she knew his feelings on them, but decided to throw caution to the wind. “You decide,” he said lightly. And found that he liked letting go. The smile that lit up Lily’s face was worth it.
Even if it meant eating burgers.
“Um… Let’s see,” she said, looking around again. “There’s a diner with singing waitresses we can try.” Looking at Cam, she saw him merely shrug. “Or…we can do the Hard Rock.” Another shrug. “You know, it’s a lot easier when you just tell me where we’re going rather than letting me decide. We’ll probably eat a lot quicker, too.”
“You were so excited about going out and exploring that I want you to choose the place,” he replied. “Tonight is all for you, Lily.”
Well, if he had said that sooner, life would have been a whole lot easier. “Okay then,” she said with a firm nod of her head. Taking his hand, she turned them around and took off in the direction she wanted with a purposeful stride. It didn’t take long for Cam to question what she was doing.
“Uh, Lil? Why are we back at the hotel?”
With a saucy glance over her shoulder, she smiled. “You said tonight was for me, right?” Cam nodded. “Well, then what I want is room service and…you.”
Far be it from Cam to argue.
* * *
The next night was their last in New York because they had a flight out the following morning. Cam’s last session of the conference had ended at noon, so they spent the afternoon doing more sightseeing and finally went out for an Italian meal outside the hotel. As they lay in bed, Cam knew what he had to do. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but in the long run, he was doing what was best for Lily and their friendship.
“I’m really glad you came with me this week,” he said softly as he tried not to focus on the way her hand was tracing lazy circles on his chest.
“Mmm…me too,” she said. “This was a great idea.”
It was hard to focus but Cam trudged forward. “We’re supposed to have dinner with everyone tomorrow night, and I know we had planned to pretend to be involved and announce our relationship, but…”
Lily lifted her head from his shoulder, not liking where this was leading. “But what?”
“Well, things took a bit of a turn here, and I think that it would be best if…this stayed here,” he said awkwardly.
Lily sat completely upright and looked at him with disbelief. “Excuse me?”
Cam sat up beside her. “Lily, you and I have been friends forever, and I don’t want to do anything to risk that. I wouldn’t be able to handle it if you weren’t a part of my life. Your friendship has gotten me through some pretty rough times, and I treasure what we have.”
“I do too, Cam. I don’t understand where this is all going.” Lily was thoroughly confused. Her gut was telling her that he no longer wanted to sleep with her, but more than that, he didn’t even want to have a fake relationship with her.
“The physical turn in our relationship wasn’t something I had planned on, and I think lines are getting blurred. We both know it’s never good to combine sex with friendship. Eventually things get too awkward and the friendship suffers. I don’t want that for us. So I’m thinking that this”—he cleared his throat—“isn’t something we should continue once we get home.”
She stared at him like he was insane. Not continue this? Was he out of his mind? This was some of the most amazing sex of her life, and things hadn’t gotten weird between them at all. Why end it? Which is exactly what she asked him rather snappishly.
“It has been amazing; I’m not denying that. I just value our friendship more. Can you understand that?” His eyes were earnest as he tried to get her to see his point of view.
“And the fake relationship?” she asked coldly. “Is that something we should continue when we get home?” Cam nodded. “Just without the sex,” she stated matter-of-factly, and Cam nodded again. Lily considered her options. While this was not the way she had envisioned things going, all was not lost. The rules had changed several times already, and after these past few days, she was certain she could get him to change the rules again.
And she could even make him think it was his idea.
Reclining back on the pillows, Lily pulled the sheet up snugly around her and stared at the ceiling as she continued to ponder. She knew it was a tactic that would drive Cam mad. He was used to people quickly falling in line with what he wanted, and whenever she didn’t, it infuriated him.
Good. Let him stew.
Without a word, she kicked off the sheet, walked completely naked into the living room, grabbed a bottle of water from the mini-fridge, and then came back to bed as she drank. Then she resumed her earlier position and stared at the ceiling again. The tension was rolling off Cameron in waves to the point that Lily had to stifle the giggle that was dying to come out. After a solid five minutes, she turned and simply said, “Fine.”
Cam’s eyes grew wide. “Fine? That’s it? All this pressure, and all you have to say is fine?”
“What would you have me say, Cam?” she asked innocently. “Should I kick, scream, and carry on? I can’t force you to keep having sex with me, so what would you have me do? You want to go back to us just being friends who are pretending to date? Fine, that’s what we’ll do.”
“And you’re okay with it?”
“Sure.”
He didn’t like it. Cam couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong, but Lily never gave in to anything this easily. “So…we’re good?”
Lily nodded. “Of course. Why wouldn’t we be? We tried something new, and it didn’t work for you. Besides, you’re right; being friends is a better option. You’d probably make me crazy after a while with this dating thing. This way, we stop before any real damage is done. Plus, this means that if either of us meets someone we’re really interested in, even if it’s during the holidays, we’re free to date or sleep with them.” Lily did her best to sound blasé about the whole thing and the play of emotions on Cam’s face was nearly comical.
“No,” he said adamantly. “Absolutely not.”
Lily quirked an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?”
“Until the week after New Year’s, we are exclusive. No dating—and certainly no sleeping with anybody else!” Cam never raised his voice to Lily and he was surprised he was doing it now, but how dare she even suggest such a ridiculous concept! Sleep with other people while they were pretending to date? Why would she even consider that?
“So you’re telling me that I’m not only supposed to play the part of the fake girlfriend but I’m supposed to
be celibate too?”
“I didn’t think it was such a sacrifice,” he replied snarkily. “I mean, I never knew you to be unable to go for a couple of weeks without being intimate with a man.”
Unable to help herself, Lily burst out laughing. “Being intimate with a man? Is that how we’re speaking now? It’s sex, Cam. Sex. And I happen to enjoy it. And since you’re just my friend,” she reminded tartly, “and not my real boyfriend, you have no real say in what I do on my own time.”
This was so not going as he had planned. How had he lost control of the situation? Pinching the bridge of his nose, Cam counted to ten and then looked at Lily, who was sitting beside him like the picture of innocence. “Look,” he said calmly. “All I’m saying is that we both know a lot of the same people, and how would it look if someone knew you were sleeping with somebody else when you were supposed to be dating me?”
“How do we know it’s going to be me sleeping with somebody else? Maybe you’ll meet someone you want to sleep with.”
He highly doubted that. After these last couple of days, Cam doubted that he’d want to sleep with another woman for a very long time. “I’m not the one who can’t go without sex.”
“Good to know,” she said confidently. “Then you won’t mind if this last round of sex we just had was indeed our last round of sex.”
Cam jaw dropped. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that since you think our sleeping together wasn’t the smart thing to do, you won’t mind sleeping on the sofa bed tonight. We go back to our old relationship starting now.”
Like hell. If he was going to sacrifice having Lily to himself from now on, he wasn’t going to give up his last night with her. “As a matter of fact, I do mind.”
Lily smiled confidently. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Cam. I’m just following your rules.”
With lightning speed Cam turned and pinned Lily beneath him. “I don’t want cake,” he said huskily, “but I could definitely eat.” His mouth claimed hers, and Lily didn’t even bother trying to fight it. She instantly wrapped herself around him, and Cam wasn’t sure who the winner was in all of this. But as her tongue dueled with his, he realized that, right now, he didn’t even care.
Chapter 6
They walked into the usual controlled chaos at the home of Cam’s parents, Richard and Angela Greene. Everyone was talking at once while they were hugging and kissing Cam and Lily hello. After years of experiencing the same scene, Lily was able to have several conversations with different people as she made her way through the group and into the kitchen where she found her own parents and said hello.
Cam was by her side with his hand low on her back, and Lily couldn’t help but smile. He might not want to touch her, but she knew that deep down, he couldn’t help himself. Was he even aware he’d done nothing but touch her since they’d left the hotel that morning? He’d held her hand, touched her arm, kept his hand on her back… Other than while she was getting ready at her apartment once they got back into town, Cam had always had his hands on her in one way or another.
It was both amusing and arousing.
Cam had stepped away for a moment to tell his father and Lily’s dad about the conference when he noticed his mother heading toward Lily.
“So what’s new with you, Lily?” Angela Greene asked as she handed Lily a glass of wine.
“Well,” she began and then looked over her shoulder at Cam. He nodded, so Lily turned back and faced their parents and siblings. “Cam and I just got back from New York.”
“Oh really?” Angela said. “Did you have business in the city too?”
“No,” Cam said, coming over to stand beside Lily and put his arm around her. “I invited Lily to come with me. I thought it might be nice for us to get away before the hectic holiday schedule kicks in.” The room fell silent as their parents all looked at one another and then back to Cam and Lily.
“I-I don’t understand,” Angela said, confusion written all over her face.
“Well,” Lily said with a shy smile, “Cam and I wanted to have a little time away before we came here and told all of you that”—she looked at Cam again for confirmation—“we’re dating!”
The room became a flurry of activity, and it was like walking in all over again. Everyone began talking at once and asking questions. Lily and Cam were so in sync with one another that even though they had never discussed their “story,” their accounts were close enough that no one seemed to notice.
“It’s just so romantic…”
“We always hoped the two of you…”
“So it was a romantic getaway?”
“How long has this been going on?”
The questions came at them in rapid-fire succession, and they each took turns answering. Lily had to wonder if their announcement was real or fake because they seemed to be pulling it off. They really weren’t lying, because in her mind, what she and Cam were doing was one hundred percent real. She just had to convince Cam.
Conversation moved to the dining room as dinner was served. Angela made sure the two of them sat together, and by the time everyone was seated, their mothers seemed to be of one mind. “So this is real? This is serious?”
Cam picked up one of Lily’s hands and kissed it. “Yes, it is. I’ve been in love with Lily for a long time, but I never wanted to risk our friendship.”
“So what changed?” Mary Cavanaugh asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Cam looked lovingly at Lily as he spoke the truth for what seemed like the first time tonight. “Some things you just can’t fight. We didn’t plan this. It just sort of happened, and now that it has, I’m sorry we waited so long.” Lily’s gaze softened at his words, and it took all of Cam’s strength to not lean in and kiss her right now. But he remembered his rules. Although he knew he would have to kiss her in front of other people at times during the upcoming weeks, he had to be strong and only do it when absolutely necessary or he’d make himself crazy.
“The trip was amazing,” Lily said while everyone at the table simply sat and grinned at them. She told them all about Times Square and their hotel and the dinners they’d had with Cam’s colleagues. “We danced, and the food was amazing, and everything was already decorated for Christmas. It was all so beautiful. There was this spot by the banquet hall that had the most amazing display of mistletoe, and we always made sure we stopped and kissed under it before going in to dinner.” The women at the table sighed collectively, and Lily glanced back at Cam while doing her best to look like the adoring girlfriend. “It was all very romantic.”
“It sounds like it,” Angela said and then looked at her son with a wink. “Who knew my son could be such a romantic? I’m glad you finally came to your senses, Cameron. We’ve all known for years that you cared for Lily as more than a friend. I think I can speak for all of us when I say this is going to make the holidays even more special.” She looked over at Mary. “Just think of the excitement this is going to cause at all of the parties! I think people were starting to take bets on when the two of them would get together, weren’t they?”
Mary nodded. “I believe so.” She turned and looked at her daughter and Cam. “Seems like the two of you were the last to know.”
Lily knew she shouldn’t take that as a dig, but somehow she did. Her whole body tensed, but Cam gave her hand a slight squeeze to let her know that he was there for her. He spoke up. “We don’t really care what everyone else was thinking; we needed the time to be right for us. Let them think what they want. What Lily and I feel for each other needed to come out when the time was right. Our trip only confirmed it was the right decision to wait.” He kissed her hand again. “She was worth it.”
Their fathers finally interrupted and turned the topic of conversation to something they all could participate in. Cam was more than a little relieved for the break. He’d known their mothers were going to be thri
lled about their dating, but he hadn’t expected them to make such a big deal out of it. Slipping under the radar was no longer an option, and he had a feeling they were going to be thrust into the spotlight more than he had ever dreamed possible.
Once dinner was over and things were cleaned up, Angela and Mary took out their calendars and went through the list of social engagements they were all expected to attend. “And now with Cam and Lily’s big news, you know everyone is going to want to see them,” she said to the group as a whole. They were all sitting in the living room, and Cam had Lily tucked beside him with his arm around her. It felt natural and very comforting, although at the same time a little bizarre, because everyone kept looking at them and wanting to talk about them.
When Cam had come up with this idea, he’d figured they’d announce they were dating, and everyone would be happy and then move on. He didn’t expect them to become the event of the season.
“We’re going to decorate here tonight, and then we’ll all meet for dinner on Sunday at Mary and Jack’s to do all of their decorating. Thanksgiving will be here on Thursday,” Angela continued as she checked her list, “and then the Christmas parties will kick into gear!” Everyone began talking at once, and then Mary spoke up.
“We’ll be doing the Christmas cookie baking for the exchange at our place on the fifth, followed by the open house for friends and family on the eighth, and,” she said, looking to Angela to confirm, “you will be hosting the neighborhood get-together on the tenth, and then you have Richard’s company party on the twelfth, right?” Both Richard and Angela nodded. “Then”—she double-checked her list—“we have Jack’s company party on the sixteenth.” Again, everyone nodded.
“But this year we have a surprise,” Richard Greene said, addressing the group. He looked at his daughters, Megan and Lisa, and their husbands, John and Michael, and then to Cam and Lily and Lily’s sister, Beth, and her husband, Kevin, before finally focusing on the senior Cavanaughs with a smile. “We’re breaking tradition this year for the first time. We’ve rented a place up in the mountains to spend Christmas week and New Year’s!” All of the adult children looked at one another and then their parents, and mass confusion ensued as everyone began asking questions at once.
Mistletoe Between Friends / The Snowflake Inn Page 6