“Call me Shelby,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
The two of them could stand in the front hallway of Zach’s house for the rest of the night staring at each other. Zach’s other sisters must have wondered what the holdup was. They streamed out of what must have been the kitchen.
Three of them looked a lot like Zach—dark blond hair, hazel or green eyes, big smiles, and somewhat tall. Whitney was dark haired, petite, and not smiling. She regarded Cameron warily.
Her two older sisters glanced between Chuck and Shelby and nudged each other. One stepped toward him and stretched out her hands. “I’m Ashley,” she told him. “I’ll take the pizza into the kitchen, if you’d like.”
“I’m Chuck. Just point me there,” he said. He managed to tear his eyes away from Shelby for a moment. She trailed behind him with the salad and the bag of drinks.
Ashley and Courtney nudged each other again.
“We never even got a chance,” Courtney joked.
“He’s gorgeous,” Ashley agreed. She turned toward Cameron. “I bet it’s awful having that guy following you around all day.” The sisters grinned at her. The corners of Whitney’s mouth even turned up a little.
“He typically keeps to himself, but there’s usually two of them. They’re both pretty nice to look at.”
“Is the other one single?” Ashley asked.
“I think they both are,” Cameron said. “I’ll find out for you.”
To her surprise, Courtney reached out for her hand. “Come on, Cameron. Let’s go introduce you to our grandma.”
A few minutes later, the group sat around a well-worn kitchen table that had been hastily set by Whitney. Butter was shown to his crate for a nap. Chuck made sure he was sitting next to Shelby. They tried to pretend like they were interested in the conversations swirling around them, but Cameron noticed they half-turned toward each other and the food really wasn’t disappearing off of their plates.
Whitney chose the chair farthest away from Cameron’s. Zach’s grandma sat down next to her, though.
Zach’s grandma was probably in her mid-seventies. Her gray hair was twisted into a loose bun on top of her head, and she wore reading glasses on a brightly-colored beaded chain around her neck. The joints of her hands were swollen and misshapen with what Cameron imagined was arthritis. She didn’t move quickly, either. At the same time, her smile was bright. Cameron was willing to bet that Francesca made the pitcher full of iced sweet tea that graced the middle of the table.
“I’m Francesca. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m happy to meet you, too, Francesca. Would you like some pizza, or would you like me to get you some more sweet tea?”
“I think I’d like some more pizza, please. How about some of that vegetarian kind, unless the girls have eaten it all?” She leaned closer to Cameron. “Maybe we can have a talk later.”
“I would like that.”
Francesca’s pale blue eyes locked onto Cameron’s. “My grandson is still in love with you.”
All she could do was nod.
“I think you’re still in love with him, too, or you wouldn’t have braved coming here by yourself. What’s the holdup?” Francesca said.
Cameron could tell Francesca that it was none of her business, or she could make up something that would placate a nice older woman who wanted her grandson to be happy. She couldn’t do it. She pushed the salad around on her plate with her fork.
“We have a geographical problem, among others,” she said. “Also, my father owes Zach a huge and heartfelt apology. I’m not sure he’ll ever give him one.”
Francesca picked up her slice of pizza and nibbled on one end. She dabbed the napkin to her mouth. “Your dad will butt out when he sees you’re happy.”
“You’ve never met my father. He doesn’t know the meaning of the words ‘butt out.’”
“I’ve heard a lot about him.” Francesca patted Cameron’s hand with her frailer, wrinkled one. “He’ll come around. Most parents do.”
“I don’t know, Francesca.” She let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair. “Why do you think he would do that?”
“Old age is a good time to look back on your mistakes in life and do the best you can to make things right with the people that you’ve hurt. I know he wants you to be happy.”
Cameron took a bite of her pizza instead of telling Francesca that her father thought regrets were for the weak. She also wondered how her life would have been different if she were part of this family instead of the one she was born into. She loved her parents and her sister. There just wasn’t a lot of warmth or the informality of people who knew they were loved and accepted for who they were.
The sisters continued to talk and laugh with each other around the table, drawing Chuck and Cameron into their conversation.
Chuck got to his feet and glanced over at Francesca. “Does anyone here need anything else while you’re visiting?” He was met with a chorus of “no, thank you.”
“Well, then. I’ll make myself scarce so you all can chat some more . . .”
“That won’t be necessary,” Shelby told him. “We’ll get this cleaned up a little, and we can all go hang out in the family room. How about that?”
Cameron got to her feet and helped the sisters clear the table. There was an entire pizza left; she stashed the box in their refrigerator. The group made their way into the family room and sprawled out on a huge, overstuffed sectional couch and a couple of comfy-looking overstuffed chairs.
Ashley made sure Francesca was settled into one of the chairs close to the couch, then put her glass of sweet tea next to her on a low end table. She gave her grandma a pat on the shoulder, and glanced over at Cameron.
“So, Cameron, we’ve heard Zach’s description of what happened ten years ago in Las Vegas. Maybe you could tell us why you married our brother and then wanted a divorce three days later.”
Chapter Twenty-One
* * *
CAMERON GLANCED AROUND the room at the five women. Their facial expressions ranged from a bit skeptical (Shelby’s) to angry (Whitney’s). Chuck was pretending to read a sports magazine he’d grabbed off of the coffee table. Francesca reached out to pat Cameron’s hand again. Cameron had been thinking about answers to the questions she’d imagined were coming since Zach had told her he wanted her to have dinner with his family. She still wasn’t sure what to say, so maybe it was best to stick with the truth.
The best place to start any story was at the beginning. She pulled air into her lungs.
“I went to Las Vegas the weekend before I graduated from college. I wanted to go to a place where nobody knew me for a few days so I could think about what to do with my life.”
“And?” Ashley said.
“The hotel I was staying at had a nightclub, so I thought I’d dance a little. After a while, I wanted a drink. I went up to the bar, and Zach was standing next to me. He offered to buy my drink. When he held out the money to the bartender, he accidentally tipped his beer over on both of us. He was so apologetic and funny, I couldn’t be mad at him. He asked me to dance. We had so much fun.”
“How did you go from ‘Oops, sorry about that’ to ‘I do’ in one evening?” Courtney asked.
“Zach and I danced together until the wee hours.” There was a lot of drinking, too, but maybe she should leave that part out. “He asked me if I wanted to get some pancakes, so we went to a diner.” She forced herself to stop fidgeting. “We couldn’t stop talking to each other. I felt like I’d known him my entire life. After he ate a lot of pancakes”—she heard Ashley’s laughter—“we walked outside and found a limo driver idling at the curb. Zach asked the guy if he could take us to Red Rocks.”
“What’s Red Rocks?” Whitney said.
“It’s a huge rock formation in the desert outside of Las Vegas. It’s very beautiful,” Shelby said. Cameron noticed Whitney’s sisters scooting closer to her. Ashley put an arm around Whitney’s shoulders, which seemed to soothe Whitney.
/> “We went to Red Rocks to watch the sun rise.” Cameron still remembered that morning—the chill of a desert waking up for the day, the sun sliding over the horizon, and Zach’s arms around her. She’d never forget him saying “Marry me. Right now” into her ear, either.
“What happened then?” Courtney asked.
“Zach proposed to me, and I said yes.”
“Even though you knew each other for less than ten hours?” Whitney said.
“By the time we walked into the wedding chapel, we’d known each other for ten hours.”
“Why would you marry someone you didn’t even know?” Whitney asked. “Is it because he’s rich?”
Her three older sisters spoke at once.
“Whitney, that’s rude.”
“Shhh.”
“Let her finish her story.”
Whitney looked mutinous.
Cameron recrossed her legs. The three older sisters had unfolded their arms and were listening carefully. They weren’t her BFFs yet, but they were at least letting her explain. Whitney wasn’t giving her an inch.
“I understand why you probably think it’s weird.” Cameron stared at her hands clenched in her lap. “I wasn’t especially sober at the time, but that wasn’t the reason. I said yes to Zach’s proposal because I wanted my life to be different, and I knew if I married him it would be.” She made her living by knowing the right thing to say at all times, but right now, searching for words to explain the immediate attraction she’d had for their brother, the fact she knew she wanted the simple life he embraced and envied his enthusiasm for things and people sounded so incomplete, even to her.
She had to try. She watched as Shelby, Ashley, and Courtney’s arms folded over their chests again. They thought she was insulting him, and that wasn’t the case at all.
“Please tell me exactly what you mean by your life being different by marrying Zach,” Courtney said. She didn’t sound happy. Her sisters were nodding.
“Obviously he’s handsome, and I was attracted. Even more, he’s interesting to talk with. He loves the little things—going out for pancakes at three o’ clock in the morning, watching the sun rise. He told me that he’d been drafted by the Sharks and he was due in training camp in a couple of months, but that wasn’t all we talked about. He told me about all of you. He is so proud of each of you and your achievements. You were all in school at the time, he said. He talked about your good grades, which sports you went out for, and the fact that Whitney painted a huge canvas for the dining room of the house you all lived in. He told me that he wanted to do great things in life so you’d be proud of him, too,” Cameron said.
Shelby leaned forward to hear Cameron’s voice more clearly.
“He was so sweet and modest,” Cameron said. “He asked me questions about myself. The guys I dated asked me about myself, but they didn’t seem to care what I had to say. He asked me what I thought I might want to do next in life. He listened while I talked to him about wanting something different than what my parents wanted for me. He didn’t laugh. He encouraged me to go after the things I wanted. He could have told me I was a spoiled little rich girl and I had no idea how bad things could get in life, but he didn’t do that, either. I didn’t have a clue how rough it was for your family when you were growing up. He never told me. When I look back on it, Zach must have thought I was shallow and superficial, but he—I think I fell in love with him then and there.”
Cameron took a deep breath. Just thinking about the nights she’d spent with Zach ten years ago made her heart beat faster. She’d been so certain that he would change her life. But then it all fell apart. He’d never gotten that chance. After all, she had everything anyone else would want, or so she’d been told since she was old enough to receive yet another parental lecture about how she was disappointing them. Zach showed her things money couldn’t buy—things she wanted desperately.
Francine leaned forward in her chair and patted Cameron’s hand. She appreciated the quiet support from a woman she hoped had already forgiven her.
“So, we got married. I understand other people would think that was ridiculous. If we were so in love, maybe we should have waited to see if we were suited for each other. I know it sounds so stupid, but I knew he was the one.” She picked up the glass of water she’d set on the little end table next to her and took a sip. His sisters were still silent.
“We went back to the hotel and didn’t leave our room for three days. I called my parents the second day we were married and told them I was coming back to New York long enough to pack my things and get my college diploma, and then I was moving to Seattle to live with Zach. I told them I was happy, and that I hoped they would be happy for me. They weren’t.” She heaved a sigh. “I’m not sure why I thought they would accept our marriage, but they didn’t. Zach needed to run an errand at the gift shop the third day we were at the hotel, and he didn’t come back. It should have only taken him a few minutes to get back to the room. I called his phone, and he didn’t answer. I called the front desk to ask if they had seen him. I got dressed and went downstairs to see if something was wrong or he’d gotten hurt somehow.”
She took another sip of water. Her mouth was dry, and she wondered if they would think she was even weirder if she just chugged the contents of her glass. “He’d checked out of the hotel. He didn’t call me back. He hadn’t left any kind of message. I was so freaked out I called my parents to ask if I should file a missing person’s report. My dad called me back.”
She was shaking now. She couldn’t seem to get enough breath into her lungs. She remembered how she felt when she listened to her father tell her Zach had demanded five million dollars to sign the annulment paperwork he’d had drawn up. “We told you he just wanted your money,” her father spat out over the phone that day, “but you didn’t listen. You don’t listen to us at all. He never loved you. He knew he was walking away from this with millions.”
The five women in the room didn’t care about her family problems. They cared about Zach and they’d believed she’d married him, then told her dad to get her a divorce as soon as possible. Shelby got up from the couch and stooped down in front of Cameron.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re shaking and really pale. Take a deep breath, Cameron.”
“I’m fine—” She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing until her racing heartbeat slowed and she was calm again. She’d had panic attacks before. This was random anxiety, which she knew how to deal with. She felt someone sit down next to her and take her hand.
“Things are fine. I’m just checking your pulse,” Courtney said. “Take a few more deep breaths.” She laid two fingers over Cameron’s wrist. “Are you dizzy or faint?”
“No. I’ll be okay.” Just talking about what her dad had done in front of other people was humiliating. She knew other people had to deal with overbearing parents, but she knew her dad was over the top on all occasions. If she was freaking out over telling Zach’s sisters what happened, she was going to need some type of sedative to get through the conversation she still had to have with him.
Courtney patted her hand. “Your pulse is normal. Would you like some more water or a little something to nibble on? You didn’t eat a lot at dinner.”
“No, thank you. I’ll be fine. Back to the story.” She glanced around the room. Francine had scooted to the edge of the chair next to her, and without a word she reached out for Cameron’s other hand. Courtney didn’t move from her seat next to Cameron. Shelby and Ashley still flanked Whitney, whose hands were now clasped loosely in her lap.
“My dad told me he was in Las Vegas and he and his attorney had signed and witnessed annulment paperwork from Zach. He also told me Zach had demanded five million dollars to sign them.” She heard gasps from around the room.
“He did not!” Shelby said.
“Zach said he tore up the check in front of your dad,” Courtney said.
“Why did your dad lie?” Whitney said.
“Di
d you try to contact Zach at all?” Francesca said.
“I called his cell phone so many times. I even called the Sharks headquarters when he went to training camp the first time. He never called me back or acknowledged my trying to contact him, either. I finally found out why.”
Francesca squeezed her hand. Cameron knew she’d asked her question aloud for Whitney’s benefit.
“My dad had filed a restraining order against Zach before he flew to Las Vegas with his lawyer and the paperwork they forced Zach to sign. If Zach called me or contacted me in any way, he’d go to jail. Zach finally told me three weeks ago, and I checked it out with Chuck’s help.” Five pairs of eyes swiveled to look at Chuck, who’d abandoned all pretense of reading.
“Why would your dad do such a thing?” Courtney demanded.
“He wanted me to marry someone else.” Cameron knew explaining her dad to Zach’s family would take all night. She still couldn’t believe the lengths her father had gone to or that he still believed he’d done nothing to apologize for. She heaved a sigh. “I didn’t want to marry the other guy. I didn’t want my parents’ life. I wanted Zach.”
Francesca didn’t have much of a grip on Cameron’s hand, but her touch was comforting. At least one person in the room believed her.
“There’s a couple more things I need to tell all of you. Zach and I are together. There’s issues that still need to be worked out between us, but we want to stay with each other. I have already told my dad to butt out of our lives, but I am going to make sure he knows any more interference in my life, or your lives, is unacceptable. I’d like it if we could be friends someday. It would mean a lot to me. My family isn’t especially close, and, well, I—I would like that.”
She could hear the proverbial pin drop, but she saw Courtney, Ashley and Shelby smile. One of Whitney’s eyebrows went up. She was silent.
The sisters glanced at each other, and Shelby said, “I’m glad you’re here, Cameron.”
“Want some more water?” Ashley asked her.
“I can get it,” Cameron said.
Catching Cameron: A Love and Football Novel Page 23