A Reason to Be Alone (The Camdyn Series Book 2)

by Christina Coryell

  “I can only imagine!” I giggled. “My grandma never gave me ‘the talk.’”

  “Really? Well, let’s go back inside then. I’m sure Mom could give you a quick briefing.”

  “Absolutely not! Don’t you dare breathe a word about that to her, either.”

  “Don’t worry – I wouldn’t inflict that on you!” he chuckled. We drove the short distance to Cole’s house, and Jeff’s truck pulled in right behind us. We walked through Cole’s garage, and I couldn’t help but notice that my stuff was missing. There was only one box sitting there.

  “Where did my things go?” I asked as Rachel strolled up behind me.

  “They’re all inside now,” Cole explained. “There wasn’t much left after your books. I put your clothes in the closet, and your box of unfortunate incident clothing.”

  “Unfortunate incident clothing?” Rachel wondered. “I have to hear more about this.”

  “Camdyn has a whole box full of clothes she’s had to borrow when something bad happened to her. My personal favorite was a pair of her brother’s boxer shorts.”

  “That sounds like clumsy people problems,” Rachel stated with a smirk.

  “I guess that’s about right!” I told her. “Is this the box Charlie sent, Cole?” I pointed to the lone cardboard box, and he nodded. I ripped back the tape and popped it open to reveal a smorgasbord of colors and textures, and immediately I knew what those things were. When I came back from Italy, I had angrily thrown all the things my mother had given me over the years into a trash bag and set them out by the curb. Grandma must have retrieved them and put them back in the attic. Instinctively, I stepped back and pulled my hands away.

  “What is it, Camdyn?” Rachel wanted to know.

  “Junk that Rita gave me,” I muttered.

  “Sure doesn’t look like junk,” Jeff interjected. Rachel turned quickly and told him to hush. I reached down and pulled out the hand-painted jewelry box, and then I knelt and held it in front of Charlotte. Popping open the front compartment, I watched as a little couple swirled around from opposite corners and met in the middle, twirling around each other three times before retreating to their separate corners again. Charlotte watched with wide eyes and then let out a little “wow.”

  “Do you hear that, Charlotte?” I asked. She shook her head very seriously, intently straining to listen. “It’s saying it wants to go home with you. Will you take it home for me?”

  “This is for Princess Char-lott-a?” she asked in lilting syllables, eyes wide.

  “No, of course not,” Rachel whispered. “Camdyn, she will destroy that. That has to be worth a lot of money.”

  “I guess I can throw it in the garbage…” I murmured. Rachel gasped and held out her hands, allowing me to pass her the jewelry box.

  “I feel like a thief,” she muttered, and I only laughed and shook my head.

  “Well, I feel like a victim of a heinous crime,” I stated. “I don’t know why on earth Charlie would send this stuff to me now.”

  “He didn’t know what was in it,” Cole assured me. “He said it was all sealed up in the attic with your name written on the outside.”

  Charlotte had gotten over her initial shyness, and she was full-out buried in the box now. She pulled out a couple of cashmere scarves, and as she handed them to me I folded them and set them to the side. She kept digging, not pulling out any more contents, and suddenly I could tell she had something in her hand.

  “Ooh, shiny,” she marveled, holding up a pair of diamond earrings. I allowed her to drop them into my hand, and then I held them out to Rachel with a sly smile.

  “No, I couldn’t,” Rachel stammered. “You can’t give up diamonds – that’s ridiculous.”

  “I’ve rejected plenty of diamonds in my lifetime,” I joked, smiling at Cole mischievously. “Although if you think Jeff might be giving you something similar soon, I understand why you don’t want them.”

  “You better just take those,” Jeff commanded with a laugh. Reluctantly Rachel accepted them from my hand and cradled them carefully between her palms, peeking at them between her thumbs. It reminded me of the way I used to hold lightning bugs as a kid, peering into my hands to see their little glowing bodies.

  “Princess baby,” Charlotte cooed, pulling out a doll dressed in designer clothing.

  “Her name is Anastasia,” I said quietly. “She thinks you would be a wonderful mother.”

  “Yes, I am,” she stated seriously, gazing up at me with those beautiful eyes as she held the doll tenderly.

  “Then you take her with you and give her a good home, okay?” She beamed up at me, and Rachel no longer protested. Having lost interest in the box, Charlotte took Anastasia to a corner of the garage and started stroking her hair. Cole wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we watched her as she sang a little lullaby and pretended that her baby was sleeping.

  “What else is in the box of wonders?” Jeff wanted to know, and he started digging. Pulling out a handbag, he held it aloft. “Looks expensive.”

  “You’re right about that,” I acknowledged. “I’ll give it to Rosalie. She’ll get a kick out of it.”

  “Swanky dress,” Jeff continued, pulling a green print out of the box.

  “Brought that home from Italy,” I told him. “Rachel?”

  “I’ll take it!” she said, not hesitating. I couldn’t help but laugh at her sudden change of attitude.

  “Coat,” Jeff announced as he pulled a charcoal-colored trench from the box. My breath caught in my throat a little.

  “Burberry…” I mumbled, gazing at it lustfully and biting my lip. “I think I’ll actually keep that.” I felt almost guilty speaking the words, even though technically it was mine. Instantly that infuriated me, because I knew that Rita was somehow still playing mind games on me from across the ocean.

  Jeff pulled out a few more items, and I passed the majority of them to Rachel. I saved the cashmere scarves for Liz, and a second designer handbag I decided to give to Lily. At the bottom of the box were my plane ticket and a couple of postcards that I had purchased while I was in Italy. The last item was an old-fashioned looking brown sweater, which Jeff held up quizzically.

  “Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed quietly. “I completely forgot I had that.”

  “Your mom gave you an old lady sweater?” Rachel asked with a grimace, causing me to laugh uncomfortably.

  “No, she didn’t give it to me. It was Maria.”

  “Maria?” Cole questioned with a raise of his eyebrows.

  “The housekeeper. She saw me leaving that last night in Italy, and she insisted that I take her sweater so I wouldn’t get cold. I don’t know what to do with it – maybe put it in the box with the other things I’ve had to borrow. It was an unfortunate incident, after all.”

  I spent a couple of minutes helping Rachel take all her newfound swag to the truck while Charlotte continued to play with Anastasia, and then Rachel and I strolled in the backyard. She linked her arm through mine and pointed to a break in the rows of trees where a doe and a fawn were standing together. They took no notice of us, but kept moving throughout the brush as though they were alone in the world.

  “It’s really beautiful here, isn’t it?” Rachel whispered. “I’m a little jealous of you, getting to wake up every morning and look out at this view.”

  “I know,” I assured her. “I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve pinched myself.”

  “Just don’t go off for your big city television appearances and forget about us,” she cautioned teasingly.

  “Not even possible,” I stated. “This place, and all of you, are home to me now.”

  “What did you think of Cole building that gazebo?” she asked conspiratorially, a glint in her eyes.

  “I don’t even know what to say, because thinking about it makes me speechless,” I admitted, holding onto her arm a little tighter as we continued to watch the deer. “Honestly, I keep waiting for him to realize that he has the wrong girl. If I
can make it through the next two weeks without him waking up and figuring that out, maybe that will be enough.”

  “Wrong girl,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Cole thinks the sun rises and sets with you. If you can’t see that, you’re blind.”

  “Everything’s just going so right – it’s almost frightening,” I admitted. “I’m accustomed to things being more…difficult, I guess.”

  “Don’t wish for things to be difficult!” she ordered with a laugh. “Speaking of difficult, did you think of a wedding gift for Cole? I saw the look of panic in your eyes the day I mentioned it to you.” We sat down near the fire pit, and I smiled over at her.

  “I was a bit panicked, I will admit. It’s all taken care of now, though, and it will be perfect.”

  “What is it?” she wanted to know. I shook my head as I stretched out my legs and crossed them over one another.

  “Oh, no,” I replied. “There’s no way I’m telling you. I know you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

  “Keep a secret about what?” Cole asked, walking up behind us with Charlotte in his arms. Jeff was right behind them with Charlotte’s doll, and Charlotte was leaning over Cole’s shoulder trying to get to Anastasia.

  “Nothing,” I insisted with a smirk, and Rachel lowered her eyes to the ground to avoid Cole’s eye contact.

  “Hey,” Jeff interjected, “what are you guys doing tomorrow night? Maybe we could all go to Jackson and catch a game, or to Memphis if you wanted to go a little farther.”

  “That sounds awesome, but we have a previous engagement,” Cole informed him. “Trust me – I would do almost anything to get out of it.”

  “What previous engagement?” I questioned him. “If it’s so terrible, let’s go with Jeff and Rachel.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s not possible,” Cole said, lowering himself down next to me and setting Charlotte on her feet to go running for Anastasia. “Your minister of choice wants to talk about the wedding, and possibly give us some premarital counseling. And before you laugh, those were his exact words. If he had told me in person instead of over the phone, I might have knocked him in the head.”

  “Do you want me to look for another minister?” I asked him seriously. He raised one of his eyebrows and peered down at me like he was getting ready to give me a lecture.

  “I don’t see how you could do it now,” he stated, “not without crushing his tiny man-spirit. He feels like he’s going to be this hugely important part of our day, and if you cut him out now, he’ll be devastated.”

  “It will be fine, really,” I assured him.

  “You keep telling me that, but so far it hasn’t made me feel better. Tony’s my friend, and I would do just about anything for the guy, but he’s such a wild card. It seems like it would have been better not to have taken that chance.”

  Tony is a wild card – that’s true. That’s one of the things I like about him, though.

  “I’m a wild card, too,” I told Cole, “but you were willing to take a chance on me.” He smiled and put his arm around me, drawing me closer. I looked up at Rachel, who rolled her eyes at Cole’s showing of affection.

  “That’s different,” he said.

  “How so?”

  “Because you’re the other half of my heart.”

  “Oh, give me a break!” Jeff lamented. “Do you really have to spout off that kind of crap in front of your sister? I get enough grief about not being romantic without you rubbing our faces in it every time we’re around.”

  “I’m sorry, Rachel,” Cole insisted, “that your husband is such a stick in the mud.”

  “That’s okay,” Rachel stated with a grin. “He keeps asking me why I don’t look at him the way Camdyn looks at you, and I tell him it’s because he doesn’t say romantic things. That, and the new has worn off.”

  “Well, whatever it is, I hope it doesn’t wear off,” Cole laughed, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek.

  “It will,” Jeff stated matter-of-factly, causing Rachel to roll her eyes once again. “Rach, we better get going. It’s already past Charlotte’s bedtime.”

  “I need to take you home, too,” Cole said, pulling me up from my seated position. We all walked to the front of the yard, and within minutes Jeff and Rachel had Charlotte in the backseat and they were ready to go. They waved at us where we stood next to Cole’s truck.

  “Let me know how the premarital counseling goes!” Jeff yelled out the window as he rolled up the driveway.

  “Do you see what I have to put up with because of you?” Cole asked, and then he pulled me into a big hug.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It felt so good to wake up in my familiar surroundings at the bed and breakfast that Friday morning that I sprang out of bed humming a happy little tune. Hitting the road early for my run even felt wonderful, and I thought I could practically take on the world. Rather than the entire world, though, I settled on a two-mile stretch of highway. Other than the noise of an occasional engine as a car streamed past me, I only heard the soft twittering of birds and the sound of my own purple sneakers pounding against the road.

  My four-mile round trip was almost complete with the bed and breakfast in sight when a small blue car came around the corner. It only took a moment to realize that the driver was distracted on the phone and didn’t notice me. Waiting until the last possible second to react, hoping desperately that she would awaken from her phone coma, I ultimately ended up leaping into the ditch to avoid being a splatter on the pavement. From my prone position, I watched as the car continued down the road, with the woman not bothering to throw me a backwards glance. Muttering under my breath, I stood to walk to the bed and breakfast gingerly on a sore ankle, my happy morning a little more somber.

  Upon meeting Rosalie in the kitchen, the morning turned a little drearier. She was busy cooking a meal that looked more suitable to dinner than breakfast, and when I asked what she was doing, she quickly informed me that a woman at her church had passed away. After she gave me all the details, complete with a few tears, I asked if I could do anything. She laughingly told me that I could take a shower, because I was tracking dirt into her house. It was only then that I noticed my disheveled appearance from taking a dive into the ditch.

  I half-hobbled to the bathroom, my ankle not quite normal, and cleaned myself up. The ankle would be fine in a couple of days, of that I was pretty certain, but I probably wouldn’t be doing any more running until then.

  After dressing casually in a pair of cargo shorts and a t-shirt, I wandered back out to the kitchen to see if I could help Rosalie. At first she told me she had everything under control. Once she started thinking about her day, though, and realized that she still had a lot of cleaning to do before her guests arrived, she changed her tune. Together we changed the sheets upstairs and cleaned the bathrooms, and then she asked me if I would take the food she cooked over to Liz. They had made plans to deliver everything together, but she didn’t feel that she would have time. After assuring her that I would be happy to do that, we loaded the delicious-smelling food into my car. As I opened the driver’s-side door, she told me not to feel like I had to hurry back with a knowing smile.

  Okay, I know I have a tendency to get distracted, but am I that bad?

  Only a few minutes later I pulled into the driveway and bounded up to the front door, knocking eagerly. Expecting to be greeted with Liz’s familiar happiness to see me, I was instead met by Ted wearing a goofy, floppy hat. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

  “Rosalie sent me over with some food,” I told him, and he nodded.

  “Lizzie went to the store, but she’ll be back in a few minutes.” He glanced upwards at his hat and then an easy grin spread across his face. “I was just getting ready to go fishing.”

  “Ah, fishing, my old nemesis,” I stated with a laugh. When he joined in, I knew instinctively that someone had filled him in on the details of our camping trip.

  “The problem is, you went fishing with a bunch of amateu
rs,” he said with a slight southern lilt to his voice.

  “That was the problem?” I asked sarcastically. “And here I thought I was just an accident waiting to happen!”

  “Well, I’m not going to dispute that,” he replied, adding a wink for good measure. “Why don’t you come with me? I’ll have you fishing like a country girl in no time.”

  “Are you sure? I’m likely to injure you in some way.”

  “I’m not scared,” he chuckled, heading back into the house. I waited on the porch until he reemerged holding another one of those floppy hats, which he unceremoniously dropped onto my head. He helped me carry the food inside and I left a note for Liz, and then the two of us headed down the gravel road in his pickup, further and further from civilization. It only took me a few minutes to realize that, in the same way Cole was continually singing, Ted had a habit of humming. By the time we pulled up next to the river, I was fighting the urge to hum along with him.

  As Ted lifted two fishing poles and a tackle box from the bed of the truck, I stood there somewhat awkwardly on the riverbank thinking that I hadn’t really thought this through. Ted and I hadn’t really spoken much at all, and I had never been alone with him.

  That being said, there was a pretty good chance this was going to end up being awkward and weird.

  I must have had quite a look on my face, because when Ted made his way over to me he immediately started chuckling and handed me one of the poles.

  “What did Cole show you about fishing?” he wanted to know.

  Um, let’s see…hold the fish?

  “Pretty much nothing,” I stated with a sigh. When I watched Ted’s eyebrows go up, I had a feeling that he was thinking he had his work cut out for him.

  “Well, I guess we can just bait our hooks and get started, then,” he told me. I looked down at my pole and decided that was doable.

  “Okay, so where is it?” I asked.