“Hi, Mommy,” she said the moment the back door flew open.
“Hi, baby girl. How was camp?” While snapping herself into the booster seat, she rolled her eyes with a sigh, forcing me to twist around to hide my smile. My daughter could be dramatic, forcing me to ask, “What happened?”
“Griffin won’t quit looking at me. So, when I told him to stop, he said that I played basketball like a girl,” she grumbled as I pulled out into the road. “So… I challenged him to a game. Just me and him.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he didn’t want to make me look bad.” She again lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “Yeah, right.”
“Maybe that was just his way to play with you, sweetie.”
“Why?”
“Um… maybe because he likes you.”
“You mean like Trey likes you?” What? “Isn’t that why he comes over all the time?”
Shit.
“No, silly.” I left it at that, hoping she’d move on to something else.
I wasn’t ready to answer questions of who Trey was and why he came around. If I admitted that Trey liked spending time with her, she’d have a slew of questions as to why. But I knew my daughter well and having to explain him was inevitable.
Just as I pulled up at the curb in front of our apartment, she stated, “Boys are weird. I’ll ask Trey. He’s a boy.” I offered a smile before getting out of the car. When I opened her door, she hopped out and asked, “Is he coming over today?”
“No, sweetheart, not today.” I tried to ignore how the little pout on her face mimicked the disappointment I felt in my heart.
Suddenly, she shrugged and threw out, “Okay, I’ll just call him later then.”
Great.
The moment she ate the last piece of chicken, Alivia insisted on calling Trey to tell him about Griffin. Once she gave him a play-by-play, I watched her listen intently before she said goodbye and hung up.
“What did Trey say?” I asked, curiosity and concern getting the best of me.
“He said that sometimes boys are mean and to stay away from Griffin.”
That was the last that she said of her nemesis. During her bath, she then rambled on about a carnival her camp was having before conking out by eight p.m., exhausted.
Just as I flipped off her light, I received a text.
I think I need to pay this Griffin dude a visit.
Please don’t.
Not promising that.
When my cell rang, I assumed it was him until I saw a number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Camilla, it’s Leila. Is this a bad time?”
“Oh hi,” I said a lot less skeptically. “No, not at all. I just didn’t know who it was since I forgot to save your number when you sent me a text.”
“Well then, I’m glad you picked up. I always ignore calls I don’t recognize.”
Another call coming in forced me to say, “Hold on, Leila.” When I tapped to answer it, I immediately said, “Hey, Deb. I’m just on the phone with Leila. I’ll call you right back.”
“Leila Lair? Oh my God. What does she want?”
“If you let me go, I can find out.”
“Call me right back!” she barked over the line.
I clicked back to Leila. “Sorry.”
“No problem. I was just calling to see if you and Alivia would like to join us at our beach house on July Fourth weekend.” Having been thrown completely off guard, I remained silent as my mind spun. “Are you there?” she asked with a lilt to her voice.
“Oh, yes, sorry. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that. Does Trey know you’re inviting us?”
“Of course,” she replied easily. “We’d love to have you, and Alivia would have a great time with the kids. You can come for the day or stay for the weekend. We have plenty of room.” Sensing my hesitancy, she went on to say, “I’ll send you my address, and you can decide either way. No pressure if you’d rather pass. I understand.”
“Okay, thank you, Leila. I appreciate the invite.”
“My pleasure. Have a good night.”
“You too.” I stared at my cell long after the screen went black, with so many questions bouncing around in my mind.
Should we go?
Would it send him the wrong message?
Wasn’t all this happening too soon?
I had no idea what to do. The thought of meeting the entire band and their families scared the living crap out of me. But refusing the invite could send a message that I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to send. I liked getting along with Trey these past two weeks. We were in a much better place, and declining would no doubt upset him.
“Shit,” I said to myself, not knowing what I should do. Guessing I’d taken too long to call her, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see a text from Debbie.
Dying here.
With a sigh, I tapped her contact info. “Sorry, I was just going to call you back.”
“First off, you better not be replacing me with Leila Lair. I can’t compete with that kind of perfection… and I need to remind you that you love all of my flaws.”
“Shut up. I’m not replacing you.”
“What did she want?” I relayed my brief but mind-boggling call with Leila, including my response to her invite. “You have to go,” Debbie stated matter-of-factly.
“Part of me agrees, but I’m worried this is all happening too fast.”
“What is?” At my long pause, she went on. “It’s been seven years since that night, Cam… that’s a long time coming and not too fast.”
Sure, not when it came to Trey spending time with his daughter, but that wasn’t what I worried about. Then again, I couldn’t very well admit that lately I’d been thinking of him in ways other than as my daughter’s father.
“Camilla, please stop overthinking this. You can’t keep fighting the fact he’s in your life now.” She was right. Saying no would piss him off, shove him back into a defensive mode. Regardless of what the future held, at the very least I now knew co-parenting with Trey was a reality. “You need to accept that invite.”
I expelled a conceding breath over the line. “I know.”
Chapter 15
Trey
We were an hour into the drive down to the Shore, and I could count everything Camilla had said on one hand.
I glanced over at the way she sulked while staring sullenly out the window. With Alivia sitting between us, I couldn’t ask her to enlighten me as to why she had a giant stick up her ass. But the moment we had a minute alone, once I pushed the right buttons, I’d no doubt get an earful.
At first, I was shocked to learn that Camilla had accepted Leila’s invite. Originally, I credited her decision to the progress we’d made over these past few weeks. But a few days ago, when we got around to discussing the upcoming weekend, she was right back to her old self, fighting me on every suggestion I made.
Wanting Alec to drive the three of us down the night before the Fourth, she argued that she’d rather drive herself down the morning of. I wanted her and Alivia to stay over that night, but she argued it would be way too awkward.
Turned out I could be a stubborn bastard when I wanted to be. It may have taken a while, but I finally broke her down. Not only were we heading to the Lairs’ in the back of our security company’s SUV, which Alec was driving, but we were also cruising down the parkway on July 3 with luggage holding a few days’ worth of clothing.
We had been getting along nicely—finally—until something caused her to retreat back to her pissy old self. And I suspected it didn’t have anything to do with my pushing them to join us for the weekend. If it had, Camilla wouldn’t have given in without a bigger fight. Something else was definitely up.
After we had spoken on the phone just yesterday, I hung up, determined to figure out, one way or another, whatever it was that had caused her to get into her own head. Because going back to the combative relationship we’d started with wasn’t an option in my book.
Meanwhile, Alivia, while oblivious to the battle of wills between us, happily played a Hello Kitty app on her new tablet, another argument I won.
“Mommy?” she asked, her sweet voice slicing through the tension-filled air.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Are you mean to Trey because you like him?” Instantly, our heads snapped toward our daughter and our eyes connected.
Camilla was first to look away, responding, “I’m… I’m not mean to Trey.”
“Sometimes you are,” Alivia countered. “It’s okay, because you were right about Griffin.”
“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from him?” I asked with a pretend scowl on my face before tweaking her nose.
She giggled adorably. “Yes, but I only talked to him to tell him I know he likes me and that’s why he’s mean. After I did, he started being nicer to me.”
“Sweetheart, I don’t—”
“Oh… I get it,” I rudely cut Camilla off, to which she sighed. “So, Mommy should be nice to me too.”
“Right.” Alivia finally looked away from Hello Kitty and met my eye. “And then you’ll know that she likes you… and you know what else?” she asked me.
“What?”
“Well, when two people like each other, my friend, Elizabeth, said they kiss a lot… and then they get married. So, then we can be a family, and you can be my daddy.”
My eyes widened, Camilla’s breath hitched, and our daughter went back to playing her game, completely unaware that her innocent little statement had just ignited a tsunami of emotions between us.
If there had been tension between us before Alivia’s pronouncement, afterward our tension was on steroids. Thankfully, driving up to the spectacular estate Jack had bought for his wife distracted both mother and daughter.
Once Alec stopped the car, I requested he bring our bags inside for us. Camilla slowly exited her side before distractedly helping Alivia out. I couldn’t help but smile at the way their mouths hung open, taking in the surroundings. Salt water scented the humid air while a billowy breeze eased the heat.
I’d never really appreciated the tranquil paradise my friends had created until recently. It has now become somewhere I long to be, and usually I could go only a few weeks before needing to pay a visit.
“This is one house?” Alivia asked.
I chuckled with a nod. “Yes, Squirt. And guess what?” She lifted her face to stare up at me. “They have a swing set on the beach, and it has three slides.”
“Three? My park swing set only has one.” Her mouth continued to gape as she pressed her hand into mine. When I caught Camilla’s eye, she quickly averted her gaze.
“Come on, I hear them on the deck.” Leading Camilla and Alivia toward the voices that filtered out to us from the back of the enormous beachfront mansion, we followed the paver stone path. The moment we stepped into view of the massive deck, where my band and their families all chatted noisily while having lunch, Alivia tightened her grip and slowed her step.
Jack was the first to spot us. “Hey, you made it.” All eyes turned toward where we stood, causing Alivia to shyly move her small body behind my legs.
“We did.” I lifted her into my arms before climbing the steps to where they all sat. “This is Alivia,” I said, smiling at my daughter.
“Hi, Alivia,” Leila said softly, coming over to where we stood. She cut her glistening eyes toward me before refocusing on Alivia. “I’m Leila, Trey’s friend. It’s so nice to meet you.” Alivia gave her a small smile but remained silent. She then watched wide eyed when Leila pulled Camilla into a hug, whispering something in her ear. On Camilla’s nod, Leila asked, “Would you like to make sandcastles with the rest of the kids?” She pointed to where all the Devil’s Lair spawn were busy building on the beach. It was funny how Beverly, Leila’s nanny, did her best to direct the pandemonium but wasn’t having much luck.
“Would you like to go play with them?” I asked Alivia.
At her hesitance, Camilla placed a hand on her back. “We’ll be right here.”
Her head bounced between the beach and the deck. “Okay.”
When I placed her down, Leila asked, “Can I take you?” Alivia met Leila’s gaze and nodded, and my awesome friend offered her hand invitingly, to which Alivia accepted.
Turning back to the table, every set of eyes continued to stare at us. We climbed the steps, and I waved. “Band and wives… this is Camilla.” I then went through the introductions of the rest of my band while pointing to each. “You know Jack. Hunter is our drummer and attached to Mandi. Scott is our guitarist and attached to Patti. Evan plays bass, and he’s Leila’s brother and is married to Jack’s sister, Lizzy. Got it?” I asked her with a smirk. “There will be a test on this later.”
“Um…” She fumbled a bit and then waved at everyone. “Nice to meet you all.”
I leaned down and added, loud enough for them all to hear, “And no matter what Hunter and Scott accuse me of this weekend, I’m innocent.”
“Yeah, right,” Hunter scoffed. “When you look up innocent in the dictionary, it actually lists your name as an antonym.”
“I’m impressed you know what an antonym is,” I shot back.
“Camilla, I apologize in advance for my band’s behavior,” Jack quipped before lifting his eyes toward the sky. “Come eat.” He dragged two chairs over from an adjacent table and then explained what the platter of sandwiches held, what the side dishes were, and what I had already assumed from the chunks of fruit swimming in the burgundy liquid was a jug of sangria.
After sitting and tugging on her hand until she did the same, I took a plate and loaded it up. “Dig in,” I said when she still hadn’t moved.
She tentatively took one sandwich and a half glass of wine while fielding tame questions from Mandi and Patti.
“I remember you,” Hunter said, forcing my eyes to narrow suspiciously. The dude had no filter, but thankfully I was within kicking distance of his leg.
Camilla instantly knew what he referred to. She glanced at Mandi briefly. “Yes, you know my friend Debbie.”
Hunter picked up on her hesitance. “No worries. Mandi knows everything about me.”
“And yet she’s still with you,” Scott quipped under his breath. “Camilla, Leila mentioned you were a graphic designer. Before I knew if we’d make it as a band I considered doing that.” When Jack, Hunter, and I all gawked at him as if he’d grown a set of tits, he added, “What? I did.”
“Well, things worked out for you playing drums for the band.” Camilla smiled.
It was Scott’s turn to gawk just as Hunter released a sarcastic snort. “He wishes. He’s guitar. I’m the drummer.” Jack and I cracked up while Scott turned red. “Anyone can strum a guitar, but playing drums takes skill.”
“Oh, my apologies,” Camilla said before rolling her lips between her teeth. She seemed to be amused by Hunter, which secretly thrilled me.
“It’s fine. I’m used to their jealousy of my talent.”
Mandi revealed her exasperation with a heavy sigh. “Don’t pay attention to them.”
The conversation took a turn when Scott and Evan began arguing with Hunter. During it, Camilla slowly relaxed beside me. She would sporadically glance up at me with a wide smile on her beautiful face, or even interject her opinion to one of their asinine debates.
The moment Patti suggested the girls relax around the pool, leaving us guys at the table, Hunter lowered his voice and said, “She’s hot.”
“And you’re a jackass,” I threw back at him.
“What?” His eyes drifted to where Camilla sat laughing at something Lizzy had said, and mine followed. “It’s true.”
It was true. The frayed denim cutoff shorts and sleeveless red knit shirt flaunted her hot little body. Hispanic roots had gifted her with a skin tone that tanned well during the summer months. The way she had her thick honey-brown hair pulled up into a playful ponytail accentuated her slender neck. From head to toe, Camilla was a natural be
auty. Most women would’ve primped, knowing they would be among rock stars, but she didn’t. And in my opinion, she didn’t need to.
“You’re in big trouble, dude.” He quickly cut his focus to the beach. “Your daughter looks just like her. Carbon copy, Mini-Me.”
“Can you shut the fuck up?”
“What?” He threw up his hands in defense. “Look… even Shane is a bit smitten.” At that, Jack and I whipped our eyes to the beach, where his son was staring at my daughter, and then looked at each other. “See?” Hunter added.
“They’re like six, you idiot,” Scott barked what Jack and I were thinking.
“What did I say? If Madden suddenly had eyes for my Lexi, I wouldn’t be upset.” He clapped a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Right, brother-in-law?”
“That wouldn’t make us brothers-in-law.”
The confusion on Hunter’s face prompted each of us to throw something at him—a cherry tomato, a crumpled napkin, a piece of sangria-sodden apple… and from Jack a smack to the back of his head.
Commotion coming from the stairs stole our attention and spared Hunter from more abuse. While Beverly and Leila corralled the kids toward the shower on the edge of the deck, Alivia took that moment to survey the area and then rush right toward me.
“Trey!” She excitedly gripped my arm with her sand-coated hand. “Everyone is going in the pool now. Can I go in too?”
From across the patio, Camilla watched with a surprised expression, and when I raised my brows at her, she nodded her consent. “Of course, you can. Go get Mommy so you can change into your bathing suit.”
“Okay, but can you come in with me?”
I can count on one hand how many times I’d worn a bathing suit in my life, and they had all occurred during the one weekend when Tara and I used the Lairs’ house to reconnect… literally.
“Sure, Squirt.”
“Yay!” She scurried off toward Camilla, bouncing excitedly on her toes, no doubt relaying I agreed to go in the pool. She looked just like her mother in similar clothes and hair styles, except for those piercing blue eyes of hers.
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