Stella and Annabelle exchanged a glance, silently communicating something that Audrey couldn’t pick up on. Finally, Annabelle answered, “That’s something Cam should tell you about.”
Audrey highly doubted he’d open up to her, especially about something so personal. Whatever story there was between the two men, Audrey couldn’t help but wonder if it was part of the reason Cameron held himself so aloof. A handful of friends, maybe one or two family members. Probably his mom. Automatically, she thought of the way he’d talked to Piper the other night in the backyard. He’d been sweet and patient with her. He hadn’t talked down to her or ignored her like a lot of adults did. He’d gotten down to her level and engaged her. For some reason she felt the need to credit his mom for that. She bet the two of them had a close relationship.
“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” Annabelle expanded, reminding Audrey what they’d been talking about. “Cameron’s…” Annabelle tilted her head to the side, as though trying to pin down the most accurate way to describe the man.
Audrey could come up with a few words, but they probably wouldn’t be the same words Annabelle would use.
“Private,” Stella concluded.
Annabelle nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. He likes his privacy.”
“But don’t let him fool you into thinking he doesn’t like to get close to people,” Stella went on. “Because he does. You just have to chip through the wall he likes to put between himself and everyone else.”
Audrey had a feeling that would be easier said than done.
Cameron’s niece, whom he’d only known for two days now, already had the ability to calm the simmering storms that sometimes threatened to take over. He’d finished practice with the overwhelming urge to commit bodily harm to anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way.
Damn it, why did he always allow Drew to get to him?
Now he was sitting in a brightly lit frozen yogurt shop, watching Piper pick the gummy bears off her birthday cake–flavored yogurt. At first, he’d turned down their invitation for yogurt, because he’d been in a shit mood and only wanted his rifle and a set of bottles to blow up. But then he’d gotten a second look in Piper’s deep green eyes and found himself saying, “Sure, just give me a minute.”
He’d ignored the surprise on Audrey’s face, which had mirrored his own shock, and met them at Yo-Yo Fro-Yo. Frozen yogurt had never been his thing, but the stuff was cold and sweet, and Piper seemed to love it. She’d dragged the cat with her, as she had everywhere else. The thing even had its own chair and an empty cup, which Piper would occasionally dip her spoon into to feed the cat.
Cameron switched his attention to Audrey, who’d been too busy swirling her spoon around her yogurt to actually eat it.
“Something wrong with your yogurt?” he asked her.
Audrey blinked up at him. “No, it’s good.”
She was distracted. He knew this because she’d yet to seize an opportunity to either drive her point home about Piper or make his pulse fly off the charts.
“I called today about getting Piper enrolled in school,” Audrey announced.
Shit, he’d spoken too soon.
“Okay,” was all he said. Because how else was he supposed to respond? One of the reasons he’d offered his guesthouse was so he’d have more of an opportunity to convince Audrey he couldn’t take Piper. Didn’t she see how unfit and clueless he was about kids?
“I need some kind of proof of residency,” she told him. “A mortgage statement or utility bill.”
“Isn’t she a little young for school?” Cameron hedged as he dug into his yogurt.
“She’s six,” Audrey answered. “She’s supposed to start kindergarten this year, and school’s already been in session for a month. I don’t want her to fall too far behind.”
Perfectly logical argument, but Cameron couldn’t bring himself to agree. Instead he remained silent and took another bite of yogurt.
“You don’t still think I’m going to take her back to Boulder, do you?” Audrey questioned.
Well, yeah, he was kind of hoping…
Audrey shook her head. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Gee, could they?
“I met some friends of yours at practice,” Audrey said.
Yeah, he’d seen Audrey deep in conversation with two women who’d made it their life’s mission to marry Cameron off to a “nice woman.” Actually, he loved Annabelle and Stella. They were fearless and gutsy and perfect matches for Blake and Brandon.
Audrey leaned forward with a half smile curling the corners of her mouth, one he’d been thinking about kissing. “Are you going to tell me not to believe anything they said?”
Cameron set his empty yogurt cup aside. “Depends on what they said.”
Audrey’s grin widened. “They said you’re grumpy and surly and private.”
Cameron couldn’t help his own smile. “In that case, believe it.”
One of Audrey’s brows arched. “But see, I already knew that about you.”
Beside him, Piper fed more invisible yogurt to her stuffed cat. “And yet you want to leave a six-year-old with me.”
Some of the light in Audrey’s eyes dimmed. “Not me. I told you, that was Dianna’s decision. I’m just trying to fulfill her wishes.” She leaned her elbows on the table. “But something tells me you won’t be like that with Piper. You have a soft spot for her.”
The thing was, he didn’t want to have a soft spot for the kid. Yeah, she was cute, and her smile was pure, and sometimes when she looked at him he saw…
To be completely honest, sometimes he saw himself. The same grief. Confusion. Uncertainty. Cameron knew better than anyone how that could shake a child’s world. Make them feel alone. Scared. In his case, the fear and loneliness had turned into anger and resentment. Some people would probably take any opportunity to go back and change things, to make things perfect, but not him. All the raw emotions that had swirled
