She jerked back as though he’d smacked her. “Not for me?”
“Yeah. I’m beginning to think no one will be good enough for Piper.” Including me.
“That’s not true,” she immediately answered.
“I’m kind of thinking it is,” he pushed. “You haven’t cut me any slack yet.”
Her chin lifted. “I’m just trying to make sure we’re on the same page.”
He stepped closer, crowding himself with her lemony scent. “Audrey, we’ve never been on the same page.”
“That’s not true either,” she whispered.
He traced the tip of his index finger along the neckline of her shirt, grinning at the sight of her thumping pulse. “Isn’t it?”
She sucked in a breath, and Cameron had to fight the urge to kiss the hell out of her, just to show her the only page they occupied together was the combustible attraction between them. But then she’d hate him, if she didn’t already. And for some reason, Cameron needed to keep her on his side.
“Cameron, what’re you doing?”
Hell if he knew. Torturing himself?
“I just want what’s best for Piper,” she told him.
Cameron dropped his hand, even though it still tingled from her soft skin. “And I don’t?”
“I don’t know,” she countered. “Do you?”
“Of course I do. Just because I’m not trying to control the situation doesn’t mean I don’t want what’s best for her. She’s my niece, for crying out loud.”
Audrey took a step back, and Cameron realized his error. He had called her out on one of her deepest insecurities. Not just called her out on it, but thrown it back in her face.
Yeah, good way to get the two of you on the same side.
He reached for her, but she pulled away. “Audrey, I didn’t mean—”
“No, I get it. I try to control her too much.”
The light in her eyes dimmed, and Cameron wanted to kick his own ass for putting a damper on another conversation.
“That’s not what I meant,” he tried to clarify.
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I think you did,” she whispered.
Okay, he did. But he’d only been using it as a defense mechanism for the way she made him feel. An asshole move, sure. But he didn’t know what else to do around her.
“Audrey—”
“Okay, I admit I have control issues. But you…” She took a step forward and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “You have commitment issues. And you know what? I think you’re just as controlling as I am.”
Say what? “How do you figure that?”
Audrey spread her arms out to encompass their surroundings. “Look around you, Cameron. Who do you see?”
His brow twitched. “Is that a trick question?”
“I don’t see anyone,” she answered for him.
He shook his head. “Not true. You and Piper are here.”
She crowded him again, getting all up in his face. “I’m not talking about me and her. We barged into your life with no warning. I’m talking about other people. A wife, kids, girlfriend. Friends. Family who comes to visit.”
Cameron shifted, knowing where she was going and wanting to tell her to shut the hell up. But he didn’t, because he knew she was right.
“There’s no one.” She drilled her point home by poking his chest again. “Because you keep people away. That makes you just as controlling as me.”
Cameron wrapped his palm around her hand and tugged it away. “I keep people away because it’s safer that way. Because then they can’t come in and fuck everything up.”
The second the words were out of his mouth, Cameron wanted to yank them back. Of course he didn’t mean them, at least not the way Audrey would take them. But when she exhaled a slow breath and moved away from him, Cameron knew she was shutting him out.
“Point made,” she uttered. Then she strolled out of the kitchen, leaving Cam to wonder how he’d gone from apologizing, again, to making an ass of himself. Again.
Thirteen
Pamela Shaw was a five-foot-five whirlwind of energy with a crop of short chestnut hair and a fierceness that seemed to have Cameron shaking in his boots.
Okay, maybe shaking was too strong a word. But, Audrey noticed, the normally gruff, often brusque, six-foot-three scowling man was on much more acceptable behavior. In other words, he wasn’t taking swipes at Audrey, nor was he cornering her in the kitchen or, say, the bedroom, and muttering husky words in her ear. In fact, he hadn’t said much of anything to her since his mother had swept through the door an hour ago with three sacks full of pork chops, potatoes, and asparagus. Audrey liked to think it was because Pamela brought out the best in her son, and not because of the awkward encounter in his kitchen yesterday. One that left Audrey wanting to jump him while simultaneously punching him in the nose.
Luckily Piper had been blissfully unaware of the tension skirting between Audrey and Cameron. She’d dragged J.J. over and told Pamela all about how she’d rescued the cat. Pamela had patted Piper on the head and crooned at how nice she was for taking the cat in, while secretly sending Cameron a smile as though congratulating her son for his open-mindedness.
Audrey had just finished cutting potatoes and was reaching for the fridge when Cameron’s hand shot out at the same time. She jerked back, then remembered her own rule to not let the man get to her. With a lifted brow, she opened the door and snagged the heavy whipping cream off the top shelf.
Cameron lifted his own brow in response as though to say, Challenge accepted, Bennett.
“I like your mom,” she blurted out. You’re supposed to be giving each other the silent treatment, remember? Why can’t you keep your mouth shut around him?
Cameron nodded and pulled away from the fridge with an old-fashioned bottle of Coke in his big hand. Audrey tried not to pay attention to those hands, or to remember the way the heat of them melted into
