“Anyway…” She cleared her throat. “I know it’s something Piper is really excited about.”
“Yeah, well.” He cleared his throat too. Because damn. “I don’t want to make the kid cry or anything.”
She slid him a look as she started grabbing dirty pots off the stove. “Oh, I’m sure that’s why.”
“Why what?” Cameron asked, momentarily distracted by how her pants curved over her round ass.
She shot him a look over her shoulder. “Why you secretly love Piper.”
Cameron absently grabbed a clean pot Audrey had just washed and ran a dishtowel over it. Secretly loved Piper? Did he love Piper? If so, was he trying to keep it a secret? Not only did he not know the answer to any of those questions, but he kind of had the feeling Audrey was right.
“Well, don’t shut down on me,” Audrey teased.
Cameron set the dry pot aside and accepted another one from her.
“She loves that cat,” Audrey whispered. “Dianna would never let Piper have a pet.”
“Why?” Cameron asked.
Audrey ran the soapy sponge in circles over a frying pan, before rinsing it. “She worked all the time. And then she got sick.”
Cameron noted the way her hands tightened on the frying pan and the clenching of her jaw. “You loved her,” he observed.
For a second, he thought she wouldn’t respond, or maybe she would toss out one of her quick-witted responses that she seemed so good at to throw him off. Then she sniffed, and Cameron realized how way off base he was. He’d touched on a nerve.
Then she nodded, a tiny movement of her head that he almost missed when he set another dry pot aside.
“I’m sorry,” he told her.
Audrey washed the last pan and shut the water off. “For what?” she asked without looking at him.
“For your loss.”
Cameron waited for her to say something like “Thanks,” or “Yeah, it was hard.” But she just looked at him. She gazed at him in a way that was like someone sticking an ice pick through his heart.
It was your loss too.
That was what he saw when he looked in her eyes. She was pleading with him to open up, to admit that the loss of a sister he never knew had affected him in some way, that he wasn’t a robot who slept around and kept people at a distance so they couldn’t hurt him.
And yeah, he supposed that it had been his loss too. He’d never made an attempt to get to know Dianna. His anger and resentment toward his father had created a selfish, sullen kid who’d had no interest in his little sister.
Cameron wanted to hang his head in shame. He wanted to kick his own ass for allowing all those years to go to waste.
“Stop,” Audrey said, clearly sensing his inner battle.
“I never cared to get to know her,” he admitted.
Audrey’s gaze softened. Suddenly he wanted her to touch him again, to feel her soft skin against his.
“That wasn’t your fault,” Audrey told him.
Cameron leaned back against the counter. “Wasn’t it?”
“No. And Dianna understood that.”
Cameron glanced at Audrey. “She told you that?”
Audrey shrugged. “Dianna wasn’t like that.” A small smile tilted the corners of her mouth. “She saw the good in everyone. Gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.” Audrey paused and glanced at her feet. “The world lost a good one with her,” she added quietly.
Without thinking, Cameron touched Audrey’s chin, which he’d meant to be a brief moment of contact. But his hand lingered, going from a soft brush to gripping her chin and turning her face to his. “She was lucky to have you.”
Audrey’s eyes darkened, then glossed over with the typical telltale signs of tears. Cameron felt a moment of panic because, shit, he didn’t do tears. Like, at all. Just the sight of them made his muscles tense and his mouth clamp shut. But Audrey pulled herself together, and Cameron felt a smidge of regret.
Why?
Because tears from Audrey would have given him a reason to pull her to him. To soothe her, to run his hands down her back.
“Actually, I was the lucky one,” she finally said. “As corny as that sounds,” she added with a stiff laugh. “Dianna was one of those friends that don’t come around very often.”
“Must be why Piper is such a good kid,” Cameron added.
Audrey gave him half a grin and poked him in the stomach. “I knew you secretly loved her. It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone, lest I offend your man card.”
He leaned closer to her. “Honey, there’s not much that could offend my man card.”
One of her brows arched. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she taunted. “You have a hairless cat living in your house named after an animated pony.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You planted that cat, didn’t you?”
She offered him a smug smile. “Yep. It was all a part of my diabolical plan. To find the ugliest, most pathetic-looking animal, then sneak it into your house so Piper could fall in love with it. You totally figured me out.”
“I knew you had a naughty side,” he said.
Audrey’s smile slipped as her gaze slid to his mouth. “Don’t you wish.”
He edged closer to her, ignoring the sounds of his mother and Piper in the living room. “Don’t tempt me, Audrey,” he warned.
She tilted her head at him. “Whatever do you mean?”
Closer, he moved until their hips were nearly touching. Hadn’t they been in a position similar to this before? And hadn’t it led to some seriously awesome kissing? “Yeah, you pretend you’re all innocent. But you’re not, are you?”
She stayed decidedly mum, keeping that sassy mouth shut, when all he wanted to do was kiss the shit out of her, to lick away the look of triumph on her face whenever she thought she’d one-upped him.
Her hand came up to his chest. Cameron wasn’t sure if she meant to push him away or just wanted to feel if his heart was pounding as hard as hers. Didn’t matter, because he wasn’t going
