After their encounter in the kitchen, she’d had the feeling whatever it was between them had shifted. It had gone from being a game to something more real—with real feelings, real consequences. Yes, falling for Cameron would bring disastrous consequences for her.
Except she wasn’t falling for him. Nope, couldn’t happen.
She didn’t even like the guy.
Cough, bullshit, cough.
Maybe she should buy a vibrator.
Audrey thunked her head against the steering wheel as she arrived back home.
Home.
There was that word again. It kept slipping in there with other ridiculous thoughts that made too much sense, yet she didn’t want to hear.
She’d been out all day, picking things up for Annabelle’s nursery, desperately trying to take her mind off…well, anything Cameron Shaw.
It was hard to do when she was staying in such close proximity to him and Piper was constantly yammering on about the guy, about how much she liked him, how he made good pancakes, and used funny voices when he read her stories.
The man read Piper stories.
And he used voices.
As if Audrey wasn’t conflicted enough. Turned on enough. Confused enough. He had to go and be a good uncle, and all that.
Charming.
Audrey snorted as she exited the car.
“Asshat,” she muttered to herself, only because throwing a derogatory comment about Cameron every once in a while helped to keep her in balance, centered her chi. Or something.
And just that morning, he’d made Piper breakfast. Not Audrey. Piper had run over to the main house so she could have breakfast with Cameron before the bus had picked her up for school. Pinkie Pie had pounced along too, and Audrey had gotten a glimpse in the kitchen window of Cameron holding the cat.
Not only hugging it but snuggling it like the cat was a damn golden retriever—only way uglier and with talons the size of a bald eagle’s.
The man was such a fraud. So much for hating that damn cat.
Audrey had finished her first mug of coffee, and while pouring herself another one, she furiously shoved back the feeling that she’d been missing out on something, a moment that should have included her. Having breakfast together like a family. Only they weren’t a family. Cameron and Piper were. But Audrey was…
What was she?
Horny. Horny is what you are.
Yes. Yes, that was true, but not the word she’d been looking for.
Audrey unloaded her stuff for Annabelle and brought everything into the guesthouse.
What she needed was some more caffeine. But not coffee because, damn, it’s not like she was an addict.
Much.
Only there wasn’t any soda left, Audrey realized after opening the fridge door. And she didn’t have time to run back out before Piper got off the bus.
She shut the fridge door and looked over toward Cameron’s house.
Yeah, he totally wouldn’t mind.
And even if he did mind, she was taking one anyway. Served him right for making her discombobulated all the time.
As she opened the door, a jingling from behind her caught her attention. Last week, Audrey had purchased a collar for Pinkie Pie with a bell on it; that way she would know where the creature was wreaking havoc. The cat came running out of Audrey’s room, with one of her bras dangling from her mouth.
“What the hell?” she demanded.
Pinkie Pie tripped over the straps, which were flapping all over the place, but somehow managed to stay on four feet.
She yanked her pink-and-black Victoria’s Secret bra from the cat’s mouth. “This was in a drawer,” she said to the animal. “How did you even get this?”
But Pinkie Pie didn’t get it because, well, she was a cat. She only jumped up and down, batting her paws at the dangling straps.
Audrey held the bra out of reach. “No. Bad cat,” she chastised. “Bad Pinkie Pie. Go play with the cat toys I bought you.”
But Pinkie Pie didn’t even glance in the direction of the basket of cat toys. She only gazed up at Audrey with her big green eyes as though to say, “But those don’t have straps and underwire.”
“This bra cost more than you’re worth,” she said to the cat. “Go…catch a mouse or something.”
Audrey held on to the bra, not trusting Piper’s pet for one second, and made a quick trip to Cameron’s house for soda. She snagged the last Dr Pepper, then scribbled a quick apology on a Post-it for taking his last soda and slapped the thing on the fridge. A small smile turned up the corners of her mouth at the thought of continuing their Post-it conversations. She certainly hadn’t meant it to become their thing, but Audrey found herself looking forward to seeing the little yellow squares with Cameron’s signature C on the bottom.
Just last week she’d found one on the windshield of her car saying he’d replaced her wiper fluid. It wasn’t a big deal. It was wiper fluid, for crying out loud. But Audrey had been unable to stop the little pang in her chest at his thoughtfulness. The man was a constant paradox of irritating and sweet. Audrey had exhausted herself trying to figure him out, and she realized that maybe she never would. She’d already accepted the fact that Cameron didn’t want to be figured out.
As Audrey reentered the guesthouse, she recalled a conversation she’d had with Piper, that she’d stay until the girl was comfortable with her uncle.
Was that time already here? Even though she’d given Cameron until the end of the football season? That was only four weeks away, much sooner than she was ready for. Over that last week or so, Audrey had stopped thinking about her departure. Her thoughts had slowly turned to other things, like finishing Annabelle and Blake’s nursery, attending the class Thanksgiving party at Piper’s school, getting Pinkie Pie her shots.
Maybe she needed to call Stevie. Touching base with her business
