Henry thought about that. “That would be nice.”
“And the sooner we get home and make that stuff, the less time she’ll spend looking at plain old white walls,” Didi said.
Henry nodded. “We could do it while she’s still asleep.”
“Good plan.”
Cam smiled and looked down at Whitney. She was doing that smiling-with-shiny-eyes thing she did when she watched Henry and Didi together.
“I can’t believe she remembers that,” Whitney said softly.
“It obviously mattered a lot to her.”
She nodded. “And now she’s taking care of Henry instead of the other way around.”
“That’s what friends do,” Cam agreed.
Whitney looked up at him and gave him the sweetest, most loving smile he’d ever seen. “I love you, Cam.”
He was surprised, but inordinately pleased. “I love you too.”
“And I think you should stay here with your dad.”
He nodded. He should. But that meant Whitney was going to take Didi and Henry home. Which was fine. It really was.
“And I’ll see who can take Didi and Henry home.”
“Wait, not you?”
“I not going anywhere,” she told him, squeezing his arm. “I finally figured out this is where I want to be. No matter what.”
He couldn’t believe how those words affected him. “Whit—”
“We’re going to head out,” Grant said, stopping with Josie. “I’m so glad she’s going to be okay.”
“Thanks for being here,” Cam told him.
They shared a quick hug and then Cam hugged Josie. “We’ll tell her you were here and that you’ll be back when she’s feeling better.”
Josie wiped at her eye. “Thank you. My God, I was so scared.”
Aiden and Zoe came up beside them.
“We’re going to stay,” Zoe said. She looked at Whitney. “Piper told me about what you guys figured out for the bakery. Thank you so much.” She reached out and pulled Whitney into a hug. “That was… amazing.”
Whitney squeezed her back and Cam felt his throat tighten at the sight.
“Of course,” Whitney told her. “Anytime you need anything, I’m here.”
Zoe gave her a wobbly smile. “That’s so weird. Great,” she added quickly. “But weird.”
Whitney laughed. “I know.”
“Okay, so we’ll all hang out with Steve,” Aiden said. “You guys able to take Didi and Henry?” he asked Grant and Josie.
“Of course.” Grant looked at Whitney. “We can stay at your house with them. If that’s okay.”
Cam braced for her to decline their offer or to realize that if she didn’t go with them someone would need to stay with them, which meant she’d probably decide to leave.
He was shocked when she said, “That would be so great. Thank you. If she can’t find her keys, there’s a spare under the cherub just to the left of the porch. And help yourself to anything.”
He wanted to kiss her so badly.
“Hey, how did the meeting go?” Grant asked her as he was turning to leave.
She winced. “Oh. Well…” She looked up at Cam, then at Aiden, then at Grant. “I might have ruined that entire relationship. I wanted to get out of there so I could get over here and Gordon started asking what my dad thought of everything—”
“Wait, your dad?” Aiden asked with a frown.
Cam was scowling too.
She sighed. “Yeah. He was shocked to learn that I hadn’t consulted him and was concerned that we didn’t know what we were doing. So I told him he’d be an idiot to not want to work with us and he could take the offer on the table or not but I didn’t care and I was leaving and I walked out.”
“Well, good,” Grant said, also frowning. “Fuck him.”
Whitney smiled. “I’m glad you feel that way.”
Aiden was studying her. “You already have another idea anyway, don’t you?”
She glanced up at Cam. “No. I just—”
Wow. She did already have a new idea. He was really going to just have to accept that it was always going to be like that. He grinned. “Go ahead,” Cam said, nudging her.
“I… it wasn’t like I was thinking about it on purpose,” she said. “It just came to me as I was driving over.”
“What is it, Whit?” Aiden asked with a smile.
“Well, okay. We don’t need Perkins Foods. I mean, yes, they’re the biggest chain, of course. But we’re Hot Cakes,” she said. “We’re one of the biggest snack cake companies out there and we’re the best. So… what if we only put our products in small stores. Family owned, independent grocery stores and gas stations. We wouldn’t have as many locations, but if people want a Hot Cakes snack cake, they’ll be willing to go looking for them. That would bring business to those smaller stores and make Hot Cakes a more exclusive item.”
Grant seemed to be thinking about that. But he did not, for once, keep an unreadable expression on his face. He nodded, then smiled, then said, “I like it. Let’s talk more about that.”
“Yep, and if Gordon Perkins comes crawling back,” Aiden said, “we’ll let you decide if we work with him or not.”
“I might tell him to fuck off.”
“That’s your call,” Aiden said with a wink.
Whitney turned a huge grin up to Cam.
He gave in then and bent to kiss her.
It was just a quick, sweet one, but it seeped into his bones and made him, quite simply, happy.
“Mr. McCaffery?” a nurse asked from the doorway.
Cam turned, but he knew she was talking to his father.
“You can come with me now,” she said.
Steve was clearly relieved. Cam, Zoe, Aiden, Josie, and Jane gave him hugs. He knelt before Henry to give him instructions to be a good listener and to text him if he needed anything.
“I’ll call you later and you can talk to your mom if she’s up to it,” Steve told him.
Henry nodded. “Okay. But I’ll be all right.”
Steve looked up at Didi, then stretched to his feet. “I know you will, son,”
