Page 17 of Wild and Wrangled

“So,” my mom said, “how is Cam?”

“I don’t know, Mom.” I sighed. “It’s not like we talk.”

“But you do play shotgun rider to her runaway bride after her non-wedding?” I rolled my eyes. Of course she knew about that. If I had to guess, that gossip Luke Brooks was probably to blame.

Technically speaking, Cam was the shotgun rider, not me. “That was nothing,” I said. “Just me helping out a friend.”

“So you two are friends?”

“No.” Maybe? I ran a hand through my hair, a littlefrustrated—not at my mom, but at the whole situation. I didn’t like the questioning.

“But you just said that you were helping out a friend.”

“Cam is my friend,” I said, which was true—at least to me. “But I don’t know if I’m hers.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” I knew my mom was giving me a pointed look, but I didn’t look up at her.

“You’re telling me,” I muttered.

“So what are you going to do?” she asked.

“Nothing, Mom,” I said. “I know that you love Cam, and I know you think she’s the reason I came home, but she isn’t. Just because she’s technically ‘available’ now, or whatever, doesn’t mean that anything is going to happen between us.” I swallowed, trying to smother the hope ember that burned in my chest whenever I thought about Cam. “I feel bad that she got hurt, and I wanted to help her feel better…by being her friend.”

“But you still feel something for her,” my mom said.

“How could I not?” I asked. “But I don’t even know her anymore.” My feelings for Cam were like an earthquake and its aftershocks. When they started, they were big and overwhelming, and once the main event had passed—once we’d gone our separate ways—I’d learned to live with the way they still shook me up at unexpected times.

And when I saw her now, I still felt that small tremor in my bones. But I didn’t know if the feelings were real or if they were the ghosts of something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“But isn’t there an opportunity to get to know her again now?”

“I don’t know if I can,” I said, even though I really wanted to. “Without everything else getting in the way.” Cam and Ihad baggage—baggage that I didn’t know if I was ready to open.

“You drive your mother crazy, Ter—”

I cut my mom off immediately. “All right, no need to bring the full name into this. You made your point.”

My mom gave me a smug smile. “Think I could pull off blackmail? What if I take out an ad in the paper with your full name unless you ask Cam on a date—once the appropriate waiting period after her wedding has passed, of course.”

“I think you could,” I said. “But I don’t think you would.”

My mom shook a finger at me. “God damn the fact that I love you so much, Dusty. Let’s build shit.”

Chapter 9

Cam

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I found Ada, Emmy, and Teddy waiting for me in Gus’s kitchen. It smelled like they had made coffee and breakfast.

“Morning!” Emmy said cheerfully. She was holding a coffee cup with both hands, soaking in its warmth. Emmy was never this cheery in the morning, a legendary grumpy riser.

“Are you hungry?” Teddy asked. She was at the stove piling a plate high with pancakes. Ada just smiled at me and went back to what she was doing on her iPad.

“What’s going on?” I asked suspiciously, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

Emmy bit her lip and was quiet for a second. “It’s time, Cam,” she said. “You’ve been staying at your baby daddy’s house for a week—we think it might be time to start thinking about what’s next.” Emmy’s voice was soft—thoughtful. I had only stayed at the Big House with Amos for two nights before I migrated over here. I knew Gus had been worried about me.

“Not that we don’t love having you,” Teddy chimed in asshe slid a plate of pancakes toward me. “We’d all do anything for you, but it might be time to re-establish some routine here. Maybe some normal boundaries, you know?”

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