Page 24 of Wild and Wrangled

I nodded, not really sure what to say.

“Are you two still friends?” Anne asked.

“Kind of,” I said. “We didn’t really keep in touch while I was gone, but I’ve seen her a few times since I’ve been home.” I was giving Anne the quick and easy version of events.

“Ah.” Anne nodded. “Sounds like there’s a story there.” I felt it then, the hope ember starting to burn and glow in my chest again. That motherfucker refused to be smothered, and it was nearly impossible to ignore. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to smother it—didn’t know if I could see the world without it being lit by the glow, but I knew my life would probably be a hell of a lot easier if it just went out.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re worse than my mom,” I said.

“She came to see me this week, too.” That meant they probably spent a lot of time talking about me.

“Well, don’t you have a packed social calendar,” I responded.

Anne nodded. “That I do.” On the small table next to her chair, her phone chimed and lit up with a message. I could read who it was from. Ed Wyatt.

Anne picked up her phone and unlocked it using her pointer finger. She smiled. “I’ve got a packed social calendar, and it looks like you’re about to have a new neighbor.”

I swallowed hard.Here we go.

Chapter 13

Cam

On Monday morning, I finally decided it was time to call my mother. Now that I had a plan—well, a place to live, at least—I felt that I could finally face her. I sat on the edge of the sofa bed in Gus’s guest room and stared down at my phone. It was early, but she would be up.

And then I could move on with my day. It was moving day, after all.

I had made a pro and con list after finding out Dusty would basically be my neighbor. Ultimately, it wasn’t ideal, but the Wilson house had been my dream home since I first laid eyes on it, and it had many things going for it, despite its closeness to a certain nose ring.

Everything about it was perfect—including the rent I could afford without access to my trust fund, the furniture, unique lease terms, and Gus being close, for Riley’s sake. And from what Ed said, everything Dusty did for Anne was outside, except for the fireplace, which I had already decided I would never use.

But how was it that Dusty waseverywhere? I didn’t even know how he had time to do things for Anne while working at Rebel Blue and apparently visiting out-of-the-way gas stations to buy beef jerky once a month.

Luckily for me, I was an expert avoider—a gold medalist in avoidance.

I took a deep breath.Let’s get this over with.

I scrolled through my contacts for Lillian Ashwood. Not Mom—Lillian. I clicked on her name before I could talk myself out of it and brought the phone up to my ear.

It only rang once.

“Camille,” Lillian said. Her voice was dripping with disdain and disappointment. One word from her, and I already felt like I was two feet tall. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you.”

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“Do you know how embarrassing it was for your father and me to be told that you’d left your own wedding? That the groom didn’t even show up?” I stayed quiet. She didn’t need me for this lecture. “And then, you spend over a week ignoring our calls—using that man”—Gus—“to give us updates on your whereabouts. And what about your daughter? How do you think she feels?”

I shut my eyes tight. “I’m sorry,” I said again.

“It’s not enough,” she said. “Your father is beside himself. Graham’s parents are blaming you, you know—saying you were the one that made this difficult.” Interesting conclusion, considering I was the one who showed up. “And now, two years of planning and airtight contracts that would benefit both of our families are just gone.”

“I know,” I said. It didn’t start this way—with the contractsor whatever. It started with me and Graham realizing we had a lot in common when it came to our parents—mostly that we wanted them to leave us alone. But both pairs of parents saw us getting married as a fortuitous opportunity, and everything just spiraled from there. Our fathers saw a partnership between our family businesses. It would be mutually beneficial—my father’s bank would raise the capital of Graham’s father’s hedge fund and in turn, they would be in a good position to provide their clients an excellent return on investment, and all parties involved would make money. Which, of course, was always the most important thing. By the time I realized what was happening, I couldn’t make them stop, so I decided to try to make the best of it by making sure Riley could benefit.

“And everything we agreed on for your daughter is gone with it,” my mother said, as if she could read my mind. Riley was my mother’s favorite weapon. This marriage was supposed to guarantee security for Riley. I had wanted to make sure she would never be forced to choose a specific degree or career…unlike me. When I was growing up, my parents had looked at me like an investment, so they incentivized the access to my trust to make sure they were getting the most for their money. I had to pick from a specific set of colleges and from there, a specific list of degrees that would lead to an approved career path. And, don’t get me wrong, there were some things about their agreement that I appreciated—like I couldn’t get married until I was twenty-five, but my parents had some stake in who I would end up marrying, obviously. But what had always made me most anxious about my own arrangement was that, if I didn’t follow their guidelines, my trust fund could get revoked at any point. I know that makesme sound entitled and spoiled—maybe I am—but I’ve been taught my whole life that money matters. And, yeah, I know that money doesn’t solve every problem, but for most people, I think it would solve most of them.

But I didn’t want Riley to ever feel as if she was under anybody’s thumb, not even mine. So I did what I’d watched my father do with his business my whole life: I seized the opportunity. I told my parents I wanted something out of this marriage, too—something tangible and airtight. A substantial trust fund for her, and her alone, and the cost of college covered to study wherever and whatever she wanted. When I came to them with my plans and a proposal for an agreement, I swear it was the first time my dad seemed proud of me. The contract was crafted carefully and meticulously by me and several senior attorneys at my firm in Jackson Hole. Once I got married, the trust would be put in Riley’s name, and it couldn’t be accessed by my parents or me. Amos would be the custodian—I trusted him. It was an irrevocable trust. There were no take-backs.

And I spent every piece of capital I had with my parents to make it that way. Capital that I’d been working on since I was eighteen—after I’d dug myself into the world’s deepest hole with them because of Dusty.

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