Page 63 of My One and Only

He held her gaze, and she tightened her fingers around his. She’d been so careful in his office this morning. Didn’t want anyone to catch her mooning over Cam. Or worse, kissing him. So she’d stayed at her desk, pretended to be busy, but the whole time, she could think of nothing but him.

“You okay with going in together?”he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

She blinked once. Focused on Cam. “Sure. Why not? We’re both adults. And no way am I leaving you in the car alone. Or letting you walk into the store by yourself.”

“Yeah. Bodyguarding.” The sadness faded from his eyes, replaced with anticipation. Hope. “But more important, we need to pick out those condoms together,” he said, and she loved the way his eyes lit up. She wanted him to focus on the good things they’d share, instead of the worry and fear of his situation.

His eyes twinkling, he said, “We may have differences about what we’re looking for. We might have to discuss that.”

“In the condom aisle of the drug store?” She stared at him, aware that he was yanking her chain but still horrified. “Hell, no, Pierce. If we have a difference of opinion, we’ll buy a box of each.”

“A great idea,” he said, beaming. “Far as I’m concerned, no such thing as too many condoms.”

She nudged his side with her elbow. “You’re right. If we have any left over, you can give them to Fiona when she starts dating.”

Cam’s mouth dropped open as he stared at her. “I cannot believe you went there.”

“Why not? Aren’t you going to have that talk with Fiona when she’s old enough to need it?”

“I’m… she’s…” He sputtered for a few moments, then he looked at her. Shook his head when he saw her laughing. “You’re an evil woman, Jo Hatch. Why did I never know this about you?”

“Because we were both too reluctant to rock the boat back in high school. To change the dynamic between us,” she said, her smile falling away. “I think neither of us wanted to ruin our friendship if the other wasn’t interested. I know I was worried about that.”

She twined her fingers with his. “Besides, there won’t be any condoms left over,” she said. “We might even have to buy another box before I leave.”

“I’m counting on that,” Cam said, moving a tiny bit closer to her.

“If we’d already had condoms, we could have gone straight to your place for lunch and tested them out,” Jo said.

“God.” Cam banged his head on the headrest. “Now I’m gonna have that picture in my head all afternoon. Good thing I don’t have to walk anywhere. But we’re gonna have to sit in the car for a few minutes before we go into that store. Because if we don’t everyone’ll know exactly what we’re looking for.”

Beside him, Jo giggled. The sound surprised her, because she was definitelynota giggling kind of woman. But maybe she could be with Cam.

Still smiling, she touched Cam’s cheek. He brought out a side of her she’d buried along with her husband, and she was so grateful for that.

She turned to him and took his hand. “You ever think what might have been different if one of us had had the guts to ask out the other back in high school?”

“Yeah, I have,” he said. “That’s what I was doing when I asked you to that party. I had plans for that evening.”

“Yeah?” She shifted in her seat and ran her finger down his cheek. “Tell me what those plans were. Did you have condoms?”

“God, no. I was a virgin, and I’m guessing you were, too. But we might have fooled around a little.”

She leaned over and brushed her lips over Cam’s face. He sucked in a breath, and she was a little breathless herself. “I think I would have liked fooling around with you in the woods, Cam.”

“Yeah, I would have liked that, too,” he murmured. He leaned toward her and kissed her, and she wanted to grab him and hold him against her. Go back to his place and make up for all they’d missed out on in the last fifteen years.

Instead, she sighed. Took his hand. “Can’t change the past,” she said. She thought about Mike, lying helpless in his hospital bed, then shook her head to get rid of the memories. “All we can do is control what happens in the present.”

“On that philosophical note, let’s go into the store, get what we need and get out,” he said. As she scanned the parking lot, he began to open his door. But before he could slide out of the car, Jo grabbed his other arm. “Shut the door,” she said, her voice too quiet. “Quietly.”

He eased the door closed, then watched Jo slide down the seat until her head was barely visible. He did the same.

“What’s going on?”he asked.

“Don just walked into that diner on the other side of the pharmacy,” she said, her gaze searching the parking lot. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “There’s Billy Simms. And he looks like he’s going into the diner, as well.”

“No reason Don can’t have lunch with a guy who works for him,” Cam said.

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