Page 10 of Finally Home

“Yes.”

“Then who is Shelby?”

West stilled, and she swore she saw tears well in his eyes before he turned away from her. “I’m going to turn in and get some sleep.”

That was it? She bared her soul and asked one simple question, and he turned tail and ran. Clearly Shelby meant something. She hadn’t imagined those tears in his eyes. Maybe it was a girlfriend. Or a woman he’d loved along the way. It had been so long since she’d seen or heard anything from him. He’d lived an entire life she knew nothing about. One he didn’t see fit to share with her.

Which left her with only more questions. She wasn’t sure what she wanted him to say, but she hadn’t expected him to flee the scene. Any sort of reaction would have been better than running off.

Cami took a deep breath and steadied herself. It’d been a long day for both of them. Maybe tonight wasn’t the time to talk about the past. It was not like it was going anywhere. Then again neither were they. At least not anytime soon.

She motioned for him to lead the way. “I’ll help you up the stairs.”

He brushed her off when she tried to slide in next to him. “I got it. As long as I’ve got a wall to balance myself, I’m fine.”

“It’s okay. I can—”

“I said I got it,” he snapped at her.

For the first time in her life, Cami shrank away from West. What had she done to deserve that? He had never snapped at her like that before.

“Oh, okay.” She hated that she sounded defeated. Dad always taught her to be a good sport, that you never truly knew what someone was going through, but she wasn’t sure she could take the emotional roller coaster West was subjecting her to.

“Good night, Cami.”

“Good night, West.”

She watched as he walked away from her and disappeared up the stairs, the ache in her chest oddly reminiscent of watching his truck drive away all those years ago.

Except this time hurt more.

Fifteen years ago, West didn’t feel as though he had a choice but to leave and provide for his family. Their relationship was a casualty of young minds and poor timing. This time, though, he had shut her out of his own accord.

Cami plopped down on the kitchen stool and rested her head in her hands. She wasn’t sure if she was more in shock about the fact he wasn’t married and she hadn’t known it, or that there was a large part of the story she was missing.

Twenty minutes ago, she felt so strong in her convictions to keep her distance from West. But that was when she thought he was married. Turned out he wasn’t, and for a split second, she allowed her heart to entertain the fact he was a single man and she was an extremely single woman.

Of course she’d had to further complicate things by bringing up the mystery woman, Shelby.

Now she wasn’t sure what she felt. She wasn’t sure if she should reach out and try to fix things between them or allow him to retreat so she could rebuild the walls around her heart.

At the very least, they could be friends. Maybe. The bitter part of her screamedhell no, while the soft part, the part that still loved him, was on her back and pawing like a cat in heat.

She looked up in the direction of the loft. It was only up the stairs, but it might as well have been miles. It felt strange to leave things alone without talking with West about the elephant in the room. They had always talked things through before, promised they wouldn’t go to bed with anything hanging between them.

That was before. It was clear she didn’t know the man upstairs. The one who walked away, leaving nothing but emptiness and anger hanging between them.

Cami shook her head. She had more important things to do than sit around and decipher the enigma that was her situation with West.

She busied herself with cleaning up the kitchen and added another log to the fire. From within the closet, she pulled out her Christmas decorations. She’d been so busy with back-to-back retreat groups that she hadn’t had the chance to decorate. Tomorrow she’d make use of West’s extra set of hands and decorate the cabin, regardless of whether or not he was still in a piss-poor mood.

Feeling satisfied with a clean cabin and prep done for tomorrow, Cami settled in on the couch with Bear and pulled up her coziest blanket. Bear rested his head on her lap and looked at her, waiting for her to give him some attention.

Cami smiled at the big white oaf. “You really are an attention whore.” She scratched his favorite spot behind his front leg. “I’m sorry you didn’t get as much attention from me today. I promise tomorrow we’ll go on a long walk to find the perfect tree.” As if he understood her, Bear lifted his head and gave her hand a lick before snuggling into her thigh for a nap.

A smile tipped her lips when the romance novel on the coffee table called to her. Sexy knights and capable princesses were a much better use of her time than analyzing the man in her bed.

An hour later, a yell from upstairs pulled her from a seriously erotic chapter.

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