Page 31 of Finally Home

Every time she thought of it, she became sick to her stomach.

Maybe if he hadn’t bared his soul to her. Told her about Shelby. Maybe then she wouldn’t hurt so much. If only it had been a one-night stand and they both understood what the stakes were. Kept it casual, no feelings, no backstory.

But they hadn’t.

She’d allowed him to worm his way back into her heart. Believed him when he told her she was his home. Held on to the hope this time they’d get it right.

A soft knock at the door behind her pulled her from her wine-induced spiral. She could see how the alcohol both made things better and made them infinitely more miserable. It fueled the downfall but numbed the pain, even if only slightly.

She pulled herself up and wrapped a blanket around her. Bear naturally followed her to the door, the only protector she needed. Not even bothering to look to see who it was, she swung the door open.

“Were you not going to ask who it was? Or check in the peephole. I could be a murderer.” West’s lips twisted in a scowl, but she honestly didn’t give a damn what he thought.

Cami raised a brow at him. “But you’re not, are you? Glad we cleared that up. You can go now.”

She had moved to slam the door in his face when he caught the edge. “Please let me talk.”

He stepped out of the shadow of the house, and Cami noticed for the first time the large gash that now marred his left cheek. “What the hell happened to your face?” The words were out of her mouth before her brain could stop her from sounding like she cared.

A smirk tugged at his lips. “Would you believe me if I told you it was Mom’s cat?”

“Fred? Not a chance in hell. That fat cat is the sweetest old man ever.”

“All right. The truth then. When I told Tiffani she needed to go back to Los Angeles alone, she assaulted me in the hotel. The police got involved, and now there’s a restraining order and she’ll be spending Christmas in jail until her flight home tomorrow night.”

Her mouth fell open. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.” He looked down and kicked the snow on her front porch. “Listen, Cami. I’m sorry. I should have told you about Tiffani.”

“Ya think?”

His eyes narrowed on her. “Let me finish before you rip me a new asshole.”

She’d do more than that, but she nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“We aren’t together anymore. We haven’t been since she left me after Shelby died.”

“Are you sure? Because she clearly didn’t get the memo.”

“You have no idea. About a year after she left, her money from the settlement ran out. She realized how good she had it with me and has been trying to worm her way back into my life ever since. Unfortunately, the wordnois not in her vocabulary, and she’s progressively gotten worse in her attempts to win me back or just make my life miserable. She’s completely unstable.”

“Why didn’t you just say that this morning?” She tugged her blanket around herself, preparing mentally for another rejection she wasn’t sure she could handle.

“Because, honestly, I was afraid of what she’d do. I wouldn’t put it past her to burn the place down if she didn’t get her way. Of course she’d do it after the chief left, because she perfected the art of making her acts of vandalism seem like an accident.”

Cami’s eyes widened in disbelief. “She’s done this to you before?”

West nodded. “She hasn’t burned down my house, but I can tell you every body shop within a twenty-mile radius of my home and their going rates to buff out key scratches.”

“Damn. She’s a bit of a wild card.”

“You have no idea,” West huffed.

She really didn’t, but surprisingly, Cami believed his story. Maybe it was naive of her, but she trusted West, even after everything. She could see he was still the decent man she’d known all those years ago. Unfortunately this knowledge didn’t change anything. West would still be leaving after the holidays, and she couldn’t bear to fall back into his arms, only to have him walk away again. “You could have called and told me all this. You didn’t need to come up here.”

“I did.” West took a step toward her and reached up to take her hands in his. “Because that’s not all I have to tell you.”

His touch was freezing. She should invite him in, out of the cold, but she didn’t want him in her home. Not if he wasn’t planning to stay. “If you’re about to tell me how much this weekend meant to you, please don’t. Your life is in Los Angeles. Not here. While I am truly glad we got some closure, I think it’s best if we just leave things as they are and try to move on.”

---