Page 22 of Please Save Me

I studied him for a moment and thought about everything I knew about Calvin. He grew up on a farm, and he obviously liked tractors, but he was sixteen. No… he was sixteen when he went missing.

I tried to remember the exact date the article about the house fire was published, but I drew blanks. As I thought, my eyes remained trained on Cameron’s, and he shifted under the weight of my gaze.

“So…” He looked away, putting a hand on the back of his neck. “You don’t think I actually look old enough to be your dad, right?”

I pressed my lips together as I examined Cameron. He had fine lines around his eyes, but there were no hints of gray in his copper hair. He certainly acted old enough to be my dad, but that wasn’t the question.

Before I could answer, our server rounded the corner with a parchment-lined basket.

Her chestnut-brown ponytail bounced as she placed the variety of fried foods in front of us.

“Here are those apps–Do you need a minute, or are you ready to order?” She purred.

Cameron looked at me as I picked up a mozzarella stick and submerged it in the plastic cup of marinara sauce. I held up a finger to tell him I did, in fact, need more time. By this point, I had yet to read the menu.

“Can ya come back later?” Cameron asked.

“Of course!” she chirped. “Also, I just wanted to say that I love that you’re making time for your daughter. My dad did this once a week when I was her age, and our littledatesare some of my favorite memories.”

”She ain’t–” He let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed his temple. “Thank ya.”

She smiled and nodded before going to check on another table. And I wasted no time digging into my saturated cheese stick. The sauce was tangy, the breading was crispy, and the cheese was creamy. If someone had told me this was what the Gods ate in Mount Olympus, I’d believe them.

“I guess that answered my question,” Cameron grumbled. “We don’t even look alike.”

A smile tugged at my lips as I realized I had the perfect opportunity to rile him up. “If it makes you feel better, I think you’re the best daddy ever.”

He smirked, rolled his eyes, and pointed to a mozzarella stick in the basket. “ Are you going to be upset if I take this?”

I nodded, and he grabbed a potato skin instead.

“You’re spoiled, you know that, right?” He chided.

“It’s not my fault you spoil me, Daddy.”

“If you keep calling me Daddy, I’m gonna take you over my knee and spank you when we get home,” he threatened.

“Don’tthreatenme with a good time,” I warned, and Cameron stiffened like he was expecting me to call him Daddy again. But, since he was prepared, I couldn’t. “Youareturning forty tomorrow, so you’re kind of old enough to be my dad.”

That reminded me I needed to get him a gift. Maybe Lucian and I could go out later.

“Shit, I forgotthatwas tomorrow,” he grumbled.

What kind of person forgets their birthday… unless that wasn’t his actual birthday. I tried to shake the thought from my head. Someone close to you having a fake identity was something that happened in movies, not real life. This was just the result of me being crazy. Still… it seemed plausible, and that made it worse.

“You never told me where you were from.” I reminded Cameron.

I hoped he was going to tell me something that would clear his name.

Cameron swallowed his food before focusing on me. “Kingsbury.”

Chapter 7

Sebastian

To say that everything I did was planned was a dramatic understatement. People were too easy to read and even easier to manipulate. Every action I took, down to the lies I told, were engineered to make my life the one I deserved. That’s why I chose to use something so easy to disprove to make Mason temporarily angry at Cameron.

He was a weak man, and I knew he’d be groveling at Mason’s feet the second I left. I also knew Mason’s scare would lead her to want to be completely prepared for Lavender. When those two mentalities mixed, there was only one possible outcome: The two would go shopping.

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