Page 45 of Sophia & Cameron

Her brother shrugged. “I don’t count anymore.”

Sophia snickered. “The fact that you can sleep at all at night still baffles me.”

He took another sip. “What’s going on? You don’t have your usual shadow with you.”

She huffed and wrapped her arms around her head. “Don’t call him that.” Just because she could tell that something was off about the way Cameron treated her didn’t mean she wanted anyone else to point it out to her.

“What? He is. And I feel like it’s getting worse.”

Her arms fell to her sides. “You do?”

Roman gave her a flat look. “Honestly, I was skeptical about him in the beginning, but I thought that maybe it was just because of the relationship being new. There were times when he was really good to you, too. But…”

“But?” she prodded.

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Doesn’t he seem a little too… I dunno… He’s not controlling, is he?”

Her brows lifted. “Of course not.” At the look her brother gave her, she sighed. “Really. He’s not controlling at all. He just has some issues that we need to work through.”

“Issues?”

It was her turn to shrug. She didn’t like speaking about this with her brother. He could go tell Mateo the second he heard that something wrong was going on. Then Mateo would have to sit down with the two of them and work out whatever this was. Sophia sighed again. “He’snotcontrolling. I can promise you that. He’s just a little mistrusting.”

“He doesn’t trust you?” Roman said, a hint of anger in his voice.

“Not me… I don’t think. Honestly, I think he trusts me. It’s the other guys he doesn’t trust.”

“Other guys?” Roman frowned this time. “You’re not…”

She blushed a deep red color. “No. I’m not cheating if that is what you’re insinuating. And I’m not comfortable giving you his life story. Let’s just say that he has some legitimate reasons to be worried that another guy will sweep me off my feet and he’ll lose me.”

Roman’s frown only deepened. “I don’t know if you should still be seeing this guy.”

“What?” Sophia snapped. “Why not?”

“Because he’s not ready for something serious.”

She scoffed. “What do you know?”

He shrugged before taking another swig of his coffee. “Love can do a lot to overcome things, but if someone has some deep-seated issues they haven’t processed, then they should fix them before trying to bring someone else into their life.”

Sophia chewed on her fingernail as she considered what her brother was saying. It made sense. Wasn’t that the reason thatshe’d refused to date anyone for the last several years? She knew she wasn’t ready for anything serious—not until she’d met Cameron. She’d needed to heal herself, and that had taken time.

Cameron hadn’t done that yet.

She let out a groan. What was she supposed to do if he wasn’t going to do what it took to get over this? She couldn’t keep living her life avoiding anyone of the male persuasion.

“You know I’m right,” Roman said.

“Yeah, well, doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.” She stared hard at her brother. “Things are going great between us. He hasn’t had a jealous outburst in a long time. I can tell he’s really trying.” Especially when she ended up having to speak to some guy who happened to be one of Mateo’s vendors for the ranch.

“All I’m saying is that you really should think about this before you let things go too far. Cameron is a decent guy. I’m not saying he isn’t. But there are just some parts of our souls that should go through the healing process before we finally give it to the person we love.”

Ugh. She hated that he was right. But how was she going to bring it up to him? Cameron would probably think she was breaking up with him instead of insisting that he work on himself.

A sigh built in her chest.

“If you need help talking to him?—”

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