Page 57 of Sophia & Cameron

Well, shoot. Mateo had been one hundred percent right.

24

Cameron

Miserable didn’t come close to the way Cameron felt right now.

Five years ago, when Sophia had walked out of his life, he hadn’t known what he’d be missing out on—not really. Now he was hyper aware of every little thing that he had lost.

She had to feel the same way.

He’d seen it in her eyes.

It had been a week since she’d told him he needed to get help. He didn’t like it. He knew exactly what she meant. She wanted him to go to therapy.

Well, she was wrong.

Had he overreacted? Sure.

Multiple times? Yeah, and he wasn’t proud of it.

But did that mean something was so inherently wrong with him that he needed to go to a shrink and talk about his feelings?

No!

Cameron’s emotions ranged from heartache to fuming mad over the last couple of days. He wasn’t going to see a therapist. What would they be able to say anyway? They’d probably tell him to confront his brother and tell Samuel exactly how he felt.

It wouldn’t change anything. Samuel was the one who needed to change.

The horses seemed more skittish today than usual, and he knew the exact reason. They could sense his turmoil. That was one thing about animals that was both a blessing and a curse. Today, it was the latter and was making his job harder. He was distracted and grumpy.

It was probably best that he hadn’t seen much of Sophia today. She’d been getting up earlier than him for the last day or two. And when he showed up to work, she made herself scarce. There was no chance of him talking to her when she managed to anticipate his every move.

He already had a plan. She needed space, but eventually he’d attempt to talk to her again. If he could get her alone, he’d be able to convince her that this whole situation was a big misunderstanding and she was overreacting.

Sophia had to understand that Cameron didn’t have a choice after he’d found his brother at the scene. She knew what it meant to him—how it hurt him.

The following day, Sophia wasn’t in the barn when he’d shown up to work. He didn’t know if he’d missed her or if she had slept in. His answer came when Sophia ambled into the barn a few hours after he had.

She stopped short at the door, hesitated, then continued toward the saddles. “I’m taking Tilly for a ride. Seeing as she’s not expecting, I didn’t think that would be a problem.”

He didn’t know what got into him as he followed her to the saddles. “Sophia, we should talk.”

“Have you started seeing a therapist?”

“No, but?—”

“Then we don’t have anything to discuss.” She tightened the ponytail in her hair, then hefted the saddle and marched over to Tilly’s stall.

“Yes, we do.”

“I said everything I needed to say to you, Cameron. Unless you’re ready to work on improving?—”

He grasped her upper arm, stopping her in the middle of saddling Tilly. She stopped and stared down at where he was touching her. She frowned.

“Please… Sophia. Talk to me.”

“Let. Go.” Her tone had him reeling. This was not the woman he’d fallen in love with. She was broken. There was pain in her voice. Desperation, perhaps? And anger.

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