Page 10 of Single Glance

In reality, she wanted to leave school to be there for our daughter. I knew it killed her to walk away, especially when she’d just found her footing outside our hometown, but after living in the shadow of her father’s career, Victoria wanted to do things differently when she became a parent. I’d tried to convince her to stay in school, even offering to drop out with her when we got the positive test result. Victoria refused to let me, and once she made up her mind, there was no changing it. I’d be forever grateful she pushed me to complete my degree. I owed it to Victoria—and Emilia—to finish what we’d started together.

“We should move on,” Victoria said from the other side of the table. “College was a long time ago, guys.”

That would have been smart, but I couldn’t let it go, not yet. Hadley always got the last word, but she’d struck a nerve with her comments.

“And you’re any better?” I scoffed back at Hadley. “You said I only got a better grade on that final paper because I was on the baseball team.”

Yes, it was a stupid thing to hold on to, but the sting was still there. It was one of the few times Hadley and I had called a truce, forced to work together on a group project that took up weeks of our time. Every day, I looked forward to seeing her, thinking we were amending our friendship. Hadley warmed up to me, no longer looking atme like the devil who impregnated her best friend and forced her to drop out of school. At least, until the final grades came out.

Hadley shook her head. “Only one person got above a C. One out of sixty students. Are you telling me you deserved an A?”

Yeah, I fucking did. I worked my ass off on that paper, almost to the detriment of my team. I’d stayed up so late, I almost missed practice. Our college coach was strict—miss practice? You were out the next game. But I never wanted to be that guy, the one who got by only because he had some athletic ability. I wanted to do well in school, wanted to have something to fall back on in case baseball didn’t work out.

But I didn’t say any of that to Hadley.

I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. “Does it matter?”

Hadley’s dark blue eyes flared, and it took everything in me not to smirk. She always had the upper hand, leaving me staring at her with that same annoyed expression. Let her judge. Let her think the worst.

But I should have known better. Hadley never did what I expected her to do.

“You’re right,” Hadley sighed. “I…uh. I read your paper.” Shock must have colored my face, because her cheeks filled with a vibrant blush. “You left it after the last class, and I couldn’t help myself. It was good. Really good.”

“Wow,” Victoria whispered to Adam. “I think hell just froze over.”

Hadley gave her a saccharine smile before turning back to me. “You deserved that A, but I did too. I tried to argue that with Miller, and he made a sexistcomment.”

“He did what?” I bit out, not knowing where this protective urge appeared from.

Hadley shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Like you said—it was a long time ago. It’s just stuck with me all this time because I hate when my intelligence comes with a caveat.” A ghost of a smile crossed her lips. “I tried to report him, but they called it retaliation for my crappy grade. No one took me seriously, and I took it out on you. Sorry, Cam.”

I kept staring at Hadley, not sure about the mixed-up emotions swirling inside me. On one hand, it felt good to hear those words after all the comments over the years. Maybe it was because she was so close to Victoria, but I hated how Hadley assumed I’d only gotten by because of baseball. After a long beat, I cleared my throat and nodded. “Thanks, Hadley.”

“Okay…” Victoria said as she stood. “I’m going to clear the table while we’re at a good stopping point. I don’t want to shake this peace we have right now.”

NINE

Later that night, while Adam and Victoria put Emilia to bed, I stayed to help with the dishes. Even though they had a dishwasher, I enjoyed washing them by hand. Something about the rhythmic task soothed me, letting me work through all the chaos in my mind. Cam was somewhere in the house, but he’d left the room right after Victoria and Adam. For all I knew, he went to bed without saying a word to me.Not like I expected him to.As I ran the sponge over a bowl, I tried to push him out of my mind, still unsure about what happened earlier.

I’d apologized—to Cam.

And I meant every word.

Lots of things irked me about Cam. He used to be so arrogant and rigid, it made my head hurt. But that was back in college, and even I had to admit, he had changed a lot over the years. Emilia had brought out a lot of his better qualities, and he was the best dad I ever met. He doted on his little girl and was a great co-parent with Victoria. It was also getting harder to hold on to my resentment about Victoria leaving school now that she was doing so well. Maybe this was always her path. Why did Iquestion it?

Beyond that, so many of my issues with Cam were out of his control, resentment over our situations instead of his actions. Thinking about when that professor had refused to change my grade, it brought up all the feelings I tried to bury—feelings of inadequacy and shame. It was like being thrust back into my childhood. Everyone had judged me because of my circumstances, rather than trying to get to know me better. God, every time I thought I’d moved on past these problems, they loved to rear their ugly heads.

But no matter the reason, I’d still pushed off those feelings onto Cam. Easier to target someone else than try to deal with the root cause. And now, I’d done the same thing to Cam other people had done to me: I’d judged him unfairly.

“Fuck,” I whispered as I placed the dish on the rack. Did I really feel guilty about how I’d treated Cam over the years? When Victoria told me to cut Cam some slack, I thought it meant we’d get through a conversation without taking swipes at each other—not me apologizing to him.

As if he knew he was occupying all my thoughts, Cam strode into the kitchen and opened the fridge. He grabbed a bottle of water, and I was sure he’d head back to his room without acknowledging me. Instead, he walked over to my side, placed the bottle down, then held out the towel.

“Let me dry.”

I shook my head. “I’ve got it.”

“Let me help, menace.” He reached out and took the dish from my hand.

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