Page 39 of Best Laid Plans
“With my best friend, whom I was living with. Don’t worry though, I caught them at his apartment, so it could have been worse.” Her words were sarcastic, but there was such a grim resignation in her voice that it made Cam want to wrap her up in his arms.
“Elle, I say this with complete seriousness, but I will start my own company and hire you before I let you reach out to that asshole,” he said protectively, his hands already clenchinginto fists.
She laughed and kicked him lightly under the covers. “I appreciate that, Cam, but we’re a walking HR violation.”
“One time thing, remember?” The disappointment in his own words hit him squarely in the chest.
Elle’s demeanor changed, and she pulled her foot back to her own side. She blinked and swallowed, like she was strengthening her resolve. “You’re right. One time thing.”
“But we can still be–”
“Friends?” she supplied, though he couldn’t quite catch her tone.
Hedidwant to be Elle’s friend, he realized. Maybe there was a world where he wanted more than that, too, but it wasn’t a possibility. So, he’d settle for less violence and more conversation. It was something, at least. “Seems better than two people, one of whom hits the other with a baseball bat?”
“That baseball bat was aimed at an intruder, Cam. I won’t apologize for defending the homestead,” she said, a soft smile on her face that Cam suddenly wanted to capture on camera to keep. As quickly as it was there, it was gone, surprise overtaking her features. “Are you going to the country club today? I don’t actually know how that conversation with Sandy ended?”
Cam lifted his eyebrows and folded his arms over his chest. “Because you abandoned me.”
She laughed and pushed his shoulder, her fingers warm and soft against his bicep. “Again, something I won’t apologize for. But I do want to know what’s going on.” The way she looked at him, so genuinely curious, with her hand tucked underneath her head, made Cam feel seen in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever.
He didn’t have people who checked in about his day–unless he was working for them. Or someone who asked him questions about himself, just because they wanted to know the answer. It was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. A lazy morning in bed, talking about life and bantering back and forth.Yeah, it wasn’t half-bad at all, he’d just never thought it was something that he’d get to experience.
He liked Elle, as more than just someone who he’d shared a night with. And he also realized that he was in a unique position to help her. Even if it meant that he had to put himself in a literal circle of hell, he was going to do it. Just to see a smile on those beautiful lips again, which he was growing a little addicted to seeing. And if he was the one causing it–even better.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ELLE
“Are we a dynamic duo or something now?” Elle asked as they walked toward the main clubhouse at the Rock Harbor Country Club. “Because you don’t need to babysit me. I pinky promised that I wasn’t going to tell anyone we slept together. I am nothing if not a lady of my word.” And really, she was confused about Cam’s offer to have her come join him today. The country club seemed like the last place he’d want to be, being paraded around on top of it even lower on the list.
But he’d invited her along, and it’s not like she had anything else going on. She’d been banned from her parents’ house until later tonight, when she’d be staying over to go with her mom to her dad’s surgery–or procedure–depending on who was doing the talking on the subject, early tomorrow morning.
Cam shot her an amused grin. “Aren’t these like, your people?”
Elle scoffed. “Barely. I’m sure for a lot of them, Rock Harbor is their summer home, but their main residence is in Boston. I’m, on the other hand, living in my brother’s guest room.”
“You’re just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire,” Cam said as he held the door open for her.
She lifted her brow. “Didn’t peg you as a Steinbeck fan.”
He followed her into the two-story entryway bathed in natural light. “Library books are one of the last things you can access for free. Shocking that young Cam gravitated toward stories about the poor and downtrodden.”
“Yes. Shocking,” Elle parroted, smiling over her shoulder at him.
People said that sleeping together caused more problems than solutions, but it was proving to be the absolute opposite for her and Cam. At least from where she was standing. They’d finally found solid footing with one another, breaking through the tension and frustration and finding a… stasis, was the word that came to mind.
Without the ‘what if’ hanging over them, they could actually have a normal, albeit slightly sarcastic, conversation without it ending in them almost sleeping together or Elle stomping off and cursing him in her mind.
She hadn’t even commented on how good he looked in his fitted khakis and short sleeved button-down, which did wonders to bring attention to his biceps.
Granted, it had only been about twelve hours since Cam had been inside of her and had given her some of the best orgasms of her life, so she hoped the refractory period lasted at least a couple of days if things between them were going to get weird again.
But she pushed the thoughts away for now. A woman in her mid-thirties with bleach blonde hair and even whiter teeth was approaching them, her eyes laser-focused on Cam. “So wonderful to meet you, Cam. I’m Tricia,” she said, extending her hand. “You’re even more handsome than your pictures.”
Elle eyed Tricia up-and-down. She was pretty, in a manufactured sort of way. Her perfectly tailored black suit was designer, and she was wearing the same type of heels that Elle used tohave to schlep around Boston in every day. She did not miss that part of her old life.
“And you brought a… friend?” Tricia asked, her attention shifting to Elle, who felt entirely under-dressed in her navy, high-waisted tapered pants and a fitted white tank top with a high scoop neck. For no other reason than because of how Tricia was looking at her–like she was gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe. Elle hadn’t actuallyexpectedto be intentionally made to feel inferior. She’d assumed that it would just happen naturally when she saw the price of a glass of wine at the bar or clocked the luxury cars in the parking lot.
