Page 55 of Best Laid Plans
Wyatt’s face sobered, even more than it already had from talking about Michael. “I really appreciate that, man. Things have been tough at the restaurant lately, and it’s one area that I can’t be of much help to them.”
Cam smiled. “How are the Pierce children both so inept in the kitchen?”
“Because we had a far better cook than either of us could ever be feeding us. Not a lot of incentive there.” Wyatt stilled then, looking at Cam intently. “Plus, you loved cooking, so Dad still had an outlet to pass on his love of food to the next generation.”
“Ready to head back?” Cam asked, not sure how to respond given the ball that had lodged itself in his throat. He started walking, Wyatt quickly falling into step beside him. Back toward the closest thing to a real home he’d ever had.
Growing up, Wyatt had never made Cam feel badly for how much he’d been around. Or that he’d started working in the kitchen with Mr. Pierce and sometimes wouldn’t even make it upstairs to hang out in the apartment. He’d just accepted Cam into his life, harboring zero resentment that in their teenage years, Cam had probably spent more time with Mr. Pierce than Wyatt had.
Whatever he was doing with Elle was a slippery fucking slope that led down to a pit filled with vipers. Bound to end in disaster. Assured to implode his carefully crafted world. And even though Cam knew that, he didn’t want to stop. But more than that, hecouldn’tstop. She was equal parts spitfire and softness, and Cam loved every second of it.
He was discovering that he wanted to be the one that Elle turned to for help. The man she depended on to support her. To make things happen. And while Elle was one of the most competent people that Cam had ever met, it still didn’t change his desire to be the body that she leaned into for comfort. The one who held her up when she wasn’t strong enough to do it herself.
And even if Elle was eventually going to return to her life in Boston and fulfill all of her dreams–Cam wanted that for her, too. Even if that didn’t include him. Even if it chipped away at another piece of his already broken-down heart.
Because walking away didn’t seem like a possibility, either, not as long as Elle still wanted him around.
When Cam got back to the apartment, following Wyatt inside, his plan was to shoot the breeze for a little while–he almost hoped that Elle stayed in her bedroom–and then slip out with as little fanfare as possible. In life, he’d learned to leave no trace, and being able to escape his childhood home without attractingattention from either of his parents had been a skill he’d honed over the years.
Now, he was putting it to good use, planning his exit strategy as Wyatt made his way to the kitchen to make them both protein shakes.
While Wyatt and Elle had been out at lunch, he’d changed Wyatt’s sheets, emptied the trash, and removed any traces of himself from Wyatt’s bedroom. Briefly, he’d considered trying to find some sage to burn given the thoughts he’d acted on inside that bedroom, but he highly doubted Wyatt kept any on hand. Jade, one of the sous chefs at Gossamer, had sworn by a good sage cleanse. And as Cam had thought back over the last few weeks, he felt like it would have been the least he could have done for Wyatt.
He traveled lightly–always had, a single duffel bag to his name that he’d already packed. Only, as he scanned the entryway, his duffel bag wasn’t where he’d left it near the door.
Cam cocked his head to the side. A commotion was coming from the room situated between Wyatt’s room and the guest room that Elle was using. Generally, it was part office and part home gym, though Cam knew that during football season, Wyatt typically lifted and worked out with the team. Something about ‘leading by example’ which was so painfully Wyatt that he cracked a smile, in spite of his mounting confusion.
He wondered, regardless of knowing it was a bad idea to even think about, if Elle was in there working out. Flushed. A little sweaty. A look of focused determination on her face that he’d already had the pleasure of seeing before. It would be the same look she had whenever she set her mind to something–and most recently, that something had beenhim. And fuck if he didn’t love it whenever she bit her lip and looked at him like he was a present that she wanted to unwrap.
The ill-advised fantasy made his shorts grow a little tighter.He quickly cleared his throat and started moving in place to get his blood flowing to the rest of his extremities.
Like she’d summoned him with his fantasies, her head popped through the gym’s doorway. Her face, as imagined, was flushed, little wisps of hair floating around her head like a halo. Her ponytail bounced as she walked into the living room, looking at him with bright eyes and a mischievous smile. “You’re home.”
And weren’t those the best fucking words he’d ever heard from a woman like Elle Pierce. Ones that he had no business being on the receiving end of.
Except that Wyatt was in the apartment with them, which Cam was realizing maybe Elle didn’t know. He nodded toward the kitchen. “Wyatt and I just got back from our run.”
Elle nodded at the same time she pouted, but she recovered quickly. “You boys have fun?” she asked, eyeing Cam up and down in a way that he could only describe as hungry.
He felt that look through his entire body. But there wasn’t time to eyefuck Elle with Wyatt fifteen feet away. “Your brother’s getting old.”
Wyatt dipped his head down so that he could look through the opening between the cabinets and the counter, pausing the blender. “I heard that. And I am deeply offended. Only one of us spent the last two weeks doing two-a-days with teenage boys.”
If Wyatt only knew the exercise that Cam had been getting up to lately…
But Elle seemed to already have other things on her mind, namely teasing Wyatt, one of her favorite pastimes. “People with integrity do what they say they are going to do. Others have excuses,” she said, dropping her voice lower in a hilariously terrible impression of Wyatt.
Wyatt ignored the taunt, even as he gritted his teeth at being called out. Guess he’d done a good job fortifying himself at football camp against immature jabs. “What were you doing in theoffice? I keep all my documents locked up, so there’s no point in trying to steal my identity.”
Elle rolled her eyes. “Impersonating an uptight high school football coach isn’t exactly on my to-do list if I’m going to bother committing a felony.”
Wyatt walked around the counter and held his hand to his chest. “I am a gainfully employed, home-owning, upstanding member of society. You could do a lot worse.”
Ouch. Even when it wasn’t directed at Cam, that one stung a little bit. Because if those were Wyatt’s standards, he was never going to make the cut.
Elle gave him a strange look, then, like she’d seen him wince. He really needed to get out of here.
“I’m just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire, ass,” she said to her brother before shooting a smile in Cam’s direction. “And if you must know–”
