Page 56 of Best Laid Plans
Wyatt cut her off. “In my own home, I must.”
Elle scoffed, and Cam tried not to smile. Except then she started speaking, and he felt the strangest sensation welling up inside of him. “I was setting up your air mattress for Cam in the office. I figured I’d be helpful.”
Elle was met with Wyatt’s quizzical stare. “This doesn’t sound like my darling sister at all. Whose identity did you already steal? Cam’s?” Wyatt looked over at Cam, who held up his hands in confusion, trying to make sense of everything that was happening.
Elle, by hook or by crook, was orchestrating a situation to keep him here. Did she want him to die a slow, painful death at her brother’s hand when this all inevitably came tumbling down? Because now, they were playing with a flamethrower instead of a match.
He’d been minutes from escape. In a perfect world, maybe he and Elle could have snuck around for a few more weeks before she headed back to Boston, and no one would have ever beenthe wiser. She’d get her high-paying, stress-inducing life back, and this would all be a (hopefully) fun summer memory for her.
And Cam would…
Wyatt’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Why aren’t you staying at Mom and Dad’s?” he asked, his question directed at Elle with a mischievous grin.
“Why aren’t you?” Elle batted back at him. Not her strongest argument, and Cam laughed along instead of acknowledging the solid, uncomfortable feeling that had taken up residence in his chest.
Because one way or another, this would all be over soon. There was no other way this should go, except with Elle getting back to the life she’d been working to build for the last decade. Cam had already been gone when Elle had gotten to high school, but from the time he’d come into the Pierce family’s life, Elle had been driven. Smart. Talented. Too curious for her own good. Her life wasn’t meant to be settling for big dreams in a small town, where she was always just scraping by.
And Cam didn’t want that for her, either. It bred discontent, like he’d seen in his mom. He knew how that story ended already.
“You okay, man?”
Cam looked over to see Wyatt, arm outstretched with a smoothie that Cam hadn’t taken from him yet. There was genuine concern in his features, and if Wyatt was looking at him like that, he couldn’t even imagine the look that was on Elle’s face right now.
He cleared his throat and accepted the drink. “Yeah, sorry. I think I went a little too hard on our run. Just spaced out for a second,” Cam lied, wishing that Wyatt would stop looking at him like that. It was one thing to want support and acceptance, but it was an entirely different beast to stare it in the face when he felt like he wasn’t being a very good friend.
“Grab the first shower. Then you can chill out since…” Wyatt looked at Elle then, shrugging his shoulders. “Since your mattress is already set up.”
Elle smiled, triumphantly, even as Cam could still see the hint of seriousness on her features. “I knew you’d come to see it my way.”
Cam took a long drink of the smoothie, downing most of it in a single gulp. “Are you sure it’s okay that I stay here?” he asked Wyatt.
“Absolutely, man. I’ll be at football practice most of the time and then school starts in a week. I meant what I said, you’re welcome here as long as you need. Though,” he added, shooting a look in Elle’s direction, “I do wish that I could offer you a real bed.”
Cam knew, on an instinctual level, that Elle was working so hard to resist the urge to tell Wyatt that she and Cam could just bunk together. Elle loved nothing more than to rile her brother up, even if the offer would come so far out of left field on Wyatt’s side that he’d likely be more confused than anything.
Cam shot her a warning look, which seemed to do the trick. He couldn’t take that chance.
“Well, now that sleeping arrangements are all settled, my work is done,” Elle said before disappearing into her bedroom, like once again, she hadn’t just thrown his life into chaos.
Wyatt, too, walked toward his own room. “I’m going to unpack. Yell when you’re done in the shower.”
Cam nodded dumbly, suddenly left alone in the living room. He looked toward the room that he’d be able to call his own for the near future, situated directly between his best friend and the woman who continued to occupy more and more of his energy.
He groaned quietly, feeling like he was the definition of being between a rock and a hard place. As he walked to the shower, he knew for certain that he had to figure out what he was doing with his life before it all blew up around him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ELLE
“He’s at football practice,” Elle said, feeling the way Cam hadn’t settled back against her headboard. It’s not like she was looking for a declaration of undying love, but a little post-sex cuddling would be nice. And the restaurant would be open tomorrow, so their window for a fun, daytime tryst was closing today.
She’d coaxed Cam into her bedroom after Wyatt had safely left for football practice, and hours later, they were finally coming up for air.
If there was one thing that Elle knew, it was that she was quickly becoming addicted to Cam, in whatever circumstances she could have him. It was a thought that she refused to follow too far, intent for the first time in her life on enjoying what was right in front of her.
Cam ran his hand across his jaw. “It feels wrong, lying to your brother.”
The Wyatt of it all. Of course. Some type of bro code that Elle had stumbled into the middle of with very little vision on how to navigate through it. Whenever Wyatt had been in theapartment over the last few days, Cam gave Elle a wide berth that she’d been less than pleased with.
