Page 35 of Knot Your Sugar Rush
“You mean escape the tea party,” Jamie calls after him.
“I’m a grown man, Jamie. I don’t have to explain my tea aversion to you.”
Theo raises his cup in silent salute. Dane shoots him a look before ducking out.
Jamie turns back to me. “You good?”
I nod. “Yeah. Thanks to you three.”
He nudges the tray toward me. “Eat while it’s still warm. We’ll be here.”
And somehow, I know that’s true. That no matter how complicated things get, how much my life keeps shifting under my feet—they’ll be here.
I hope so, anyway, as I look to the empty space that Dane left behind.
Chapter twenty-one
Dane
The hallway outside Cam's room is quiet, but I can still hear the low murmur of voices and the occasional sound of laughter. It grates against my nerves. Not because I don’t want to hear it—hell, that sound has been the best part of the morning—but because I had to step away.
The phone call had come in just as Theo was making some smug comment about tea and Jamie was gearing up for another round of teasing. I couldn’t ignore it. Not when it was the contractor from the Bayview project, the one that’s been pulling at the edge of my thoughts for months now. It’s a big job, bigger than anything we’ve done here in Starling Grove. And it’s out of town.
Out of this life.
The call confirms what I already knew. They’re ready to move forward. And they want me there, in person, in a week.
My fingers drum against the armrest of the old chair I’ve commandeered in the hallway. I’m still sitting in the shadows, away from the soft morning sun streaming in through thewindow. The warmth in that room back there with Cam and the guys—it feels miles away now.
Cam.
She’s the wrench in this whole operation, the unexpected hitch in my otherwise clean break. She shouldn’t matter. But she does. More than I want to admit.
The door creaks and I glance up just as Cam steps out of her room, coffee mug in hand. She sees me, pauses, then walks over with a tilt of her head.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I lie, then gesture to the chair beside mine. “Just needed some quiet.”
She sits in the other old chair, pulling her knees up a little and resting her mug on her thigh. The air between us is easy, but it hums with something unspoken.
“Starling Grove never used to be this quiet,” she says after a beat. “When Zae and I were kids, we ran this neighborhood. Roller skates. Sidewalk chalk. Lemonade stands that sold more rocks than drinks.”
I chuckle. “Sounds like a racket.”
She smiles, but there’s a sadness in it. “It was. But it was good. Safe. I always thought I’d get out and do something big. Go places. And I did, for a while. Job, city, love.”
Her voice falters and I don’t say anything. Just wait.
“I was engaged,” she says. “To a guy named Eric. He was smart, ambitious... charismatic.”
I grunt. “Sounds like a prick.”
She huffs a laugh, then nods. “Turns out, yeah. Walked in on him with his secretary. He asked if I wanted to join.”
My grip tightens on the armrest. “What an absolute piece of garbage.”
She glances over at me, surprised by the heat in my tone. Hell, I’m surprised too.
