Page 57 of The Easy Way
He could imagine that - Cam as a kid, needing to get away and find some peace. Cort had been much thesame.
“What did you wish for?” he asked, his voicehoarse.
Cam shrugged. “All the usual things, I guess. To be successful - possibly as a superhero.” He chuckled. “To have whatever guy I had a crush on fall madly in love with me.” He grinned as he threw himself down on his butt in the sand, his eyes on the water, their towels and the case with the sunblock dropped haphazardly in a pile besidehim.
Cort hesitated for a second, then threw himself down next to Cam. The sand was damp and chilly, and he fought the urge to squirm. The phone was a hard lump digging into his ass. “When I was a kid I wished for a family - a loud, boisterous family. And money. Lots ofmoney.”
Cam glanced at him and nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. We always want what we don’thave.”
“Cam, you know I don’t give a shit about your money, right?” Cort blew out a breath. “Frankly, I think it would be easier if you didn’t haveany.”
“What would?” Cam’s eyes were wide and Cort looked away, rubbing his palms on the legs of hisshorts.
“This. Us.” He felt like an idiot. The words he wanted to use -relationship,future, together- were so incredibly silly. They’d known each other fordays.
Cam also turned away to look at the water, but Cort could hear the change in his breathing – fast, short pants, as though he was doing something way more strenuous than sitting watching the surf. He could practically hear Cam’s mind whirring,too.
“Wanna play a game?” Cortasked.
Cam huffed out a laugh. “Why not? More ‘Never Have I Ever’?” He darted a quick glance at Cort. “Be careful, though. The more time I spend with you, the shorter the list of things I’ve never done seems toget.”
Cort chuckled. “No Jameson today, anyway. Let’s stick to the classic Truth orDare.”
Cam was silent for a moment, rubbing his lips together in a way that was totally distracting. Then he nodded. “Alright. I’ll take thedare.”
Cort laughed again. “I thought you were supposed to hear the question first, badass! But whatever. I can work with this. I dare you to go back to the party and kiss this Arcadia person I keep hearingabout.”
Cam gave him a look of such utter disdain, Cort laughed out loud. “So that’s ano?”
“That’s ahellno.”
“So, does that mean you now have to answer the question?” Cort wondered, grinning. “How do our games get so ass-backwards?”
“Nowthatis a good question,” Cam sighed, shaking his head. “Fine. What do you want toknow?”
“If you could have anything right now, what would itbe?”
Cam seemed startled. “Wow. You’re diving right in with the tough ones,huh?”
“Well, I don’t think we’ve really gone easy on each other this week, have we? It’s been high-stakes, from the very beginning.” Cort’s tone was light, but he knew the words he spoke weretrue.
“High-stakes, maybe,” Cam agreed. “But in some ways, it’s still been... easy.” He frowned, and Cort understood why. It wasscaryhow easy this was, and part of him couldn’t help wondering when the other shoe woulddrop.
Cam snagged a folded towel from the pile and placed it behind him as a pillow. He lay back with his hands folded on his stomach, staring up at the blue sky for a minute, giving careful consideration to Cort’squestion.
“Probably to be someone who wasn’t me? Someone who wasn’t a Seaver, I mean. I love my family, but…” He rolled on his side to face Cort and shrugged. “You probably figured money would solve all your problems. Sometimes I wish I could get rid ofmine.”
Cort nodded. “You know, this time a week ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. Not about you, or anyone. I get it now. Sometimes money causes more problems than it solves. But Cam, I can’t begin to describe to you what it’s like growing up without any. How many people think you’re a lower life form because you can’t afford name-brand whatever, or assume the reason you’re poor is because you’re lazy or weak or stupid. It’s hard to fight back against that, when adultsandtheir kids treat you that way. Rich kid doesn’t get the question, teacher explains again. Poor kid doesn’t get it, it’s because he’s slacking. Stupid stuff on its own, but it’s like water torture, picking away atyou.”
“You grew up mostly in Johnsville, right?” Cam sounded hesitant, as if knowing Cort would freak if he began asking morequestions.
Cort rubbed a hand over his face. He didn’t want to hide from Cam anymore. “Is this my question?” heteased.
Cam flopped back down and put his forearm up to shade his eyes from the light as he looked at Cort. “Yeah.”
Cort didn’t hesitate. “Yep. In the not-so-nice part. It’s where my last and longest foster family, the Dempseys, lived. It was a one-story house with two bedrooms, so Damon and Ishared.”
“Damon, your brother?” Camventured.
