Page 65 of Flirt
With the hand still on his shoulder, Asher kissed his temple and gave him a little push. “Go on, Cam. It’ll be fine.”
He said that now, but he’d only had a taste of Sarah Stone’s brand of mothering. Cameron would bet a week’s worth of blowjobs that Asher wouldn’t make it through the entire meal without blushing or choking on his pancakes at least once. With Nico and Natalie there, neither of them stood a chance.
Winding his way through the tables, he approached the crescent-shaped booth in the corner with no small amount of trepidation. “Morning,” he mumbled. “Dad, this is Asher Dare.” He waved a hand between them. “Asher, this is my dad, Mark. You know everyone else.”
“Good morning,” Asher said easily, reaching across the table to take Mark’s hand. “I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Stone.”
“Same here but call me Mark.”
They all scrunched together, making room for Cameron to slip in beside his mother, leaving Asher huddled on the end. Everyone already had coffee, except his mother who sipped orange juice through a straw. No one looked to be in any particular hurry, and Cameron groaned inwardly when he realized he wouldn’t be going anywhere until they decided to release him.
“Cheer up,” his mother admonished, picking up a menu from the middle of the table. “It’s breakfast, Cameron, not the Spanish Inquisition.”
“Not yet,” he muttered under his breath, but he fell silent when Asher’s hand landed on his thigh and squeezed. “So, uh, what happened to your trip?”
The last he had heard, his parents were supposed to be up in Oklahoma for a wedding. A second or third marriage, if he remembered correctly, of someone his mother had dated in high school. Cameron shook his head, a fond smile pulling at his lips. Only his mother would attend her ex’s wedding, and only his father would agree that it was a good idea.
“We were just packing up the car when we got the call that the wedding had been canceled.” His mother sniffed indignantly, as if she’d been the one left standing at thealtar. “I just don’t understand. Who calls off their wedding the day before they’re supposed to be married?”
“I’m sure lots of people have done it, Mom.” Natalie lifted her coffee mug to her lips to hide her grin. “Did they say why they were canceling?”
“Not a word.” Sniffing again, she stabbed at her orange juice with the straw. “It’s just rude. What if we had already left?”
Across the table, the elder Mr. Stone rolled his eyes. “So, Cameron,” he said, drawing everyone’s attention, “how did you two meet?”
“At an estate sale.” Technically, it was the truth, even if he’d left out all the finer details.
“At Asher’s house,” Natalie said.
“Then, Cam followed him to the club,” Nico added.
Cameron glared at him as he filled his and Asher’s empty mugs with coffee from the carafe in the center of the table. “Why are you even here?”
The smile on Nico’s face stretched until his eyes crinkled. “Your mom invited me.”
“Well, of course, I did.” His mother pointed a stern finger at his best friend. “You’re a good boy, Nico.” She stated it as more of an order than a compliment. Then, she turned her attention past Cameron to Asher. “An estate sale? Are you selling? I know a very good realtor.”
Asher chuckled. “No, ma’am. Nothing like that. It sounds a lot fancier than it was. Really more like an indoor yard sale.”
His poor mother looked so disappointed. “He’s being modest.” Cameron leaned sideways to bump her shoulder with his own. “He lives in Preston Hollow,” he staged whispered. “It was exactly as fancy as it sounds.”
“What is it that you do?” his dad asked as he stirred an ungodly amount of sugar into his coffee.
“I’m a writer, sir.”
“Oh, anything I might have read?”
Cameron ducked his head to hide his smile. He knew how much Asher hated that question. He also knew his dad was full of shit, because he loved the Marshall Kane novels almost as much as Cameron did.
For his part, Asher took it all in stride, rattling off a few of his bestselling titles.
“Marshall Kane.” His dad nodded, clearly trying to play it cool. “The movies don’t quite live up to the books, do they?”
“No, sir.” Asher grinned, his hand squeezing Cameron’s thigh again. “They never do.”
“He’s working on a new book right now,” Natalie interjected.
All eyes turned to Asher, but he just shrugged, his smile never wavering. “It’s true. I’m working on the last Marshall Kane novel.”
