Page 66 of B-ry
Maybe that made me a hypocrite, trying to get Cami to see that this wasn’t her fault when every second I blamed myself. But Cami wasn’t the one that had set her on that path that night. I had been. I was the one that told her I couldn’t do it anymore. I was the one that kicked her to the curb because… why? My pride was wounded? My feelings got hurt? I jumped to conclusions and went all macho man? Yeah, now none of those seemed like good reasons to close the door in her face. To send her packing. To let her walk home alone.
I think at some point I grunted in response to her statement.
“I will find her,” I said, for the both of us. She needed to hear it and I needed to believe it.
She was crying again, her body shaking as I held her. Maybe mentioning the whole ‘find her’ part wasn’t the smartest move. The only thing it seemed to do was remind Cami that her sister was missing. I held her tighter wishing I could do something more.
And that was how Brand found us. I was sure I was in for an ass-whooping. After all, I did have my arms around his woman. A very upset woman, I might add. And I was sure his first thoughts were much like mine would have been had I walked in with him comfortingmywoman so closely.
But he surprised me. I mean, his eyes did go hard and bore into me like lasers for half a second. Then they went soft. He obviously wasn’t as hotheaded as me. Thank fuck, because I did not want to deal with that on top of everything else.
“Cami,” I said taking a step back. “Brand is here.”
She sniffed a few times and then tried her best to blink away the tears.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered out.
“It’s okay, baby. If his big arms are better than mine right now, I can, um, just go back to work.” Brand said the statement with a slight smile. As Cami choked out a laugh, I knew it was just the thing she needed.
She shook her head as she walked over to him and collapsed in his arms.
He held his mess of a woman and sent me a chin jerk letting me know that we were cool. Cami didn’t cry anymore but she did let Brand hold her for a good long minute.
“Okay,” she said pulling back and stretching up to place a sweet kiss on his lips. “I’m under control now.”
“What’s going on?” Brand asked looking down at her.
“I wanted to set this room up for Laurel, for when she comes back.”
Brand flicked his gaze to me clearly catching on to what I had before. With a hard swallow, he nodded.
“We got this,” I said walking over to the bed frame and pulling it away from its tucked away space. “You can go back to the shop if you want.”
I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I kind of got the feeling like Cami didn’t want to break down in front of him for some reason. Maybe she just needed to do this without him around. It wasn’t like I was going to sit around and try to get her to talk out her feelings. If she wanted to talk, I’d sure as hell listen. But I wasn’t about to pull them out of her. Which I suspected Brand would do because he cared about her so deeply.
“I’ll come by when we’re done,” Cami said and then gave him another kiss.
“Okay,” Brand said in a tone that let me know he understood. “Call me if you need anything.”
She nodded. He pinned me with a look and I nodded as well. I would call him if she had another meltdown because I had a feeling she would definitely need him then.
After he took off, we worked silently. She unpacked the boxes while I got the furniture set up again. I went through and wiped it all off. It wasn’t like it was dirty but there was a thin layer of dust that had settled on everything. And when Cami seemed at a loss on where to put things, I made little suggestions as I remembered where it had been set up in Laurel’s apartment before.
Since there wasn’t much, it didn’t take us any longer than a couple of hours to get it all set up.
Then I ran her over to the shop so she could be with Brand and get some love from Blade’s ugly mutt, Biscuit. Damn, that dog was not cute. I didn’t know where the hell he got her. But I couldn’t deny that her little doggy kisses did make things a little better.
Sad as it was, I went back to the compound, back to that room, and sat on Laurel’s bed for a long time just staring at everything.
I wasn’t sure why. Maybe a part of me needed to be close to her in some way. I couldn’t really see her here like I had back in her apartment. There were no memories to play in my head because though the stuff was the same, the place wasn’t.
