Page 53 of Challenge
“Is there anything I can do?” I ask, feeling like a prat just sitting here.
“Nope. I made these yesterday, so I’m just popping them in the oven to reheat.” She moves confidently around the kitchen as if she’s cooked here before. When she’s done, she sidles up beside me. “Our mum was from Sweden, so this recipe is truly authentic. They are impossible not to like. I make them all the time for the boys.”
I smile softly. “That’s a lovely way to remember her.”
A fleeting look of surprise mars her face, but she’s quick to conceal it. “So…you know about our mum?”
I open my mouth to defend my remark, realising how what I just said was so incredibly personal and horribly inappropriate. “No…erm…not much. Just that you were all young when she passed. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Don’t be sorry.” She looks off into the distance. “We probably don’t really talk about her enough. I’ve been thinking about her a lot more now that I’m starting my own family.”
“How far along are you?” I eye her abdomen as if it would have grown since I last saw her.
“Just hit fourteen weeks yesterday.” She touches the nonexistent bulge. “I never even knew what the weeks meant before. I’d hear someone say how many weeks they were and ask, ‘How many months is that?’” She laughs and I laugh with her. “I’m excited to see how my brothers do as uncles. It should be a riot.”
“You and your family all seem so close.” I vaguely wonder what that would feel like.
My grandmother was so distant even when I was home. My parents were even worse. The Harris family all seem to be on top of each other constantly. Ruling as a committee on the surgery; hanging out in Cam’s patient room so long they got into a fight; Vi having a key to Cam’s flat. It’s crazy.
Her brows lift. “We are…Sometimes annoyingly so.” Her blue eyes are bright on me now. “So are you off for the rest of the weekend then?”
“Yeah, as second year residents, we work really long stretches. Then we get four or five days off. I go back to work on Thursday.”
“Oh good, you’ll be back in plenty of time for Cam’s surgery. We’re all ready to get this over with and see him back on the pitch. Although, who knows? It could be a different stadium by then. He’s so talented. I’m really excited to see what the next few days bring for him.”
“Different stadium?”
She lifts her brows. “Arsenal is a great step up. If he got an offer from them? It would be a long time coming for him. I’ll miss watching him at Tower Park, but at least he’d still be based in London. It’s just hard because we all grew up in Tower Park”
She continues on about the magic of Tower Park Stadium and watching her brothers play together. While I appreciate her vigour for the sport their family has built their lives around, the voice in the back of my head wants to speak up. Healing, refocusing, and rehabbing should be Cam’s focus, not his contract.
I bite my tongue, though. Partly because I genuinely like Vi, but mostly because, right now, I’m not his doctor. I’m certainly not his girlfriend. I’m just someone he’s having sex with, no strings attached.
Disappointment creeps into my soul over the powerless feeling mixing my professional career and my social life affords me.
“…What are yours and Camden’s plans for the weekend?” Vi’s question snaps me out of my internal musings.
“I um…er—”
“I can think of aerobic exercises we could try,” Camden says, his voice surprising us both from the kitchen doorway behind us.
“Cam,” Vi starts, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Can you maybe, just once, not be the gravy-sucking sex pig you’d like us all to think you are?”
His lips squish off to the side as he contemplates her question. “No can do, Vi. I like seeing that lightning bolt vein pop on your forehead every time I say something that sets you off.”
She rolls her eyes and stands up to check the food. Camden flops down on the stool beside me, spreading his legs wide so our thighs brush together. He waggles his brows at me, and I hate myself a little bit for smirking.
“You know what would be brilliant?” Vi asks, snapping our attention away from each other. “Camden, you should give Indie a tour of Tower Park. The guys are all away this weekend so it’ll be dormant. Tower Park completely empty is even better than packed to the roof with roaring fans…It’s…It’s magic.” She shakes as if she’s just given herself the chills.
“It is magic,” Camden agrees, his brow rising with a naughty gleam to it.
I frown at his weird expression. “Sounds nice?” I have no idea what to say in response. A tour of Tower Park sounds rather date-like and that is definitely not a part of our arrangement. I’m feeling twitchy with all this familial meddling.
“It’s better than nice. You’ll see,” Vi says, placing a mug of coffee in front of me.
Camden’s eyes lose all good humour as he stares at the cup in my hands as if Vi’s just given away his favourite toy. I silently offer it to him. He scowls and shakes me away as if he wouldn’t touch this cup with a ten-foot pole. It’s all very peculiar, which is nothing new for Cam.
After we finish eating, I head down the hall to Camden’s room to switch back into my dress from last night. With Vi projecting all this girlfriend type warmth at me, I had to get away. Add in Cam’s weirdness over coffee and I’m bursting for some space.
