Page 43 of Hot Damn
Cami has already been in my house. She’s seen it in less than a sparkling clean state so why the hell am I cleaning the place from top to bottom before she arrives?
And she’s probably not even going to come inside!
We’re cutting the timing close to pick up Whit when school gets out. I did that on purpose because after my jack-off session in the shower this morning I need to put some distance between me and the woman who has me thinking things I haven’t in over seventeen years.
She’s just a lift. Like a share-ride without the cost, she’ll pick me up, take me to get my daughter, then we’ll go get Whit’s car.
That’s it.
She’ll drive away, leaving us at the mechanic to pay for the repairs or air or whatever the guy decides to charge me for.
My house doesn’t need to be clean.
I’m not out to impress her.
I don’t like her.
Hell.
That’s a lie.
I don’t like her job and by extension I don’t like her, but I don’t know her.
She seems genuine. She helped Whit when I couldn’t. She even came to me with her concerns about what happened and she didn’t have to. She could have just dropped Whit at home after helping get her car towed and that would have been acceptable.
Except she didn’t.
She cooked dinner.
For Whit and Mrs. Gerber, who came by earlier to thank me for the meal and the leftovers Cami sent her home with last night.
The woman confounds me. She’s nothing like I assumed she would be.
Then again, the worst time of my life involved reporters digging for dirt, trying to invade my life and take away my chance to love my daughter.
Tokeepmy daughter.
I scrub a hand down my face and sigh.
I’m laying someone else’s misdeeds on Cami’s shoulders.
I shouldn’t. I know I shouldn’t. I’m the first to understand how someone else’s actions can affect those around them. How finger pointing and laying blame aren’t always in the right places.
Cami has done nothing to reinforce my first instinct to protect myself and Whit from her. In fact, she’s done a number of things that prove Icantrust her.
And I trust Oakley, Coaches Alcott and Watts, even the Rogues’ GM is in the trust column. I can’t see any of them being friends, never mind business partners, with a woman who would set out to hurt others.
I need to dig up some of her work. See what type of articles she writes. Get a feel for the way she treats people and their secrets.
Not that I will ever reveal mine.
Not until Whit knows the whole truth about her mother.
That’s another reason I’m struggling with my feelings towardCami. She makes me realize I need to tell Whit the truth. I’ve put it off for long enough thinking it best to wait until she was an adult, out of college.
But my girl is smart, well adjusted, and mature enough to know now. She’ll be eighteen in two months. It’s time I told her everything. Told her how she came into my life.
The doorbell echoes through the house and I glance at the microwave.
