Page 49 of Playing for Keeps
Camy set the tray on the table hard enough to make the glasses clink.
“Listen here, Delano Gerald Greer,” she said putting her hands on her hip.
Del groaned and let his head fall back. He was in trouble now. She’d pulled out the full name and followed up with hands on hips. If Lance were in his position, Del would laugh with glee at the tongue lashing he knew was coming. As his brother wasn’t the one on the hot seat right now, Del could only sit there and take it since it was his fault for coming over here when he knew he wasn’t in the mood for people.
“I’m not the one who kept a lot of the details about the situation with this Wimbley guy and the court testimony a secret. If you’d trusted Rylan enough to tell her what was really going on, she probably would’ve been better prepared when the police showed up at the body shop. And maybe if you hadn’t run to the body shop after that, shouting accusations at her, she wouldn’t be ghosting your ass right now. But no, that’s too much like right. You always have to do things your way, which a good amount of time isn’t the right way. And now, you’re gonna sit here and wallow in your broken heart instead of heading over to Rylan’s place to talk to her.”
“One, I do not have a broken heart and two, I’m right more than half the time,” he said.
Camy tilted her head and lifted her lips into a smirk. “In your mind. Look, Del, Rylan is in love with you.”
“How do you know that?” He and Rylan had never talked about their feelings for each other. Not before the Mal and his attempt to have Del tossed in jail, and certainly not after all that crap went down.
“Because she’s my best friend. And if you could see past your own foolishness about relationships and work, you would’ve seen it too. You blindsided her with all your accusations and you hurt her by saying you should’ve known not to get involved with her as if her and her father had somehow embarrassed you,” she said. “That was low and it was bullshit. You’ve known Rylan and her family all her life. Besides that, she’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister. Did you really think she could do something like that to hurt my brother knowing how that would affect me and our friendship?”
He felt like an ass. Actually, he’d had a week to get used to that feeling. From the moment he’d left the body shop that day, after seeing the dismissive look in her eyes, he’d realized his mistake. Now, he could only shake his head because most of everything Camy had just said, he’d already told himself on more than one occasion. “That wasn’t how I meant it,” was all he managed to say.
Camy frowned. “Then you should’ve stayed there and told her that.”
“She wanted me to leave.” She’d said it twice and each time the words had sliced coldly through his heart because he’d known she meant for him to leave the place he’d taken up in her life, not just for him to physically get out of her shop.
“And you wanted to leave?” Camy didn’t wait for his reply, but instead came around the table and sat in the chair beside him. “You want to be with her, I can see it. Everybody in this house right now can see it. And I know she wants to be with you even though I swear that girl gives a new meaning to the word stubborn. Why do you think she’s not here now?”
Del scrunched his face. “That doesn’t make sense. If she wanted to be with me, why not come to where she knows I am.”
She punched him in the arm.
“Ow, what was that for?”
“For breaking a record and saying the dumbest shit in the past week. She’s not here for the same reason you haven’t crawled back to her with apologies dripping from your mouth.”
Del sighed because he knew his sister was absolutely right. “It’s too late. I screwed up and she has every right not to want to see me again. So, we’ll all just go back to the way we were before.”
“You think it’s that simple? It’s not,” she said.
Portia came into the room at that moment. “She’s right. It’s not that simple.”
He looked from Portia to Camy wondering how the hell women could do that secret communicating thing.
“Then I don’t know what else to do,” he admitted and heard the hush that immediately fell over the room.
“Is that the captain admitting he doesn’t know what to do?” Ethan came in wrapping his arms around Portia’s waist and pulling her back against him.
“Wait? Del’s admitting defeat? I gotta see this for myself,” Jeret said.
Before he could blink again, everyone who was in the living room was now in the dining room with him. He would’ve huffed and got up to leave, but it felt good to look into the faces of the people who loved him most in the world. It felt damn good.
“Yeah, okay, I’m admitting it. I want her back, but I don’t know how to do it. So, since you’re all standing here professing to have some sort of knowledge in matters of the heart, let me hear it,” he said. “But I’m warning you, if you make me look bad, I’ll never forgive any of you.”
“How can we possibly make you look any worse than you already do?” Lance asked and then cracked up laughing.
The others followed suit, until Camy quieted them down and began talking seriously. Del listened. He contemplated and he planned. He was going to get Rylan back because life without her just wasn’t worth living.
15
Two days after Christmas, Rylan walked into Game Changers at a little after two in the morning. She hadn’t been here in almost two weeks and was resigned to keep it that was for even longer, until she’d received the text from Camy.
Camy:Had way too many Candy Cane Vodkas at the bar. Need a ride home cause the guys are being mean to me.
