Page 3 of Room 908

“What if I told you there was a future for you where you weren’t a surgeon.” He was already smirking; he knew he’d stumped me with that one.

“W-well, I mean… I could live without becoming a doctor, theoretically, but that’s not going to happen. Failing your exams, however… a very real possibility.” I tapped my pencil’s eraser on the textbook again. “Now, focus.”

“How about, if I get this question right, you give me a kiss.”

I bit down on my lip, and Eric’s eyes lingered on my mouth. This was dangerous territory. “Let’s say, if you get every question on the page right…”

“Deal.” He grinned and sat up. “You’d better pucker up, because I am going to ace the hell out of this shit.”

“Daaaaaad!”Cameronyelledfromacross the house, and even though I heard him loud and clear, I ignored him. He knew better than to expect me to yell back. If he wanted to talk to me, he could march over here and do it in a normal volume.

I heard his footsteps as he ran down the hall, and when he peeked around the corner at me, with those moss-green eyes, my heart gave a little skip. He was starting to look more and more like his alpha father every day, and a part of me wanted to curl up in a ball and cry sometimes.

“Didn’t you hear me calling?” he asked, and I raised an eyebrow and shot a look at him.

“What do you think I’m going to say.”

He rolled those gorgeous eyes of his in classic pre-teen fashion. “Yeah, yeah. No yelling in the house,” he drawled.

I didn’t have the energy to address the sass right now, so I decided to roll with it. I drew in a deep breath and yelled, “YES, CAM? WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?”

His giggle made me smile. “I just wanted to know what time you’re coming home after this reunion thing.”

“Uh… I dunno. Probably not too late. Why?”

“Can I stay up and wait for you?” he asked, staring down at his toes. He was up to something.

I narrowed my eyes on him. “Maybe… if you tell me why.”

He huffed. “Nana said we could make popcorn and watch scary movies—but only if you said it was okay.”

“Who am I to deny Nana?” I said, ruffling his hair. “In fact, that sounds so fun, maybe I’ll just stay here with you guys tonight.”

“You can’t do that. You bought a new suit and everything.” This was true. I hadn’t bought myself any new clothes for the past two years, but I couldn’t very well show up at this stupid reunion looking like a hobo. I was voted most likely to take over the world. How was I supposed to tell everyone that I hadn’t even left town?

I could feel Cam watching me. He was far too astute for his almost-ten years. I busied myself fishing a noodle out of the pot and blowing it on it, before holding it out to my son. “Tell me if it’s done.”

He made an exaggerated chomping sound as he gobbled it up. “Mm-hm,” he mumbled, nodding, and I turned off the stove and brought the pot over to the colander in the sink to drain.

“Okay, then can you grate some cheese while I get changed? Nana will be here any minute, and I’m already going to be fashionably late.” Which was kind of my goal. I wanted to spend as little time at this thing as possible.

While Cameron got to work on the cheese—since he believed all sauce was the devil, but cheese was alllll good—I headed down the hall to my bedroom to get into my brand-new navy suit. My phone rang in my pocket, and I pulled it out and saw it was one of my coworkers.

I answered it on speaker and tossed my phone onto my bed. “Hey, Brent. What’s up? Please tell me I didn’t forget to close one of the cages.” I pulled my t-shirt over my head and tossed it into the hamper.

“Yes. You forgot to closeallthe cages, and the clinic has now been taken over by the animals, with Pookie the Pomeranian as their rightful king. They’re demanding squeaky toys and bacon.”

I laughed, adding my sweatpants to the laundry pile, which was beginning to get out of hand. I really needed to do laundry, but I just hadn’t found the time. “So really, what’s up?”

He paused, and I could almost hear the face he was making, the one where his lips pinched because he was about to say something I didn’t want to hear. “I was just wondering if you’d reconsidered my offer.”

“Which offer is that?” I asked, though I knew perfectly well what offer he was talking about, but I was hoping he’d forgotten.

“I can come with you tonight. You don’t need to go alone. It doesn’t have to mean anything you don’t want it to, but you shouldn’t have to face him alone.”

My throat tightened, and I gave a hard swallow as I threaded my arms through the sleeves of the white button-down shirt. “Thank you for the offer, but like I said earlier, he probably won’t even be there.”

“Right,” Brent scoffed, sounding even more bitter than I felt, even though it was me it had happened to. “Bigshot football star, can’t be seen lowering himself to rub shoulders with the peasants.”

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