Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“And I thought I told you never to come to this neighborhood alone.”
Cam glared at a guy across the street. He wasn’t sure if it was Jo’s body or her obviously expensive attire that drew the man’s attention, but he better keep his eyes and hands to himself either way.
“I didn’t.” Jo looked over her shoulder, her eyes uncertain but her mouth stubborn. “Peter brought me.”
Cam stood still, letting Jo take a few steps down. She turned back to look up at him, exasperation flitting across her face.
“Cam, he was with me when I saw it on the news. I was upset for you. I told him I thought you might show up here and was coming. Everyone knows this is a rough part of town. The rest is history.”
“You two seem to have a lot of history together since I’ve been gone.” Cam couldn’t stop dumb shit from leaving his mouth. This wasn’t heading to a good place, but he couldn’t stop.
“What are you talking about?”
“Dubai. Were you upset then, too? He just happened to be halfway around the world to comfort you?”
Jo’s four-inch heels eliminated the space between them before he had time to blink. She stood toe-to-toe and eye-to-eye with him.
“You idiot.” She spat the words into the cold. They crystallized in the air and shattered as soon as they left her mouth. “You jump on your Harley in the middle of the night, ride off to Greece, and leave me nothing but a note? Are you kidding me right now with this jealous foolishness?”
“I’m not jealous.” Lie. “You just didn’t exactly look like you were suffering.”
“Is that what you want?” Jo raised her brows over the blizzard in her eyes. “You want me to suffer?”
“No, you know I don’t.” Everything stiff and stupid in Cam yielded, collapsed. He couldn’t be angry with her. This was all his fault. “I just…When Etty showed me those pictures, I—”
“Etty?” Jo’s eyes snapped from wide to so narrow they were almost shut. “And where was Etty in all this?”
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
“Um, her family owns a villa in Crete and she—”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Jo kept the volume of her voice low, but he could practically see her hackles rise. “Tell me you have not been with that…girl this whole time.”
“I haven’t been with her. Not the way you mean. She was just…She came to visit…Jo, you know I would never cheat on you. For God’s sake, calm down.”
“You don’t get to tell me to calm the hell down.” Jo held up a hand between them, staying the words on his lips. “How dare you. You have the nerve to even ask me about Peter when you’ve been holed up with a girl I saw you kissing in New York? Who you know wants you?”
“Jo, let me explain.”
“I’m done, Cam.” Jo glanced around, blinking at the tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. “I have been miserable, and Peter has kept the adoption process on track. He has been a good friend.”
I just bet he has.
“I see that look, Cam.”
“Etty is my friend. Nothing more. And she knows the score. Can you say the same for Peter?”
“Peter knows the score, too.”
“I doubt it. He’s just waiting for me to screw up.”
“Well you just did.”
Jo turned and zipped down the steps. Cam skipped steps to cut her off before she reached the bottom, blocking her path out of this conversation. He took her wrist between his fingers, frowning at how fragile her bones felt in his hand.
“Jo, you have to take better care of yourself.” He looked up into the silver fire of her angry stare. “You’ve lost so much weight in just a few weeks.”
“I’m sure Etty has enough meat on her bones for the both of us.” She tugged, but he refused to let go.
“Do you honestly think I want anyone else?” He leaned in, pressing his hand to the small of her back to draw their bodies together like magnets. “Do you remember how it is with us? I think about you every night. Every day, Jo. Etty is just…She reminds me of myself. Kind of lost. She needs a friend. That’s it.”
“I don’t think you slept with her, Cam.” The hurt in Jo’s eyes sawed at his heart. “I think you let her in when you shut me out. I wanted to be there for you. I wanted to help, and you left.”
“Baby, we—”
“Is everything okay, Jo?” Peter’s question came from just below them. He glanced from Jo’s wrist trapped in Cam’s hand up to Cam’s face.
How much would he be tested today? First Deuce’s funeral. Then Jo shows up like a fantasy until everything goes wrong. And now he had to endure the Viking.
Would it be wrong to drop an F-bomb on the church steps?