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Carrie lifts an eyebrow. ‘Because?’
Clearly, posturing doesn’t work on an older sibling. ‘Because it’s in the past. I got my closure, or whatever.’
‘Hey.’ Chloe beams at him and swings a foot out to tap his leg. ‘That’s great.’
‘Whatever.’ He shrugs off her sincerity but warmth blooms inside his chest. It was a big deal for him and he feels better for it, but it’s been smothered by what’s going on with Jules. Or not going on.
‘So guess it’s back to Jules then,’ Carrie says. ‘Did you end up asking her out? Were you dating? Your texts have been evasive.’
Cameron shuffles his bare feet against the tiles. ‘No.’
Chloe gasps. ‘But you were so into each other! Carrie said you were holding hands at the symphony.’
‘Holding hands doesn’t mean I like her.’
‘You liking her isn’t what we’re discussing here,’ Carrie says, reaching across to Chloe for a cracker and dip. ‘We all know you do. Including you, so I’m not sure why you’re trying to convince us you don’t.’
‘Yeah,’ Chloe agrees. ‘How’re we meant to encourage and support you if we don’t know what’s going on and if you lie to us about your feelings?’
‘You want to know what’s going on?’ He swings his head back and forth between his sisters. ‘Fine. Yes, I like her. But we weren’t dating. I didn’t ask her out. We had a fling. We were having sex. And now that’s over.’
The shock factor doesn’t shock as much as he was hoping. His sisters are as immovable as boulders in a creek.
‘So you were two consenting adults having sex,’ Chloe surmises without hesitation.
Carrie grimaces and casts her gaze to the ceiling. ‘So much information I didn’t need to know about my younger brother.’
‘I’ve had flings before.’
Carrie winces. ‘Yet more information.’
‘Hey. You’re the ones who started this conversation.’
‘We weren’t expecting it to end up here,’ Chloe says through a mouthful of food.
Carrie drops her gaze to him. There’s something in her expression that resonates with Cameron, a knowing that makes the hairs on the back of his arms stand up. ‘You haven’t had a fling before with someone you actually like as much as you do Jules,’ she says. ‘It’s different when you already care for them.’
He doesn’t know with who, or when, but he’d swear she’s talking from experience.
Seeing the empathy in Carrie’s eyes erases his desire to say as little as possible during this intervention. His sisters have come all this way and, he realises, watching them pass the crackers back and forth, he’s missed their company. His heart feels lighter, even as they take him to task. Which is saying something with how heavy it’s felt these past few days.
And maybe—maybe—there’s a small part of him that’s not yet been ground down into nothing. That’s survived his self-flagellation and now yearns, hopeful his sisters come bearing answers for him and Jules.
Cameron deflates, leaning back against the sink. ‘Yeah. It is different.’
‘We thought you’d asked her out in a more romantic sense,’ Chloe frowns. ‘You don’t think making it a fling was a little … self-sabotaging? Maybe?’
He doesn’t tell them the fling was Jules’s idea. She wouldn’t want his sisters to have that knowledge, and he has culpability too. She mentioned it in passing. He’s the one who actually made it happen because he wanted her so damn bad, and wanted to appease her even more. ‘What’re you saying?’
Chloe shrugs a shoulder. ‘I’m wondering if you were giving yourself an out if things didn’t go well. Because then you could do exactly what you’ve done and compare her to Braden and justify letting her go for the sake of your job.’
Cameron frowns, his skin tightening. It sounds cheap hearing it. Ending a relationship because of a job? No, worse, not even trying for one because of a job. ‘I didn’t say that’s why I ended things. I didn’t even say I was the one who ended things.’
‘Matteo,’ Chloe offers in explanation. ‘And no, he didn’t tell us those details. But you’ve been vocal about not dating someone you work with, so it’s pretty easy to join the dots.’ Chloe puts down the crackers and focuses her attention on Cameron. ‘Am I right?’
Cameron scrubs his hands over his face then drops his gaze to the floor.
His pulse beats thick at his wrists and he leans on the solid support of the kitchen counter. His sisters are forcing him to face the actions he made and take a hard look at the motivations behind them. It’s uncomfortable, but he needs to have this conversation, because Canberra this week has sucked for more reasons than the Jules thing.
