“Okay!” she chirped and darted back to Cameron, who was watching me with a look full of gratitude.
Dinner was quiet except for Harper’s excited chatter. She bounced between conversations, sometimes talking to me, sometimes to her dad, her grandma, or Uncle Caleb, as if she could feel the tension in the air and was trying her best to make everyone smile.
I decided to stay the night, and Harper was more than happy about it, especially with how her eyelids had already started to droop.
We helped Anita clear the table and rinse the dishes, then I got Harper into her pajamas. Anita had already bathed her. She fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.
When I stepped out of her room, the house was quiet. Anita usually turned in early, and I assumed Caleb and Cameron had already left.
But then I heard their voices coming from the back porch. Through the glass double doors, I saw them standing there, deep in conversation.
I walked closer, pulled by a sudden urge to listen. Whatever they were talking about, I had a feeling it was about today.
“So she came because she wants to get back with you?” Caleb said.
I waited for Cameron’s response, but he stayed silent.
“Then why did you break up with her?” Caleb asked.
Cameron didn’t answer right away, and I had to inch closer, afraid I might miss it if he spoke.
Then I heard him. “Because no matter how far I tried to run, I always found myself coming back to Sloane.”
There was a stretch of silence before Caleb asked, “So what are you going to do now? Try to get Sloane back?”
“I’ve hurt her enough, don’t you think?” Cameron said quietly, the fight drained from his voice. “She’s probably better off without me.”
Chapter Eleven
Cameron
I’d just come out of the OR when I saw him standing there like he’d been waiting, right in my way.
A small smile pulled at my mouth as I walked up.
“Dean,” I said.
“Cameron,” he greeted, smiling widely, then yanked me toward him and locked his arms around my neck, choking me. I pushed him off and laughed.
“I see you missed me that much,” I said.
He chuckled.
“When did you get back?”
“Yesterday,” he said, frowning. “I asked for another day off, but your sister didn’t allow it.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Caroline. But we’re short on doctors here, you know that.”
“I know,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Figured she’d remind me the second I stepped in.”
“You settling back in okay?” I asked.
“I was only gone for ninety days,” he said. Dean had taken time off to backpack through Europe with his husband, a long-overdue trip, especially after Ben threatened to move into the guest room if they didn’t go. “But honestly, I’m dreading going back to the hospital. I can already see the long hours and sleepless nights coming.”
“Where’s Ben?” I asked.
“Somewhere around here, I guess. Not sure.” Ben was a surgical nurse and a friend of Sloane’s as well.
