“You don’t have to do?—”
“It’s fine,” Cameron said, cutting me off. “I owe you.”
I hesitated. It felt like I was asking a lot.
But you know what else was a lot? The bill for an overnight hospital stay. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Besides, half the town thinks I tried toMad Maxyou. This will go some of the way to convincing them I’m not the bad guy.”
And how could I argue with that?
Once I was dressed and they’d issued me some painkillers, Cameron led me out to his car, clutching the sheet of instructions the nurse had given him like it held the secrets of the universe—or possibly all his forgotten internet passwords.
I guessed Cameron Walker was taking me home after all.
Just not the way I’d imagined.
Chapter 7
CAMERON
We were still in the hospital parking lot, the afternoon light rapidly fading, when I said, “You should probably tell me where you live.”
Finn’s face did something complicated. “I thought we were going to your place?”
“Why would we be going to my place?”
“Asshole,” he said.
“I just asked a question!” I snapped. It was probably rude of me, but I was more shaken than I wanted to admit by my close call, and it didn’t seem fair that Finn was insulting me when I’d just agreed to take care of him.
Maybe his head injury was worse than I’d thought, and this was a symptom.
But he let out a soft laugh. “Your cat. I assume she needs someone to feed her, right?”
And nowIwas the asshole, because between the drama and my rattled nerves, I’d completely forgotten I even owned a cat. And what Finn said made sense. I wasn’t going to collect the cat and take her to Finn’s place. Asshole didn’t travel well—one of many, many reasons I’d inherited her when I bought the house.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” I asked. “I know you’d rather be in your own space.”
He snorted. “I’ve only lived there a month. It’s hardly ‘my space.’” He made air quotes. “I’m still trying to remember where all the light switches are.”
Finn was right. I couldn’t abandon the cat. I thought briefly of pointing out that there was only one bed, but in the end I didn’t bother. I could sleep on the couch for a night.
It looked like we were going to my place.
As I pulled out of the parking lot, Finn said, “Hey, it might be a good idea to stop at the bake sale, just to let them know I’m okay and get you off the list of Sugar Hollow’s top ten villains.”
“How is it that you’re the one with the head injury but you’re having all the good ideas?” I said, taking the turn that led toward town.
“Wow,” Finn said drily. “That almost sounded like a compliment. If you’re not careful, I’ll think you like me.”
“I mean, I don’t hate you,” I said and was pleased to discover it was true. A warm sensation bubbled up in my chest when Finn shot me a pleased grin, and it lasted for the whole drive back to town.
The bake salewas winding down when we arrived, but Sherri waved us over to her table, which was right near the door. She gave me a death stare and fussed over Finn, trying to load him up with a basket of what she called recovery muffins, until he assured her he was mostly fine. “The whole thing was my fault. What kind of idiot steps in front of a moving car, anyway?”
“It was an accident,” I said again.
“I suppose,” Sherri said. She didn’t sound all that convinced, but at least she’d stopped looking at me like I’d kicked her cat.
