Page 34 of Effortless

“No, you can’t leave. I need advice. Who better than her brother?”

“You haven’t met August, have you? I can introduce you two. It is August’s only mission to get Camilla in a relationship. My sister just doesn’t know it, yet.”

“You said Camilla’s got a thing for girls, too. Is August someone she—”

“No,” Cross interrupted firmly.

All right.

Tom moved on. “You gonna let me talk this out, or not?”

“You have heard the whole saying about it being better to keep your mouth closed, and let people think you’re a fool, than to open it and prove it, right?”

“Do you think you can love a person just by meeting them? Maybe it gets dirtied by distractions or whatever. It’s just … fuck, like you could love them if you had the chance. That’s lovesick for you.”

“Yeah, I do think that’s possible.”

Cross said nothing else.

Tom looked over at him. “Why?”

“Just know it is, man. For some people, that’s how it happens. You meet her, and there she is. No one else is ever going to be that girl for you. Some people meet theirs at fourteen years old, and fuck the rest of their life for anything that might come close after she’s gone. So yeah, it’s possible.”

The tone Cross offered allowed no room for questioning. His friend was so private where women and relationships were concerned, that Tom knew better than to press for something more. Cross wouldn’t answer, anyway. Just who he was.

“Cam likes you,” Cross said.

“Likes something about me—usually without clothes on.”

A disgusted grunt echoed from the couch.

“No, I mean, my sister likes you, Tom.”

“How do you know that?”

“Here’s the thing, man. I’m never going to betray my sister by talking about the things she tells me. Me and Cam … you have to understand, someday, we might be all we have left. That’s the nature of being who we are, with a family like ours. She’s never felt like she couldn’t come to me—there is nothing she couldn’t feel safe to bring to me, and I won’t ruin that for her. Everybody needs somebody they can fall back on, and I’m one of those people for Cam.”

Tom cleared his throat. “Yeah, I get that.”

“I like you, though, and you’re my friend. So, I’ll let you in on something else where my sister is concerned. If you were any other stupid fucker with a hard nut for Cam, I’d laugh while my sister broke your heart all over New York. Actually, I’d probably help her get you out of the state.”

“You’re kind of horrible.”

Cross shrugged, but agreed. “But hey, she does like you, and I think you have to understand Camilla, that’s all.”

“Understand her how?” Tom asked.

“Her, Tom. Just her. How she is, you know? Respect the walls she’s put up, and how she chooses to do her thing. She’s got enough people who keep trying to put their wants and opinions on her life, instead of letting her figure it out on her own.”

Tom kind of understood what Cross was trying to tell him, but he wasn’t sure where that left him with Camilla.

She didn’t do relationships. She didn’t do anything that might suggest a relationship. The littlest thing might send her bolting fast enough away from him that he wouldn’t ever be able to catch her.

Tom didn’t want to risk that happening. Not when something as wonderful as Camilla was the prize.

“So … I go home, then,” Tom said.

Cross looked over at him. “You kind of have to anyway, don’t you?”