Page 84 of Effortless

Spying never did any good.

She still didn’t move.

“Shit, I would have to leave in …” Tommaso glanced down—likely at the watch on his wrist. “Well, a couple of hours to make that flight.”

Camilla stiffened.

He was leaving?

Tommaso hadn’t mentioned a thing to her the night before about him leaving again. In fact, she had asked him every single day since he came back when he had to leave, and he never seemed to be able to give her a proper answer.

Camilla wasn’t sure why that bothered her as much as it did, but she didn’t like it at all. Like maybe he had been purposely keeping something from her. But why, she didn’t know.

She didn’t have time to think on it for long. Tommaso’s conversation with whoever was on the phone continued.

“I mean, he wants me back as soon as I can get there,” Tommaso said, “so just book the flight for me. Email me the boarding pass once you have it, all right?”

A beat of silence passed. The other side of the conversation that Camilla wasn’t privy to.

Then, “Thanks, man.”

Tommaso hung up the call, and tossed the phone aside to a nearby stand. One Camilla used to rest her coffee on while she read or worked on a laptop. Still facing the windows, Tommaso scrubbed a hand down his jaw, and sighed heavily.

She could hear his stress in the exhale.

His disappointment.

Maybe he really hadn’t known at all when he would need to go back, and that was why he hadn’t given her a proper answer these past three days. She decided to at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

“You’re leaving?” Camilla asked.

Tommaso’s shoulders stiffened briefly before he turned around to face her. His posture relaxed, and one of his sexy smiles welcomed her. It didn’t matter—she had seen and heard enough to know something was going on. No amount of charm and sex appeal was going to change her questions now.

“Are you?” she pressed.

He flicked a hand as if to wave it off. “Yeah, I got a call this morning. I’m needed back in Chicago.”

Camilla nodded, but something still didn’t sit right with her. “All right.”

“What’s wrong, Cam?”

“I don’t know. Nothing?”

Tommaso lifted a single brow. “You sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be sure, Tom?”

“You just don’t sound like you are, that’s all.”

Camilla hugged her lower half, and stayed leaning against the frame of the entry. “No, it’s fine. You’ve got to go back, so go back. New York isn’t your home, right?”

“I hear you saying nice words that seem like you understand why I’m leaving, but the way you’re saying them is a little … defensive.”

“No, it’s not.”

It totally was.

Tommaso simply stared at her. “Cam.”