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She stared at him and tried to think of a reason, a good reason that was fair to Tyler, to say no.
But every time she did, she saw the excitement shining in her son’s eyes when he’d taken off those huge protective glasses to look at the wood Cam had been handling.
He had a passion.
He had one of the best wood artists of this generation next door.
He had a mom who loved him.
She sucked in a deep breath, setting aside every personal fear she had about her and Cam and said, “Okay.”
Cam all but did a happy dance.
“This is going to be great. Tyler’s going to either fall in love with art or hate it and you’ll never have to worry about him being a starving artist again.”
Yeah, like that was her worry right now.
He was nine.
“We’ll see how it goes.”
“And we can work on this stuff in your office. You’ve got that big window that looks into the garage, so you can keep an eye on us.”
It was exactly the right thing to say and yet a cold rush of fear pushed through her. All day, every day, Camden in her office, with her kid, watching her get all oily and…
Wait. No. She didn’t care what he thought she looked like. This was her. This was how she looked.
Shecaredabout proximity.
Not saying she was going to cave. She wouldn’t. She’d been down that road before and knew it led to heartache.
She looked up at him, his soft brown eyes holding way too much emotion for a conversation about training her kid in a craft.
Darn it, she was totally going to cave.
No. No, she wasn’t. They’d had their time and it had been a sweet first love, but he’d blown it.
He took her hand and she gave it a pull, trying to get loose. When she couldn’t, she decided to let him keep it because they’d look more ridiculous fighting over her hand than the gossip she’d have to deal with later from every single person on the town square tonight.
He grinned to himself and turned them back toward his parents’ house and walked on, incredibly quiet.
Which was suspicious.
But she wouldn’t question it as it let her zone out and not accidentally agree to anything else.
As they walked up the path to his parents’ front door, he steered her around to the back. His mother stood in the kitchen window, looking down until the automatic lights flicked on and she glanced out to see them, a smile spreading across her face as her gaze dropped to their hands.
Cam opened the back door and motioned Vi through. Before anyone could say anything, Vivian was already making proclamations.
“I’m holding his hand because it was that or beat the crap out of him and leave him bleeding on the town square because he wouldn’t return my property—my hand—to me.”
Both of Mrs. Ross’s eyebrows rose right up into her bangs, but the smile stayed.
She opened her mouth, but out of the corner of her eye, Vivian saw Cam give a shake of his head and she shut it right back closed.
“Tyler was a joy. Harry wore him out. They watched batting videos, then went out and used the batting net. Then he showed him his new fishing lure collection he’s creating. I think Harry could have kept going, but Tyler basically passed out. We put him in Camden’s room, dead to the world.”
It was Vivian’s turn to open her mouth and then shut it.
