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With ease I hop over the counter and get on the floor at her side.
“I can clean it up,” she grumbles.
“I know.” I set the wire rack upright and begin carefully stacking the foil wrapped candies. “I’m helping anyway.”
A few moments of silence pass as we try to return the display of Christmas candy to its rightful glory. Then Camden sits back on her knees and sighs.
“Bridget Spinelli was my best friend when we were little. She lives two houses down from me and we’ve known each other since we were in diapers.”
“You two don’t seem all that close now.”
“An understatement. She had a fit when she found out I was going to Black Mountain. Called me a stuck up cunt and smacked me across the face in the middle of the cafeteria. I’m surprised you never heard about it. Anyway, we haven’t talked since then.”
I get to my feet. “I don’t think you’re missing much.”
She’s still on the floor and I’m about to reach out to help her up when she abruptly stands. In her left hand is a decapitated chocolate Santa. She holds it up with a grim little smile.
“Check it out. There’s been a casualty.”
There’s a smudge of dirt on her cheek and she’s never looked cuter. There are all kinds of feelings colliding in my chest right now and I wish there weren’t. I can’t tell her the whole truth. But I can tell her at least a little bit of the truth so that maybe she won’t think the worst of me. I’m about to admit that a lot of the raunchy rumors connected to my name are wildly exaggerated when she sets the headless Santa on the counter and looks me in the eye.
“Ben, I’d like to write an article about you.”
I must have heard her wrong. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You have a good story. This mystery guy from the big city moves to Devil Valley and then is offered a chance to play baseball at elite Black Mountain Academy. But I think there’s more to it than that and I know people would be interested to read about you.”
Camden doesn’t even seem to notice the way I’ve grown stiff with anger.
“Is that why you wanted a job here? So you could fucking spy on me?”
She’s startled. “What? No, that’s not it at all. And I’m not spying on you for god’s sake. I want to interview you and I’ve been meaning to ask you and-“
“Forget it, Camden. You hear me? Fucking forget it.”
Her mouth opens and then closes with no sound coming out. For once Camden Galway has nothing to say. Her feelings are hurt. She thinks I’m an asshole. That bothers me but it can’t be helped.
I hop over the counter once more and refuse to look at her. “You can clean up the rest of your mess yourself.”
Camden
I am not expecting a big deal to be made of my birthday this year but I wake up to the smell of bacon frying and find my family all awake and waiting for me in the small kitchen. My dad, bleary eyed from his exhaustive work schedule and wearing Adela’s pink apron in front of the stove, greets me with the widest of smiles and a strong hug. Adela reaches out from her chair and I bend down to be wrapped in her gentle arms. Even Frankie manages an awkward hug and presents me with a plate of misshapen pancakes.
I feel very loved as I open my gifts between bites of breakfast. I receive a set of pretty clothbound journals, new clothes and a gift card to my favorite online bookstore. For a little while I just enjoy being in the company of my family. I can put away worries about the future and about money and about stupid Ben Beltran, who has been occupying a lot more space in my head than he has any right to occupy.
My dad takes a seat beside his wife and drowns his pancakes in syrup. “I can’t believe my baby girl is eighteen. We’ll go out to dinner at Imogen’s Grill. Unless you’d rather go somewhere nicer up in Black Mountain, Cam.”
“Imogen’s is great. But I already agreed to work at Dee’s tonight. I’m supposed to be there at three.”
“Oh.” My dad frowns. His hair has greyed considerably in the last six months. We haven’t been out to eat as a family in ages. I wish I’d taken Ben up on his offer to take the night off but after our argument last night I’d rather drive nails into my thumb than ask him for anything now.
“Forget it, Camden. You hear me? Fucking forget it.”
My fingers clench around the fork as I remember the outrage in his voice. A normal person would have just said, ‘No thanks’ if declining an interview but Ben Beltran goes ballistic and sulks and glares as if he’s been unforgivably insulted. If I had any doubt that he was hiding something then last night’s tantrum blew those doubts away.
“We could go to lunch instead,” Adela suggests with her hand on my father’s arm. “Would you like that, Camden?”
“I would love to go to lunch.”
