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What was he up to? Why was he being weird? He had ghosted me the morning he left me pancakes. It had been two weeks. Nothing. Not that he had to contact me, but it had felt like there was a connection or a bond the morning I woke up with him asleep on my bedroom floor. Then, he had disappeared. Poof.
Now, this?
“Cam!” I called out.
“What?” he replied.
“You’ve got a visitor!” I told him.
I glanced back at Dean, who was standing over by the television, looking at the photos on the shelf above it.
“God, you were a child yourself,” he whispered.
The picture in his hand was Cam’s first birthday. We had gone to the zoo that day because my former employer had given me passes. He had loved the elephants.
“You’re here!” Cam’s surprised voice cracked.
Dean set the photo down and turned around to Cam. “I said I wanted you to show me what you learned.”
Cam nodded his head. “Yeah, you did,” he agreed.
“Let me see those drums,” he told him.
Cam beamed up at him and nodded again. “Okay! This way. They’re in my room. We got them used, remember, but they’re real nice.”
“My first set was used too. A well-loved set makes a damn good set,” Dean said.
They disappeared down the hallway. I moved the towels out of the way, and I sank down onto the sofa. This day had taken a turn. Another emotional one. Where Dean Finlay was concerned, my feelings and head were all over the place. He could mess me up so easily. I just didn’t want him to mess with Cam’s emotions.
I didn’t expect him to visit Cam again, but this one time could be magical. Cam could remember it for the rest of his life. We would have dinner together. Heck, I’d even invite Dean to watch the movie with us. Then, when he left, it would be good-bye. That would be it.
nineteen
dean
Things I hadn’t known about Brielle.
She could cook, she had been a single mom since she was eighteen years old, she never dated—at least, that Cam knew about—she worked a side job as a food delivery person for one of those apps when they needed extra money for something, and she was a great mom. Every word out of the kid’s mouth said she was. He had praised his mom by telling all of this in conversation.
Brielle stood to start clearing the table, and Cam jumped up and began helping her without being asked. He was a good kid. I joined them, and Brielle took the plate from my hands, then took it to the sink.
“Cam has been wanting to watch the new Marvel movie. I bought it to stream tonight,” she told me.
“You did?!” Cam exclaimed. “Thanks, Mom!”
“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling over at him.
I wasn’t ready to leave. I didn’t want to dwell on it too deeply, but I wanted to be near them. To watch them. A part of me thought if I watched them closely enough, I’d see something about Brielle that wasn’t perfect. That she’d show me her faults. We all had them. I was just struggling to find hers. Probably because I had just found out the faults I had stacked against her were all bullshit lies.
For a moment this afternoon, I’d imagined taking her the way I wanted. Fucking her until we were both satisfied with this attraction between us. Knowing that she wasn’t a cheater and being with her was all good. But then watching them, seeing her be a mom, I knew I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to mess with this. With her. She deserved more. More than what I was offering.
I glanced over at their small television, then looked back at Brielle. “How about we watch it in our own private theater?” I asked.
She frowned, unsure of what I meant.
“Where?” Cam asked.
I looked up. “My place.”
