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“Okay,” she hedges. “Then what were you being nosy about?”
“We want to know what happened between you and your ex, sweetheart,” Reid asks for me, blunt as the sharp end of a sword.
I whip my head around and cut my eyes at him.
Reid meets me with unabashed amusement. “Am I wrong?”
“A little more finesse?” I say, scandalized.
“Like your attempt at creating a distraction?” Cammie asks, rolling off Reid and sitting up. She wraps herself in one of the nest blankets, looking between us. She hiccups a laugh, and my belly takes flight at the sound.
I play up being scandalized, sitting up and holding my hand to my heart in mock outrage. “Are you saying I’m not smooth?”
Reid and Cammie both laugh this time.
“You’re sex personified, and you know it. Let’s get back to the part where Reid said that my relationship with my ex kept you up this morning,” she says, voice still too amused for my liking. “Are you jealous? You know we’re not together. He’s out of the picture except for his relationship with the kids,” she explains, dropping the teasing from her voice.
I am jealous.I hate that this alpha ever had the chance to break her heart. I want Reid to bite her already and make sure she’s covered in our scents every time we leave the house. I don’t want anyone to doubt that she and her kids are ours to protect.
“Maybe a little.” I hold my thumb to my pointer finger and bring it to my eye, exaggerating the minuscule amount.
Cammie’s lips tug into a grin. “Only a little? Huh?”
Reid snorts, tucking his arm behind his head. “He’s significantly underrating how much he wants my mark on your neck.”
I shrug, already caught. “Guilty. But we all know I’m impatient. I can’t wait until we officially claim you.” I swallow then just go for it. “But this morning, I wished I could understand how your ex broke your heart.”
The smile slips for Cammie’s face. She looks away from me and plays with the seam of the blanket, rubbing it between her fingers. “Why? It’s in the past.”
“The past matters. It makes you who you are. Besides, we want to know all about you and the kids. Even if we don’t love hearing about your ex,” Reid explains.
Cammie eyes us warily. “It’s not a secret, but there isn’t much to tell. You already know most of it.”
“Will you tell us anyway?” I ask, hoping she can trust us with this. It feels like, without all the puzzle pieces, Reid and I keep walking into buried landmines. “I want to know so I can better give you what you need.”
She wraps the blanket tighter around herself, as if it will hold her together. “It’s a classic story. Beta meets an alpha. He shows her attention for a night. That night turned into years. Then he finds hisrealmate. A beta and two kids aren’t exactly honeymoon material, you know?” Her eyes skirt to the two of us then away again.
Reid growls in displeasure, his bond surging with his desire to protect her. “Someone you’ve been with for that long is a real mate, sweetheart. Whether you were scent matched or not. And no matter what, after all that time together, that had to be devastating.”
The way she told the story is so detached, as if she was giving us the plot summary of a reality TV show. I know she’s had to move on to survive. I respect and admire her grit. She’s determined to care for her kids and make the best of it. But I don’t want her to have to put on a brave face. Not here. Not with us in this nest.
“Come here,” I plead, holding out my hand.
“Why?” she asks with a cock of her head. She looks as if she’s ready to bolt from the bed.
“Because I want to hold you.”
“I’m fine,” she brushes me off.
She’s not okay. Her scent is spoiled raspberries, left on a vine too long and blistering in the sun.
“Please? I want to give you a hug.”
Those amber eyes of hers flay me with vulnerability instead of mistrust. “If you hug me right now, I’m gonna cry,” Cammie says, her voice wobbly with unshed tears.
I scoop her into my lap and bring her legs around my waist, hugging her tight. “You never need to apologize for needing a good cry.”
“Nobody around here is afraid of tears, sweetheart.” Reid, my mammoth softie, sits up and tugs me against his broad chest, cradling us between his legs.
