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Chapter Twenty-Five
Seven
I take a seat up on one of the bar stools and it doesn't take long before Cammy joins me, sitting to my right.
"Aren't you on shift?" I ask.
"I'm on break."
I nod and look up at the football game streaming on the TV above the bar.
"She told you, didn't she?" Cammy asks.
I nod, trying to hide my surprise that Cammy already knows that I'm her dad.
"What will it be?" Rita asks, walking up behind the bar.
"Whatever Miguel feels like making today," I say.
"You got it," Rita jots it down and then heads back to the kitchen to put in my order.
There's a moment of silence, and then Cammy speaks up.
"I wanted to tell you when I found out but I was worried you would be too mad at mom to give me a chance to get to know you. By the time I knew you wouldn't hold it against me, I was moving to Seattle for school, and I was worried that now you would be mad at me for waiting so long to tell you."
I wouldn't have been mad at Cammy. It's not her fault that she was kept from me but how long has she actually known that Eli isn't her dad and I am?
"I'm not mad at you for any of it. It wasn't your responsibility to tell me that you existed. Your mom shouldn't have waited until you were eighteen to tell me. How did you find out?"
"Grandma put up my sophomore volleyball team picture next to one of your high school hockey team that's up on the mantel. If you gave me a buzz cut, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between us," she chuckles. "I asked grandma why we looked so much alike and she told me about your history with my mom… then she told me to check my birth certificate. I wasn't premature like mom told everyone I was. What nine-pound baby is four weeks early?"
My mom knew too?
"Grandma knew this whole time and didn't say anything?"
"She only suspected. She couldn't prove it. And she was worried that if she asked Mom about me that she wouldn't let Grandma see me anymore. Why do you think grandma was always trying to get you to come home? She thought that you'd take one look at me and know that I'm yours."
All those calls I didn't take from her. I'm starting to regret those now.
"Cammy, if I had known—"
"I know. But look at the bright side. At least Mom isn't a gold digger. Can you believe that she loved Dad that much to give up the lifestyle of being married to a multi-millionaire hockey player? And now that I'm old enough, she can't come after you for child support."
"Cam, I have more money than I'll ever spend. I would have paid her whatever she wanted so I could be in your life. Missing out on the first sixteen years with you wasn't worth any dollar amount," I say, wrapping my arm around her shoulders.
"Really?"
"Of course."
"Mom's trying to get you back."
"I know."
"Please don't cave. Especially not for me."
It's not as if I'd really considered it but why wouldn't she want Josslin and I together?
"Why not?"
