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“Oh, I see. That’s okay, I guess,” he says.
I slump in relief but I’m a little irked at how quickly he agrees.
“You’ll rent it to me and I’ll forget about the considerable expense I’ve gone to to get here. Do you take me as the kind of person who likes to be indebted to others?”
I gape at him, then at my grandmothers. They have no idea he’s talking about the payment he required of me or how eagerly I repaid him. They can never know, either. If one of them catches a whiff of how I first met Cameron, their matchmaking hearts would start planning my wedding right now.
“So, just how did you two meet?” G-mama narrows her eyes on us.
I clear my face and try to communicate with him through subtle eye twitches that he should in no way and under no circumstances tell them what happened. He stares at me, no longer wearing his wicked grin, but a hint of a smirk remains at the corners of his lips.
After a year-long silence, he shrugs. “I saw her at a club looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there. She reminded me of an innocent little lamb but since it was loud and crowded, I didn’t introduce myself.” He steps back and walks further into the house.
Reluctantly, I follow. As the door closes, the sense of relief I expect to wash over me because he hasn’t outed me to my grandmothers does not happen. Instead, with each footstep deeper into a house that I’ve worked in almost daily for a month feels like a wolf’s den. Only in this one, my family is clearly part of the wolf pack.
Unlike the main house, which is full of unpacked boxes, I made sure to set up my workspace almost as soon as I arrived last month. If I hadn’t been so quick to make this space livable, would she have had him sign the rental agreement so soon?
“Um…Cameron, about the agreement—”
“I’ll sign the new one whenever you get it to me. I’ve got my heart set on staying here. I’m trying to recover from serious burnout and if I’m being honest, this is the first place in a long time where I’ve taken a free breath. I didn’t realize how much I was carrying on my shoulders until now.”
“Oh.” I catch my grandmothers’ gazes. In each pair of eyes is the same thing I’m feeling.
Although I’m not running from burnout, I am running. Escondido is my rest stop, too. A sense of commiseration takes the wind out of my determination to make him leave.
“Fine, I’ll get a new document and have you sign it.”
“No need, dear.” From her leather jacket, G-mama extracts a folded document.
I take the papers. They’re a rental agreement with my information pre-filled. I glare at G-mama, suspecting this was their intention from the beginning.
She gives me an unrepentant shrug. “We had a feeling this would come in handy.”
Glamma hooks her arm around Cameron’s elbow and puts a pen in his hand. He smiles his thanks to her, exposing straight white teeth and a devilish sense of humor that should be illegal.
I am not okay. With a smile like that, I’ll never be okay again. I’ll be lucky to last until dinner. Any claim I had to being a good person will be left in the dust and I’ll have to change my epitaph from beloved granddaughter to Queen of the Damned.
Despite the future playing out in front of me, I sign the contract and comfort myself, knowing that he is in a separate building. We won’t ever have to see each other. Once I relocate my office to the main house, I’ll barely leave my house. Everything will be fine. It’s just a year. I’ve lived through thirty of those, and they’ve passed pretty quickly.
One out of thirty. Good odds.
My pep talk continues as I watch Cameron push his shirt up his forearms. I stare mesmerized by the muscle play and protruding veins as he signs his name with a flourish. He holds out his hand to shake mine and I stupidly accept. My body comes alive from the innocent touch.
All the “you’ve got this” sayings swirl inside my head, until my uncontrollable inner demon pipes in with,I wonder how many of thethree hundred and sixty-five daysto come I’ll get to Tap. That. Ass.
CHAPTERFOUR
Kenya
What does it say about a woman who escapes her house to avoid a sexy new tenant and the two grandmothers intent on chaining her to this small town?
Coward comes to mind.
I scoff. Cowards have a bad rap sometimes. Yes, they run faster than a chicken fleeing from a butcher knife, but they are the most likely to survive. The folks who stand their ground? They’re the first to end upinthe ground.
Uh huh.
If I could side-eye Keating, I would. It really sucks that she isn’t another person I can walk away from at will. Being a part of me means she comes along for my trip into town and can provide unnecessary commentary about my life’s choices.
