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“Where are those kids with the ice cream?” Mom searched her bag for her cell phone then sent a text, though from the looks of it, it appeared she was trying to crack the national security system. “They should have been back by now.”
“I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” Dad said.
Mom took her face into her hands and kissed her forehead. “You’re the only one I don’t need to worry about.”
That was because Cami made sure of it. Ever since she was ten years old and her parents took in her cousins, Cami witnessed the stress her mother endured, and she made a promise to herself that she would always be good as a way to help her mom. Though she liked to rebel every now and again, that promise had followed her even still. Everything she did in life was to make sure her parents and her family didn’t have to worry about her.
The problem was Cami never had anyone to talk to about her problems. She had to pretend everything was okay and she never had an off day. She would swallow down whatever was plaguing her and listen to everyone else’s issues. She held it in for so long, she no longer had to try. It was as natural as breathing.
She smiled. “No, you don’t.” Though, for some reason, those words felt like a lie.
“We’re back!” Clemmy’s voice echoed through the house. A few seconds later, she strolled into the kitchen, strawberry blonde hair hanging over her shoulders, holding up a carton of ice cream and Remy with his dark auburn hair was right behind her. Clemmy squealed when she spotted Cami. “Your hair!” she exclaimed, and for a second Cami was confused until she remembered she hadn’t seen Clemmy since she dyed it.
“You two are always telling me redheads have more fun.” It wasn’t the reason she decided to go red. She really just wanted something different.
“That’s right,” Remy said, sticking his tongue out and scrunching his eyebrows, a charismatic and entertaining air floating off of him. Remy was the life of the party in whatever room he walked into.
“We can tell people we’re triplets.” Clemmy ran her hand through Cami’s hair, admiring it. Cami obviously didn’t think this through enough.
“I doubt that would be very convincing.”
The oven timer went off, and Mom jumped up. “Made it just in the nick of time,” she said and shucked Remy’s chin as she passed on her way to the stove. Cami took down plates, passing them around to everyone.
“Congratulations on the job,” Cami said to Clemmy when she handed her a plate.
“Thanks. I start Monday, and I’m a little nervous about it.”
“Why?”
“I’ve only ever worked in retail. Being a personal assistant, I have no idea what to expect. I haven’t even met the guy. I was hired by his secretary.”
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” Cami said, and Clemmy looked at her with big green eyes. “Fake it until you make it.”
Clemmy laughed. “Is that what you did?”
“It’s what I still do,” she admitted then wrapped her arm around Clemmy and followed Mom and the Pouding Chomeur to the table.
Chapter 9
Enzo hurried over to the Local Bean, hoping to get there before Cami closed for the day. He got to the door just as she was about to lock it. Her eyebrow arched as she caught him coming to a halt in front of her.
She opened the door, her red hair pulled back, but a few pieces had managed to escape and hang over her eyes. He resisted the urge to brush them into place.
“If you’ve come here to give me crap about my tire, I don’t want to hear it.”
“You still haven’t gotten it fixed?” he asked, and her eyes turned to black stones of death. He held his hands up in defense. “Sorry, that’s not why I’m here. I was actually hoping to grab a cup of coffee, but I can see you’re closing.”
She held the door open and stepped aside. “As much of a pain in the ass as you are, my doors are always open for you, but mainly I don’t want you to have to drink crappy coffee.”
“I appreciate that.”
“It’s getting late though. Aren’t you going to be up all night?” It was amazing how well she knew him. He tried to avoid caffeine after four.
“I promised Grandpa and the Friday night poker crew I’d stop by for a few hands.” Every Friday night his grandfather and four of his closest friends got together to play poker. Over the years, they roped him along with Marco into many games, probably because they knew they could swindle them.
“Enough said. You need all the caffeine you can get if you’re going to listen to Stan accuse Dominick of cheating all night.”
“Dominick does cheat.”
