Page 33 of I Loved You First

“Thank you.”

Ellie glanced at her watch again. “I’ve got to go. But I’m serious about carte blanche—whatever you think will work will be perfect. Charge everything to the company. We should be on file at most places around here.”

She saved her notes and closed her laptop. “Okay.”

Ellie winked. “I’ll see you, sweetie.”

“Bye.”

And then all was quiet as Ellie headed toward the parking lot.

Fiona stood, walking to the doorway, glancing around the pretty, renovated common space where she’d spent so much of her time. Her relationship with Cam began after she’d taken the job as Ellie’s part-time summer assistant when Kathleen had been out on maternity leave with her newborn triplets.

For most of their young lives, she and Cam had gone to schools on opposite sides of town. But she’d certainly noticed him walking in the hallways at their massive regional high school, even before they’d had a class together.

At the time, she’d been so focused on her education and dreams she’d had little trouble ignoring Cameron Bennet’s great personality and exceptional good looks until they started spending a significant amount of time together at the build sites and office.

Moving toward her temporary workspace, Fi flipped on the light, noting the whiteboard on the wall. “Perfect.”

Eager to get to work, she picked up the black marker and started her first list. She paused when she heard the front door open.

“Take some deep breaths, buddy,” Cam said.

Fiona put the marker back, certain that Brady was crying as she walked to the common area. Her heart broke a little as she looked from a harried Cam to Brady’s red-rimmed eyes while he snuggled his head in the crook of Cam’s neck. “Hi, buddy.”

Brady sat up, sniffling. “I can’t have gludeon anymore.”

Fi frowned as she looked at Cam. It had been two days since their conversation at the park—since they’d seen each other. The current situation left no room for any residual awkwardness. But as she held Cam’s gorgeous green-eyed gaze and noted how delicious he looked in a pair of work jeans and a fitted gray T-shirt, she understood her mother’s point about their history and chemistry. Navigating a simple friendship with Cam would certainly be something new.

Cam set Brady down. “He can’t have gluten.”

Brady walked over to Fiona while tears poured down his cheeks. “I can’t have cake or cookies or anything that tastes good to my tummy ever again. The doctor said so.”

Fiona knelt at his level, hugging him. “That sounds really tough.”

He nodded, returning her embrace, sniffling again. “And they took my blood out.” He backed away to show her the bandage on his little arm.

“I’m sorry you’ve had a rough morning. But that’s a pretty cool Band-Aid you have there.”

Brady nodded again. “I picked it out.”

“Iron Man is always a good choice. And I like the dinosaurs on your T-shirt.”

“Yeah,” he said, settling down a little as he focused on the T-Rexes she mentioned.

Cam walked closer. “Brady, why don’t you grab a tissue in my office and wipe your nose? You can have one of the lollipops on my desk.”

“Okay.” Brady hurried off down the hall.

Fiona gained her feet. “So, no gluten, huh?”

Cam blew out a breath. “Not for a while, anyway. The pediatrician was at a food intolerance conference over the weekend. She thinks the rashes, headaches, and stomachaches might be from something he’s eating. She wants us to ditch the gluten for now and see if it helps. They took his blood to test for celiac disease and to look for any nutrient deficiencies.”

“How are you doing with that?” But she already had a pretty good idea as she watched him rub at the back of his neck. Cam was almost always easygoing, but she knew his tells.

He shook his head. “This morning, I popped a couple of Eggos into the toaster for Brady’s breakfast. Now I don’t know how to feed my kid.”

She nodded her understanding. “My old roommate has celiac disease. I don’t know if you remember Leo.”