Page 19 of What Started In Deception

“No problem.” He looked at Camille as several silent seconds ticked by. “Hey, I’m Ty.”

Camille nodded, clearly still surprised. “Hi.”

“Uh, Camille, this is Ty.”

Camille looked at her now. “I know. He just said that.”

“Right. Of course.” She exhaled an uncomfortable laugh as she shook her head, completely flustered. She’d known that Ty would stop by at some point. She just hadn’t realized that it would be now. At the worst possible moment. When Camille was standing in her room and she hadn’t had a chance to mentally prepare. “Ty, this is my good friend Camille.”

He stepped forward, all cool and smooth, smiling as he shook Camille’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Camille returned his handshake. “You, too.”

He moved closer to Lydia, hooking his powerful arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side as his gaze tracked around the room. “This is really cute. Super cheerful.” He looked at her. “So, what are we cleaning up?”

She struggled to focus on what he was saying, knowing that Camille was still staring. And it didn’t help that he smelled great again. “Uh, everything. The bulletin boards need to come down, the posters need to come off the walls, and the name tags can come out of the cubbies and off the tables. Then we’ll need to stack everything in the corner.”

He tossed her a wink. “Sure thing.”

“I should get back to my room,” Camille said, looking at Ty. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You, too.”

Then she looked at Lydia. “You’re going to need to give me a call later.”

Lydia nodded. “Okay.” But she planned to avoid her friend for the next little while because Camille undoubtedly had a million questions that she had no idea how to answer.

Camille looked at them once again, then closed the adjoining door.

Lydia immediately untangled herself from Ty’s hold, frowning as she looked at him. “Was that really necessary?”

He nodded. “Definitely. You’re in, so the show begins.”

She turned away, still completely rattled, pressing her hand to her stomach, more than half sick. “I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t think I can lie to all of my family and friends.”

He turned her back to face him, pulling her hand from her stomach, holding it in his. “From this point forward, it’s not a lie.”

“Yes, it is.”

He shook his head. “I think you’re a beautiful woman. We haven’t spent a lot of time together, but I meant it when I said that I like you.”

She nodded.

“This is the part where you’re supposed to tell me that I’m not too bad to look at either.”

She rolled her eyes as he made her smile.

He squeezed her fingers as he grinned. “Maybe it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that you might like me a little bit, too.”

Her smile vanished as she shook her head. “I can’t like you.”

His smile disappeared as well. “Why?”

“Because you’re trying to destroy my family.”

He shook his head. “I’m not the bad guy here.”

“It certainly feels that way.”