do?”
I feel my brows rise, “Wait. Let me get this straight. You’re telling me you gave me shit last night about my parents’ giving me a car after I gave you shit about the sugar daddy incident and your mother remodeled your kitchen?”
He looks out of the corner of his eyes and grins, “I guess I did.”
“I can’t believe you,” I say. “At least we’re even. But that’s really meddlesome, and I thought my parents were meddlesome.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” he mutters.
“Huh,” I take another swig of my beer, still shocked. Mrs. Montgomery must be some woman, that’s for sure. All of a sudden I realize he probably hasn’t had dinner since I know for a fact there’s hardly any food in his house. “We ordered pizza. There’s some left, are you hungry?”
He looks over and with a little shake of his head, says, “Since I don’t know what’s left in my fridge, I’d appreciate it.”
I stand, rolling my eyes, “Yeah, Cara told me how scary your refrigerator was. You’d better have some pizza. I’m not sure if food poisoning can take down brick walls, but I wouldn’t risk it.”
“Brick walls?” he asks, looking up at me.
I give my head a little shake, “Never-mind. Do you want another beer? I have real beer.”
“Sock it to me,” he says, looking back to the kids playing. Then he belts out, “Cara, Jordy!”
His kids look to the house and come running, Cara shrieking all the way. I move to the kitchen, not knowing if I can take another dadmire moment with Cam and his kids. I load up a plate with pizza, heaping four large pieces. He is a big guy.
By the time I make my way back out to the patio with his warmed pizza and two more beers, the kids have scattered.
“Appreciate it,” he says.
I’m settling in my chair again when I hear a car driving up. I look over toward the side of the house where the driveway turns into the side load garage and see Brian.
Well damn. I thought we agreed to touch base next week.
Cam looks at Brian getting out of his car and back to me, asking, “He here for you?”
I give him a small smile and answer carefully, “He’s a friend.”
Cam looks back to Brian and then down at his pizza, “I bet.”
I don’t have time to respond because Brian is approaching and he only has eyes for Cam. Glaring eyes. I’m not liking this. There shouldn’t be anything weird about me sitting with Sophia’s neighbor and my friend stopping by for a visit. Nothing weird at all.
But the cool, early summer evening air has tensed. I think it has everything to do with me perving on Sophia’s asshole neighbor—although he hasn’t been an asshole tonight—and my friend who I want to stay my friend but he’s proving he might not want to be friends anymore. He might want more.
More .
Arg!
“Hey, Brian. I didn’t know you were coming by,” I say with a generic smile, hoping to get him to quit glaring at Cam.
Brian finally looks away from Cam and comes straight to me. When he gets close, he does something he’s never done, and that’s touch me in a way only people who are together-together touch each other. He runs his hand along my shoulder, lightly across my back and up the side of my neck. His hand finally makes its way up and lifts my chin. This strange out-of-character sign of affection surprises me to such an extent, I jerk my head and frown at him.
He ignores my frown and starts, “Thought I’d stop by, take you and the boys for ice cream.”
It’s my turn to glare. I give him a good one, while saying with attitude I know he can’t miss since he knows me well, “You should have called first.”
“Why? Am I interrupting?” he asks with as much meaning.
I look over at Cam, but Cam is sitting back in his chair, staring straight at Brian.
“What? No,” I answer. “You’re not interrupting. Brian, this is Sophia and Lanny’s neighbor, Cam. Cam,
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