“How’s the kid?” Spencer asked.
I looked over at the sharply dressed businessman, wishing I could be as much of a dick as he was at times. For the last couple of months, my attempts to get Jessa back had failed miserably, and I was stuck with that terrible empty feeling. Even staying busy at the hospital these days didn’t do anything for me.
“Doing great,” I managed, tipping back my beer and downing half the damn thing in one swallow.
“When are you two going to get your bitch-asses in this pool and help us turn up this fucking water polo game?” Jake asked, throwing the ball from inside Jim’s rooftop pool to where I sat on lounge furniture with Spence.
“When we go back to the days when we were four, like you idiots,” Spence answered, taking a drink of his scotch and laughing.
I eyed the hard liquor, debating if I should take my chances and pour myself one, but with the mood I was in, it probably wasn’t the best idea.
“So, tell me,” Spence said, leaning his elbows on his knees, “what’s going on with you? You look like hell, which shouldn’t be the case from everything Jim has told me about how well your son is doing in recovery.”
I shrugged, and in the distinguished art of trying to go bald at a young age, I rubbed my forehead for the millionth time this month.
“Jacks is doing amazing. The kid is determined to get past the limp, and his vision and right arm are still trying to fuck with him.” I smiled and stared into the firepit, “He just doesn’t quit.”
“A lot like you then, eh?” Spencer said.
I looked over at Collin, Jake, Alex, and Jim tossing the ball around in the pool, making up some game like we always did, and wondered how I’d somehow traded places with Jim. He was usually up here, chilling with Alex or Spence on the sidelines. They were notorious for having one of their epic business conversations while the rest of us entertained ourselves like toddlers at the park.
“Guess so,” I said.
“How’s Jessa?” he asked.
In being around businessmen all my life, I knew the tone that Spencer used well. It meant he was guiding this conversation in a direction that would either help me or make me angry. There was no in-between.
“Madly in love with that Warren bastard,” I said, then closed my eyes when I realized I’d said it loud enough to stop the ball from being traded by my friends in the pool, bringing a mischievous and all-knowing grin to Spence’s lips.
“That’s fucked up,” he said casually.
“Yeah, you think? Jessa and I were just getting things started, getting to know each other again, and then it’s like, boom! Like it wasn’t meant to be or something.”
“Wasn’t meant to be my ass, Cinderella,” Spence said with a laugh.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said with the same annoyance I felt. “Let’s just end this conversation right here.”
“I’d gladly let that die; however, your depressed ass just told me I wouldn’t understand something. That doesn’t fly with me,” Spence said, acting like a cocky asshole.
“That’s why your last deal made us more money than Mitchell and Associates had ever done,” Jim said. He dried off and caught his daughter as she rushed to him when the women passed by with the kids. “I’ve got her,” Jim said, waving at Avery.
It must be nice to help your lady out instead of having her kick you in the balls repeatedly with her new man.
Fuck. I was acting like the biggest bitch ever, but I was so damn defeated that I didn’t know what to do.
“Mm-yeah,” Izzy said, reaching her arms out toward me. She kicked her two-year-old chubby legs against Jim’s in protest while I smiled. This little girl, with her pitch-black hair and icy blue eyes, was my little buddy. I adored her feisty personality and how she could give Jake’s son, John, a run for his money.
Jim popped the pacifier out of Izzy’s mouth. “Now you can talk, Izzy,” he said.
“And here I thought little Izzy had you wrapped around her finger,” I said, smiling at Izzy, who was now angry at her dad.
“She does,” Jim grinned at his annoyed daughter. “But this whole pacifier thing needs to end and soon.”
Izzy frowned and looked up at Jim with a lethal expression. “Well, you’ve officially pissed her off,” I laughed.
“She looks a lot like you do these days, Cam,” Spence added.
“How so? I didn’t realize I looked that adorable when people pissed me off?”
“You do. Your pretty blue eyes must make you both look the same,” Spence said. “However, little Izzy doesn’t have a look like the world is ending when things don’t go her way,” he sat back in his chair and took another sip, “so that’s where you’re different and not as cute as her.”
I rolled my eyes and had a feeling I’d be doing a lot of that tonight.
“What’s going on with you, Cam? Catch me up on how things are going with Jessa. Last we spoke, you put Warren in his place and were planning to get back your son and Jessa?” Jim asked, joining the grand inquisition.
“Yeah,” Spence said after I looked down, pissed that my plans weren’t working out. “His bark is a lot louder than his bite.”
“Fuck that noise,” I said to Spence. “I’ve tried. It seems all I do is push them further into Warren’s arms.”
“Warren is the biggest fuck-knuckle I’ve ever met. And you honestly think you’ve lost your son and Jessa to that dipshit?” Spencer laughed while he and Jim exchanged knowing glances. “You’re losing your game to a man who practically begged Jim and me to hire him to work in our advertising department that day in the hospital? He’s a fucking douche. How the hell are you letting that guy beat you at anything?”
“He hit you both up for jobs while I was in surgery with Jacks?” I said, shocked at this revelation.
“Not shitting you,” Spencer said. “The man has no dignity. If he did, he would’ve never asked friends of Jessa’s or Jessa’s ex for a job.”
“We had to pull him over to a corner to entertain him and keep him away from Jessa because he was no good to her. I suspect his chattering was grating on her nerves, and rightfully so under the circumstances,” Jim said. “I imagine she would’ve been mortified if she knew he was hitting us up for jobs, though. It took Alex and Spence’s directness to level him down quite a lot, but if it were up to me?”
“You’d have him curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, crying like the bitch he is,” Spencer said to Jim and then turned to face me. “Listen, Cam,” he grew more serious, “don’t let this whole thing get into your head like this.”
“Spence, forgive me if I’m too forward, but you can’t be troubled to hang onto a woman for more than a night. I’m not sure I can see this as no-big-fucking-deal as you can. She’s the love of my life, and I fucked it up.”
“Dat-dat-mir!” Izzy said, pointing at me.
Jim chuckled. “I’ll never know what the hell she’s saying, but she says this shit every time she gets pissed.”
“It’s pacifier talk for stop acting like a bitch, Uncle Cam,” Alex said, drying off, shaking his head, and joining us. Great, now I was about to get lectured by three businessmen. “Right, Izzy?”
“Wrong, Uncle Alex,” Avery said, walking out to where we were. “Why are we all out here cussing up a storm in front of Izzy? It’s bad enough we can’t figure out what half her words are, and something tells me this dat-dat-mir phrase is probably a few curse words rolled up into one.” She leaned down to get her daughter, who was reaching up for her. “Time for bed, little one.” She looked at me, “Jessa is here. She’s been talking with Laney downstairs, so dry it up, handsome.” She winked in her usually sassy Avery way, “I think this may all come back together for you. The rehab might just have taken longer for your relationship malfunction than Jackson’s did.”
I rose, bringing smiles and humor to everyone’s faces.
“Send her up here,” Spence said. “Quick, Cam, jump in the pool. Let her see what she’s been missing for a couple of months.”
“I agree,” Alex smirked.
“Anything else from the men I won’t be taking advice from tonight?” I looked at Jim.
Jim sipped his bourbon and shrugged, “Dat-dat-mir?”
“Yeah. That about sums this up,” I said, feeling more anxious than I should.
“You’re going to be fine,” Avery said, pulling Izzy tightly into her side. “But the whole bare chest in the water thing couldn’t hurt your case.”
“Nice, Av,” I answered with a smile. “Is Jessa okay?”
“I don’t think she’s going to be okay until you and she work things out,” Avery said. “Might be just me, but she and Warren are toxic. I think she sees that, but if you know that, you have an angle.”
I smiled, feeling my spirits lift. Thank God for that, too, because when I got here, after Jessa and Jacks had declined my invitation to join me at Jim’s house, my mood was shitty.
Now, all I could do was hope that things went well. Lately, it seemed like every time I got my hopes up with Jessa, everything always went south.
I walked through Jim’s pimp as fuck Hollywood Hills home, and with each beat of my heart, my feelings of excitement faded, and the nerves took over.
Fuck, Cameron, this is what you’ve been praying for.
“Hey, Cam,” Elena said with a bit of liveliness. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Haven’t we had enough of your sneaky-therapy sessions, Laney?” I asked with a grin.
“We have,” she said with a challenging eyebrow arch. “And thank God for my sneaky little attempts to peel you like an onion, or else you’d be a prisoner at St. John’s, hiding behind work and from all of us.”
“So, what is this?” I asked. “Seriously, I’m confused.”
“Just come here and stop asking questions,” she said, leading me to a spare room in Jim’s home.
She closed the door behind us, “I’m on my way to see Jessa. I don’t want to keep her waiting.”
“She’ll be fine. She’s with Nat and the girls.”
My eyes widened. “You left her alone with Natalia?” I asked incredulously. “Jesus Christ. Trust me, Nat is not her flavor.”
“Nat was not your flavor,” she said with a laugh. “Jessa likes her. In fact, I think we all have Natalia to thank for helping Jessa come to her senses about coming to talk to you tonight.”
“How the fuck is that possible? The only thing that woman cares about is money and sex.”
“Nat cracks all of us up, so take it easy on her. Now,” Elena said, more serious, “Jessa doesn’t need fifty-million questions about why and how she left you.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because she’s been with that asshole for a month now and blowing your ass off. Anyone from the outside looking in would judge the situation harshly.”
“I don’t blame her for leaving me and believing she could find more stability in Warren. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to prove myself to her before things went horribly wrong with Jacks.”
“I know,” she said. “Both of you needed this last month to heal with Jacks, and I feel you both have. You just need to understand that sometimes, when something is right for two people, it takes time to heal, and healing separately, to realize that you need to be together.”
“You act as though I’m going to go in there and blow up on her or something.”
“I know you would never do that to her or any other woman, Cam,” she said. “But emotions do some crazy shit to us, and she’s been with another man for over a month.”
Her eyes locked onto mine, and we were in some standoff now. “Yeah, and that’s fine. So long as she’s not here to tell me she’s engaged to him again and on her way back to New York, I will keep my cool. Trust me.”
“Right,” Elena smiled, and I sensed that more things seemed to be at work here aside from Jessa stopping by tonight.
“Right,” I mirrored her, trying to pull the information out of her. “What the hell is going on, Laney?”
“There’s my Diosa Cubanita. What are you doing with this old sap?” Collin said from behind me, stepping into the room where Laney and I were talking, with the door half-closed.
“Oh, you know me. I’m just psychologically intruding on a romance that I believe needs to happen,” Laney answered while Collin placed his arm around her.
“What’d you tell this guy?” Collin asked, acting fucking weird.
“I’m going to go find Jessa,” I said. My friends were acting beyond strange, and I was starting to lose patience with them.
“Good luck, buddy,” Collin said.
“You’ll do great,” Laney said.
I turned back with a frown, studying the two standing there like the parents on a Leave it to Beaver episode, and I forced a smile on my face.
What the fuck was going on with those two?
Something was entirely off with Collin and Laney, and because they were dumb enough to make it obvious, I was smart enough to hang back to listen on the other side of this door, hoping I’d overhear something that might shed some light on things.
“Do you think this will work?” Collin asked, and I smiled. I knew these assholes were up to something because these were my friends, and only my friends would play games, believing they were bringing Jessa and me back together again.
“How was he at the pool?” Laney questioned.
“Acting like a bitch,” Collin said with a laugh, and I rolled my eyes. “Spence kept him busy while you ladies were with Jessa. How do you think she feels about all of this?”
“Oh,” Elena giggled as her phone chimed, “this is Jacks. Let me tell him he did well and that our plan is going smoothly.”
Jackson? Texting Elena?
“What the fuck?” I said, entirely confused now.
“What?” a female questioned from behind me, causing me to nearly jump through the door where I was eavesdropping.
I turned. “Jesus, Natalia. Announce yourself or something,” I said.
Her rosy-red lips pulled up as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Announce myself? Perhaps you should announce yourself to whoever you’re spying on, on the other side of that door.” She laughed. “What’s going on in there that would shock you?”
“Wouldn’t you and your kinky little self love to know?” I said, slipping my hands into my pockets, a bit thankful that Nat was the one to catch me and not anyone else.
“Indeed,” she said without missing.
Time to kick the ball back to these assholes for sneaking around behind my back. “It’s Collin and Elena. I was on my way to see Jessa—apparently, she’s here to talk—and I saw Collin sneak into that room,” I said, trying to act cool.
“And why would that lead you to spy on him? Last I checked, Jim’s place wasn’t a murder mystery house where the guests were all suddenly disappearing?”
“Well, it sounded like he fell,” I answered, trying to think of something, knowing by Nat’s strong eyebrow arch that she was catching on to my lie. “So, I went to open the door, and then I heard Elena say—” I paused, searching for something that would make me spy on my two married friends.
“Say?” Nat pressed.
“God, this is embarrassing. I’m embarrassed for Collin, actually,” I said.
“Then it must be bad,” Nat humored me. “So, spill it, blue eyes.”
“He said to go easy while shoving it up his ass like last night,” I said softly, acting like I was repeating Collin’s words.
Nat rolled her eyes. “That’s what’s got you spying behind the door, married people’s kinky sex shit? Good God, I struggle to know what you would’ve thought of me in bed,” she said unamused.
“Well, if a man taking it in the ass from another woman is not the least bit shocking to you, then I’m glad I never went home with you,” I said, staring at this woman and wondering if anything embarrassed her.
“Cam, let me inform you of something,” she said. “There are plenty of men in this world who take it up the ass from their wives all the time, literally and figuratively. Some like it, and some don’t. It seems like Collin likes it, so what’s the fun in listening unless that turns you on?”
How the fuck did this backfire in my face?
“God, no. That doesn’t turn me on.”
“Then why are you listening on the other side of the door like some creepy voyeur?”
“Fuck me, Nat,” I answered. “That’s not what I’m doing. I’m not a fucking creep.”
Her eyebrows shot up, “What the hell else would you call it? Listening to your friend get pegged without anyone knowing? I say that’s creepy, and I think you’re probably turned on, and since you’re most likely not getting any lately, you’ll—”
“Stop!” I held both hands up. “I’m not creepy, I don’t need a piece of ass, and I’m not turned on listening to my friend take it in the ass.”
“Who’s taking it in the ass this time?” Jake said, bounding down the stairs, hearing everything I told Nat after my voice rose in frustration.
“Collin,” Nat said. She pointed at the door I was standing in front of protectively, praying that Collin and Elena didn’t hear any of this. “Cam was standing out here with his ear pressed to the door, listening to his friends’ matrimonial coitus.”
Jake’s expression tightened in humor while he pulled on his shirt, his hair still wet from being in the pool. “I thought Collin only liked it when—”
“The fuck are you all doing out here?” Collin said, opening the door and zipping up his pants.
Dear God, I should’ve known he’d prove my lie true because he and Laney could never be left alone without something happening.
Jake recovered his humored expression while Nat simply smiled.
“Was it good?” she taunted as only Nat would do.
“Always is,” Collin said, not realizing he should be mortified because no one thought he’d just had a regular old quickie thanks to my lie.
“I thought I was your one and only,” Jake said with a laugh. “Seriously, you’re into that, though?”
“Uh, yeah. How has that not always been obvious?” Collin answered, looking at us as if we were all crazy.
“Right?” Nat said with a sexy arch of her eyebrow as Laney walked out, adjusting her dress and oblivious to the disaster I’d created out here. “You are one lucky girl.”
She smiled and hugged Collin at his side. “I know.” She kissed where her lips reached his upper arm. “And let this be a lesson to you, Natalia,” she giggled, still glowing from her tryst, “marriage doesn’t dull the sex life.”
“Indeed, not,” Nat said. “And that’s why I’m jealous.”
“I am too,” Jake chimed in. “You two know no bounds, and apparently, that’s the fucking key.”
Oh, fuck me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jake went home and asked Ash to give him the old heave-ho next.
“That’s always been the fucking key,” Collin answered. Then he looked at me, “Speaking of fucking, why are you still here? I figured you and Jessa would be halfway to heaven by now.”
All eyes were back on me, and instead of clearing up any of this, I let it all ride. Bastards always gave me hell anyway, so I might as well let Jake believe the key to keeping sex alive involved his wife strapping on a dildo now and then. Who knew? Maybe Jake and Ash were into that kind of thing, and I did everyone a favor.
“Before I take off to catch Jessa,” I said, adding one last nail to the coffin, “Little John is upstairs by the pool, Nat. He was hoping to see his favorite Aunt Nat before bedtime.”
“Oh, my bubs,” she said and jogged off.
I smiled at what I knew awaited her and how my sweet revenge on her for backing me into a corner would come back tenfold when she walked out and saw Spence instead of little John.
“Why’d you send her up there? John’s in bed,” Jake said with a laugh.
“Why else?” I smirked.
“Karma is a bitch, and Nat will crack the whip on karma’s ass, Cam,” Collin said while Laney laughed.
“You guys go ahead,” she said to Collin and Jake. “You get your handsome butt to Jessa,” she told me. “I’m going to save Nat from being forced to interact with Spencer Monroe.”
Elena sent us all packing, and I had to hope karma didn’t get me back because I’d had enough reckonings for one lifetime.
I was ready to make everything right.
