Before You (Before You #1)(14)
“I don’t think of you that way.”
“Maybe not, but that’s how I feel, and it’s driving me crazy. Especially when I have so many other things I need to be working on right now. I need to find a job, help my grandmother, and find a place to live. Instead of doing any of those things, I put my life on hold to spend a month with you. I’m not asking you to put your life on hold for me, but I am asking you to respect me and my time, and that means calling me when you’re going to be late.”
“I can do that.” Cam placed one of his hands over his chest. “I wanted to call last night, I really did, but I knew you’d be mad and you know how much I hate fighting with you.” Cam looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then returned his gaze to her. “Another bartender called in sick so I had to stay late at the restaurant, and I couldn’t refuse. I need the money if I want to stay in LA and make this work.”
“It’s not just about calling when you’re late. It also means making time for me while I’m here. I’m not some toy that you play with when it’s convenient and toss me aside when you find something better.”
“Come on, Bre. Don’t question my commitment to you, to us. If it were possible, I would spend every minute with you, but this is my life, the life I’m building for us so we can be together. I have a music career and a job bartending. One is my future and the other pays my bills. Unfortunately, I can’t blow off either for the next few weeks so we can play house.”
Fury stained Bre’s cheeks. “Oh, I get it. You don’t have time to put your life on hold to play house, but I do. That’s right,” she mocked. “I can’t think of anything better to do with my life than sit around playing little old boring housewife—cooking, knitting, and watching reality T.V.—while my big important boyfriend is trying to succeed at his big important career and bartend on the side.” Bre swung her arm in front of her to emphasize her frustration. “Why did ask me to come here? Can you explain? Because right now I don’t get it.”
“Jesus, Bre! I didn’t mean it that way,” Cam said, running his hands through his hair. “Where the hell did that nonsense come from? I’m not dumb. I get that you sacrificed a lot to visit me for a month. Cut me some slack. I’m new to this, too. I haven’t had a girlfriend in my life every day since I moved to LA.” Cam sighed. “Bre, come here.”
“Why?” she asked, raising her eyebrows suspiciously.
“Stop thinking so much. Just come over here.”
Bre walked to the edge of the sofa, her knees brushing up against his. “Yes?”
Without warning, he pulled her down on top of him and then rolled, pinning her beneath him on the couch and kissed her hard on the lips. “This fight is ridiculous.”
“I don’t think—”
“No talking.” He interrupted her response with another kiss.
When he released her mouth, she tried to talk again. “Don’t try to distract me. This is im—”
Cam pinned her arms above her head with one hand and started tickling her.
Between gasps for air, Bre screamed, “You’re not playing fair!”
“I never said I would.”
Chapter Six
Two days later, Bre nervously waited at the front door of Jax’s family beach house with Cam. According to Cam, Jax had a Labor Day party every year at his family’s beach house, and he had invited a few friends, including them, to stay the night. She didn’t know how to act around Jax after the day they spent sailing together. She didn’t want to experience the friction or tension from the bar, but at the same time she wanted their time together to remain private. Cam mentioned that there would be fifty to a hundred people at the party, so with any luck, she and Jax wouldn’t do more than exchange a few pleasantries and her nervousness would be moot.
Besides the small discussion after her sailing trip with Jax, both she and Cam acted as if their fight never happened. Admittedly, the lingering tension between them hadn’t disappeared, but she had no intention of letting it seep into their weekend plans. She hoped that spending two full days at the beach with Cam would erase any remaining bad feelings and things would be back to normal between them.
Hearing laughter near the front door, she took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. When the front door opened, Katie greeted her with a sickly sweet fake smile, and she immediately tensed. For all of Jax’s protestations that he wasn’t interested in her, Katie sure seemed to be around him all the time. She shouldn’t care. Jax wasn’t hers, but that didn’t stop something resembling jealousy from twisting in her gut.
“Cam…” Katie leaned in toward him and kissed him on both cheeks. “Come in. Jax is by the pool talking to the caterers. I’m playing hostess today,” she said, looping her arm through his while offering Cam an overly bright smile.
It didn’t escape Bre’s attention that Katie acted as though she weren’t there and Cam evidently forgot her presence as well. Bre cleared her throat and Cam turned around.
“Bre, are you coming? Wait until you see the pool. It’s insane.”
“What about our bags?”
“Just leave them in the entry. We can get them later when we know what room we’re sleeping in tonight.”