Before You (Before You #1)(24)

“I taught her to surf the morning after my Labor Day party, and she liked it.” Jax shrugged. “I mentioned where I surf in the mornings, and I told her to meet me there if she wanted more lessons.”

“Huh… that’s interesting. I had no clue she was meeting you. Should I be mad?”

“Mad that I’m teaching her to surf?”

“No, mad that you two have some sort of standing date.” Cam laughed uncomfortably, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“It’s not much of a standing date if she hasn’t shown up in a week, now, is it? Besides, Marc and Alec came once, too.”

Cam looked toward Marc and Alec, who were setting up the equipment in the back of the room. They nodded in Cam’s direction.

“Why wasn’t I invited?” Cam asked, looking at the guys.

“Why would you be invited? You hate surfing,” Alec answered, rubbing his hands together, the heavy silver rings on his fingers clinking together.

“I do, but it’s weird that my friends are hanging out with my girlfriend behind my back.”

“Speaking of backs, I have to say I didn’t hate the view when she was there. She can surf with me anytime. She looked hot in that wetsuit,” Marc said, making a crude gesture.

Alec shoved Marc in the arm. “Shut up.”

“What?” Marc responded, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s true.”

“Don’t listen to them. It was just surfing,” Jax said. “So where’s she been?”

“She went home,” Cam responded, sitting on a wooden chair to tune his guitar.

Stunned, Jax stared at Cam. “What happened? Did you guys break up?”

“Nope,” Cam answered vaguely, not looking up from his guitar. “Her grandmother died. She had to take care of the arrangements.”

“When are you leaving to go to the funeral?” Jax asked.

Cam sighed and put his guitar on the ground. “I’m not. She wants me to go, but I don’t have the time to go home right now. I’m too busy between practice, setting up gigs, and my job. Besides, I don’t want to get sucked into her family drama, and if her mom bothers to show up, it will be ugly. That woman is a piece of work.”

“Wait—so she’s dealing with her grandma’s death all by herself? That’s harsh,” Jax said.

“She has my parents and her friend from college.”

“Is she pissed you aren’t going?” Jax asked as he handed Cam a beer.

“I haven’t told her yet.”

Jax whistled. “Wow. When’s the funeral?”

“In two days.”

“So, when are you going to tell her you can’t go?”

“I’m not.”

Jax struggled to keep his sudden anger in check. “You’re planning on being a no show to her grandmother’s funeral?”

Cam stood up from his chair and paced in front of his chair. “I’ll send some flowers and a personal note. She’ll hardly notice I’m not there with all her grandma’s friends hovering around her and I know my parents will be there. She’s like a daughter to them.”

“That’s ridiculous. Of course, she’ll notice if you’re not there.”

Cam ran his hands through his hair. “Look. I just can’t go back there for a while.”

“Why not?” Jax studied Cam.

Cam trained his eyes on the floor. “Fine,” he said, exhaling loudly. “Remember that chick that was hanging around the band a couple months ago?”

“Which one?” Jax said, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Mia.” When Jax didn’t respond, Cam elaborated. “The one with the red hair—short, obnoxiously clingy.”

“Oh, right,” Jax shivered, remembering how she indiscriminately hung on all of the guys in the band after every performance. “What about her?”

“She’ll probably be there. She went to high school with Bre and me,” Cam responded, strumming a few chords on his guitar.

“So? Just ignore her. That worked for me. She focused her attention elsewhere pretty quickly,” Alec interjected.

“Unfortunately, that won’t work for me. We hooked up in the parking lot after our performance a couple months ago.”

Marc burst out laughing. “That chick is crazy. Just being in the same room as her gave me the hives. I don’t have very high standards, but even I’m not crazy enough to touch her. She has all the makings of a stalker.”

“She was available, and I obviously drank too much, but thanks for rubbing it in,” Cam replied defensively.

“That’s all kinds of f*cked up. Are they friends?” Jax asked as he tapped his beer bottle against the inside of his thigh.

“No. They hate each other. I dated Mia in high school briefly before Bre. She was always clingy and manipulative.”

“So ignore her,” Marc said. “I don’t think it would be too hard to play the ‘she’s crazy’ card.”

Cam groaned. “It’s not that simple. If she sees me with Bre, she’ll go crazy and say something to Bre. I can’t risk Bre finding out about it.”

“Maybe I’m overanalyzing this, but I’m pretty sure she could say something to Bre whether you’re there or not,” Jax offered diplomatically.