Almost Just Friends (Wildstone #4)(92)

Maybe. Okay, yes. She was. She thought about her work, and all she’d seen. How sometimes the simplest choices could have such far-reaching impacts. Like her parents sending their kids to safety, planning to join them soon, but instead being killed before they could. Or someone driving drunk because he lived right around the corner, but in that two-minute drive he hit a car and killed one of two brothers. “Life’s too short,” she murmured out loud.

“Yes.”

She stared at the water and not at Cam. Because looking directly at Cam was oftentimes like looking at a whole pan of buttery soft double-chocolate brownies. Oh so good, and . . . oh so bad for her. “Which is why I’ve decided to give up my crutch.” She lifted her journal.

“Okay. How?”

She bit her lower lip because if he laughed at her, she might have to hurt him.

But his gaze was sympathetic. “You could start slow. Maybe leave it at home once in a while. Or start over and keep journaling without making it a road map of your life that you have to live by.”

“Or I could go cold turkey and literally toss it.” She eyed the lake.

He arched a brow, and she realized she was clutching it to her chest. But the thought of being free of the incessant list-making had her feeling good about her next choice. “I’m serious about this.” She slapped the journal against his chest. “But you’re going to have to do it.”

“Piper—”

“Do it!”

He tossed the journal into the lake. There was a splash, and then it sank beneath the surface of the glassy water, vanishing from view. Piper leapt to her feet. “Oh my God!” She kicked off her shoes. “I can’t believe you actually did it!”

“You said—”

That was the last thing she heard because she jumped into the lake, and it wasn’t until her body got sucked into the cold water that she remembered.

She hated the water.





Chapter 29


Her inner office-supply ho quivered.

Piper spent a horrifyingly long few seconds trying to remember how to swim. But then there was a splash next to her, and suddenly she was being held against another body.

“Okay,” Cam said. “I’m moving crazy up to the top of the list. Because what the actual fuck, Piper.”

“I wasn’t quite ready to let go!”

With a sigh, he swam her to the dock ladder and gave her a not-so-gentle shove up. She climbed to the dock and flopped onto her back, staring up at the sky before realizing he hadn’t come up after her. Sitting up, she peered over the side.

He was gone.

Like . . . gone. There was no sign of him as far as the eye could see. “Cam!” she yelled.

Nothing.

Oh, shit. She’d killed him. Fear clutched deep in her gut. He was drowning. Dear God, he was going to die and it was all her fault. She got to her feet and was just about to jump back in when he surfaced. He tossed his hair from his eyes with a single shake of his head and lifted a hand out of the water.

He had her journal.

He tossed it at her feet as he effortlessly pulled himself up onto the dock and flopped down at her side.

“Are you insane?” she demanded.

He was drenched, but the look he slid her was one hundred percent dry. “I believe the words you’re looking for are thank you.”

“Oh my God.” She thought he must be furious at her, but when she took a closer look, he was laughing.

“Hey,” she said. “It’s not funny. I thought I killed you.”

“I’m like a cat, I’ve got a few lives left.” He rose to his feet, vanished into the marina storage locker, and came back with two wool blankets. Wrapping one around her, he encouraged her to sit back down.

“I can’t believe I made the mistake of telling you to toss the journal into the lake.”

He wrapped the other blanket around himself and sat next to her. “I’ve made more than a few mistakes of my own.”

She stopped in the middle of trying to dry off the journal with her blanket and looked over at him in surprise. “You have?”

He let out a mirthless laugh. “Hell, yes. Many. I failed Rowan, and in some ways, my dad too. Finding out he needed me was just another nail in the coffin. Or so I thought. All of it felt like a noose around my neck at first. But I found a relationship with my dad that I didn’t know I needed. And then there’s Gavin and Winnie, who are family now too. Gavin, who lives unapologetically as he is, owning his mistakes and trying to make right what he can. I admire the hell out of that, Piper. And Winnie . . .” He shook his head with a small smile. “Twenty years old and made of one hundred percent bravado and sarcasm. She’s going to be one hell of a mom when she finds her sea legs, but she won’t be in it alone. She’ll have all of us.” He drew a breath. “I’ve fallen for all of them. And there’s something else I fell for too. Someone.” He looked at her. “You.”

She sucked in a breath. “What?”

“I love you, Piper.”

She shook her head. “No. You can’t.”

He gave a small quirk of his lips. “I know you like to control . . . everything. But not even you can tell me how or when or what to feel.”

“But . . .” Boggled, she shook her head. “Why?”