The Paid Bridesmaid(41)

Irene’s eyes went wide. “No.”

“Oh yes. All those poor fish died and one of the flower girls wouldn’t stop screaming when she saw it and had to be taken out of the reception. It was pretty awful.”

She reached over to rap on the wooden table next to her. “Knock on wood, none of that happens with this wedding.”

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t,” I told her.

“You’re a very good friend,” she responded.

Camden’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket to look at it. “Excuse me a second.”

He went out into the hallway and I could hear his muffled voice just beyond the door.

“I told him he works too much,” Irene said, putting another flower onto her lei. “He doesn’t listen, though.”

“Children are funny that way,” I said. “Especially when they’re adults.” And could make their own life decisions and didn’t need a mother telling them how to live. “I feel like parents forget that part.”

“We don’t forget. We’re just, unfortunately, very human. We wish we could be perfect for you, but we’ve got our own strengths and shortcomings, just like anyone else. We make a lot of mistakes, even when we don’t mean to. But Camden does need to slow down. He’s been obsessed with his company going public.”

I wondered if he would have shushed her if he were still in the room. But she kept going. “He’s especially concerned about the money he’s going to get.”

That surprised me. When I’d talked to him earlier, he’d made it sound like he was more concerned with his employees than himself. I found this disappointing. “He wants to be rich, huh?”

“Oh no, I’m afraid it’s on my account. I’m the only parent they have left. Dan’s father suffered a heart attack a few years ago and now this.” She waved up to the scarf on her head. “There’s an experimental trial that’s not covered by insurance and it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and Camden says they’re going to pay for it after the company goes public.”

I immediately felt ashamed for having rushed to the wrong conclusion about him. It might have been due in part to rich men in my life doing their best to destroy me, and I could have used that disdain to keep Camden at arm’s length. Instead he had to go and be all noble.

“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. About her husband dying, what she was going through, and the bad things I’d thought about Camden.

“They wanted to wait a few years until after their first CPU hit the market, but decided to speed things up and do it now. With Dan getting married, there’s all of these huge life changes happening at once. All I have to do is get Camden settled and happy.” She told me this information like a concerned parent, not as someone who was trying to make me into that person in Camden’s life. It was rather refreshing.

But I was still a bit confused. “Why do you talk about him like you’re his mom?” I asked. It was a relationship I still hadn’t quite figured out.

“That’s not my story to tell.” She reached over to pat my hand.

I couldn’t help myself, even though she’d just politely told me to back off. “Was he living with you when he hurt his knee?”

She blinked slowly. “He told you about training for the Olympics and his accident?”

I nodded.

“He doesn’t share that story with anyone. I think only Dan and I know it. It says a lot about you that he told you.”

I decided not to share that the reason he’d told me was because he assumed I’d be too drunk to remember.

Still, her words somehow managed to make me feel both giddy and stressed. To find out that I was in possession of information that had a high level of significance to Camden, and then to fret over what exactly that meant. Was it part of his ploy? Did he really just think I’d forget? Or did it mean something more?

Something I hadn’t considered during all of this mess was just telling Camden the truth. Not about the maid-of-honor gig, but about the spy thing. The downside was that it might make him angry with Sadie and Dan for having let it slip, but if I told him I knew, that would bring a stop to everything, right? He’d stop trying to seduce me and I’d stop being seduced. Win-win.

There was a knock at the door. Camden wanting to be let back in. Although I didn’t quite feel up to facing him again after the information Irene had shared with me, I got up and answered.

“How was your telegram to the past?” I asked, trying to lighten my own mood.

“Your mom says hi,” he said with a smirk, coming into the room.

A frozen panic wrapped around my heart. Had he really talked to my mom? I followed him back to the sitting room and tried to calm my racing heart. My mother could so blow all of this for me. I’d emphasized many times that she couldn’t say a word to anyone. I probably should have clarified that it also included men she was considering as possible fathers to her grandkids.

There were many things she could have told him. Not just about my job. She had a whole lifetime of embarrassing moments to choose from. Like the Padded Bra Fiasco or the Spray Tan Incident.

Maybe Camden had some of those, too. “So, what was Camden like growing up?” I asked Irene. Even if I didn’t understand their entire situation, it was obvious that she considered him to be like another son.