Close to You (Fusion #2) - Kristen Proby Page 0,17
but chuckle. “Oh! The glass. Damn cat.”
“Meow.”
I glance down to find Scoot sitting by my feet.
“Stop being mean to your mommy.” I point at him, but he just blinks at me. “And both of you be nice to each other.” I wink at Cami as I turn to walk away.
“Landon,” she says. I turn and raise a brow. “Are you sure?”
I’m going to do my best to wipe away any of that uncertainty. I smile at her and nod. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“I know.”
Cami’s never late. And now I have to fill the next twenty-four hours until I can see her again.
“HEY BOSS, WE’RE gonna knock off for lunch,” Jay, one of my crew members, says the next day. “We’re just gonna go get some burgers. Welcome to join us.”
I shake my head and measure out a board. “Thanks, but I’m good. I’ll see you in a bit.”
The guys stow their tools and head out, laughing and giving each other shit, which is the norm. My crew is tight-knit and reliable, and I get along well with them, despite only being back for a short time. But most of them have worked for my dad for many years. Hell, a few of them taught me in the summers when I’d work for my dad, and not just about drill presses and table saws.
There might have been a few inappropriate magazines that made the rounds a time or two. I smile at the memory and measure a board.
“How’s it going over here?” Mia asks as she walks in carrying a covered plate.
“It’s going,” I reply.
“I saw the others leave for lunch, so I decided to bring you something to eat.”
“I’m quite sure you couldn’t have seen that from your kitchen lair,” I reply with a chuckle. “But thanks for the food.”
“Maybe I wanted to talk to you too,” she says in her direct way. Mia’s always been the kind of person who speaks her mind. You never have to guess where you stand with her. It’s one of the things I love the most about her.
“Is something wrong?” I take a bite of her lasagna with white sauce and sigh in happiness. “This is damn good.”
“I know.” She grins. “I don’t know if something’s wrong. That’s why I want to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
“What are you doing with Cami?”
“I’m not doing anything with her right now.”
“Don’t be a dick,” she says calmly. Mia can be wildly passionate, or the calmest person in the room. She would have made an excellent pilot.
As it is, she’s a scary woman.
“Why don’t you tell me what your concerns are?”
“My concern is Cami. I saw you yesterday, Landon. You weren’t just doing your harmless-flirting thing that you usually do with her.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Her big brown eyes narrow. “You know, Cami is maybe the sweetest person I know. She’s giving and loyal and she’s the best person to have in your corner.”
“Yes, she is.”
“And she’s had a crush on you since the beginning of time. And you knew that. So don’t do the flirty thing with her and then turn around and date someone else under her nose the way you used to do when we were teenagers, Landon. It’s mean and she doesn’t deserve that.”
“I wouldn’t do that to her.”
“You have done that to her,” she says, getting heated now. “I know that you’re not thrilled to be home, and that you didn’t want to leave the Navy, especially the way it all went down. But don’t start something with Cami because you’re home and bored and want to fill your time with someone that you know will hang on your every word.”
“I’m not sure who you just insulted more; Cami or me,” I reply, and toss the disposable plate of food in the trash, not able to eat any more. “But I do know that if you were a dude, I’d be decking you right now.”
“I’m not trying to insult anyone,” Mia replies. “I’m being honest. I don’t want you to hurt her.”
“I don’t want to hurt her either, Mia. We haven’t even been out on a date.”
“But you’re taking her to dinner tonight. She told me.”
I want to ask her what Cami said, but that sounds way too much like high school. “The crush wasn’t always one-sided,” I admit quietly, then shove my hand through my hair and pace away from her, my boots echoing through the space. “But we were young, and then I left.”