Semi-Sweet On You (Hot Cakes #4) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,119

around again and noticed that everyone now had food.

Cam looked at Piper. “Wow,” he finally said. “Thank you. For the muffin and for managing the bakery this morning for Zoe and Josie.”

“It was Whitney’s idea.”

His chest tightened painfully. “Oh.” That was… nice. Awesome even. She’d been thinking of him and his family. She’d come up with a way to help.

In Appleby. From a distance.

It wasn’t as if he believed she hadn’t been thinking of him. Or them.

But she wasn’t here.

She’d stood on those steps, wrapped in a sheet, probably still smelling like him and cookie dough, and she’d let him leave without her.

There was a big meeting today. A big meeting that mattered a lot to her. A big account, one she had history with. One she wanted to impress.

And of course it mattered to Hot Cakes, too. But it hadn’t even occurred to her to reschedule.

“You okay?” Piper asked.

“Sure. I mean…” He gave a soft, humorless laugh. “No. Fuck no, even.” He took a breath. “My mom’s in surgery, my dad’s a mess, my sister and brother are scared, and there’s nothing I can do.”

Piper nodded. “And Whitney’s not here.”

He thought about asking what she meant. Or maybe even denying that was on his mind. But Piper had been helping him nurse his hangovers after seeing Whitney for ten years now. She knew him and the other guys better than they knew themselves sometimes.

He finally nodded. “Yeah. And Whitney’s not here.”

Piper sighed and turned to lean on the windowsill next to him.

He twisted the top off the water bottle and took a drink, preparing to hear her say that he should have specifically asked Whitney to come. Or that Whitney was doing what she thought she needed to do by keeping the meeting. Or that Whitney thought she was helping by having the meeting and keeping things going so the guys could all be here with him and his family.

But instead, Piper said, “You’re going to have to decide if you can handle having only part of her.”

Cam frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… I get it. I get how it feels to be in love with someone who can only give you part of themselves. And, the thing is, that’s not their fault. We know who they are, Cam. They’ve been honest about it. It’s our stupid fault for still wanting to be with them. So—” She looked at him. “You have to decide if you can be happy with only having part of her. Having her be gone, sometimes physically, a lot of the time mentally. Giving her heart and time and energy to something else.”

“That’s how you feel about Ollie?”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

Cam sighed. “Yeah. Okay. But…” He looked at the floor and thought about what she’d said. “I think you’re wrong.”

Piper snorted. “I’ve been in the front row for five years, Cam.”

“Right. But… they can learn. They can change. They’re not doing it because they don’t care. They’re doing it because they don’t think they’ll be good at the love thing.”

Piper studied him. “You think that’s what’s going on with Whitney?”

He nodded, realizing it was true. “She’s not here because she doesn’t know what to do here. She doesn’t know how this works. She’s in Appleby because she does understand all of that. She can do that right.”

Piper nodded. “Doing things right is a big thing with her.”

“It is.”

“But, ironically, she’s doing it wrong.”

He nodded. “I know.” But he felt the bitterness and hurt fading as he understood what he was explaining to Piper. “She’s still figuring out the unconditional thing. It’s only been a couple weeks. She’ll get there.”

“Only been a couple of weeks of what?” Piper asked.

“Of being loved like that,” Cam said. “Didi’s the only one who’s ever done it. And I think the unconditional part just kind of takes time to learn and understand.”

Could he give her time? Could he wait while she figured out that when he said “no matter what” he meant it?

Yes. For sure.

“That’s what’s going on with Ollie too?” Piper asked, her eyes finding Ollie across the room.

“I think Ollie is very used to doing things and trusting the rest of us to tell him when he’s off track.”

She nodded.

“And he’s especially used to you telling him when he’s off track,” Cam said.

Piper looked up at him.

He nodded. “Yeah. I think you need to talk to him. Tell him how he’s screwing this up with you.”

She pulled in a deep breath and then looked back at Ollie,