He lifted a shoulder. “I know I needed them. Thought you would, too.”
“Who is he?” the little girl asked and tapped him on the belly with her shark.
Camden chuckled. “This is Mark, and we’re going to be nice to Mark, okay? No twenty questions.”
“What’s wrong with his head?”
I smacked a hand to my hair, and not only did it desperately need to be washed—I could feel the product had lost the battle with sweat, leaving an unappealing crunchy mess behind—but I was also dealing with the beginnings of my curls.
“Nothing, Ellie. That was rude. He just has red hair.”
I relaxed a little and smiled at her.
“How?” she demanded and whomped me on the knee with her shark. She really put her weight behind it, and I grunted. “You paint it that way?”
“I—no.” Camden studied me, and embarrassment wormed its way through my chest and upward to set my cheeks on fire. “But it is contagious, so you better run!” I tugged on one of her braids, and her little mouth fell open before she raced off back to the kitchen.
Camden snickered. “That’s good. You’re all right with kids, then?”
I tried not to stare at any one part of him while my mind blanked and I attempted to decide how I wanted to answer, but that left my gaze roving his body. By the time I made myself focus on his face, the corner of his mouth was twisted in a very self-satisfied way that had me feeling prickly. I opened my mouth, and he cut me off by holding up a finger. I crossed my arms but quickly relaxed as he leaned around the doorway to snag something on the other side. I almost floated off the floor when the smell of good coffee wafted from the massive red mug he held.
“It reminded me of you,” he said, then shrugged, while that smile turned into something closer to humble.
Sighing deeply, I resigned myself to the inevitable. “Because it’s red?”
“Uh… yeah.” He laughed.
“I forgive you for everything,” I muttered as he handed me the brew. Then I took a sip. The coffee was too hot and burned the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t even care. Just the scent in my nose made everything better. The seared inside of my mouth was worth it.
“You’ve been seeing him long enough to be mad at him?” A pretty woman with apple cheeks and blonde hair that matched the little girl who’d attacked me peeked around the doorway, and I jerked. My coffee sloshed and missed my hand but unhappily splashed to the floor. She covered her mouth, tried to fight back a laugh, and was mostly unsuccessful. When she stepped into sight, she was wearing an outfit that matched the little girl’s, right down to strappy sandals on her feet, though her soft curves filled it out much differently. It took me a second to connect the dots. This must be Camden’s ex-wife, but what the hell was she doing here? “Oops, Cam, clean that up, your honey-bunny and me are going to talk.”
“Wait a sec,” he said, but she already had her hand hooked on my arm, dragging me into the kitchen. I held my cup away from myself in hopes I could keep whatever was left in there, because I needed the coffee more than I needed air.
“So,” she said, with a conspiratorial smile. “Where are you from?”
“Why?”
“What do you do?” She cocked her head and slid her gaze down my body, which had me double-checking that the knot on the robe belt was secure.
“I… aren’t you… why are you….”
“Do you like pancakes?” Her eyebrows rose high.
Bafflement scrambled my brain, and I found myself saying, “I’m allergic to milk. I have to use my own recipe.”
She frowned sadly. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I can’t answer questions yet.”
“Why?” she asked and had the nerve to sound indignant as she slapped her hand to her hip.
“The little girl must be yours.”
“Yeah, Eloise is my mini-me.” Her eyes twinkled.
I closed my eyes to better ignore her and sipped at the remainder of my coffee.Bliss.I opened my eyes, and she was still staring. “New Gothenburg, work in an office. Yes, I do. I need coffee to function. Before you ask, no, the allergy isn’t deadly, but it does give me hives, and you probably want to know my name is Mark.”
“You remembered all that?” Her mouth fell open in an impressed littleO. I thought maybe I should hate her, since she used to be married to Camden and that’s always what my more dramatic acquaintances said they did—hated their current fling’s exes—but she was too odd to hate. I’d never had anyone so ready to accept everything about me. Or, at least, she seemed friendly. Maybe it was all a trick? She blinked big brown innocent eyes at me, and I decided no, she was genuinely this strange.
