If his family told him to run, could she argue against that?No, it was good advice, if he wanted to keep his sanity.
SIXTEEN
“…AT LEAST TWELVE!”Roxie’s voice carried before they reached the top of the stairs.
The coffee machine blasted to life and the TV was on, tracking the news on mute.
“Ah!Parfait!”
Mimi screeched when they rounded the top.The underwear was gone, but Mimi was in exactly the same spot she’d been when Ariella left earlier.Did the clean up go on around her?What was left underneath?
Without shame, Cam held her hand on the walk across the living room toward his grandmother.“One of these days I’m going to do something that shocks you, Mimi.”
Mimi patted the seat at her side.“Come sit by me.”
Roxie was in the kitchen, eating something and making coffee while sort of dancing to music that wasn’t there.
The guys were nowhere around.Thena wasn’t there either.
To her surprise, Cam perched on the arm of the couch and swooped her around into the seat by his grandmother.
Mimi immediately clasped her hand.“Little Spencer Raith used to tear off his diaper and go running free, he liked the air about his winkie.”
Cam tried to step in.“Mi—”
“That boy would never be constrained.He was a rule breaker from day one.”
“Mimi,” Cam said.“You think she wants to hear that?”
“You should come to the complex and trawl through the archives with me, Ariella,” Mimi went on without paying Cam heed.“The things I could show you.”
“I want to see,” Roxie called, sucking something off her finger.“I’m getting tired of only seeing Zairn’s.”
The accordion doors to the patio were open.Is that where the others were?
Before she could ask to change the subject, the front door burst open and was thrown back into its frame by a scowling drop-dead-melting-delicious man that was still a league below Camden.
“Ah!Another of my boys!”Mimi declared.“Is it my birthday?Oh, or is this when you off me?”
“Mimi,” Cam said.“We’re not the Appletons.”
“Right.Right.”
“Shouldn’t that door be open?”Roxie asked the new guest, coming around the kitchen island.“Why would you leave Jane in the car?”
“I wouldn’t,” new guy said.
“Why would you leave her at the hotel?”Roxie asked, snagging a towel to wipe her hands.“She doesn’t deserve a word in our family business, is that it?You got a ring on her finger so you can just cast her aside?Who cares what the stupid little naïve woman thinks?Huh?”
“She’s in LA.”
Shock loosened Roxie’s jaw.“You left her behind?You abandoned her in—”
“With Zay-Jay,” this new guy said.“She stayed behind with Zay-Jay.”
After licking her lips, Roxie blinked.Twice.Then her mouth opened in a rapturous laugh.
Zairn came inside from the back patio with Tripp just behind him.“Sounds like a happy wife.”
