Camdyn struggled with a mix of emotions as she left her brother and Javier behind in the coffee shop. She would have liked to sit and chat with them longer, but she needed to finish out her workday, and the sooner it was over the better. She literally had the date circled on her desk calendar and was counting down until she was done at Anderson.
When she had arrived at the coffee shop, she hadn’t immediately noticed Javier; she’d spotted Cal and headed for him. When she’d looked up and saw Javi walking up to the table, she’d been caught off guard for a second, though she was honestly pleased to see him. She hadn’t expected him to need legal advice, but she should have at least anticipated him being a possibility. She figured it was one of the team’s regular bad boys, Cruz or Jones. She should have asked her brother which teammate needed help when he messaged. Not that she would have said no to Javi, but at least she would have been betterprepared. It was just another example of how she was off her game today.
However, seeing Javi again was thrilling. Her heart had begun racing at the sight of him, but dread had also filled her belly, because her initial thought was that he probably needed help with some crazy ex. All her brother’s teammates seemed to find themselves in dysfunctional relationships at some point, and she didn’t want to learn something unflattering that ruined her unmarred version of him. She’d been relieved when that wasn’t the case with Javi.
It had been funny to see his reaction to her being Cal’s sister and not some random Baseball Annie. He’d not mentioned that they’d already met. She had wanted to tease him about that but thought better of it. It wouldn’t do for Cal to know that she’d had a one-night stand with his teammate. Discretion and all that. Because even as adults, little brothers could be a pain. They lived for a chance to torture their sister.
Javier must have had the same thought, because he’d acted as if it was their first meeting. He’d explained the situation with the death of his aunt, his orphaned cousin, and wanting to help his mother get custody. Camdyn’s heart had broken for that sad little girl sitting in Cuba. Yes, Lola had been raised in the orphanage, and she was with people that she knew and who cared about her, people who were probably grieving her mother as well. However, there was no need for her to stay at the orphanage. She had family. People who had loved her mother and could share in her grief while supporting her and providing her with a life and opportunities that would be unimaginable in Cuba.
Cam knew immediately that the case sounded like a challenge she wanted to take on. These were the types of cases that she wanted to be working on. Stories like Lola’s, which resembled her best friend Izzy’s, had inspired Camdynto specialize both in family and immigration law. Izzy had once been an orphaned little girl in Mexico, and her only family had immigrated to the US years before. She’d been scared and alone, until Callahan Law had reunited her with her family.
The complex challenges that kept families separated were the ones Camdyn wanted to battle. But she had been told early on that the majority of family cases were not like those, that most of the cases assigned to her would be marriage and divorce-related, and that was okay. She understood that she had to pay her dues, so to speak, but she wasn’t fueled by those types of cases. Those just made her jaded.
She knew that good marriages existed. Her parents were an excellent example. So were her grandparents. Yet there were also a lot of people who got married, and for whatever circumstance, they ended up divorcing. Helping them break apart a life they’d built together was sad. She didn’t like that, and she swore that if she ever got married…it would be forever.
Which, of course, made her think of Ricky, who must have had some type of radar to have tracked her down to the coffee shop. He was the last person she’d wanted to deal with, and the fact that he could not accept that they were over was driving her crazy. She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t want flowers from him. She just wanted to move on. A clean break. Why couldn’t he let it go?
Because Ricky was an arrogant, spoiled, only child who had nevernotgotten his way. That was exactly why. He thought he could salvage the situation, even with her telling him it was unsalvageable. He was a smart man, but his selfish arrogance was his downfall. Unfortunately for him, he’d met his match with Camdyn. She would not be manipulated anymore. She still wasn’t certain why she’d let him get away with it the last couple of months, but her blinders were off now. And Cal had clearly never had any.
She’d known her brother was pissed when Ricky showed up. It had pissed her off, too, but Cal had gone rigid. She’d worried he might act out and pitch his drink at Ricky’s head, or just physically attack him, but her brother had maintained control, at least of his body. His mouth was a different subject, and he’d offered up Javi as a date for the bar association’s banquet to prove Camdyn didn’t need Ricky. She knew Cal was just trying to stick it to Ricky, and that poor Javi just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe the right place at the right time… It didn’t matter. She did not need her brother getting involved in her personal business. She could handle her matters herself; however, she hadn’t actually been bothered by the idea of another date with Javier. After all, their night in San Diego had been invigorating.
There she’d been, free of all the normal restraints that held her down. Up until then, she’d been maintaining a persona of a reserved, workaholic ice queen who was slaying her position everywhere except when she was home. There were no expectations from her family or friends in Oasis, and they knew her for who she was, but to be a professional in a cutthroat industry like law required Camdyn to become the shark that everybody wanted from a lawyer in her industry.
Last weekend in San Diego, she’d been able to let her hair down. She’d enjoyed a baseball game. She’d gotten dressed up and went dancing at a club. She’d lounged and pampered herself. She’d relaxed. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done any of those things.
Opening the door to her closet-sized office, Camdyn wasn’t surprised to find Ricky sitting in the sole visitor chair across the desk from hers.
“Why are you in here?” she asked as she walked to her chair and sat down her bag. The air still held a note of stale florals.
Ricky was the picture of arrogance, his chin tilted high, arms crossed, left ankle propped on his right knee. It screamed,You made me wait and I don’t like it.
“Camdyn, we need to talk. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interrupted you while you were having coffee with your brother and his friend, but I don’t want to go any longer without us clearing the air.”
She sighed and sat behind her desk. “Ricky, there is no apology that will suffice. You cheated on me. There’s no changing that. You made that decision. You have to live with that consequence. That consequence being, I broke up with you. Do you expect me to have no self-respect?”
He uncrossed his arms and pointed his right index finger at her. “No. That is not at all what I’m insinuating.”
God, he was frustrating and as stubborn as a mule. “So I should be okay with you cheating on me? You’re saying it shouldn’t be demeaning or humiliating that you’re seeing another woman while you’re supposedly in a relationship with me?”
“Camdyn, I am trying to apologize. Cecily meant nothing. I’m not seeing her.”
He’d said an iteration of those words each time they’d spoken since the incident.
“If it meant nothing, why did you do it?” she questioned.
“I honestly don’t know. She was there and offering. I was weak,” he replied.
Camdyn leaned across her desk and looked him in the eyes. “She was there and she was offering?That’s supposed to make me pity you? Forgive you? Because youknewI was in the same buildingandthat you were not available to acceptoffers. That’s what being in a committed relationship means.”
Ricky broke eye contact and stood up. “I’m not a client, Camdyn. I’m yourboyfriend.”
She stood back up as well. “Ex-boyfriend. I’m not doing this every day for the rest of the month I work here. You need to accept that we’re over. We’ve talked it through and I will not change my mind. Now, please leave my office before I have to call your father…or security.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” he sneered.
Camdyn smiled. “I met with your dad earlier today, Ricky. In case you’ve forgotten, Richard and I get along great.”
He rolled his eyes. “Why would you meet with him? Just to tattle on me?”
