Cam adjusted his fly and washed his hands, figuring he’d have to hang around close enough to the kitchen to hear the timer go off. He checked the time and it was too early to get a beer, so he grabbed himself a Coke out of the fridge and sat at the kitchen table to contemplate his circumstances. That kisshad been a revelation, and he didn’t know whether he was even able to handle that right now. One way or the other, he was going to have to talk to Mitch again pretty soon because he had a shopping trip to plan, and he had a feeling Mitch wasn’t going to be any happier about it the second time around in a conversation than he had been the first.
That didn’t matter because nobody had ever said Cam was anything but stubborn, and he was going to do what he was going to do for those kids no matter what.
Chapter Ten
Mitch sighed, putting his phone back in his pocket. He’d tried to get a couple of odd jobs so he could get that bike for Rachel’s birthday, but no one had anything for him.
Shit was hard all over, and no one even needed lawn work or backhoe stuff or anything.
Or at least that was what they were saying. He had a feeling no one wanted him to get hurt doing work for them.
His phone rang as soon as it hit the bottom of his pocket. He groaned and checked, grinning as he saw Mark’s face pop up.
The last thing on earth he needed to do right now was to confess all to his oldest friend, but he was fixin’ to do it, wasn’t he?
“Mark. Hey, buddy.”
Mark chuckled softly. “Hey, babe. So? You still got a roper in your house?”
“Yup.” And it didn’t seem like Cam was going to go anywhere. The man was fixing barns and painting shit and cooking and taking over his fucking life.
“Huh. Well, I can come beat him up for you.” That got him to laughing, because Mark was tiny. Like teeny tiny. A miniatureredneck queen with a fiery temper and a zest for life that made the people around him wild.
“Don’t you laugh at me.” Mark snorted softly. “You know, just because I’m little don’t mean nothing. I managed to be a submariner for years, didn’t I? And I handled myself in the Navy, didn’t I?”
He closed his bedroom door. “I think that had more to do with the fact that you gave blow jobs a lot.”
“Listen to you, maligning my poor self.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up.”
Mark’s chuckle was soft. “Seriously, how’s it going?”
“It’s going. I can’t…I’m scared my boss ain’t going to let me come back. I’m scared if he does, then I’ll fall off the damn roof again. I—I can’t even get the girls school clothes, and…shit. I don’t want to talk about me. There’s nothing here but pity-partying, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Go back to school.”
He snorted. “Not all of us can take a GI Bill and go to engineering school and find out we’re a fucking whiz at it.”
“No, you never enlisted, so you don’t get to have the GI Bill, but I can think of a lot of shit you’d be really good at.”
“I’m really good at roofing.” And he kind of liked it. He didn’t love being up on the roof, but he loved the planning part. He liked his job, he wanted to be able to do it.
“Didn’t you say that your man’s?—”
“Not my man. It’s Cam. We broke up. You know this. You were there.”
“Yeah, and if we had any chemistry, you and me, we would’ve been the couple, and then you would’ve been a Navy wife. How cool is that?”
“Oh, do shut up.” He was not a fucking Navy wife.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You still like him though?”
“Of course I still like him.” What wasn’t to like—he was kind, friendly, gorgeous, good to the kids. “He’s actually a good man. Why can’t he just be a prick?”
“I assume we can blame his parents for that, but you know, I gotta tell you, Mitch, I mean you had a wife, you’ve got children, you’ve got a house, you got the things you wanted and so did he. Why are you still so goddamn mad?”
“Because I’m a pity case, man. Because if I wasn’t broken, he wouldn’t be here. I don’t even know if he ever thought of me once after he walked away.” Because he was mad at the fucking world, and Cam was close and easy.
