“There is that.”
He shifted and adjusted his long legs to get the cramp out of one of them. Then he picked her up and moved her to his other knee before curling her back into his arms.
“You need to cut yourself some slack, love. You cannot be all things to everyone. Moreover, we don’t expect you to. If one of us is being a dickhead, we don’t expect you to suck it up and take it because it might look like you’re picking one over the other.”
“But what if . . . what if this can’t be fixed, Cam? What then?”
The fear in her voice echoed his own fears. But damn it, fights in a relationship were inevitable. Granted they usually occurred between the man and the woman and not two other men. What a fucking mess.
“You’re not a damn piece of meat to fight over,” he said, allowing the first shard of anger to bleed through in his words.
She went still against him. “You’re angry too.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I’m pissed. I don’t know what set Hutch off, but he didn’t handle it worth a damn. He knows that me and Sawyer would never hurt you. Damn it, heknows.”
“So what do I do?” she asked again.
“Only you can answer that,” he said, though he wanted to tell her to go kick Hutch’s ass and then make things right with Sawyer. But he couldn’t make that choice for her, not matter how badly he wanted to do whatever it took to keep her.
“I just wish I knew what the hell he was thinking.”
“You and me both,” Cam murmured.
Hutch had always been defensive when it came to Reggie, though Cam wasn’t going to volunteer that information. No sense building her case that this wouldn’t work.
He rubbed her arm again then kissed the top of her head. “Why don’t you come back to the house? I’m betting you haven’t eaten all day. You can kick Hutch’s ass and Sawyer’s too if you want. I’ll even clean up the blood when you’re done.”
He forced lightness into his voice, hoping that if he didn’t make a big deal out of it then neither would she.
“You go on ahead,” she said in a low voice. “I need to think about things for a while.”
His breath caught and held. “But you’re coming back, right?”
Silence stretched between them, and he tensed as he waited for her response.
“I won’t run anymore. Whatever happens I’ll face it head-on.”
Her answer didn’t make him feel any better. But he also heard the resolve in her voice. This is where he was going to have to trust her and hope like hell that another man hadn’t fucked up any chance of a futurehehad with the woman he loved.
CHAPTER 31
Reggie pulled up to the house and cut the engine. Sawyer’s truck was gone. With a sigh, she got out and wearily headed for the door.
She and Sawyer were a lot alike. Both hotheads, prone to blowing up, and taking off was their way of dealing with it.
This time, however, she’d promised Cam that she’d deal with it rationally. Her and her big mouth. What she really wanted to do was tuck tail and run. Just like she’d done a year ago. Only it hadn’t helped.
As soon as she mounted the steps, the front door flew open, and Hutch yanked her into his arms.
“Reggie, thank God. I was worried.”
She stiffened then pulled away and slugged him right in the gut.
He doubled over with a grunt but managed to keep hold of her elbow as he dragged her inside the house.
She twisted free from his grasp and shut the door behind him. He stood in the foyer, his hand beneath his T-shirt rubbing his gut.
“I deserved that,” he said in a low voice.
