Page 33 of Camden

Cam?

Stephanie

You must be busy. Sorry to bother you.

Shit. shit. shit. The first text came ten minutes after the first exchange and the last one about twenty minutes ago.

I quickly typed out a message asking if she was still awake. I wanted to call her and explain. Or maybe swing by her place and see her. I closed out of our messages and looked at Mason’s thread.

Mason

What the fuck, man?

Nothing else. He sent it after Steph’s, so I’m sure she probably texted Rylie.

Camden

A drunk girl cut the shit out of her arm at the bar. I had to help her. Everyone else was too far gone to handle it.

Mason

She thinks you found someone else to entertain you.

Camden

Fuck.

Another message from Mason came through, but I ignored it and pulled Steph’s number up instead. Pressing the call button, I placed the phone up to my ear as it rang.Pick up, baby.The call went to voicemail after a few rings.Shit.“Hey, Steph. I, uh, I wanted to talk to you. I promise I didn’t mean to ignore your messages or make you think that something, well, someone, pulled my attention away. Something happened at the bar. I’d love to explain it to you if you’d call me back. Please call me.” I hung up, praying she’d call me back. It was already past midnight, so the likelihood was slim.

I rubbed my forehead before I dug my keys out, unlocked my truck, and started it up. Making sure the phone connected to my Bluetooth just in case she called back, I placed it in the cupholder and headed home. Twenty minutes later I pulled into my driveway with no reply from Stephanie. I went inside, took a hot shower, got ready for bed, and plugged the phone into the charger before sending her one last message.

Camden

Goodnight, beautiful.

I laid the phone screen down on the black nightstand. The matching table sat on the opposite side of the bed, although no one had ever used it. I didn’t bring women back to my house. Honestly, only three had ever stepped foot in my house.

My mom, Stacey, and Rylie.

My house was my sanctuary. One I hoped to eventually show Stephanie. I slid under the gray striped bedding and crossed my arms behind my head, staring at the ceiling.What would she think of the dark furniture? I decorated the rest of my house similarly, except for the walls, which were white everywhere but my bedroom.

The oversized, gunmetal gray couch and recliners in my living room were comfortable as fuck and perfect for crashing on. I knew because I often fell asleep on one. The black coffee table sat in the middle on top of a huge area rug. A huge T.V. hung on one wall. You could easily see into the kitchen from the couch thanks to the open floor plan. The dark granite countertops looked nearly back against the lighter gray cabinets.Everything was dark.I rubbed the center of my chest.

Maybe Stephanie would be the light that came into my home.

CHAPTER TEN

STEPHANIE

I waited nearlyan hour for him to text me back before I realized one of three things must have happened.

Two, I would’ve been okay with.

The first was his phone died. The second he had gone home and fallen asleep. The third and, sadly most likely reason, was he found a girl at the bar who better kept his interest.

I was going to let it go and chalk it up as a lesson learned. The next time a guy showed interest in me, I wouldn’t let him ask me out a million times, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. So, of course, I texted Rylie, who called me immediately. She tried to convince me something else happened. That Cam was too far gone for me to even consider hooking up with someone else because it’d ruin his chances with me.

The girl was a full-blown member of team Camden.

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