Page 51 of Dr. Brandt

“I’ll hold you to it,” Cameron said. “All right, Jacks, you’re sitting up front with me.” He looked at me as I stepped in and sat in the first leather executive seat I could find.

“This is quite impressive,” I conceded.

I was the first to admit that I’d had a short fuse lately, but I didn’t want to be a wet blanket all the time. There was a time when I wasn’t so cautious, and maybe now was a good time to resurrect some of that. Jackson was more excited than I’d ever seen him, and watching him interact with Cam this way hit me in my soft spot.

I didn’t want to get too attached to these feelings, but for a split second, seeing Jackson flying with his dad in a helicopter made me think of what could’ve been if Cam had never left and we’d been a family from the beginning. Of course, I pushed the thought away as soon as it intruded on me, but I couldn’t deny that there was a part of me that’d always wondered what it would’ve been like.

Cameron had never shied away from Jackson being his. Instead, it seemed like he was embracing it. Something told me to relax and let Cameron assess Jackson, and while he did that, I could determine how Cameron was with Jackson.

It was probably a horrible idea trying to imagine Cameron bonding with his son like this, but it was something that felt so right I wouldn’t push it away. They always say to go with your gut instinct, and my gut instinct was telling me to trust Cameron.

I only hoped it wasn’t a mistake.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Cam

In my profession, I took to all my young patients as if they were my own. I even thought I had figured out what it was like to be a parent, but I was learning just how fucking wrong I was about that.

Jackson reminded me so much of myself that I sometimes couldn’t believe it. Seeing yourself reflected in your child was nothing short of miraculous. It was for me; now, I was on a new-dad high that I never wanted to come down from.

“I could’ve flown that helicopter too, you know?” Jackson said as we all got into the car that awaited us at the small airport in Monterey.

“Oh, I’m sure you could have.” I bent to lift Jessa’s travel bag, placing the last piece of luggage in the back of the Tesla I’d arranged to be dropped off here for my personal use the next two days. “Okay, let’s get this fun little vacay underway,” I announced, holding the passenger door open for Jessa to sit. Jackson, in true gentleman fashion, took the seat behind her.

“Good grief,” Jessa said, rubbing her arms that were folded tightly across her chest, “it’s cold as hell here.”

“If you’re going to cuss, Mom, at least do it right,” Jackson teased from the back seat. “Last I checked, hell was hot.”

“Last you checked?” I said, pulling out of the airport. “Shit, I had no idea one could check that place out.”

“You know what I’m saying,” Jackson said with a laugh.

“Why don’t we pull off the subject of hell and admire this beautiful stretch of California coastline, shall we?”

“Oh?” Jessa said in a high-pitched tone, filled with humor, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said, acting like some dipshit family man, enjoying having Jessa and Jackson in the car with me as we traveled to a home owned by one of Jim Mitchell’s clients. “Now, are we hungry? Bathrooms? Anything before we head to this lovely home?”

“Home?” Jessa said with confusion. “I thought we were going to the aquarium or something?”

“Don’t you dare worry your cute little heart, Jess,” Cam said. “We’ll have you at that aquarium and finding Nemo before you know it.”

“So, how do you both know each other, anyway?” Jackson questioned, prompting me to look at Jessa immediately, hoping she’d throw me a lifeline.

She smiled as if the boy sitting in the back seat were another man’s, and I was just the chauffeur. “College, I told you. Cam was a good friend of mine.”

“Ah,” Jackson said. “Best friends?”

The kid was prying, and I was okay with that. This part was not my fault. Jessa was going to have to face the music at some point. The wisest thing for me was to let her handle this the best way she knew.

We were on this mini vacation to help them gain some courage about the surgery, and the distraction of finding out who I was to him could spin things out of control. But here we were. This whole thing could go south quickly if we weren’t careful. As much as I wanted Jackson to know everything, I was more concerned with his health and didn’t want anything to sabotage his decision to have surgery.

“Best friends,” I said, smiling over at Jessa’s amused expression. “Now, back to where we’re staying.” I changed the subject, grateful that Jackson didn’t press the issue. He certainly didn’t inherit his ability to drop things from his mother; that much was obvious.

“Yes, where are we staying? I packed clothes for warm and cooler weather, like you said,” Jessa informed me.

“Well, this marine layer will burn off soon, and it’ll warm up once the sun breaks through. That’s pretty much why you have to pack for all four seasons on this peninsula. It will reach about seventy-eight degrees today after the sun breaks through, and it’ll be a perfect day. Until then, gotta cover up.”

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