Page 14 of Caught in the Middle

But Henry cut him off. “It’s settled, you’re coming. You can figure out your clothing issue, but everyone deserves time off to reap the rewards of hard work.”

“There’ll be lots of places to buy swim trunks and shorts and stuff when we get there,” Lauren said, the excitement radiating through her voice.

Cam looked up to find Lulu trying not to laugh, Asher looked surprised but otherwise indifferent, and then he saw the big smile on Henry’s face at the gift he had just given them.

“Well, um, thank you,” he said because he had no clue what else to do.

“Wonderful,” Emma said and did her best to look like she meant it.

If she was dreading this vacation before, then she was terrified of it now. Because within a matter of a couple hours, she just got herself stuck with Cam Wright, and she was going to need to learn a lot more than his username to survive this next week.

Chapter 7

The entire way back to their rooms, Cam told himself to stay calm. No good would come of freaking out. Hell, no good would come of anything at this point because he was now stuck with this outrageous woman.

He’d always blown off the generalization that beautiful single women must be crazy. It was a horrible joke people threw around. Now he wondered if he should warn every person within shouting distance.

This was horrible. A total fucking mess.

He walked behind Emma down the hallway, his anger simmering like a pot of noodles. Did he really just stand there and wave goodbye with an arm around this perplexing stranger like they were all one big happy family?

Jeez. What did he get himself into? He was going to have to have serious words with Nate for putting the idea to search for adventure in his brain. Katie was right, he’d never take advice from him again.

He came to a halt behind Emma as she stopped between their rooms, turning to look at him, her face unbelievably calm compared to his current state of mind.

“I suppose we should come up with a plan or something. Your room or mine?”

“You suppose?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble.

She let out an exasperated sigh as her hands flew up at her sides and then back down. “It’s not like I planned this,” she said.

He laughed at that. Not a humorous one, but the kind that comes out involuntarily on the verge of turning into a growl or string of curses. She had to be kidding him.

Emma turned. “Fine. My room, I guess.” She unlocked the door and held it open for the puppy-dog-turned-brute of a man to follow her in. If she had pegged Cam for being the easygoing type, then apparently getting him stuck into a vacation with his boss and coworker was where the line was drawn.

She walked into the room and took a seat at the end of the bed, gesturing with her hand toward the desk chair for him to have a seat. She frowned when he paused on the threshold and took in her room.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I guess I would’ve suspected you for the messy type.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why would I be messy?”

He shrugged, walking to the chair.

“That’s not an answer.”

“Maybe because you seem like a messy person with all your lies that I’m surprised the room doesn’t match,” he snapped. He regretted it the moment he saw the recoil in her expression before she hid it.

“You could have said no,” she tried. “You didn’t have to go along with it.”

“What?” he asked incredulously. “When would I have said no? When you were pleading me with those big brown eyes, or when my boss was giving me his undivided attention about how I met the woman he considers a daughter?”

Emma raised and began pacing, her palms going up in surrender. “Okay, okay. You’re right. I dragged you into this mess, and I promise, I’ll figure it out.”

Cam groaned because he didn’t see a way around it, only through it. And that meant a week under the scrutiny of his boss and making nice with kind people that he would be lying to. The thought made him nauseous.

“I’m sorry,” he said. When Emma looked at him in question, he added, “For the messy comment.”

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