Page 77 of Caught in the Middle

“Isn’t it? You wish I didn’t tell them the truth to get back at Lauren.”

He frowned, then spoke low. “No. I wish you would’ve talked to me first, thought about how your actions would affect me too. You know that’s my boss and colleague down there. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Lauren. Yeah, she’s nice and been kind all week, but if you want to pick a fight with her, then I’m rooting for you.” He stepped closer. “I’ll always be in your corner, Emma. But that doesn’t mean sinking my ship to sail yours out to victory.”

She swallowed, blinking several times.

Cam felt like he might’ve gotten through to her. His mind was pulled in twenty different directions, his heart with it, but he believed they could salvage this.

“You need to leave for your flight,” she said quietly.

“I know.”

She looked down. “Just go, Cam. There’s been too much damage done today.”

He tensed. “What’s that mean?”

She shook her head, not meeting his eyes. “It means go.”

He swallowed past the lump in his throat, tried taking another step toward her, but she moved away as he reached his arm out. “You don’t mean it,” he said. “I know everything went to shit downstairs, and yes I’m mad too, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work it out. The damage is done. I’ll face the outcome with Henry and Lulu.” But she only continued to shake her head no as she walked to his suitcase, pulled the handle up, and rolled it over to him.

He looked at her with bewilderment. “So that’s it? You have one fight with your family, I get caught in the cross arrows, so you just toss me to the side?”

She looked at him now, and he could see her face turn to steel. “I told you from the start that this would be a bad idea to get involved, that you’d be sick of me by the end of the week.”

It was his turn to shake his head, but it was with disbelief. “I don’t regret getting involved with you.” He squeezed his temples, eyes shut for a moment. “Dammit, Emma. What the hell is this? I still want us,” he waved his hand between them. “Everything we talked about yesterday on the beach, all the plans for the future we discussed last night. I want all of that, even if I’m pissed off,” he tried explaining. “But we can move on from it. Fights happen. No one and no relationship is perfect.”

She held his gaze. “No,” she said simply, and he felt his heart begin to crack. “Asher had been right. I’m too busy and on the go. I couldn’t even say yes to a man I’d been with for years, so why think I could make it work with someone I just met?”

This was crazy, Cam thought. Where was the woman he’d been falling for? He knew she was in pain, but he didn’t expect this. He tried keeping the hurt off his face as he asked, “Why did it turn into a fight downstairs?”

“What?”

“Downstairs,” he prompted. “Why did it turn into a fight?”

She looked at him like he was speaking a different language.

“Are you annoyed that Lauren didn’t want you to leave early and miss their wedding, or is it because they’re getting married and whatever else you’d learned from her yesterday?” He didn’t bother asking why she hadn’t felt like talking to him about it yesterday.

All the emotion that had left her face previously now returned in a wave of anger. She let out that bitter laugh he heard downstairs. “I tell you to leave so you’re going to insult me,” she stated. “Downstairs had nothing to do with Asher to answer the question you’re not asking,” she seethed. “I didn’t lie about that. I don’t give a damn about him or who he’s with. I’m just tired of people discussing and deciding my narrative and life without shutting their damn mouths and letting me tell my truth. I’m sick of people assuming how I must feel or choosing to pity me or blame my curiosity for the world on the abandonment they deem I must feel.”

He knew his chance to walk out of here with any semblance of a relationship between them still intact was now gone. His question wasn’t meant to offend or insult her, but he’d become so confused downstairs, he had to know.

She was still seething when Cam let out a sigh of defeat. “I’m sorry,” he said.

She didn’t respond.

He grabbed the handle of his suitcase, chewing over what to say, then shook his head and made to turn. He was almost to the door when he paused. “Was any of it real? Between us?” He swallowed, trying to keep his voice steady.

Emma’s brows furrowed. “Just go,” she replied. She saw the hurt flash in his eyes before he left, the door clicking shut behind him and then she collapsed to the floor, her tears overtaking her in waves.

What had she done? How did everything go so sideways?

???

Emma felt laden with bricks by the time she reached her apartment door that evening. She unlocked it and slowly made her way inside, ready for the comfort of home to seep into her bones and mend her broken heart.

But nothing happened. Instead, her apartment felt empty and quiet. She refrained from focusing on it, and instead, flicked on the lights as she made her way to her bedroom and deposited her luggage.

Today had been nothing short of the shittiest day of her life. She hadn’t picked herself up off that hotel floor until it was time for her to check out and head to the airport. She managed to avoid running into anyone as she left in the ride she’d had to coordinate to get her there. For a brief moment, she’d allowed herself to wonder if Cam had any trouble getting to the airport on time and later about how his flight home went, but then she squashed those thoughts. She couldn’t think about him if she expected to move on from that miserable shattering of her life that took place.

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