Page 82 of Caught in the Middle

“Sure there is,” Nate said. “You’re sitting here all banged up over this Emma woman, and you have friends who know how to make a woman swoon.” He looked at Gary, the only other single one besides Cam, with a grin. “And then you got Gary.”

That raised some chuckles. Cam frowned. “You don’t know how to make women swoon,” he countered. “Derek had to go chase down Slone from across the country, you about lost Katie by omitting the truth, and Jim, well, I think you just got lucky. Annika is too good for you.”

The man held up his drink. “Don’t I know it,” he laughed. They all did.

“Yeah and look at us now,” Derek countered with a smile. “They couldn’t imagine life without us,” he joked.

The women were walking outside when they overheard the tail end. “More like you’re too big of pains in our asses to ship back where you came from,” Slone teased, giving Derek a playful smile.

All three of them settled in, and Cam could feel the expectant weight of their eyes as all attention shifted to him. Who said having friends was a good thing, he wondered with humor. It only meant having to face a group of people who believed he deserved the world, even if that possibility was snatched right out of his grasp.

He let out a sigh and did the only thing he knew he could to get through this. He told them about Emma.

???

By the time Cam’s lunch rolled around on Monday, he didn’t have food on his mind. It’d been a grueling morning having to catch up on a week’s worth of work. Not only that but there had been plenty of gossip about Cam having spent vacation with one of their bigwigs. He shut the conversations and questions down and not solely because he didn’t want to think about his time with Emma. He’d never been a fan of workplace gossip, whether it was about him or anyone else.

Now, as he leaned back in his chair, he stared blankly at the screen in front of him. He was dreading the call he needed to make, but not as bad as the one he would place tonight.

He’d reached out to Lulu to see what time her lunch was and if he could give her a call. She’d told him and he’d orchestrated his day to line up with her break. He felt bad doing this during the work day, but he needed more time over the weekend before facing his actions. Besides, there was no way he could handle both Lulu and Henry tonight. He still felt ashamed for lying to everyone and for letting Lulu go along with it. But he couldn’t ignore his actions and just go back to work like it never happened. He had to face the consequences.

As his personal cell lit up with the incoming call, he picked it up, sliding to answer it as he grabbed his car keys and headed outside for the privacy he wanted for this phone call. No sense in stopping curious questions if he was going to chat on the phone where others could potentially overhear.

“Hey,” he answered. “Thanks for calling.”

A light laugh crossed the line. “Of course,” Lulu said. “I was expecting to hear from you sometime this week.”

Cam let out a sigh of relief at her friendly tone as he made his way out into the parking lot. “Sorry I didn’t reach out sooner.”

“Why?” she asked. “If you had, you’d probably been ignored. I spent most of this weekend catching up on sleep. I need a vacation from my vacation.” They laughed. “Especially from that fight,” she added a little less enthusiastically. “That was definitely draining.”

He exhaled. “That’s why I wanted to talk,” Cam said, heading for his car. “I wanted to apologize for roping you into the middle of it.”

He could practically see her frowning through the phone. “You didn’t cause that scene,” Lulu replied.

“I played a role in it.” He unlocked his car and slid into the driver’s seat.

“We all did,” she insisted.

“I just want you to know that I’m sorry for my part in it,” he tried. “If I hadn’t been willing to lie, then you would’ve never been put in between Lauren and Emma.”

Lulu let out a laugh. “Did you miss the part where that wasn’t the first time I’ve been in the middle of things?”

He couldn’t help but smile, whether from the relief at her good humor in all of this or the fact that it meant she wasn’t mad at him, he didn’t care. It just felt good to know things were going to be fine between them, even if that made a certain dark-haired beauty pop into his head, crushing his heart to know that the same couldn’t be said for them. He pushed back the thought.

“Still,” Cam insisted. “It wasn’t fair to put you in that position, especially with your family.”

“I knew what I was signing up for,” Lulu replied. “You don’t owe me any apologies. Are you planning to talk to my dad about it?”

He nodded, not that she could see it. “Yeah. I was going to wait until after work tonight.”

“That’s smart. Are you nervous?”

He huffed out a laugh. “Hell yeah I’m nervous.”

She laughed. “Don’t be.”

“Easy for you to say.”

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