Page 72 of SALT

"Convince? You threatened my inheritance."

"Semantics." I grimace at his interpretation. No parent wants to be the evil dictator, but it's not our job to be friends. You hope with age and maturity, a friendship bond is formed, but until then, our job is to support and guide them, give them the tools they need to be good, kind humans that contribute to society, and sometimes that requires us to force our hand. The likelihood of an athlete actually going pro is around two percent. Of course I pushed him to have a fallback by making him attend college. "What I was trying to say is I'm so damn proud of you. You had a dream, and you made it happen. I think this is better than playing in the big leagues. You are living your dream your way."

"Thanks, Dad," he says, adjusting his hat. "Maybe I can assist you in tomorrow's game."

"You're staying? Wait, why are you here to begin with?"

His brow furrows and he nervously looks away. "Tomorrow's the anniversary of Damon's accident. Mackenzie wanted to be here for Cameron." How the fuck did I forget what tomorrow is? I'm not even sure that I forgot, Cameron is a constant reminder of my best friend, but admittedly, this week has been overwhelming in ways my life never has been. I can't lose her. If I lose her, I'll lose me. She owns my heart, and if she walks out of my life, she'll be taking it with her.

"I didn't forget, but I don't know where Cameron is. She hasn't been at the house in a few days."

"You really don't know where she's at?" he asks as he tosses some empty bottles from the dugout into the trash can.

"Does that mean you do?" I attempt to rein in the hope in my tone.

"Well, yeah. I'm surprised you don't. I dropped Mackenzie off with her before I came here." Fuck, the relief I feel knowing she's okay has me feeling like I've just gained five years of my life back. While she had been responding to my texts, I couldn't see her face or hear her voice. My mind started to run away with worst-case scenarios, hostage situations, kidnapping. It's not too far-fetched with everything that's been going on this summer. If I didn't get some kind of proof of life outside of a text today, heads were going to start rolling, secrets be damned. "I thought the two of you were closer than that."

"Closer how?" I question casually. The fact that I haven't had a heart attack yet from the hits my nerves keep taking is promising.

He shakes his head as he tosses a spare ball into the bucket. "Never mind, it's nothing." His eyes meet mine. "I'm heading out there now. Do you want to tag along and check it out, or do you have work?"

"Where is there, and what is there to check out?"

"Come on, you'll see."

"This is where she's been staying this week?" I ask as Connor pulls down the road to Damon's property—or should I say Cameron's property?

"Yeah, she's been coming out here daily for the past few weeks. Since Mackenzie's been in Florida, Cameron has been doing the footwork back here on her latest project."

"Project?"

He does a double take, still apparently surprised that I have zero clue what he's talking about. His thumb taps the steering wheel, and he asks, "I'm not trying to change the subject or anything, but do you have any idea why Mom wants to meet with me tomorrow? She said she had something important she wanted to talk about."

"I believe I do. It's probably something you should hear from her, but I'll tell you if you really want to know." I know I told Moira I'd keep her secret, but I won't keep this from him. The secrets I've kept for her have already strained my relationship with him enough.

"I'd like it if you told me." His eyes flick over to mine as he drives slowly down the gravel road through the trees.

"She's pregnant." I watch his eyebrows rise, and he rubs his jaw irritably.

"Are you kidding me? My forty-five-year-old mother is pregnant? Meanwhile, I've been fucking my wife daily for months and nothing."

Not the response I was expecting but I understand. "Well, your mother didn't conceive naturally. She had help, and she's high-risk given her age. Obviously, she wants family to know before she shares it with the world, but I think she's nervous to do even that." A break in the shadowy canopy of the woods draws my eyes away from Connor, and that's when I see all the downed trees in the distance. "What is going on?" I say, trying to piece together what I see as I lean forward in my seat.

"Cameron's building a house, and Mackenzie is designing it."

She's building a house. When did she start building a house? Why hasn't she told me about this? Those are my first questions as a million others begin to flood my mind, the top one being, does this mean she's leaving me? I suddenly want to be anywhere but here. The last place I want to be when she rips my heart out is around people. As we get closer, I see an RV placed at the edge of the woods. This is where she's been staying the past two nights while I laid awake in my bed, a shell of a man without her.

Connor parks the car next to the RV, and it's only when he closes the door and starts walking toward the lake that I realize Cameron and Mackenzie are hanging out on a raft. My mind was too busy taking in this place I didn't know existed and what that might mean. As she walks out of the water, all I can think is she looks like waves on a sunset, the salt of the earth, strong and powerful, a woman who knows exactly who she is and what she wants. She's everything that is light, and I'm the lucky bastard who gets to bask in it, or at least I was a few days ago. At the moment, I'm not sure. I'm the kind of guy her daddy would have told her not to go and fall in love with, but I've turned the page on the old me. I'm not him anymore. I'm whoever she wants me to be as long as it's the man who gets to stand at her side.

She's laughing at something Mackenzie said when her baby blue eyes collide with mine, and my heart skips a beat. Her smile falters, but I don't turn away. If this is the moment she dismantles my heart, I don't want to miss a second of her touching it for the last time.

"You found me," she says, her tone sounding more playful than her face lets on.

"I did." I shove my hands in my pockets when all I really want to do is wrap them around her and pull her into my chest, but I don't because I can't tell if that's what she wants. I have no idea what's going on in her pretty little head. I'm not sure I see disappointment, but I wouldn't say I see excitement either, at least not the kind I used to see when she looked at me.

"Cam, I thought you said you had a grill for hotdogs," Connor calls out from behind us.

Her perfect lips part as she pulls in a deep breath, her eyes briefly searching mine. For what? I wish I knew. Then she's stepping around me. "I never said I had a grill. I said I had a grill thingy."

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