Page 8 of Engaging with Her Enemy

Cameron's head poked into the room. “Am I interrupting?”

“Do you really care?” Hudson motioned to Cameron's uniform. “Deputy. Or should I say Sheriff now?”

“No. The elections will be next month.”

“Still strange to think that the kid who threw a punch before he considered the consequences is in charge of the law in this town.”

Cameron shrugged and leaned against the door. “I only threw punches when they were deserved. I wanted to come down and warn you that I gave Becky the heads up.”

“I've already run into her.” He rubbed at his leg. “In five minutes, we managed to piss each other off.”

“That girl can't let anything go.”

“It wasn't that exactly.” He stood and ambled around the desk. He picked up the bottom of his pants leg, revealing the metal. “She found out about this.”

Cameron's eyes narrowed. “Did you get that in the military?”

“Yeah.”

“I will kill Becky if she said anything—”

“No.” Hudson leaned against the desk. “The opposite. She was about to let me have it and then noticed my leg. She wouldn't yell at me after that.”

Cameron slowly nodded, but then shook his head. “I'm not following you.”

“I refuse to let anyone pity me over this. I've accepted it. Becky, of all people, looking at me like that…” He crossed his arms, taking a second to gather his thoughts. “I can't handle it. I told her I wasn't going to talk to her until she could yell at me again.”

“You want her to yell at you?”

He flexed his hands. “I suppose I do. If it will help her move on. Make her listen to my side.”

“What really happened between you two?”

Hudson pushed away from his desk. “That debacle at Prom. You know that.”

“When you told her that you'd sent all those flowers? Yeah, I remember that part.”

He would. He was the one who rushed to the office to stop Hudson in the middle of his confession.

“I remember you said something about all the time you'd spent together and how much you admired her for taking on her problems the way she did, which that didn't make any sense to anyone. That you'd fell in love with her while helping her pass math.” Cameron nodded slowly. “When I came in and told you that everyone in the school could hear, you pretended like you knew it and laughed. Then said something about seeing her for tutoring on Monday. Man, that made no sense to anyone. We didn’t know she was in tutoring.”

And that was his biggest regret. “No. It wouldn't make sense, I guess.”

“I asked her later if you'd tutored her in math. She denied it and claimed that you were just a skinny jackass who couldn't find a date to Prom, so you decided to ruin hers, too.”

Hudson shook his head. He could still see the hurt in Becky's eyes. Damn. He'd said the first thing that popped into his mind instead of owning up to his feelings.

Cameron waited for a beat like he wanted Hudson to elaborate. When he didn’t, Cameron crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, then I'd like to invite you out for an official welcome home dinner.”

“How official?”

“Everyone will be there.”

Hudson sighed. “Becky?”

“Everyone. I figure the quicker we get the two of you in the same room, the quicker we can get past all this B.S. Then maybe you'll come back to visit more than once every fifteen years.”

“It's worth a shot, but don't hold your breath.” But a chance to see Becky again would make it worth it. If he could get her to listen. He wanted them to move on. The connection between them still existed. He could see it with how quick she’d switched from anger to concern about his leg. Next time, he’d make sure she didn't back away. They needed to clear the air. He wanted his best friend again.

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