Page 18 of Beyond Oblivion

“Okay,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief as she smoothed her hair. “Thanks again.”

“Lock the door behind me, don’t want the white trash on the bad side of the complex looting your crockpot,” I said as I stepped outside. Once the door closed, I heard the bolt lock click, and I made my way to my truck.

“Fuck,” I said once I was behind the wheel. I let my head fall back to the headrest. Camille was going to kill me.

Chapter Five

Camille

“Hey,” Thomas said, his voice sounding far away.

“Are you in the car?” I asked, twirling Skin Deep’s phone cord around my finger. Faint buzzing and laughter filtered from the back; a hint of whatever Hazel had for her late lunch still lingered in the air.

“Always,” he said. I could almost hear him smile. “Liis said she saw you while she was in town.”

“She did.”

I waited for him to say something else, but when he didn’t, I breathed out a small sigh. “Trent just got back from your dad’s, but he’s with a client.”

“I was calling to talk to you, actually. To, uh… just to check on you.”

“Why?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.

He paused. “Liis said when you came to Abby’s that things were uncomfortable between you.”

“Between the three of us. It wasn’t just Liis.”

“They’re not going to tell you this, but honest to God, Camille. It’s not you.”

I blinked a few times, trying to keep my cool. It hurt Trenton’s feelings to hear how standing on the outside of the wives’ circle bothered me. Unwilling to chance confrontation, I couldn’t express it to Liis or Abby. But Thomas was a safe haven to air my frustrations. He’d somehow gotten a pass from the wives for the time our relationship overlapped with mine and Trenton’s, but he was still a guilty party and understood my black sheep status in a way no one else could. “What else could it possibly be?”

“I don’t suppose you’d just trust me,” he said.

“By ignoring my eyes and ears? No.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. Why would you immediately jump to that conclusion?” The smile in his voice had faded away.

“What else could it be, TJ?” I said, cringing when the nickname came effortlessly from my mouth. It was his initials,Thomas James, and what I used to call him when we dated, back when I had to keep him and us a secret. “Thomas,” I corrected quickly.

He didn’t speak for a few moments. He’d noticed, and his next words made it obvious the sentiment had an effect on him. “Please hear me. It’s not you. It has nothing to do with you. You have my word.”

“Their odd behavior wasn’t about me. Okay. Are they planning a surprise party for someone? Together? And without me? Don’t say it, it must be for me, and it would spoil everything.”

“It’s nowhere near your birthday.”

“So, they’re being standoffish for a completely separate reason. I didn’t graduate from the BFTC in Quantico like you and Liis, and I’m not a math genius like Abby, but I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say you were. Did you stop to think that maybe whatever they were talking about when you walked in was something just between them?”

“Your dad mentioned they might have a secret,” I said, thinking as I spoke.

“Please don’t think too deeply into this. I just don’t want you… It just bothers me that you might think…”

“Thomas, don’t,” I said.

“I’m still your brother-in-law.”

“It’s more complicated than that, and you know it.” The door chimed, and I nodded at the client walking in. “Did it ever occur to you that it makes things worse? Even if we don’t have those feelings anymore, we’re not like everyone else in the family. We have a history, and we have to make sure the people we love now—”

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