Page 21 of Please Save Me

The old bat’s face turned red, and she huffed before walking away without as much as an apology.

When we were alone again, Cameron turned me to face him before looking me over. He held my hands and looked at my wrists before dropping them and rubbing my stomach.

“You’re okay.” He coached.

And I nodded even though my heart was still racing. I wanted nothing more than to go home and pretend this never happened, but we still had shopping to do.

It took us a little more than an hour to get everything we needed, and somehow, we managed to fit everything in the bed of Cameron’s truck. But, instead of just going home, Cameron wanted to stop for lunch. He said we didn’t get the chance to go out much, plus he was hungry.

He asked me what I wanted, and I told him I wasn’t hungry. This time, it wasn’t a lie. My nerves were still frayed, and I was so emotionally exhausted that my eyes felt heavy.

Cameron ended up picking a little diner that felt like it was ripped from the fifties. The air was heavy with the smell of frying bacon. Despite my years of being a vegetarian, the scent made my mouth water.

When we sat down, Cameron ordered drinks and an appetizer sampler for both of us. I liked the idea of him ordering for me. It felt strangely romantic.

Soon, the waitress came by with a sweet tea for Cameron and a lemonade for me before giving us some time to actually read the menu.

“You look real cute today.” Cameron complimented. “You can really see Rosie’s startin’ to get big.”

Maybe he had a pregnancy kink and no desire to actually follow through with raising a baby.

I looked up and realized this was the part of the conversation where I should saythank you. But, even though we hadn’t actually talked about whether Cameron would be there for Rosie, I just assumed he would.

Cameron shifted, and it was like he could tell that I needed a distraction.

“Hey, have ya’ found anything new on that thing Seb had you read a while back?”

He didn’t need to elaborate for me to know what he was talking about. I had been more than a little obsessed with Calvin Waters, especially since my dad died. It was strangely comforting to look into the life of someone who had it worse than me. If Calvin could lose all his family to a house fire in one night, I’d be okay just losing my dad.

“I found a couple of things, no pictures, though.”

Which sucked considering that was all I wanted, especially since Seb thought Calvin was hiding somewhere in Hartwood. If I could just memorize what his face looked like, I could find him, and hug him.

“Well, what’d ya find?”

I used the plastic straw to stir my drink before taking a sip. “He played hockey, and one year he won a prize for tractor restoration… but that sounds fake.”

Cameron smiled a little. “It ain’t. You just take a real old tractor and make it look as good as new. I did something like that a few years back.”

“…Did you win?”

Cameron nodded, and I wondered if he and Calvin would be friends. After all, they both apparently liked to restore tractors. That seemed like a weirdly niche hobby.

But, I bet Calvin Waters wouldn’t have a secret love child he hid from his girlfriend.

I thought it was weird that I could find information but not a photo, and I wondered if someone was making sure they got deleted. After all, if whoever Seb worked for was interested in Calvin, he had to be important. I usually didn’t believe in government conspiracies. Still, if Seb’s organization didn’t want the public to know what Calvin looked like, they probably had the power to make sure that happened.

Rosie kicked, and I leaned back to give her a little more room to move. “Do you think It’s dumb that I’m looking into someone whoobviouslydoesn’t want to be found?”

Cameron picked up his cup of tea and took a drink, and I thought he might have just been buying himself time to answer. “How do you know he doesn’t want to be found?”

My brow furrowed. “Because he’s been gone for like twenty years?”

The newest information I had on Calvin was the article Seb had me translate.

“That don’t meanhedon’t want to be found… it might mean someone doesn’t want him to be found.” Cameron had a point.

I tapped my chin as I thought. Maybe I should bring that up to Seb. It might help him actually finish the case. But it was kind of weird that Cameron thought of that when Seb didn’t.

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