Page 60 of Please Save Me

I wanted to know what exactly he had to gain by not only coming here but also bringing me with him.

“Ain’t a thing to be confused about. Cameron here is fired, and I’ll be taking over as the head of the church until I find someone suitable to fill his shoes.” Disdain dripped from Dale’s words, and I had to look away. “He’s a disappointment, and there was no reason for him to join you today.”

“I brought him along, hoping to smooth things over,” Sebastian explained.

Like hell he did.

“Son,” Dale’s chair creaked as he leaned over to Sebastian before resting a hand on his arm.

A flicker of disgust crossed Sebastian’s face, but he did a good job regaining his composure.

“There ain’t nothing to talk through,” Dale continued. “I thought I’d found a man who would do my church proud, and all I found was a liar and a coward.”

A wave of dizziness washed over me as I forced myself to look my formerfatherin the eye. My pulse thrummed in my ears, and I worried that if it beat any faster, it’d explode.

“What the hell have I ever lied to you about?” I snapped.

He’d been the one who forced me to take fake names. Before Dale, the most I ever lied about was sneaking drinks from the liquor cabinet.

“Cameron, I’m a lot of things but ain’t dumb.” Dale’s posture sagged as his gaze bore into mine. “You know what you’re lyin’about, and so do I.”

Mason.

The dizziness grew to a punch of nausea as my hands started to shake. This was it. Seb and I were going to have to kill Dale. My attention bounced around the room as I tried to figure outhowwe’d do it. But, Seb placed a hand on the middle of my chest as if to tell me to just stop for a moment.

“Pardon me if this seems a bit nebby, but can I ask what this secret is?”

The animosity in Dale’s swampy eyes vanished as he looked at Sebastian. “Son, there ain’t a thing going on between Cameron and me that you should be concerned about. That ain’t why I brought you here, anyway.”

Sebastian’s lip curled slightly when Dale called himson,but he regained his composure faster than I ever would have.

“Then why did you ask me to come? You said we had to talk.”

“And we do, just not around prying ears.” Dale’s smile remained as he gestured toward me.

“Well, Cameron can go sit in the truck while you and I finish this.”

My gaze narrowed at Sebastian. There was no way I was letting this asshole tellmewhat to do.

Dale’s chair squeaked on the floor as he stood, folding his arms behind his back.

“Honestly, I’d love to chat with just the two of us. But I’ve got other fish to fry today.”

Chapter 19

Sophia

Mason’s doctor’s appointment didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would have. All the doctor did was measure Mason’s belly and stick their hand in Mason’s you-know-where, and give Mason a shot to help Rosie’s lungs develop. From that, I learned three things.

One: Rosie was a big baby and was making Mason measure three weeks ahead of her current due date, Christmas.

Two: because of the extra fluid in Mason's uterus and the enormous baby she was growing, contractions were not only normal but expected.

And, three: Because of this, they were going to induce Mason the Monday after Thanksgiving.

That should have been perfect. We’d be able to visit everyone in Portland, spend the weekend, leave the kids with my mom’s or Lucian’s sister for a week while we got acclimated to having a new baby, and we’d be set. But unfortunately, until Rosie was here, Mason wasn’t allowed to be more than an hour away from the hospital, just in case. That meant one of us would have to stay home with her because we knew darn well that none of our families would come to Hartwood for any reason other than to give our kids back.

And not going to lie, that sucked. Like, majorly. This was the worst thing I had been told in recent years.

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