Page 64 of Call It Home

In no time at all, the table was cleared, the food put away, and the dishes loaded in the dishwasher. Marta then shooed everyone out of “her” kitchen. “I’ll finish the little bit in here to wash up. You go visit with Miss Cammy and Mr. Mac.”

“Cammy?” I whispered to Cam as we walked to the living room together.

“Don’t even think about it,” she warned. “It’s a nickname they started when I was a little girl. It would be weird to hear you say it.”

I was about to sit when Chase’s voice called across the room. “Hey, Mac. Come on outside. I’ve got a new toy I want to show you.” He disappeared through a hallway that I knew led to a back door.

“Sounds like something I want to see, too,” Zach chimed in. Reid didn’t bother saying anything. He simply followed Zach, both of whom avoided my eyes.

I looked at Cam. “There’s not a new toy, is there? This is going to be a smackdown. I told you he’d know.”

“Maybe I should go with you.”

“Oh, no you don’t, missy.” Bristol’s sharp tone paused Cam in her tracks from following her brother. “We want some girl time.”

Bristol winked at me. “Go on. You’ll be fine.”

Cam still gave me a worried look.

Maybe I was just sleepy from the delicious dinner, but I was feeling more relaxed than earlier. Something about this family had a way of making you feel like a part of them. Even if they ribbed each other, they would never do anything to hurt one another. And that meant they wouldn’t hurt Cam by going after me.

“Go on,” I told her. “Go do whatever girls do when they want to talk about men. I’ll be fine.” With a light kiss on her lips, I walked away with a grin, knowing I’d just made a major contribution to what the subject matter would be among them.

“Girl, you better spill it,” was the last words I heard as I walked outside.

Chase was just lighting a fire in a firepit at one end of the patio. Needless to say, the area was well landscaped, and the few times I’d been here, we always ended up out here. I liked it. Being outside always made me feel freer, like there was nothing holding me down. I appreciated that feeling now as all the guys turned to me.

Chase got straight to business. “Are you hooking up with my sister?”

I crossed my arms and stared at him. “That’s a pretty crude way to put it and implies I don’t care about her. So, the answer is no, I’m nothooking upwith her. But we did grow close over the past several weeks, and we both agreed we’d like to see where it leads. If you have a problem with that, I have to say I don’t think it’s any of your business, but I also understand wanting to protect a family member. So, let’s hear it, Chase. What do you want to say?”

Chase’s mouth mimicked a fish, opening and closing a few times before he finally said, “Look, man. I like you. I think you’re a great guy. But we don’t reallyknowyou. You’re so closed off. Hell, I don’t know if you have any family or anything. In the past, I didn’t care. It’s not any of my business. But my sister is. I know her. She can be intense. She can be bossy. But underneath that tough exterior is a softy. She loves hard. And when someone leaves, she gets hurt easily. I know my twin, and she’s falling for you. I just want to know that this isn’t some…somethingthat only happened because she was the most easily available while you were out west filming.”

His words pissed me off. I took a step closer, but he held both his ground and his eye contact.

“Look,” I said, trying to maintain my sense of calm. “If you think your sister doesn’t have enough lady balls to stand up to someone she has no interest in, then you don’t know her as well as you think. So, while I don’t know what the future holds, I can tell you what I feel for her is real. I didn’t even want to feel it, but…” I stopped, not wanting to sound like a wuss for getting all touchy-feely.

“Oh, just say it,” Reid said. “We’re man enough to know that sometimes a woman slips under your skin when you aren’t looking. And if it’s the right woman, she’ll fit in so well and give you a kind of strength you never knew was possible. I’ve had the love of two amazing women. And while I wouldn’t wish on anyone what happened to Abby, it was her love that made me strong enough to move on and be ready when Bristol came along. And I’m not afraid to tell you I’m a stronger, better man because of Bristol.”

We all stared at him for several seconds, blinking, while Reid had a goofy grin stretched across his face.

Finally, Zach said, “Well, hell. I can’t follow up on that poetic-as-hell statement. It should be on a greeting card of some kind.” We all snickered. “But I will say, I was never more miserable than I was when I thought I’d lost Emalee. Finding her again was like coming home after being stranded on a remote island.”

As if on cue, we all looked at Chase, who held his hands up in front of his chest. “Don’t look at me. I nurture plants, not relationships.”

I chuckled, then caught Chase’s eyes. “Look. I genuinely care about Cam’s feelings. Fair enough for now?”

He stared back at me. “Fine. Fair enough.”

I gave him a short nod of my head.

“Wait,” Zach said, sounding a little irritated. “You’re not gonna punch him?”

Chase tilted his head quizzically at him, while my eyes widened. I’d thought the worst was over.

“You hit me the first time you saw me.”

Chase’s face lit up with a wide grin. “That’s because you’d already hurt Em.” He jerked his head toward me. “He knows it’s coming if he hurts Cammy, right?”

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