Page 16 of Just Like This
Chapter Seven
Cami
“Camille. Earth to Camille.” Myfather’s voice shook me from my thoughts. I slipped my cell phone into my purse and looked up to see him staring at me with a curious expression.
“What? Is something wrong?” I asked, blinking away the fog.
“No, but I asked you a question, and it was like you didn’t hear me.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. What did you ask?” I wanted to tell him that I had been thinking about Garrett and thinking about spending time with him tonight was distracting me. I kept replaying the moment he nearly kissed me in my mind. Oh, how I wish he had. I wanted him to claim me entirely with one searing kiss.
“Are you going to stay and have dinner with me tonight?”
My heart fell. I knew that he was incredibly lonely in this hospital room even though Valerie and I took turns visiting him every day. “Sorry, Dad. I kind of have plans tonight.”
“With Palmer? Are things heating up between you two now that he’s back for good?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “No, there’s nothing between us.”
“Why not? Palmer’s a good guy.”
I rolled my eyes because I hated having these awkward conversations with him. No matter how old I was, talking to my dad about boys wasn’t high on my list of enjoyable things. “He is a good guy, one of the best. But he’s like my brother. We grew up together. I can’t imagine him like that … romantically.”
“I just want to know that you’re taken care of, Cami. I don’t know how much time”
“Dad, stop. Don’t even say it.”
My dad patted the space next to him, and I scooted my chair closer. He held out his hand to me, and I grasped it tightly. “I don’t want to upset you, Cami, but there is a possibility that I might not be around to walk you down the aisle.”
Silence surrounded us as he comforted me in the way that only he could. I leaned forward and placed my head on his lap, and soon, he began to stroke my hair as he had done so many times before when I was younger. Quietly, he hummed a song that I didn’t recognize, but it didn’t really matter. I knew he was right and that this was one of the last moments that I was going to get with him.
After a moment, he cleared his throat and asked quietly, “So, are you going to tell me who he is if it’s not Palmer?”
“What are you talking about?” Surprised, my head popped up, and I saw a mischievous smirk on my father’s lips. When he thought I was hiding something from him, he was relentless.
“The look on your face a moment ago. It was happiness. I used to get that same look on my face when I thought about your mother.”
My smiled dissolved into a scowl, and my good mood faded. “Let’s not talk about her.”
My dad tilted his head to the side and gave me a sympathetic smile. “Just because she left doesn’t mean my feelings for her changed. I loved her. She was it for me.”
I looked away because anger bubbled up inside me. My mother had left after I turned eighteen. She’d claimed now that her daughters were grown, she needed to live her own life. The last time we heard from her was in the form of divorce papers she’d sent a year later.
“So, who is he?” Clearly, my father wasn’t going to give up until I caved and told him everything.
“A friend of Palmer’s. They served together.”
“You can’t go wrong with a man in uniform,” my dad said with a playful wink. I burst out laughing, which cut through the tension.
“We’re going to see Coldplay tonight.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m nervous but excited too. I mean, a bunch of other people are going too but …”
“You can’t wait to see him? To be near him?”
“Yes,” I answered with a sigh. The depth of how well my dad knew me and how close we were hit me. Fresh tears burned their way down my cheeks, and I quickly wiped them away before he noticed.
