Page 16 of Already At Risk
Control—it was all about control.
Now that I had it in my grasp, I loathed the idea of giving it up.
But I didn’t feel like I was giving anything up while I walked side by side with Cameron until we made it to the Hillsons’.
The birds chirped, a sign of spring blooming into summer. I loved this time of year, if just for the cherry blossoms that lined this street, filling the air with a sweet scent that carried above the smell of the city. The Hillsons had a particularly large tree at the bottom of their steps, but most of the pink petals had fallen to the sidewalk. I stepped over them as I walked up to the door of their brownstone, and Cameron leaned against the railing at the bottom of the steps, waiting, looking effortlessly attractive.
“We’re just around the corner from home,” I said. “You don’t have to stay.”
Cameron’s lips pressed together for a second before he said, “Imagine what your brothers would do if they found out I didn’t make sure their sisterandtheir favorite niece got home safe.”
“Careful,” I said. “There’s another baby in the family now.”
“Oldestniece, then,” he amended.
I shook my head and knocked on the Hillsons’ front door. “Are you afraid of my brothers, Mr. Bryant?”
He lifted a brow. “Did the way I kicked Blake and Noah out of the room the other day make it seem like I’m afraid of them?”
“No,” I admitted.
Korey had definitely been intimidated by my brothers. The reason I suspected he cut me off from them for most of our marriage.
“You haven’t met Sully or Theo, though,” I added.
My two youngest brothers lived in Minnesota, where we were raised. Theo was a professor at the U, while Sully was a software engineer, and they couldn’t have been more polar opposites. Theo was a man of few words, while Sully would never shut up, if he were given the option. But the one thing they had in common? They’d always stick up for their family, especially Chloe. Even if they weren’t as present in her life as my other brothers.
Cameron was unfazed. “I’d be happy to meet them sometime. And then I could kick them out of the room, too.”
The door opened before I had a chance to respond to him, which was probably for the best.
A woman with silver-streaked black hair and a kind smile opened the door. Mrs. Hillson, or Jill, was one of my favorite moms on the block. We met the first night I moved here with Chloe, still a little shell-shocked from the divorce. She’d brought over dinner and left her number, and sure, sometimes it seemed like she looked at me with a bit of pity in her eyes, but I chose to believe it came from a good place. That it was more compassion than anything else. She told me her mom was an ER nurse when she was growing up, so she knew the hardships and the horrors that we saw, and how it could take a toll.
“Natalie,” she greeted with a smile. “You look so lovely.”
I tried to ignore the surprise in her voice, the reminder that I didn’t get dressed up often. Jill’s eyes drifted down the steps to Cameron, her brows rising to match the lift in her tone. She glanced back at me with the not-so-subtle look of a woman telling another woman,Nice catch.
Ah, shit. I’d have to correct her about that one, but it wouldn’t be now.
“Thanks, Jill.” I grinned back at her. “I appreciate you having Chloe over to work on the project. Is she ready?”
Before Jill could answer, my little tornado of a daughter came bounding out of the house, yelling back to her friend inside.
“Bye! See you Monday!”
“I see that she is,” I chuckled and then waved to Jill before trying to catch up with Chloe, who had already made it to the bottom of the steps, stopping short at the sight of Cameron.
“Are you Mom’s date?” she asked without any hesitation, and I wished I could have sunk into the pavement.
“No, honey,” I interrupted before Cameron had to find an answer. “This is Mr. Bryant. He’s Mom’s new lawyer. I met him through your Uncle Noah.”
“Hi, Chloe.” Cameron crouched a bit so he could be more on Chloe’s level. It wasn’t very successful; Cameron was a sizable man, and though Chloe was tall for her age, he still had a lot of height on her. “You can call me Cam.”
“Hi!” She was more of a ball of energy than normal, bouncing on her toes in front of Cameron, and I wondered how much candy she and Mia had snuck when Jill wasn’t looking. Her brown hair that nearly matched mine was falling out of her ponytail with every movement of her jittery body. “Do you know my Aunt Gemma, too?”
Noah’s girlfriend was one of Chloe’s figure skating coaches, and my daughteradoredher. I was well aware that she liked her more than me most days, but I was also okay with it. For the most part. I just felt lucky that Chloe had so many good role models in her life.
Cameron chuckled. “I do know Gemma. I work with her brother and her friend Juniper.”
