Page 68 of Brides and Brothers
Chapter 29
Camille
The time crawled by slowerthan slugs on a driveway. It was Saturday night again, revealing the truth that the weekends were the loneliest for Camille. She glanced out the window. It wasn’t juvenile to wish on a star, was it? Or was it just desperate? Because she was thinking along the lines of wishing for a husband who lived in the same house, a mother who cared about her enough to call, say, once a month, and a body that felt more normal.
With her lack of faith in wish fulfillment, she abandoned her star-gazing and dragged her laptop to the couch. She would spend the evening reading about the different stages of a baby’s growth. Her phone buzzed beside her. It was a text message from Emma.
It looks like speed dating runs in the family. Sage and Flynn went ring shopping last week without telling any of us! Flynn came over to get Sage and was acting super nervous. Text me if you hear any announcements!
Camille’s mouth dropped. She’d had no idea Sage and Flynn were that serious. She drummed her fingers on the empty cushion next to her. They had been dating only a month. Camille laughed at the irony behind her concern since her own dating had been shockingly short. She had a hard time keeping up with her brothers-in-law and their relationship statuses. Flynn was the hardest to keep tabs on because he was home the least. Camille tapped the buttons on her phone and sent an affirmative response back to Emma.
It was nice to know someone was thinking about her enough to send an update. The simple gesture lightened her mood. She scrolled down to an ultrasound picture of a gummy bear–sized baby right as her phone rang.Aiden.Camille’s pulse sped up a notch. She pushed the answer button and said hello.
“Hey, what are you up to tonight?” Aiden asked.
“Feeling a little lonely for my husband. What about you?”
“My boss invited me to go clubbing with him. Don’t worry; I politely declined. Instead I’m watching an old John Wayne movie in my hotel room.”
His voice wrapped around her like a hug. “That sounds like the perfect movie for you.”
Aiden exhaled into the phone. “I’ve seen this one a few too many times, but I can’t stand the silence if I turn it off. When you’re raised with a lot of brothers, silence isn’t normal.”
“It’s pretty quiet over here, actually.”
“Where is everyone?”
“I think the majority of them have dates tonight.”
“Dates? Are you joking? My brothers don’t date.”
Camille scrolled through the information and images on her computer as she responded. “They do now. In fact, I think a couple of them could consider themselves attached.”
Aiden chuckled. “Even with your updates, I’m still in denial. My little Millie the Matchmaker worked her magic.”
Camille rolled her eyes. “I can’t take credit beyond introducing them to some pretty amazing women. Nature took its course.”
“I thought you were going to be crushed when no one liked your friends as you’d imagined they would.”
Aiden shouldn’t be missing seeing his family so happy. “Not all of them are dating my friends. Daegan has Macey, Cade has Raina, and Flynn has Sage, but Easton is dating a woman named Wendy. Benson... well, I think he likes Daisha, but he might like Emma.”
“Emma?” Aiden guffawed. “No, Benson does not like Emma.”
Camille looked at her phone, then put it back to her ear. “You can’t tell from all the way over there. I’m serious. Benson took Emma out the other night. I was surprised too, but I guess the matchmaker struck out on one or two of her matches.”
Aiden made a sound that resembled muted laughter. “Trust me when I say he does not like Emma.”
A sneaking suspicion came into Camille’s mind. Did Aiden know about the flowers Benson had sent to Daisha? So Camille’s gut response was right after all! “Tell me what you know!”
“Brothers don’t rat each other out. I know you and your friends like to share everything with each other, but brothers aren’t like that.”
Camille smiled. He was exactly right. She didn’t like vicious gossip, but harmless juicy details were what made romantics like her happy people. She suddenly saw something from the corner of her eye. The porch light in the backyard had automatically come on. Strange. No one was home. “Oh, snap! Someone is in the backyard. Do you think it’s a robber?”
Aiden’s practical voice soothed her. “Go lock your door and look out the window. It’s probably one of my brothers walking around.”
“In these temperatures? At night?”
“The winters don’t get us like you out-of-state foreigners. All Petersons like fresh air, regardless of the season.”
