Page 23 of Her Cowboy Prince Charming

“Hey,” he said. “Where have you been?”

“Just overslept,” she said. Which was stupid, because she had clearly just come in from the cold. He looked behind her, and she could feel that he was exchanging a meaningful glance with Levi.

“Good to see you,” he said, opting not to make a comment.

“But,” Camilla said, opening her mouth. And Levi reached down and grabbed a cookie off the tray next to them, and shoved it in her baby sister’s mouth.

“Just chill, Camilla,” he said.

“But hnm ummh nrrrrrrh,” she said, her words completely unintelligible.

“It’ll keep,” Levi said.

There were presents, and she opened them. And there was also a little stack of presents that was untouched. Because they were Damien’s. And he just didn’t show. Of course he hadn’t. She had rejected him, except that maybe her having the power to hurt him in some way seemed...unlikely. Ridiculous. But maybe she had. Maybe she had actually devastated him.

She pressed her fists to her eyeballs and tried to take a breath.

As soon as they were done opening presents, and they moved with Levi heading out to start grilling the meat that they would have for dinner, him knocking snow off the barbecue and arguing with Dylan about how they were going to prepare things, Camilla zoomed in toward her like a little gnat to a lamp. “What did you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Where were you?”

“None of your business,” she said to her little sister.

“Really? None of my business? What were you doing?”

“I just...”

“Did you sleep with Damien?”

“Camilla,” she said.

“That’s my name, not ano.”

She sniffed. “You don’t understand. You are a virgin.”

“And you aren’t,” she said. “Which means something changed, because Lord knows you have just been hanging around hung up on him for years...”

“Nothing,” she said. “It was just...a fling. And then... Now it isn’t a thing.”

“Did he dump you on Christmas Eve?”

“No. I dumped him.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said to her little sister.

“Why are you insistently emotionally constipated?” she asked. “Like, come on.”

“You come on,” she said. “You barely remember what life was like with Mom and Dad. But I do remember. And it’s been hell without them. And it was hard to lose them. And...”

“So you all go and make your own lives more lonely. Look at Levi... He’s... He’s basically a grumpy old man and he’s just in his thirties. You were wearing baggy clothes, all ready to be an old maid because Damien wouldn’t give you the time of day, and now he is, and what? You want him to go back to being an untouchable object because it was easier? Easier than admitting that you want him? That you love him?”

“Well, he didn’t say that he loved me,” she said. “What he said was that he wanted to try. And I don’t... I can’t do it. Because...”

“Because you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I get that. Because we lost Mom, and it was terrible. But we figured we had had our fill of bad things. And then Dad.”

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