Cam looked at them and shook her head. “We should just let you guys crash here.”
Shana hiccupped. “Can’t. Justin took all our stuff to the hotel.”
Cam looked at Troy. “Can you carry him once we get there?”
Troy nodded and passed her the keys. She’d only had one glass of wine, which was hours ago, but he’d had a few. Not enough to be drunk, but he wasn’t taking the chance. The girls climbed in back, while John and Troy took the middle seat. Cam pulled the SUV out of the drive and headed for the highway.
“Keep ’em awake,” Cam said, looking at him in the rearview.
“Oh, we’re awake,” Katie shouted, then laughed. “Cam, I didn’t know you were this much fun. Seriously, I always thought you were a tight ass. A nice tight ass, but a tight ass.”
From his vantage point, Troy could see Cam smiling. “She is fun, isn’t she?” Her glance darted to his, then back to the road.
“I mean,” Katie went on as if Troy hadn’t spoken, “seriously fun. Seriously. Did anyone else know she was this fun? And Troy, man, you need to take
all
those clothes off next time. Your body is seriously hot! Hey, John, why didn’t you strip? I always wanted to see you naked. Seriously naked.”
John rubbed his forehead. Troy clamped his mouth shut. Heather’s friends were
seriously
close to breaking the friend boundary here. Alcohol made tactless truth-tellers of even the best people.
“Have you thought about your speech for the wedding dinner, Cam?” Troy asked, changing the subject.
“Uh, no. Not really. I thought I’d just say the same thing I did at Fisher and Anna’s wedding, just inserting different names.”
“Oh no,” Katie argued. “A wedding toast must be funny and sweet. And funny…”
In the rearview, Camryn’s glance darted to the backseat, and then to the road. “I’m not really the funny type, Katie.”
“Coulda fooled me after tonight,” Katie muttered, then laughed as if that were the most hilarious thing she’d said in a decade. “Heather and Justin are in love,” she sighed. “That’s so sweet. I want to be in love, don’t you, John?”
Cam pulled into the circular drive at the hotel entrance and cut the engine just in time to save John from answering. “Anyone have the room key?” she asked.
“Oh, I do!” Katie said. She dumped out the contents of her purse into her lap. Here’s my house key!” she shouted, as if this were the greatest discovery to mankind.
“The
hotel
key, not your house key,” Shana corrected. “You cannot handle your alcohol, babe.” Shana’s eyes rolled back in her head, two seconds from passing out herself.
“Everyone out!” Troy yelled to wake them before he had to carry them all inside. They jumped, on full alert.
Troy grabbed the keycard from Katie’s lap and shoved the rest of the scattered contents inside her purse. He handed the card to Cam and hauled Cade over his shoulder. Katie leaned heavily into Cam, while John and Shana stumbled behind them through the lobby.
“Where’s the key for the guys’ room?” Cam asked near the front desk.
They all shrugged and swooned. She sighed and turned to the attendant. “We need a replacement card for room…”
“Two-fifty,” the desk clerk said, eyeing Cade over Troy’s shoulder. “Is he dead?”
“No, bachelor party.” That should explain everything.
“Can we speed this along?” Troy urged. “He’s not as light as he looks.”
The clerk smiled. “That keycard opens both rooms. They have an adjoined, shared room, as requested.”
“Lovely,” Cam said, cinching Katie closer to her side when she slumped. “Let’s go.”
Once in the elevator, Katie’s eyes drifted closed. “I love you, Cam. Seriously love you. We have to hang out again…”
“Crap,” she muttered, tapping Katie’s cheeks as the door dinged open. “A few more steps, Katie. Come on. Stay awake.”
Cam slid the keycard into the lock and kicked the door open. Dragging Katie to the bed, she fell when Katie didn’t release her hold, sprawling on top of her.
Troy’s back couldn’t take much more. He opened the adjoining room door and dropped Cade unceremoniously face down on the bed. When he came back in the room, Cam was trying to get Shana out of the chair. John was passed out in the other chair.
“I’ll get her,” he said.
“Hold on,” Cam said, straightening, looking between John and Katie. “I have an idea.”
“What kind of idea?” he asked, just wanting bed. It was near one a.m. and he was shot.
“Did you see the way Katie was looking at John tonight?”
Troy glanced at both parties, then at her. “No.”
“I think she likes him.”
Troy mustered the energy to laugh.
“I know, it’s as preposterous as you and I, but I think she likes him.”
Troy sobered. “What are you getting at, Cam?”
She looked around the small room. “What if they woke up together tomorrow? Fully clothed, nothing devious. Maybe she’d make a move. Maybe he’d look at her differently.”
Troy stared at Camryn, his heart swelling inside his chest. It was working. The list was working. She believed in love, in happily-ever-afters and seeing past what was in front of her to…magic. She was actually trying to set up John and Katie to give them the opportunity to act on something they may not have before. He rubbed the back of his neck, wanting to touch her. To weep for how much he wanted her.
“I’m sorry. Bad idea. Never mind…”
In response, Troy bent down and slung John’s arm over his shoulders, carting him to the bed Katie lay in. Then he walked into the other room and moved Cade to the couch. Last, he carried Shana into the bed Cade vacated. He propped the adjoining room door open with a book and straightened to look at Camryn.
She swallowed, staring at him from across the room with the very expression she had a week ago in the Hortons’ yard. Shock. Want. Sentiment.
He wanted the smell of lemongrass out of his memory as badly as he wanted to take her. Now. For always. Somehow break the laws of physics and alter what they were to make this crazy thing between them work. Too soon, the pain of reality reared, knocking him off-balance.
“Let’s head back,” he said.
Slowly, she nodded and preceded him out.
Once in the lobby, she stopped at the front desk. “Room two-fifty and two-fifty-two need an eight thirty wake up call. Could you please keep calling until you get an answer?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They drove back in silence, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. What she did tonight proved she was changing. Would she want Maxwell after they got home? Would she strive for real love, for better? Because she deserved so much better than what she’d settled for in the past.
“Cam, I know I asked this before, but I have to ask again. Did you love Maxwell?”
Her grip tightened and slackened on the steering wheel. “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I thought I did, but now…”
“Now what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think I did. No.”
“Did he love you?”
“I doubt it. If so, he had a funny way of showing it.” She sighed. “That was my fault, though. In a way, he was right. I didn’t give him everything, so he got it from someone else. I can’t even be angry anymore. Who would blame him?”
Troy could. Troy could blame him with a fist to Maxwell’s face just fine.
She pulled into the garage and cut the engine. When he made no move to exit, she looked at him.
“We are friends, Cam. And as your friend, I’m asking a favor. Please, for me, don’t go back to him. Find someone else.”
“Where is this coming from, Troy?”
His gaze shot to the door, his fingers gripped the handle. “My heart.”
Without further explanation, he exited the car, leaving her in the garage still behind the wheel. He strode through the house and hiked up the steps. He turned toward their bedroom before remembering to go to Justin’s room instead.
As he opened the door, he found Justin on the bed, typing away on his laptop. “Why are you still up?” he asked, tossing his wallet on the dresser.
Justin shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d check my email.”
Troy pulled his shirt over his head and threw on a tee from his bag. “Not getting nervous, are you?” he quipped, dropping his pants.
“Nope. Proposing to Heather was the smartest thing I ever did.” He closed the laptop and set it on the floor, then stretched out under the blankets. “You know, I’d suggest you do the same with Cam, but this was all a lie.”
Troy paused by the bed, staring at Justin. “I thought Heather was the only one who knew.”
“Wrong. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.”
Troy climbed in bed, wondering who else had drawn the same conclusion. He’d done this for Cam, who’d done this for Heather to not ruin the wedding.
“Don’t worry,” Justin assured, “no one else knows. In fact, I’m not even sure
you
know.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You tell me, man.” His eyebrows rose.
Justin stared, waiting for a response from him. Troy wasn’t going to give him one. Justin may have figured out the lie, but that didn’t mean Troy had to spill the truth.
A corner of Justin’s mouth quirked. “Looks like you fell for the lie too.”
Troy exhaled and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t know what to say, Justin, other than Cam and I will never work. So, just let it go.”
Justin leaned over and turned off the bedside lamp. “If you let her go, the joke will be on you.”
“This wasn’t a joke.”
“Nope, sure wasn’t.” Justin paused, looking at him in the dark. “Sure isn’t funny either, is it?” Justin rolled away.
Troy stared at Justin’s back, hating how right he was. After a few minutes, when he thought Justin had fallen asleep, he laid down and flopped an arm over his face.
“Oh, and Troy?”
Troy frowned. “Yeah?”
“Stay on your side of the bed. Tempting as I may be, I’m getting married tomorrow.”
Troy laughed and rolled over.
Chapter Eighteen
Life Lessons According to Camryn:
Bad decisions make for good stories.
The men were restricted to the media room, and the women to the library. Katie was taking this
don’t see the bride
thing very seriously. Poor Bernice was stuck handling the setup crew by herself. The only time they’d seen her was when she walked in to announce a weather report, claiming seventy-five degrees and sunshine.
Camryn peeled an orange while chewing the last bite of her toast. She wasn’t the bride. The manicurists and hairdressers weren’t coming for another hour. She could leave to help Bernice for a bit.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” Camryn said, rising.
“Can I come too?” Emily asked, jumping up from the table.
Making a three-year-old stay in one room until three thirty was cruel too, even if she did have an endless supply of coloring books and movies. Camryn held out her hand to take her along.
They found Bernice outside on the east side of the house, watching a crew of twenty set up white folding chairs on either side of a white runner. The way Bernice planned it, the bridal party would exit the house from the back and loop around.
“I think you missed your calling,” Camryn said, holding out the orange slices for Bernice. “You should have been a wedding planner.”
Bernice smiled, then startled. “No!” she called out to the crew. “The arch goes on the platform for the couple to stand under during the vows.” She turned to Camryn. “Would it sound silly if I said I always wanted to have a wedding here?”
“I don’t think so. And thank you for this. My family is not an organized group. If Anna’s family hadn’t taken over their wedding, we’d have been in trouble.”
Bernice grinned and turned to Emily. “Are you excited?”
Emily nodded emphatically. “I get to wear a pretty dress and get my hair done like Auntie Heather.”
“Can we do anything to help?” Camryn asked, glancing around. The crew had a lot done already.
Bernice bit into an orange slice. “No, but thank you. I’m mostly just supervising. I have to go check on the others.”
They followed her around to the west side of the house where another crew was setting up a makeshift dance floor, a bar and round tables for dinner. A cable cord dropped from a tree past the stage.
Emily looked confused. “What are they doing in the trees?”
Bernice smiled, tilting her head while watching the men. “They’re inserting strands of white lights through the branches so it looks romantic.”
“What’s romantic mean?”
Flustered, Bernice turned to Emily. “Um, well…”
Camryn saved her. “When people are in love, they do things that are romantic to show their love. Like flowers.”
Or dancing in the rain.
Camryn closed her eyes and shook her head. That wasn’t love, it was Troy checking off a list.
Emily wasn’t convinced. “But Christmas lights aren’t love.”