CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cameron
I couldn’t catch a break.
With a shake of my head, I scanned the mess before me. Not only was Willow’s food scattered all over the kitchen floor, but there were puddles of water and… Were those some of my coffee beans? I kneeled down to get a better look. Yes.
Joined by a few auburn feathers.
“Willow?” I called loudly, rising to my feet. I waited for the sound of her paws on the hardwood, or for one of her whiny responses, as I was sure she knew what she had done. But the cabin remained dead quiet. “Willow? You better not have chased down that goddamn rooster. Again.”
And although I hoped she hadn’t, there was certain relief on the off chance that I wouldn’t be startled awake by the insufferable crowing. The rooster, it seemed, had taken more of a liking to the Lazy Elk after pecking at Adalyn’s sandwich. Adalyn.
I remembered last night, and a wave of hot frustration swept me head to toe. It had taken me a full hour to dismantle the goddamn bed and carry it outside to my truck. And fuck me, the past months spent in retirement had come at a price. My arms were sore, my back hurt from knocking the thing down, and I was almost sure I’d pulled a muscle somewhere on my neck when I’d driven us back to the farm to get her things. I—
I shook my head.
There was too much to do this morning, I couldn’t allow myself to think of her. Of last night. It always started the same way. I’d recall something remotely related to her, and then I’d be summoning all sorts of other things.
Like those bloody overalls. They’d been so tight, making her look… Different. Homey. Inviting. Almost relaxed, for a change. Even with all those curves snug and confined. Ready to burst under the seams. Or my hands. They made me wish she would burn all her clothes and exclusively wear the goddamn things from now on.
My phone rang from the kitchen counter, snapping me out of that dangerous train of thought.
I stalked to the device and scanned the screen.
Liam.
I accepted the call. “What.”
“Wow,” he huffed. “Well, morning to you, too, sunshine.”
I rolled my eyes. “I fired you. Why are you calling me again?”
“You didn’t fire me,” he countered in that smug tone I knew so well. “You encouraged me to resign. And most would appreciate the fact that our friendship is transcending a terminated business relationship.”
I held the phone to my ear with a shoulder and served myself a second cup of coffee from the pot. “You were my agent, you were never my friend.”
“God, I’d forgotten you’re a prick,” Liam said with a breath. “But I love you anyway, so I’m going to pretend you didn’t disregard fifteen years of friendship.”
“Don’t pretend to miss me.” I brought my mug to my lips and took a long sip. “We both know I was a nightmare to work with.”
“Christ. You’re in some mood today, mate.”
I returned the device to my hand and crossed the living room area to the glass doors facing the front yard. “Maybe I am,” I admitted, looking out and taking in the beautiful expanse of green before me. My gaze somehow ended on the shabby cabin to the right. I wondered if she was awake. What she would wear today. If her hair would be up or down on her shoulders. Lately she’d let it down and I— Fuck. “What do you want, Liam?”
“Would you believe me if I said I called to check on you?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought. It’d take a miracle for you to talk about your feelings anyway.” A calculated pause. “How are my favorite girls doing, then? Ditched you yet?”
As if summoned by the man who’d been in my life for almost two decades, Pierogi climbed on the patio banister. She stretched her paws and laid on top of it, turning into an orange ball of fluff. “Pierogi’s good. Napping half the time like she always does. And Willow…” I recalled the state of the kitchen floor. “Willow is still bitching at me every chance she gets. She hates it here.”
Liam’s chuckle came through the line. “That’s my best gal.”
“Far from it,” I muttered.
A long pause followed. One that gave away the real purpose of the call. I knew my former agent like I knew the palm of my hand. I gave him shit because he gave me shit in return, but the truth is that we were like brothers. We’d risen together to the top, and he’d been loyal and honest to a fault. Letting go of him hadn’t been easy. But I’d had no use for him after hanging up the gloves, and he’d known exactly why. That was why he insisted on checking up on me.
“Listen,” Liam said, just like I knew he would. “I know you’re still processing where you stand with this, but let me stress once more how great of an opportunity this is. The channel—”
I laughed, bringing his words to a stop. “I’m not processing. I know where I stand. That’s why when you called the other day I asked you to kindly pass along my answer to RBC Sports.”
“A ‘fuck off’ is not something you kindly pass along, Caldani. Specifically not to RBC Sports.”
“Translate it into your language, then.” I took another sip of my coffee, trying to focus on the smooth bitterness, and not on the way my stomach was tying up in knots. “Say it in some pretty way they’d like.”
“Cameron,” Liam warned, all lightness gone from his voice. “I know you’re a giant twat.” I snorted. “But I never had you for a fool.”
And that’s why I signed with him when we were nothing but nobodies with big dreams. Liam never tiptoed around anything or anyone, he said it like it is.
When I wasn’t called up for the national team, he sat me down and told me to suck it up and move on. I was too old and there was younger and fresher meat. And when the smartest thing to do had been to pack up and sign for an MLS team, he’d never tried to sell me on the idea like it was some great plan to make me the legend I’d never be. He’d told me to move to L.A. and have one last hurrah. Make the contacts, take the cash, and get a break from the Premier League’s politics I’d never had an interest in.
In every instance, I’d listened to him. Because I knew he wanted what was best for me. For us. I hadn’t been a fool then. Was I being one now?
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he insisted. But I knew. I wasn’t born yesterday. The RBC didn’t call just anybody. Much less for a pundit gig on a prime-time show. “I haven’t said no, not yet. I’ve told them you are thinking about it. Considering your options. They think the managing position in L.A. is still on the table, and I had one of my guys spread word around about a couple other MLS teams potentially sniffing around.”
A ball of lead settled at the bottom of my stomach at the thought of how close I’d been to taking the L.A. Stars’ offer to lead their academy coaching staff. How I’d be trapped in a gilded cage, with a life and a plan that no longer made sense, if I had.
“There’s no thinking left to do,” I told him. “I’m fine where I am.”
“Are you, though?” Liam threw right back. “You might be fine now, man. But you don’t know how you’ll feel in three months. Or six. Or a year from now.” The pause was long, and I knew it was intentionally so. “This is it, Cameron. It’s a good deal. Just… consider it. Please.”
I processed his words, I really did. As much as I’d been quick to say no, I didn’t want to be the fool he’d accused me of being. The two boys who had shaken hands quickly after I’d signed my first contract in London were long gone, but I…
“I know you’re hesitant to come back,” Liam said, knowing exactly where my head had gone. “You’d have to be in London again, where the studios are.” And therefore lose all prospect of privacy, he should have said next. But Liam was too good at his job to hand me an excuse like that. “You’d be easily recognized there. And I understand that after what happened in L.A., that’s not exactly something you’re looking forward to. I get it, mate. I do. I’d be traumatized, too.”
Every muscle and bone in my body turned to stone. “I’m not traumatized.”
“So you’re not. Good. That’s why you’re hiding away in some town in the middle of nowhere. The question is, are you going to hide there forever?”
Sweat gathered at the back of my neck. “I’m not hiding.”
He ignored my complaint with a tsk. “Enjoy your time there. Decompress. Relax. I know you’re into the great outdoors and fresh air and all that mumbling nonsense. But we have that here, too. The proper countryside is a few hours’ drive away from London.” A pause. “Think of your future, man. You might not be on the grass anymore, but your career in football is far from being over.”
Football. I missed hearing the word. I’d been in the US long enough but I… Fuck. I didn’t even know. There had been no plan. I’d just come to Green Oak and decided to stay until I changed my mind. That had been the logic I’d applied to everything since that goddamn day.
Maybe I was traumatized.
I thought back to last night. To every day before that. I’d been so… busy with the hurricane Adalyn had brought to Green Oak that I hadn’t had time to think about much else.
As if summoned by my mind, Adalyn materialized in the yard. She was walking toward my cabin and, fuck, thank Christ the pantsuit was back.
“You know what?” I heard myself say. “Relaxing might be overrated.”
Liam laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound. “So that’s your answer. Out of all the things I said? Tell me at least that you’ll think about it.”
I watched Adalyn making her way up the steps of my porch, and I turned on my heels, heading for the front door.
“Caldani?” Liam insisted.
I reached the hallway, words slipping carelessly out of my mouth, “All right. Yeah.”
“You’ve just made me a very happy man,” Liam rushed out. I frowned, wondering why or how. “I’ll ring you in a few days, then. When you’ve thought about it. Cheers, mate.”
And he killed the call.
With a sigh, I slipped the phone in the pocket of my sweats and threw the door open.
A raised fist greeted me.
Her hand fell, revealing her face.
Adalyn’s hair was down today, but not as straight as in the few instances she’d worn it like this. There were waves I’d missed when I’d spotted her through the window. It made her face look softer, her lips fuller. I cleared my throat. “What do you want?”
Adalyn didn’t answer, so I looked away from her mouth. Her eyes were wide and focused somewhere down my throat. She blinked. Then, blinked again.
I frowned.
“You’re…” she trailed off. Her cheeks were covered in a dark shade of pink. “Naked.”
I dipped my chin. Right. With Willow acting up, and then Liam busting my balls, I hadn’t had time to shower and put on a shirt.
“Half naked,” she mumbled. “And tattooed. All over your…” A sigh. “Chest. And arm.”
I had to fight the giant smirk from breaking out and parting my face. I really did. “I am,” I told her, flexing my arms and chest like the cocky bastard I was. Her eyes widened. “If you ask nicely, I might consider removing my pants. I have more ink than just that.”
Her lips popped open. The brown on her eyes glazed over. Then, her head snapped up. “Hold on, what?”
Deliberately slowly, I brought the mug to my mouth and took a sip of coffee, keeping my eyes on her. “I was saying that if you ask nicely—”
“Yeah, okay.” She shook herself, but her face was still a bright shade of pink. Who would have thought, Adalyn Reyes getting flustered over an inked chest. If anything, I would have thought she wasn’t a big fan of tattoos. What would she look like if she saw the design on my upper thigh? What would she say if I really dropped my sweats and—“I don’t think that’s something I, huh… need you to do. Keep your clothes on, thanks.”
I tilted my head. I wasn’t fooled by her words but I’d let her win this. “What do you want from me then, darling?”
It took her a moment to answer. “You promised you’d drive me back to the Vasquez farm. To sort out the flat tire.”
“It’s already sorted out.” I leaned my shoulder on the doorframe. Crossed my ankles. Brought the mug to my lips again. “Anything else?”
Her brows furrowed. “What you mean it’s sorted out?”
“It means that you don’t have to worry about it. It’s handled.” I took a new swig of coffee and inspected the contents of my mug. Another good fucking coffee ruined after growing cold. I sighed. “Your car will be serviced on Monday.” I glanced back at her. “Is that what you’re wearing to the game? We leave for Rockstone in an hour. Remember to grab your magic binder, yeah? I want to add a few notes.”
Adalyn’s face wrinkled, as if she was having a hard time processing my words. “We… But you… You hate my binders. Leave in an hour for… where?”
“I don’t hate them, I—” My eyes caught something behind her. Dashing across the front yard. A blur of fur I knew all too well. And it was moving quickly, chasing something. “Willow.”
“I’m Adalyn.”
“My cat,” I muttered. “And she’s after the goddamn cock again.”
“Wh—”
I didn’t wait around to hear. I moved around Adalyn and sprinted into the yard. So I had been right, Willow was out terrorizing the poor thing. And she was making me chase after her. Shirtless. Spilling whatever cold coffee remained in my mug.
I really couldn’t catch a fucking break.
When I finally seized the ball of fur and fury, I had to one-arm clutch her to my chest so she wouldn’t jump out again. “Are you happy?” I asked her, as I strode back to the porch. She mewed, but to her credit, she wasn’t behaving like some wild predator now. She went as far as tucking her nose into the crook of my arm. “Yeah, give up that cute shit.” I climbed up the steps with a roll of my eyes. “Daddy’s not happy.”
“Daddy?”
I looked up from the cat in my arms, finding an even more wide-eyed Adalyn blinking at me. And fuck, it was not the moment to think how that word raced straight to my gut.
“This is Willow.” I dipped my chin. Willow’s tiny paws curled around my forearm. “She’s acting cute now, but she’s taken a liking to prowling around the property and chasing the poor rooster down.” Adalyn seemed too shocked to speak. “The other one is more well-mannered than this. Thankfully.”
“The other one.” Adalyn studied the ball in my arms. “You have two cats.”
“Willow and Pierogi,” I confirmed. “The rooster is not mine. But we already talked about that.”
Something seemed to flash across her expression. “Oh my God,” Adalyn whispered. “Sebastian Stan.”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Robbie said something about a rooster they were missing,” Adalyn explained. “His name is Sebastian Stan.”
Oh. “Well, fuck.” I gave Willow a quick glance. “That’s going to be an awkward conversation.”
Willow mewed and lifted her head, curious about Adalyn.
I stepped closer so the two complex and frustrating females that had been robbing me of sleep could survey each other a little better.
“She’s beautiful,” Adalyn whispered, while Willow sniffed her outstretched hand. “Her eyes are different, just like her face. I’ve never seen a cat like her.”
“Willow’s a chimera,” I explained, my gaze fixated on Adalyn’s face. Her smile was small as she inspected the cat in my arms. I liked that barely there tilt of her mouth. “They’re born after two embryos fuse together. That’s why she looks like that.”
Willow purred, Adalyn hummed, and I felt myself relax for the first time this morning.
That was probably why I went on, “She was blind in one eye when I adopted her, I thought it might have been related to it so I researched.”
“Oh,” Adalyn whispered. “That’s…” Her face turned serious. “Really sweet. You’re full of surprises, Cameron.” Her saying my name so softly did something to my stomach. “On top of having tried every single hobby that has ever existed, you have cats you call family and know about hackles and sickles and peeps. You’re afraid of goats—”
“I’m not afraid of them,” I interjected. “I find them untrustworthy.”
She rolled her eyes but I could see it there, the way she was biting back a smile. A full one. A real one. “Still,” she said. “I wonder what else you’re hiding.”
“Wildlife.” The information toppled off my lips. “Not just farm stock. I find wildlife and nature fascinating. I’ve watched a lot of Animal Planet through the years. It helps me relax. Unwind.” I readjusted Willow in my arms. “The hackles and sickles are nothing compared to what I’ve learned on there.”
She tilted her head, and I knew to brace myself. “Tell me a random fact.”
“You want me to prove it to you?”
“Only if you can,” she said with a shrug. “Knock my socks off, Animal Planet man.”
This woman. Issuing challenges like that at a man like me.
I looked at her straight into those chocolate-brown eyes. “Contrary to popular belief, the rightful king of the jungle is not the lion. Only a very small percentage of them live in the jungle. So small, they’re endangered. A proper candidate for the title would actually be a Bengal tiger, leopard, or jaguar.”
She nodded slowly, but I could tell she wasn’t impressed.
I set the mug on the banister of the porch and held my free palm up. “Koala fingerprints are so similar to ours that they could be mistaken for a human’s.”
Her eyebrows rose in surprise.
I could do better than a brow arch. “The heart of a shrimp is in its head.” I brought my hand to the side of her face and brushed her temple with the back of my hand. Her lips parted at the gentle touch. “And if a female ferret in heat doesn’t mate for a prolonged time, the increasing levels of estrogen in her body can eventually lead to her death.”
A shiver seemed to crawl down Adalyn’s body. I let my fingers fall along hair that had fallen over her cheek. “She would die?” Her voice was soft again, gentle. Sad. “She would die just because she can’t find a mate?”
I stepped closer and gave her a nod.
A small frown appeared. “That’s… That’s really unfair.”
My eyes roamed all over her face, finding great pleasure in the vulnerability I saw in her expression. In how close we were standing.
I should have probably brushed this whole thing off, gone back inside and jumped into the shower so we wouldn’t be late to the game, but something in me had shifted. Changed. “It’s rather cruel,” I said, letting the pad of my thumb flick across her cheek. “Don’t you think?”
Adalyn’s eyes fluttered shut, and when she answered, it was a whisper. “It is.”
I moved my hand, reveling in the effect the gentle contact of my skin against hers had in me. Her. Both of us. “It doesn’t seem like that’s the ferret’s fault.”
Eyes still closed, her throat worked. “Maybe,” she started. And this time, my thumb brushed her forehead, the spot that she’d hit that first day. The urge to place my mouth there was hard to tame. “Maybe, she doesn’t have time to spare to search for a mate,” she continued, a little breathlessly. “Or maybe there’s nothing about her that’s appealing to the male ferrets around her.” She opened her eyes. The brown in her eyes had glazed over. “Perhaps she thought she was fine like that, alone. How is any of that her fault?”
“It’s not,” I told her, inching even closer. Gravitating toward her. Until there was barely any space separating us. I cupped her face in my palm. “Perhaps she’s been neglected,” I continued, craning my neck down. Now I could really smell her. Her shampoo. Soap. She smelled so fucking sweet. “Maybe she’s being overlooked.” I spread my fingers, my thumb brushing the corner of her lips. Adalyn’s breath caught. “All of this sweetness, misjudged.” I shifted my hand, digging the rest of my fingers in her hair. “What foolish males.”
Adalyn exhaled, the puff of air hitting my chin.
And I— Fuck. I—
A sharp pang of pain cut straight through the moment, and I winced.
Willow mewed from my arms. And before I could stop her, she landed on the ground and flashed through the open door. I attempted to go after her, but Adalyn’s hand was on my arm.
I looked down, finding her warm, gentle fingers against my skin as they probed, inspecting the scratch. “It doesn’t look deep.” Her tone was concerned and still so goddamn sweet it killed me. What was happening to me? “But I think you should disinfect it.” The tip of her index finger traced the inked skin around the tiny cut. “Does it hurt?”
It did. But not in the way she meant. “No.”
“Will it ruin the… design?” she asked, her thumb hanging over black lines I’d collectively sat down for many hours to get done.
There was barely a spot of skin that wasn’t inked between my collarbone and the upper sleeve of my right arm. Same went for my right pec. And the top of my left thigh. None of them were tattoos I went around showcasing. They were not for anybody but myself and that’s why I always wore long sleeves. Her hand moved, sidetracking me. I’d suffered through some of the most intricate ones yet somehow those delicate, light grazes of her fingers over my skin felt more powerful than all the needles I’d endured.
“This one is so pretty.” Her palm had stopped at the side of my biceps, and I was so emboldened, encouraged by her touch that I turned my arm so she could properly see. “Who is she?”
Out of every possible tattoo she could have possibly chosen to ask about. It had to be that one. The one that held the most meaning. “I think you know, darling.”
“Your grandmother?” she whispered. I gave her a nod and let her inspect it. I was thankful it wasn’t one of the tacky or senseless ones I’d gotten when I was young and mindless. This one was an old-school rendition of a young woman with black hair. Simple. Thick lines. No shadowing or color except for two red flowers atop her head. “What about the rest? What do they represent?”
I had to swallow for the words to come out of my throat. “The beginning,” I said, voice thick. “The end. Everything in between.”
My eyes bounced back to her face. She was biting her lip. “Does Willow do this often?”
I shook my head, barely able to rasp out an answer with her attention on me like that. I liked it far too much. “She’s never acted like that, but perhaps that’s because I’ve never given her a chance to be jealous.”
“Jealous?”
I nodded, my tongue still in twists. My head, too, when all of a sudden, I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had tended to my wounds.
Had it ever happened? Had it ever felt like… this?
“Oh. Oh.” Adalyn jumped back, breaking the contact. My skin felt cold where her fingers had been. She huffed. “Well, she must be a very territorial cat if she’s feeling that way over nothing.” She looked everywhere but at me. “After all, you would love nothing more than seeing me pack my things, leave town, and never look back, right?” I winced, and she shook her head. “This is just temporary. I’ll leave and we’re… working together only because we must. I forced your hand.”
I frowned. I had not expected her to say that. To bring up words I had seemed to make myself forget.
“Anyway.” She walked around me, taking step after step down. “I’ll see you in an hour. When we leave for the, uh, game.” She made it all the way down. “Just horny— Honk! The horn. Or text. When you’re ready and I’ll come out. I guess that’s the one perk of getting saddled with me here, right?”
She broke into a jog and I stood there, watching her get back to her cabin.
Only when her door had closed behind her did I say, “Right.”
Because she was right about this being just temporary and me wanting to see her go.
Right?