If anyone had asked him even a minute ago who’d gotten more out of this past month of knowing each other, him or Katie, he’d have laid down his very last dollar that it had been him.
And yet now he could see, that maybe, just maybe, he’d given her something too. That he had more to give still. Lots more. He turned to face Stone and Nick. “I slept with Katie.”
“Shock,” Stone said.
“I’m going to sleep with her again.”
“More shock,” Nick said.
“I’m sleeping with Katie, and you’re all okay with it?”
“Yeah,” Nick said. “But I’d have figured getting laid would relax you a helluva lot more than it has. You doing it right? Or do you need some pointers?”
All of them laughed except Cam, “You guys are a riot.” He looked at Stone. “Explain this to me. When you slept with the cleaning crew, T.J tried to beat the shit out of you.”
“Because he was an ass,” T.J. pointed out.
“Yeah, it’s not the same,” Stone agreed.
“Why the f**k not?”
“Because I wasn’t halfway in love with either of those women.”
Staggered, Cam stared at Stone. “What?”
“He said you’re halfway in love with Katie,” T.J. repeated.
Falling in love, his ass. Stone had no idea what he was talking about, none. He grabbed the phone from its cradle and put it to his ear. “And what the hell do you know about this?”
“I know love,” T.J. reminded him very quietly. “And I’ve talked to you often enough over the past month to hear it happening to you.”
“Jesus.” Cam slammed the phone back down, ignoring Nick, who leaned over the desk and hit Talk again before T.J. was disconnected.
“Classic sign of being a goner,” Nick said with a tsk. “A quick temper.”
“Shut up.” Cam shoved his hands through his hair and glared at them. “And thank you all for being no help at all.” With that, he walked out and slammed the door, leaving no mistake as to how frustrated he felt.
In the office, silence reigned for a full moment.
“Well, that went well,” T.J. said. “Great idea, Stone. ‘Nudge him in the right direction,’ you said. ‘Let him know we’re behind him,’ you said. Now he’s a flight risk again.”
Stone looked at the door and let out a breath. “Nah, he’s just being bullheaded, like any good Wilder. He’s sticking.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Katie’s still here.”
“Yeah, well, I’d stay out of his way just the same if I were you, at least until I get there to referee.”
Nick snorted in amusement until Stone gave him a droll look. “Like you have it all together?”
“Hey, I have it more together than you.”
“Really? Think Annie would agree?”
Nick just let out a long breath. “How did we all get so f**ked up?”
“Practice, man. Lots of practice.”
Katie wasn’t behind her desk, and Cam’s heart did an odd little lurch. Dammit. He strode down the stairs and found her outside organizing a cross-country trek to Gold Cove, which he was to lead.
“It’s not on my schedule,” he told her.
She looked down at her clipboard. “No, it’s on T.J.’s, but he got held up by that storm.” She looked up into his eyes, her own shuttered for the first time since he’d known her. “Should I cancel?”
“It takes two guides,” he lied without compuncture.
“What?”
“I need an assistant.” He smiled grimly. “Suit up, you’re it.”
“I don’t-”
“You want adventures. You want risk, then take one. Change.” He took the clipboard. “We’ll wait.”
She took less than five minutes, which he appreciated. She didn’t speak much to him, which once upon a time he would have appreciated even more, but things were different now. He didn’t know how exactly, or why, only that they were, and that he missed listening to her talk.
Halfway out to Gold Cove, he slowed. “It’s three miles straight out,” he told the group. “First one there gets the championship title and a framed picture of the group.”
They all took off. Katie, too, but he snagged the back of her coat and pulled her to his side.
She planted her poles and looked at him warily. “What?”
“I thought we could-”
“Here?” She eyed the trees speculatively. “What if one of them comes back?”
“Not that.” But he eyed the trees, too, suddenly liking her idea a whole lot better than what he’d planned on doing. There was a nice thick group of trees just ahead, he could have her in there, wrapped around him like a pretzel in like thirty seconds-
“Oh, if not that, then what? I could have had that championship title.”
“Yes, you could have. For holding back. I know, Katie.”
“Know what?”
“About the bridge collapse.”
“Yes, because I told you.”
“I know the details. How your car was flung out from between the two cement blocks like a piece of toast. How you hung upside down off that cliff for an hour after they got the flames out before they could get to you.”
Staring at him wide-eyed, she tried to take a step back, but the skis tripped her up. He slipped an arm around her waist while hitting the release on her skis with his pole so that she was released from the bindings.