Winnie took the box and stared at it for a long moment. When she finally opened it and found a very modest but pretty diamond ring, she covered her mouth with shaking fingers. “He wanted to marry me?”
“Yes.”
She clutched the box to her chest like she was hugging it, but didn’t make a move to put it on.
“You’re not going to wear it?”
She pressed her lips together. “Did he tell you how we got together? I mean together, together?”
“No.”
“We were BFFs. Ride or dies, you know? And though we toyed with an attraction, we’d always ignored it.” She shook her head. “I think we were both scared. Even stupid kids like us recognized when two souls were meant for each other, and that was . . . well, terrifying. So we kept it platonic.”
Cam glanced down wryly at the hand she held over her stomach.
“Yeah, well, I’m getting there,” she said. “He came down to Santa Barbara to visit me just before he went to see you. I wasn’t expecting him. He showed up at my place just as I was getting home from a date with a guy who had turned out to be an asshole.” She sighed. “The truth is, Rowan sort of saved me that night. I was upset, and . . .” She closed her eyes for a long moment, lost in her thoughts. “And, well . . . one thing led to another.” When she opened her eyes, they were wet. “That was the last time I saw him.”
They’d been on the verge of something, something that might’ve been really great for both of them, and it’d been taken away from them. Cam hated that.
Winnie ran her finger over the ring, then met his gaze, her own surprisingly adult. “We weren’t in love. At least not yet. But I loved him in my own way, and I know he loved me too. And I like to think we could’ve made it work.”
Cam stood up, pulled her to her feet, and hugged her as she started to cry. “I think so too,” he said softly, his own throat tight from listening to her pain.
Finally, she sniffed and pulled back to swipe a hand across her face. “I know we already had a funeral, but it was with a bunch of people I didn’t know. I want to do a really small thing here, with Piper and Gavin, who couldn’t afford to go to the first one.” She looked at him. “Would you be okay with that?”
“Of course, but are you sure you want to put yourself through it again?”
“No. But I want to do it anyway. For closure.”
Cam nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“Next weekend,” she said. “With your dad and my siblings?”
It was the last thing he wanted to do, open up the wound and grieve again, but he nodded. “Sure.”
There was a knock on the doorjamb. Gavin. He took a look at his sister’s tear-streaked face. “What’s wrong? You okay?”
“Rowan got me a ring,” she said. “He loved me.”
“Well, of course he did,” he said, and gave her a one-armed hug. “We all do.”
“Stop being nice.” Winnie sniffled some more. “Or I’ll never be able to turn off the waterworks.”
“Were you looking for me?” Cam asked Gavin. “Or did you come to put in a few hours?”
“Both.”
“He’s upset because Piper wants to sell the property,” Winnie said. “He just got back together with his ex and doesn’t want to leave town.”
“That’s not why I don’t want to leave town,” Gavin said. Paused. Shrugged. “At least that’s not the whole reason anyway.”
“So Piper’s definitely selling?” Cam asked.
“She wants to,” Gavin said. “And I get it. She needs out. She deserves that.”
“I tried to get us a loan,” Winnie said.
Both men looked at her, shocked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Look at me adulting, right? But Piper’s not trying to run from us. She’s just trying to get herself a life now that we have one.” She looked at Gavin. “I thought if I got a loan and paid her for her third of the property, she could go away to school in Colorado like she wants. And then maybe we could stay and rent the cottages out, like you thought about doing, and . . . I don’t know . . . do a B and B thing.”
Gavin looked stunned. “You’d do that with me?”
“In a heartbeat. With you as the people person and me as the fixer-upper person, we couldn’t go wrong.”
“You sure, Win? I mean, you get that I’m all sorts of fucked up, right?”
“Hello,” she said with a soggy smile. “Have you met me? Because same. But in the end, it doesn’t matter, because I was declined by the bank. I don’t have any credit history, and apparently I’m also a huge risk. I know, shock, right?”
Gavin laughed a little bitterly. “Well, I’ve got plenty of credit history, it’s just all bad credit history. In fact, it’s so bad they’ll probably run the other way. But I’ll try anyway. We’ll figure it out somehow, okay?”
Winnie smiled and nodded. “I believe that.”
Cam did too. The Mannings were a force to be reckoned with, and he wouldn’t bet against them. But . . . “You guys need to talk to Piper. Tell her, all of it. She’d find a way to help you guys make this happen.”
“You think so?” Winnie asked.
“I know so. I realize neither of you are here for advice, but I’m going to give it to you anyway. You want to prove to her that you can handle things? Then show her.” He turned to the door.
“Where are you going?” Winnie asked.
“To find your sister.”
“Wait!” She ran to the door and stepped in front of him. “You’re not going to tell her about Rowan, right? Because remember, it’s my story to tell. You promised.”
He wondered if Piper felt this same pinch in the chest as he did whenever dealing with her siblings, like a thousand elephants had just run over him. He’d felt it with Rowan too. “And you promised you’d come clean. With everything.”
“I am. I will!”
“You do realize the position you’re putting me in, right?”
“But I’m the mama of your niece,” she said, going right for the emotional gut punch without remorse. “And you promised Rowan you’d take care of me.”
“Niece?” Cam asked, now feeling a different pinch in his chest entirely. This one came with an unexpected rush of emotion. “You’re having a girl?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, dipping her head, rubbing her stomach. “But I’m kind of hoping. I want her to have Rowan’s eyes.” She looked up again. “But also I want her to have my hair, because . . .” She waved a hand at it. “Well, look at it.”
Cam blew out a breath. “You’ve got to promise me you’ll tell Piper everything before I have to go back to the DEA.”
Winnie nodded.
“I want the words, Winnie.”
“I will. I just need a little more time to show her who I am, who I want to be. Then I’ll tell her everything. I promise I will.”
Cam looked at Gavin. “Look after her.” He left, crossing the properties to knock on Piper’s door. No answer. He walked past the cottages but didn’t see her working on any of them. But her car was in the driveway, so she was here somewhere.