I stilled. “My dad?”
“No.” Pat emphatically shook his head. “But your dad agreed. And then said it’s not just the past that a judge would have to take into account in that hypothetical situation but the current decisions that person makes.”
My chest tightened.
“And after someone mentioned a certain fight that happened a few weeks ago on opening day…” Shit. “Well, another member asked—”
“Oh my God, Pat, spit it out. We all know who’s on the damned council,” Thea hissed.
Pat leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “Hall asked your dad if he’d hold it against Cam that he was dating you. Except he didn’t use the word…‘date.’”
I cringed. “He said no, right? Please tell me he said no.”
“He said that dating you didn’t exactly show the kind of sound judgment he’d need to win the case. Especially given that Cam is prone to violence around you.”
My blood turned to ice, then flash-boiled. “He said what?”
“Shh!” Pat looked to see that no one heard me. “They can’t know I told you. We have a what-happens-in-Vegas disclosure. I’ll lose my council seat.”
Cam was going to lose his case…because of me.
“I have to go.” I grabbed Cam’s burger and my shake, then paused at the foot of the table. “Thank you, Pat. Both of you.”
Rage and disbelief spun in my brain like a pinwheel, the emotions overlapping each other. I put Cam’s lunch on the passenger seat and my milkshake in the cupholder. Then I stared out the windshield with my hands on the steering wheel.
I could break up with Cam. That was obviously what Dad wanted. But maybe it was deeper than that. Maybe he honestly thought that being with me showed a lack of character. Why? Because I was his dead brother’s ex-girlfriend? Heck, that would have been the simplest label to slap on us.
The thought of losing Cam shredded my soul.
There was no chance he’d let me go, anyway. Or would he? If being with me meant seeing his dad on a ventilator, would he let me walk away? Would I even want him to? This was Art, not some hypothetical dilemma.
Cam loved me.
I’m not going anywhere. I’d promised him. I’d bullied my way into his heart, and now it was going to cost him the very thing he’d come back here for.
I yanked my phone out of my purse.
Willow: Where are you right now?
I held my breath as the three dots coursed across the screen.
Cam: Just got to the mine. Dad’s appointment cut short because his brain no-showed.
Willow: I’m on my way.
Cam: Everything okay?
Willow: Physically, yeah. I’ll be there in fifteen.
I made it in ten, my 4Runner skidding to a halt in the newly packed gravel lot in front of the construction trailers.
I grabbed everything and skirted around the construction crew as they moved steel beams meant for the tunnels. I made it through the door to Cam’s trailer as a small group of workers came out, only a couple of whom I recognized, since I mostly worked with the foremen when it came to preservation.
Seeing Cam for the first time every day still took my breath away. He stood at his drafting table, turned so I could only see a portion of his profile, his shirtsleeves pushed up and his pants hanging on sculpted hips, but even with all that physical beauty, it was his focus that I found enthralling.
I loved him so much that I wasn’t sure there was enough space in this trailer—in the world—for it. How was I supposed to give him up? How could I live with myself if I didn’t? It had taken years and war and more than a little fate to get us here. This wasn’t even in the same realm as fair.
“You’ll need to move this beam here,” Cam told two of the foremen as he pointed to the blueprints. “These right here are the old load-bearing timbers, and we need to see if we can basically take the load off at this point and this one, so we can maintain the structural integrity of the tunnel without losing that historical piece.”
“And if we can’t keep that beam?” The foreman pointed to the original one, and my stomach clenched. There were so many sacrifices to be made, and every piece of history that went hurt my heart a little more.
“Safety first. But I know we can keep it, so don’t shortcut it for ease.” Cam looked up and paused when he saw me. “Everybody out.”
The foremen glanced between us and then did exactly as he ordered.
“Lunch?” I asked, lifting the takeout container with a trembling hand.
“What’s wrong?” He didn’t so much as glance toward the food.
How was I going to say this to him? How could I possibly explain the cost of loving me? I couldn’t imagine not having Cam, not after all these years we’d wasted. But I also couldn’t condemn Arthur to treatments he didn’t want.
“You eat, and I’ll talk.” I set the food down on the small table and motioned to one of the two folding chairs.
His eyes narrowed, but he sat. I slid the burger over to him, and he opened the takeout container. Only then did he look to see what I brought him.
“Bigg’s?” A smile ghosted his lips.
“Just the way you like it.” My heart pounded as I took the seat opposite his and moved the shake to his side, too. “The shake is the way I like it, though.”
“Willow, you’re killing me.” He swallowed, watching me with enough intensity to kick my heart rate even higher. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I know. Just…give me a second.” The words I knew had to be said filled my mouth, heavy on my tongue, and my stomach twisted—just like it had right before my car crashed—trying to keep them in.
“Are you pregnant?” he asked, leaning toward me with so much love and concern in his eyes that I almost wished I were. “Because if you are, don’t worry. I don’t know a lot about babies, but I’ll learn. And Rose seems to like me well enough, so there’s hope our kid would—”
“My father basically told Tim Hall that you’d lose your dad’s case if you’re dating me.” And I word-vomited all over the place. Awesome. My nails bit into my palms where they rested on my lap.
Cam blinked twice, then sat back in his chair. “So you’re not pregnant? Because I had the rest of that whole speech planned out. Well, not planned well, since I only had about ten minutes of my brain running amok, but still, it was pretty good.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
“No. I’m on birth control, remember?”