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“Laying it on pretty thick, aren’t you, Cam?” Wyatt sends, and I swallow my laughter to keep Jessie from being too curious.

“You don’t want to be involved with my parents’ visit,” I tell them. “I don’t expect it to be a good time.”

“No? All the more reason to have us over. We’ll liven things up,” Cam says.

I let the topic go, but later in the week, he brings it up again, and since I miss them, having only seen their faces over the fence a couple of times since Saturday night/Sunday morning, I give in and invite them to come over and meet my mom and stepdad.

Interestingly, Jessie seems more excited about the neighbors coming over than she does her grandparents, and when Cam and Wyatt arrive mid-morning on Saturday to help me prepare lunch, it’s hard to tell who’s most excited to see them: me, Jessie, or Goldfish.

Let’s just say, if I had a tail, I’d be wagging it.

I’d like to greet them with a kiss, and their eyes tell me they’re thinking the same thing, but we’ve agreed to keep our relationship on a purely-friends basis today. I haven’t thought about how long I’ll need to date the guys before I feel comfortable being honest about the relationship with Jessie, but it’s too soon right now.

“You okay?” Cam asks when he and I are alone in the kitchen, and Wyatt and Jessie are setting the tables, both the dining table and the card table I bought for the occasion. Marissa had plans today, and I think she was relieved not to be here.

It’s the first time my mom’s visited since I moved away—since she kicked me out—and there are a million ways the day could go wrong. The knot that’s been in my stomach since I woke up this morning has loosened, though, ever since my neighbors arrived.

“I’ve been better, but I’m alright.” I offer Cam a smile, which is actually genuine, now that he’s next to me.

He gives me a sympathetic smile in return. “I get it. Families can be difficult.” When I nod in agreement, he says, “Mine are embarrassed by how I make a living. They actually lie to family and friends about it and tell them I work in marketing.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“Wyatt and I have both been harassed and teased by old friends about it, too.”

“I’ll bet your friends are just jealous.”

Cam adds the tomato he sliced to the salad bowl. “I don’t know about that, but they would be now, if they saw who we’re dating.”

“You do lay it on thick, don’t you?”

He leans toward me, so close that my body goes on alert. “I’m only speaking the truth.”

“You’re just a charmer.”

“No, you are,” he says, “because you’ve charmed me.”

Jessie’s calling for me, so I give Cam a warning look to get him back in friend mode, though it’s hard for me to keep a special smile off my lips.

CHAPTER43

STELLA

Twenty minutes later, my mom shows up half buzzed. She wears it well, so maybe someone who doesn’t know her as well as I do wouldn’t even notice.

She gushes over Jessie, acting like she hasn’t seen her in three years, while also somehow simultaneously casting a disapproving eye around the house, which makes no sense, since my mom isn’t exactly a domestic goddess herself.

“You’ve grown so much,” she tells Jessie, while my stepdad shakes the men’s hands.

Shortly after my mom is introduced to Cam and Wyatt, she asks where they’re from and uses her question as a segue into complaining about what a shame it is that I moved so far away from her.

“You arrived just in time. Lunch is ready,” I announce almost immediately. Because I don’t want to prolong the visit, even if they did drive a long way to be here.

I only agreed that they could come here for Jessie’s sake. I still haven’t forgiven my mom for kicking us out, though I understand her alcoholism underlies all her erratic behavior. I love her, but I’d be happier not to see her very often at all.

She actually did me a favor by kicking me out of her house.

Lunch proceeds, with most of the talking done by Jessie and her grandparents. When there’s silence, Cam does a great job reviving the conversation.