Page 29 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

The nurse stood up and looked into the boxes, which had clear plastic across the top, the cupcakes with the little lobsters he’d cut out of fondant juxtaposed against the cream icing. “Oh, they’re darling. Where did you get those? I love the little lobsters on top.”

Cam leaned against the counter and put on his most winsome smile. “I made them.” She didn’t need to know that just as many had gone in the trash, or that his hands were still stained red from his clumsy rolling of the fondant .

“Well, I’m sure it would be fine for you to drop off dinner.”

“Cam?” Elle’s voice managed to cut through the din of the dozens of people moving through the hallways and machines beeping at varying intervals.

It was like he was attuned to the sound of her voice, specifically, and he turned toward her as she walked the fifteen feet from Mr. Pierce’s room to where he stood.

She looked down at the boxes of cupcakes. “What are you doing here?”

“Is this your boyfriend?” the nurse asked, already pulling the cupcakes behind the station. “He’s just the sweetest. He brought the nurses a little pick-me-up at just the right time.” Cam doubted there was ever a bad time for desserts in high stress situations.

“He can be shockingly thoughtful,” Elle said without correcting the nurse. And Cam didn’t miss the little smile she gave him, like they were sharing a private joke. There was a lot of that going around the last few days.

The nurse moved away from them, and he turned to face Elle fully.

It had only been a day since he’d seen her.

Why did it feel like so much longer? She didn’t look any different, except maybe a little tired around the eyes, which did nothing but make Cam want to wrap his arms around her.

“How are you doing?” he asked, settling for putting his hand on her arm, loving how soft and warm she felt.

It felt like Elle inched closer. “Glad it all went okay. He only woke up an hour or so ago, and he’s still kind of out of it.”

“It’s just an effect of the anesthesia. He’ll be back to his normal, exuberant self in no time.”

Elle nodded along with his words, like she desperately wanted to believe them.

“I know. It’s just… so real in there. He’s hooked up to monitors.

He’s been sleeping on-and-off. I keep catching glimpses of the bandages through his gown, and it knocks all the air out of my lungs every time it happens. ”

Cam leaned forward and wrapped his arm around Elle, pulling her closer to him, brushing his hands against her hair soothingly. Whatever barriers should exist between them were on a pause. This was more important. Being here for Elle was more important.

“You want to see him? I’m sure he’d love that,” Elle said into his chest, and his heart tightened when her nose nuzzled against his t-shirt.

Cam nodded. “I brought you and your mom some dinner.”

Elle leaned back, her whole face softening when she looked at him. “You really are a big ol’ softy. Thank you. For everything.”

She led him back to the room, where he hoped that his cupcake bribe would buy him at least thirty minutes.

When he walked through the door, he understood exactly what Elle had been talking about.

Mr. Pierce was laying in a hospital bed, the sides pulled up to ensure his safety.

He had an IV in one arm, and cords snaked out from his chest to monitor the heart that someone had literally been poking and prodding only hours ago.

At least he had a single room, so there was plenty of room for visitors, even if he wasn’t exactly allowed to be here.

“Cam,” Mrs. Pierce beamed. She was sitting at Mr. Pierce’s side, holding his hand. “I’m so glad you stopped by.”

He wondered what a love like that would be like. They’d been married for at least thirty-five years, and he saw the way that they still looked at one another. Like they were two halves of a whole, a completeness that existed only when they were together.

When he’d become friends with Wyatt, it was one of the things that had struck him the most. Confused him–if he was being honest. His parents couldn’t be in the same room without screaming or throwing things at one another.

They were always arguing about money. Or his dad’s drinking.

Or how neither of them wanted the life they had .

His mom getting knocked up at twenty probably hadn’t helped things in the home except to keep two people who should be on separate sides of the country together for far too long.

“Jim. Cam’s here,” she said, squeezing Mr. Pierce’s hand.

Jim opened his eyes, blinking slowly. “One of my boys,” Mr. Pierce said, a little drug-addled. But Cam felt those words in his chest, like he was the one getting his heart repaired instead of Mr. Pierce.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, holding up the bag he still carried. “I brought Elle and Mrs. Pierce some dinner. I didn’t expect that they’d be leaving your side anytime soon. I cannot believe you managed to have this surgery without Wyatt in town.”

Mr. Pierce tried to laugh, but from the dry sound, Cam figured that his throat was sore from being intubated during the surgery. After a few sips of water from Mrs. Pierce’s attentive hands, he could finally speak again. “We may have fudged the date a little bit.”

Mrs. Pierce cut in. “Please don’t tell him. We knew he’d skip his football camp, so he thinks it was scheduled for a later date, but there was an opening sooner that we wanted to take. I didn’t tell him the surgery was being ‘moved up’ until yesterday.”

“Glad I’m not the only one in this family getting lied to,” Elle said from next to Cam.

“But yeah… that was a fun family phone call last night. I swear to god I thought that Wyatt was going to find a way to build a teleport and beam into the living room immediately to give everyone a piece of his mind.”

“Sounds like Wyatt,” Cam agreed. He’d hoped the words ‘minimally invasive’ would mean that Mr. Pierce would be back to his old self within a few days.

The man laying in the hospital bed painted a different picture.

This was going to be a longer road than Cam had expected. “What’s the plan for the restaurant? ”

Mr. Pierce took a deep swallow, gearing himself up to speak. “Closed this week. I’ll be back next week.”

Cam blanched at the same time Elle spoke. “Dad, that’s insane. There’s no way you’ll be back to working next week. The recovery time is at least two to four weeks. Mom, seriously?”

Mrs. Pierce squeezed her husband’s hand and shot Elle an understanding smile. “I told your father that we’d take it day-by-day, though I was clear his plan was overly ambitious.”

“Suicidal is more like it. Dad, do you have any idea the harm you could cause going back to work that early? You could kill yourself.” Elle’s voice had grown frantic, and she’d started pacing, as he’d noticed she liked to do whenever she was stressed.

“I won’t be dying anytime soon,” Mr. Pierce said. Though Cam would have believed it more if he hadn’t dry coughed after getting the words out so forcefully that Cam was concerned he’d rip out his stitches.

Unthinkingly, he put his hands on Elle’s arm again. She stopped in her tracks and looked at him with that doe-eyed stare that was starting to have way too much of a hold on him. “I can handle the kitchen. For as many weeks as you guys need.”

Mr. Pierce limply waved at him, the act taking no small amount of effort. “Nonsense, Cam.”

“We can’t let you take so much time away from work,” Mrs. Pierce added. “It wouldn’t be right.”

“Well, luckily for Pierce’s Lobster Co., I’m actually in between jobs right now. So it works out for everyone. I will gladly accept payment in the form of a place to crash at Wyatt’s, and we can figure everything else out later.”

Mrs. Pierce held her hand up to her chest. “Cam, you didn’t tell us that. Is everything okay?”

Cam nodded. This wasn’t about him. It was about doing right by good people. “I’ve been mulling it over for a while.” Which wasn’t a complete lie. He fantasized about opening his own restaurant, like most chefs. He just hadn’t done anything real to make it happen.

“You didn’t tell me that, either.” Elle sounded confused, and maybe a little hurt at his admission. He suddenly wanted to kiss that confusion away, but he tamped down on the feeling.

“I’m still figuring things out.” Cam hoped Elle’s parents didn’t pick up on the subtext happening, the way he was imploring her with his stare to let this go. Because Elle was not known for just ‘letting things go’ when she was on the hunt for information.

But surprising him, she pursed her lips together and nodded.

He turned back to the Pierces. “So, am I hired? Just to fill in until Mr. Pierce gets back on his feet. Happy to provide references if needed.”

Mrs. Pierce was out of her seat then, crossing the room quickly. She threw her arms around him. “Thank you, Cam. You have no idea what this means to us.”

He looked at Elle, then, the look on her face so soft that he had to stop himself from touching her. Instead, he focused back on Mrs. Pierce. “It would mean a lot to me, too. To be able to help.”