Page 48 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ELLE

E lle sat on her parents’ front porch on Saturday morning, talking to Becca on the phone.

Instead of going to Wyatt’s first football game last night, like she’d been planning, she’d packed up her stuff and made the fifteen minute drive to her parents’ house, even if she’d wished she could put about a hundred more miles between her and her brother.

She hadn’t heard from him–or Cam for that matter–since yesterday.

“I didn’t think that everything would be sunshine and roses, but I didn’t expect things to blow up so spectacularly,” Elle lamented.

“You know your brother’s a hothead. I’m sure he’ll come around.”

Elle made a sour face. “I don’t care. He’s dead to me.”

“For walking into his own house?”

“Becca,” Elle whined. She did not need tough love right now. Her romantic life had just imploded in a very public way, and she’d have to live forever knowing that her parents knew what her mounting Cam looked like. As far as she was concerned, she deserved a little sympathy .

“Well, you and Wyatt are going to need to have a real conversation at some point. Or are you just going to run back to Boston like Cam and never talk about it again?”

Elle winced at the direct hit. “Cam and I are not the same. He was afraid of us. Of what we could be. Only one of us was fighting for anything in that room, and it definitely wasn’t him.”

Becca was pensive on the other end of the line before she spoke, her voice full of sympathy. “I know, Elle. It sucks, and I’m sorry you’re going through it. But at least the job with Reynolds Consulting is a bright spot. Right?”

Elle let out a deep breath, wishing she could feel the excitement that she’d expected to have at the prospect of getting not just any job, but a job with one of the best consulting companies in Boston.

A month ago, it would have been a dream come true.

It had been her dream–to get back to the city.

Back to scraping and climbing and proving something.

But why? That was the thought that had been nagging in her peripheral, like a mosquito she just couldn’t shake.

“Yeah, I’m lucky that it all worked out. ”

“When we were graduating college, you had a color-coded spreadsheet with jobs you’d applied to, even though getting a full-time job where you’d interned was almost a sure thing.

You’ve always had a plan, and it looks like in short order, you’ve achieved this one, too.

Back on your feet. Heading back to Boston.

Why do you sound like you just kicked a puppy? ”

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Elle felt tears spring up behind her eyes.

She wiped her hand across her face, willing them not to fall.

She had kicked a puppy. “I called him a coward, Becca. Even though he had every right to be scared. I knew what a big deal this was to him. Lying to Wyatt. Worrying about what my family would think. And still, I pushed and I pushed and I pushed because I wanted it. And now, I’ve fucked up an almost twenty-year relationship between my brother and his best friend, and I’ve lost the one man who drove me absolutely insane but seemed to like me, even at my worst.”

“Elle, it’s going to be okay,” Becca comforted as Elle felt the first tear fall down her cheek.

“Everything’s gotten so messed up. This was supposed to be fun. And easy. And simple. Cam and I would sneak around for a few weeks and I’d distract myself from how my life had fallen apart.”

“And now?”

There was no point in lying to Becca. She always saw through it.

Had probably already known the answer before she’d even asked the question.

“And suddenly I have this life in Rock Harbor that I never expected to love so much, and I can’t believe how quickly it’s all disappeared.

” Saying that out loud made it feel like she couldn’t breathe.

Like for the first time in her life, she’d made a horrible decision–and it was all her fault.

Becca was quiet for a few seconds, only the sounds of Elle’s sniffling audible.

“Do you think that’s maybe because you stopped trying to hold onto everything so tightly?

That you were more open to following your heart and taking chances?

Sometimes, we end up where we never imagined, but we have to be willing to go on that journey.

A lot of people aren’t brave enough to do that. ”

“Except that going with the flow ended up with Cam and me in completely separate places, and my heart feels like it’s been trampled on by a herd of elephants.”

Becca let out a hoarse laugh. “Vivid, Elle. But… life isn’t linear, and it’s definitely not simple.

And yes, Cam could have responded better, but it was a crazy moment.

You said so yourself. He’s never been as spitfire as you or your brother.

Is it really shocking that he’d sit by quietly while you two duked it out? ”

Elle considered Becca’s words, which were true, even if she didn’t want to hear explanations. “I tried talking to him after Wyatt had gone. He couldn’t do that either. He couldn’t admit that he wants to be with me. He wasn’t even willing to try and make it work.”

“For the sake of the conversation, think of things from Cam’s perspective.

I’d hazard a guess that your family is the closest thing he has to a home life.

And it’s pretty clear he’s never had a relationship.

His friendship with Wyatt is obviously one of the most important things to him.

Cam starting something with you was him being brave, even if he couldn’t get exactly where he needed to be when everything exploded. ”

Elle chewed on her lip. Even if Becca was right–which she was–did that change anything?

Where it all netted out was that it wasn’t fair to push Cam to do something he wasn’t ready for, and it wasn’t fair for her to wait for him to decide that she was worth the risk.

She let out a long-suffering sigh. “Maybe we just weren’t meant to work out. Right people, wrong time.”

It was the easiest way to explain the hole that had taken up residence in her chest, like her heart had made space for a future that would never come to pass.

“It’s been less than twenty-four hours, Elle. I think you’re the one throwing in the towel a little soon, no?” She recognized Becca’s no-nonsense tone again. The one that she mostly used with Zoe.

“Et tu, brute?”

Becca laughed. “I have to work tonight, but how about I drop Zoe at my parents’ tomorrow night and we go out to celebrate your new job?”

Maybe a night out with Becca was just what she needed. Get a little drunk. Forget all her troubles. Ignore the aching feeling in her heart. “Sounds good. Text me the details when you have them.”

When she hit end on the call, she stared out at her parents’ cul-de-sac street, with its beautiful, lush landscaping and gorgeous greenery that she was pretty sure her brother paid to have maintained weekly during the summer.

Why did Wyatt have to be such an unbelievable Sour Patch kid?

An amazing big brother in some ways. An infuriating ass in others.

But regardless of how angry she was at him, she knew that it would likely be sooner than later when they talked again.

She just couldn’t promise that wherever the conversation took place would still be standing at the end of it.

Wyatt parked his truck in the driveway and walked across the lawn. The sun was high in the sky, and he had his sunglasses on, but she could tell that he was surveying the house. When he noticed Elle sitting on the porch swing, he slowed his pace and put his hands up. “Don’t shoot.”

Elle reached down toward her invisible holster. “No promises.”

He hopped up onto the porch in a smooth motion and slipped off his aviators, leaning against one of the beams. Elle was sure he felt like he was exuding an authoritative air, except that he miscalculated how close one of their mom’s hanging planters was to him, and it hit him squarely in his head when he shifted sideways.

Wyatt rubbed at his temple. “I don’t know how, but somehow, you planned that.”

She almost told him that it was a plant , but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a good pun. He didn’t deserve it. Instead, she folded her arms across her chest and pumped her legs so the swing started to move. “I didn’t, but I would have if I could have.”

“Elle…” There was a catch in Wyatt’s voice, the anger from yesterday vanished. Now he sounded… sad.

Still, she wasn’t letting him off the hook. Not for herself, but for Cam. “Look, Wyatt. I know that we need to talk about this, but I’m really mad at you. The things you said yesterday were beyond the pale. Cam didn’t deserve any of that.”

She could see his fingers wrapped around the porch railing, his muscles flexing as he tightened his grip.

“I was surprised,” he said, his voice more measured than she’d expected.

“I come home to grab my key, only to find my little sister and my best friend hooking up on my sofa. I didn’t even know that you two got along.

You literally hit him with a baseball bat. ”

“And you hit him with a metaphorical one,” Elle jabbed back, seeing the blow land.

“I was defending you. I thought that you were going through a rough time,” he hissed, both of them looking toward the door to make sure their mom hadn’t heard them. This was not the time for sensible mediation.

“Well, even so, you didn’t have to tell Cam that he was taking advantage of me. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.” Elle was trying to keep her voice calm, too, but the exasperation in her voice was clear. The idea of Cam being the one who’d taken advantage was laughable.

Wyatt held his hands up to his ears and groaned. “I want to hear even less that you were the one taking advantage of him, so let’s not go there.”