The Stubborn Suitor: Book 1 (The Stubborn Suitor #1) (7 page)

C
ami was physically
and emotionally exhausted the following morning as she and Maggie climbed into the back of a town car for the long ride home. Despite her best effort the night before, Cami was much more hung over than she was hoping to be.

Cami didn’t actually drink much on a regular basis—just a glass of wine here or a cocktail there. She reckoned that she’d drank more this weekend than she had the entire year prior. And she was paying for it today.

On top of the physical repercussions, Cami was also feeling disgusted with herself, as well as Drew. She couldn’t believe she’d let him make out with her again last night. She felt used, though she wasn’t even sure why.

Not surprisingly, Maggie was even more hung over than Cami and was in absolutely no mood to talk on the ride home. The women sat in silence, faces pressed against opposite windows as the car slowly made its way back to the city.

Cami arrived home by early afternoon and wasn’t scheduled to pick of Madison until later in the evening. She knew better than to show up early—not with the way Ken had been acting. Instead, she took a long, hot bath, followed by a nap.

She was still not back to her normal self by the time she arrived at Ken’s door at seven sharp, but the beautiful face of her smiling baby girl made everything better.

The sight of Natalie carrying Madison out of the house was a little upsetting, but Cami quickly pushed that thought aside to take her daughter into her arms.

“Mom!” Madison squealed in delight.

Cami felt like she could squeal with joy as well, though she refrained from it in front of her ex and his fiancé.

Ken was acting uncharacteristically nice. He even smiled as he handed Cami Madison’s diaper bag.

“See you this week,” he said as she walked towards the car.

She only nodded coldly. Like she needed to be reminded that she would soon have to fight for custody of her daughter.

Madison had already eaten dinner at Ken’s house, so Cami simply gave her a bath before tucking her into bed next to her. She read a few goodnight stories as her daughter clung to her more tightly than usual. She wondered if Ken had said something to her about spending more time with them, or if she was simply picking up on Cami’s emotions.

Either way, Madison fell asleep with her face pressed against her mother’s chest, Cami gently stroking her soft little curls. Cami didn’t even consider getting up to put her daughter to bed in her own room, opting instead to drift off to sleep with the little angel in her arms.

By the following morning, the little angel had turned into a little monster.

“I don’t want to go to Nana’s house,” Madison sobbed, kicking and fighting as Cami tried to buckle her into her car seat.

It broke Cami’s heart knowing that her daughter was just as exhausted as she was and wanted nothing more than to spend the day at home with her mommy.

But Madison lacked the vocabulary to understand that while she’d been away from Mommy all weekend, mommy hadn’t actually been at work, and she was required to go in today. This was one of the reasons why she hated any rotation in which her days off fell on the weekend. Most nurses loved those rotations, but to Cami, they simply meant she didn’t get to spend her days off with her daughter every other week.

Madison cried all the way to Cami’s mother’s house and was still sobbing when Cami brought her inside.

“What’s wrong?” her mom asked as she took the little girl into her arms and rocked her soothingly.

“She didn’t want to come today,” Cami admitted, though she knew her mother would give her a hard time.

“Then don’t go to work,” she replied. “Take the day off to spend with your daughter.”

“You know I can’t, Mom.”

“Yes, you can. Call in sick.”

“I can’t, Mom. I can’t afford it. I only have four shifts a week. I can’t give one up.”

“Yes you can, Camilla,” her mother chided, though she was still whispering soothingly against Madison’s ear between chastisements to Cami.

One thing Cami really could commend her mother for was how great she was with Madison. It was the reason why she continued to use her mother as a babysitter, despite her criticisms—that and the fact that she watched Madison for free, of course.

“I really can’t. Not right now,” Cami replied.

Her mother must have heard the seriousness in her voice, because she looked up from where she was soothing Madison to sleep in order to meet Cami’s eyes.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Ken is suing for more custody. He’s engaged and he thinks that his new stay-at-home wife would be a better option for Madison than me.”

Cami held her breath, half expecting her mother to side with Ken. Her mom had just been on her case because she worked too much and she’d always valued Ken’s money.

“That rat bastard,” her mother growled, surprising Cami. Madison stirred a little, but her mom continued to rock her as she spoke to Cami. “He seriously thinks some bimbo is a better caregiver for Madison than her own mother and grandmother?”

“He’s crazy, Mom,” Madison replied. Sinking down on the sofa beside her.

“Exactly. He’s crazy. You have nothing to worry about.”

“But I do. Ken has money and lawyers and connections. I can barely afford the lawyer I used during the divorce. He’s going to screw me now just like he screwed me then.”

Tears began to slide down Cami’s face as she finally admitted that there was a chance she could lose the case—a chance that she could lose primary custody of her daughter.

“Oh, honey,” her mom singsonged, leaning forward to wrap the arm around Cami. “Don’t worry, kiddo. We’ll figure something out. We’ll make sure we don’t lose Madison.”

After the surprisingly cathartic conversation with her mother, Cami’s day improved. The emergency room was slow, but not slow enough to make the day drag. There were no fatalities, and everything ran along smoothly.

On her first break, she found that she had a voice mail from her lawyer, letting her know that he had called Ken’s attorney and scheduled a preliminary meeting for Friday. She called him back and they discussed what Cami should expect from the meeting. They were just going to go over the different custody options, the lawyer explained. No changes were actually going to be made during the meeting, he assured her. He seemed confident, so Cami felt better.

O
n Tuesday
, Maggie was scheduled for the same shift as Cami, which always made the day go by faster. They even made plans to take their lunch break at the same time.

“So…” Maggie began over a bowl or beef stir-fry in the hospital cafeteria. “Have you heard from Drew?”

Cami’s mouth fell open mid-bite and her broccoli fell from her fork onto the table. How had Maggie known about Drew? She’d never mentioned anything to her. And why would she think that Drew would call her?

“Why would you think I’d hear from Drew?” Cami asked, trying to sound casual. From the smirk on Maggie’s face, she could tell that she’d failed.

“I don’t know,” Maggie said mischievously. “It seemed like the two of you really hit if off.”

“What makes you think that?” Cami demanded, her voice actually getting a little loud.

She didn’t mean to be so defensive, but she’d spent the last two days trying to forget about Drew Sloane and she didn’t understand why Maggie was suddenly bringing him up.

Maggie looked away, an odd look on her face. She bit her lip as if she was contemplating saying something. Unless Cami was mistaken—which she never was when it came to her best friend—Maggie almost looked guilty.

“What?” Cami asked, though she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know the answer at this point.

“Don’t be mad, okay?” Maggie said after a moment. “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to be mad.”

“I can’t promise that,” Cami replied, growing more worried by the minute. “There’s a large chance that whatever you’re about to say actually
will
make me mad, and then I’ll be a liar.”

“Fine,” Maggie said, letting out a sigh. “Just promise you won’t freak out… and that you’ll give me a chance to explain myself.”

“Sure. Now spill,” Cami demanded, trying to mentally prepare herself for whatever Maggie had to say.

“So… Grant and I had this idea, right? We talked about it last week at family dinner.”

“What idea?” Cami growled.

“Calm down,” Maggie snapped. “You promised you’d listen.”

“I am listening!” Cami replied with a scowl. But she then shut her mouth and motioned for Maggie to continue.

“You see, Grant and Drew have been friends forever and we just thought the two or you may hit it off—you and Drew, I mean. So this weekend was supposed to be, like, an unofficial set-up.”

“What?!” Cami shouted.

Half the heads in the cafeteria turned towards her and she sank into her seat, embarrassed. But she was still scowling at Maggie through gritted teeth.

“How was it a setup if we didn’t even know we were being set up? Wait… did Drew know? Was I the only one who didn’t know?”

“No!” Maggie said emphatically, leaning forward in her seat. “I promise. Neither one of you were told. I wouldn’t do that to you. Grant and I just kind of…pushed you two together. That was my idea, to be honest.” Maggie actually had the audacity to look proud of herself as she continued. “I thought it might be awkward to let the two of you know you were being set up. Then there’d be all of this…expectation. And you would probably overthink everything.”

“Not necessarily,” Cami interjected.

Maggie simply raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Anyway,” she continued. “We wanted you guys to be able to meet and get to know each other without any pressure or expectation. And you seemed to hit it off. I even went to bed early so that you could spend some more time with him.”

“You did that on purpose?” Cami growled. “Seriously? You could have saved me from making a huge mistake.”

Maggie’s eyes shot up. She studied Cami closely, and Cami suddenly regretted opening her big mouth.

“Mistake? What mistake? I didn’t hear about any mistake.”

“That’s because I didn’t tell you,” Cami replied grumpily.

“Well, you’re telling me now!” Maggie demanded, a look of utter glee spreading across her face at the chance for fresh gossip. She looked like she was about to rubbing her hands now.

“The first night we were there,” Cami began, “Friday night, you went off to bed early—or were pretending to, so I’d be forced to spend time with Drew. And so I did. We went for a walk on the beach and shared a bottle of wine. We’d both already been drinking and we had a little too much. One thing led to another—”

“You had sex?” Maggie interrupted, much louder than she’d probably intended.

Once again, multiple eyes turned to them.

“No,” I whispered, leaning in for a little more privacy. “And keep your voice down! We didn’t have sex. But we did make out and fool around a little bit.”

“What do you mean, ‘fool around’?” Maggie asked.

“I’m not giving you details, you perv,” Cami muttered through gritted teeth.

Maggie sat back, looking utterly satisfied with herself. “So we were right, you and Drew
did
hit it off.”

“No we didn’t,” Cami snapped. Maggie just lifted another eyebrow questioningly. Cami was a little jealous of Maggie’s ability to speak with her eyebrows, but she continued. “It was weird…like, sometimes we’d hit it off, and he’d seem super amazing. But other times he’d act like a complete jerk. Then I realized he had a girlfriend, so…”

“Drew doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Maggie said confidently.

“He does too…that model chick—Analise.”

Maggie actually laughed at that statement.

“Drew is
not
dating Analise. Trust me. He doesn’t even like her. He just puts up with her because her dad is some important big wig. I don’t know the details. But I
do
know that Drew has absolutely no interest in Analise and is completely infatuated with you.”

“You do not
know
that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“How?”

Maggie bit her lip and looked away, as if she was debating whether or not to divulge another secret.

“Spill!” Cami demanded.

“He totally told Grant,” Maggie said excitedly. “Grant called me to say that Drew confessed to him that he was practically obsessed with you. He asked Grant for your number last night and everything.”

Cami paused for a second, trying to let Maggie’s excited rambling sink in. It all sounded like hearsay to her. But there was a part of her that wanted to believe…that wanted to know that Drew was as fixated on her as she was on him. Yet she just couldn’t. He’d been too weird, too standoffish.

“Grant did
not
say that!” she replied eventually. “There’s no way Drew is obsessed with me. I promise.”

“Grant never exaggerates,” Maggie said. “Come on Cami, you know my brother—ever the pragmatist. If that’s what he told me, then that’s what Drew told him.”

Cami didn’t reply; she simply took the information in. It was a lot to go over—a lot to process. Drew
did
like her? How did that change things? Did it explain his actions over the weekend? Not really. Though it did make a little sense if he was trying to impress some business bigwig—even if it was still a bit of a douchey move.