But then I froze.Oh, crap. The bacon.
I held up a finger. "Don't go anywhere, okay?"
And with that, I left the front door open and practically sprinted to the stove, where the bacon wasn't quite yet burnt. Frantically, I shut off the burner and moved the pan aside. And then, I sprinted down the hallway and knocked on the bedroom door where Cami was sleeping.
She had a whole bunch of siblings and a degree in primary education.If anyone could handle this, it was Cami.
Chapter 56
Brody
"I'll tell you why," Chase said. "She's playing you."
This wasn't what I wanted to hear, especially at seven o'clock on a Friday morning.
I'd just flown back from California, and I felt like shit.
It wasn't because of jet leg. It was because of Arden.
I'd been pissed off all week, and I was having a hard time shaking it. Rather than returning to the crew house, I'd gone instead to my condo for a change of clothes and some time to figure out what the hell I'd be doing next.
But instead of finding peace and quiet, I'd found Chase in my kitchen, drinking the last of my orange juice straight from the carton.
In the kitchen doorway, I'd stopped short at the sight of him. "What are you doing?"
"Drinking juice," he'd said, like it should be obvious. "What are you doing?"
"I just got back from California." Eyeing the carton in his hand, I'd asked, "And don't you have juice of your own?"
"Sure," he'd said, "but I've also got a guest, and she won't stop talking." With his free hand, he'd made yapping motions in the air. "Shit," he'd said with a laugh, "I thought she'd never shut up." But then, he'd frowned. "What's wrong with you?"
And like a dumb-ass, I'd actually told him. Even dumber, I'd asked for his opinion on why Arden had gone off the deep end.
And this is when he'd informed me that Arden was – in his words – playing me.
Fast forward to now. I told Chase, "You don't know that."
"Sure I do," he said. "You said she's nuts about the house, right?"
Oh, yeah. She was nuts, and not just about the house.
I'd been thinkingthatfor years, until she'd shown me a different side, a side that I couldn’t get enough of, a side that, even now, I missed more than I should.
With a shrug, I replied, "Yeah, so?"
"So hey, you've got to give her credit for trying."
I frowned. "Trying what?"
"To get you thinking with your dick, and not the brain upstairs."
Shit.
All week, I'd been toying with the same theory – not liking it, but not willing to let it go either.
But I should've seen the signs.
After all, Arden wasn't the first girl to try such a stunt. For years, I'd been dealing with chicks pretending to be this or that. A few of them had worked it pretty hard, too, trying to convince me that they were "the one."
