Wrapping my arms around my legs to keep from fidgeting, I rested my chin on my knees. “Have any brothers or sisters?”
“A sister,” he replied, picking up the last egg—the fourth one. A genuine smile appeared. “She’s younger than me. Just turned eighteen. She graduates this year.”
“You guys close?” I couldn’t imagine having a brother like Cam.
“Yeah, we’re close.” A dark look crossed his face and vanished quickly, but it left me wondering if they really were that close. “She means a lot to me. How about you? A big brother I have to worry about visiting and kicking my ass for being here?”
“No. I’m an only child. Have a cousin who’s older, but I doubt he’d do that.”
“Ah, good.” Devouring that egg, he sat back and patted his stomach. “Where you from?”
I pressed my lips together, trying to decide if I should lie or not.
“Okay.” He dropped his arm off the back of the metal chair. “You obviously know where I’m from if you’ve heard of my extracurricular actives in high school, but I’ll just confirm it. I’m from the Fort Hill area. Never heard of that? Well, most people haven’t. It’s near Morgantown. Why didn’t I go to WVU? Everyone wants to know that.” He shrugged. “Just wanted to get away, but be somewhat close to my family. And yes, I was… very busy in high school.”
“You’re not anymore?” I asked, not really expecting him to answer, because it wasn’t my business, but hey, if I could keep him talking, I didn’t have to say anything.
And I was… interested in learning more, because Cam, he was fascinating in a way. He was like every uber-popular, sexy guy in high school, but he wasn’t a dick. That alone made him worthy of a scientific study. Also, it was better than sitting around alone and thinking about harassing phone calls and emails.
“Depends on who you ask.” He laughed then. “Yeah, I don’t know. When I was a freshman—those first couple of months, being around all the older girls? I probably put more effort into them than I did my classes.”
I grinned, easily able to picture that. “But not now?”
He shook his head. “So where you from?”
Okay. Obviously what changed his ex-player status was something he didn’t want to talk about. Visions of pregnancy scares danced in my head. “I’m from Texas.”
“Texas?” He leaned forward. “Really? You don’t have an accent.”
“I wasn’t born in Texas. My family was originally from Ohio. We moved to Texas when I was eleven and I never picked up any accent.”
“Texas to West Virginia? That’s a hell of a difference.”
Unfolding my legs, I stood and picked up my plate and his bowl. “Well, I lived in the strip mall hell part of Texas, but besides that, it’s kind of the same here.”
“I should clean up.” He started to stand. “I made the mess.”
“No.” I backed away with his bowl. “You cooked. I clean.”
He relented, opening the foiled bread. It did smell wonderful. “What made you choose here?”
I washed the dishes and his little frying pan before answering that doozy. “I just wanted to get away, like you.”
“Got to be hard though.”
“No.” I picked up the pot he used to boil the eggs. “It was incredibly easy to make the decision.”
He seemed to consider that as he broke the bread in half. “You are an enigma, Avery Morgansten.”
I leaned against the counter, my eyes widening and he proceeded to eat half of the loaf. “Not really. More like you are.”
“How so?”
I gestured at him. “You just ate four hard-boiled egg, you’re eating half of a loaf, and you have abs that look like they belong on a Bowflex ad.”
Cam looked absolutely thrilled to hear that. “You’ve been checking me out, haven’t you? In-between your flaming insults? I feel like man candy.”
I laughed. “Shut up.”
“I’m a growing boy.”
My brows rose, and Cam laughed. As he finished off half of the loaf, he talked a little about his parents. I made my way back to the table and sat, genuinely interested. His father ran his own law firm and his mother was a doctor. That meant the Cam came from money, not the kind that my parents rolled around in, but enough that mostly likely paid his rent. He was obviously close with them too, and I envied that. Growing up, all I wanted was for my parents to want to be around me, but with the benefits, the jet-setting, and all the dinners, they’d never been home. And after everything that had happened, the few instances they were there, neither of them could even look at me.
“So you flying back to Texas for fall break or Thanksgiving?” he asked.
I snorted. “Probably not.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Got other plans?”
I shrugged.
Cam dropped the subject and it was close to noon by the time he left. Stopping at my front door, he turned to me, flipping the tiny skillet in one hand, banana-nut bread in the other. “So, Avery….”
I popped my hip against the back of the couch. “So, Cam…”
“Whatcha you doing Tuesday night?”