“I know what your name is,” I correct her. “It has been thirteen years; I’m just upset that I missed out on all of that time with her.”
“Me too,” she agrees.
“So now what?” It’s a broad question that will require a complicated answer. I’m not sure our situation could be any more challenging than it is, but it still needs a resolution.
“You know I’m a planner, AJ. I plan everything. But this, I didn’t plan for, and I feel so out of sorts right now.”
“I hear ya,” I tell her, scratching at my chin as I lean back into my seat and stretch my legs out under the table. I accidentally nudge my boot against her leg and she jumps and gasps from surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry!” I say, but I’m not really sorry. I shouldn’t want to touch her in any way I can right this second. I’m married.
“We have to make this work somehow,” she says. “Maybe we can move here for a while.” Maybe that could be the best thing ever—just a silly little dream come true that I’ve wished for throughout the years.
“Don’t you have a job and stuff?” I laugh.
“I run my own practice and hired Casper to be an associate.” I want to punch the air with my fist and tell her how fucking proud of her I am, but she’s smiling in a way that tells me she already knew I’d be thrilled to hear this.
“What about Casper, would he be up for the move?” I’m not trying to silently summon the demon away but it would make things easier for sure.
I’ve been blocking out the thought of telling Tori any of this, and I’m going to continue doing that until I get home, hoping that sometime between now and then, I figure out how to dive into my past that I have kept as hidden as hers.
I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone, searching through my pictures for a good one of Gavin. “Look,” I say, passing my phone across the table.
“Oh my gosh, he’s beautiful, AJ. He looks just like you! Some pretty dominant genes you got there, buddy,” she says, holding her gaze on my phone.
I watch as she scrolls with her finger, which is definitely the Cammy I remember, assertive and unafraid of offending. I’m guessing this is one of the many great qualities that made her into a successful attorney.
“Who’s this little doll?” She holds the phone up, with Olive’s goofy grin taking up the whole display.
“That’s Olive, Hunter’s daughter.”
“He ended up with Ellie, huh?” she asks. “She looks exactly like Ellie with that blonde hair and all those freckles.” Cammy smiles at the picture for another second and passes the phone back to me. “How is Ellie? I loved her.”
The same sensation I get every time anyone asks about Hunter and Ellie, or just Ellie, runs through my nerves, like I’ve just been wrapped up in a wet, frozen towel. “Ellie passed,” I say simply.
Cammy places her fist up against her mouth as her eyes widen. “What?” Her one word comes out muffled, in disbelief.
“During childbirth.” She wasn’t my wife or my best friend, but she was like a sister. While I don’t talk about my grief when it comes to Ellie, out of respect for the heartache Hunter lives with, it hurts like hell to mention her name or the fact that she’s gone.
Cammy hiccups and gasps for air. “Oh my God, I don’t even know what to say,” she cries.
“It’s been nine years,” I tell her.
“I had no idea,” she says.
“Life comes and goes during the blank spaces,” I say, reaching across the table for her hand. “We’re all okay. Olive is a spitfire and perfect, just like Ellie was. She is basically Ellie, so we all feel like she’s still around sometimes, you know? Besides that, Hunter is remarried to a great woman who also has a daughter, Lana, and the companionship for both Olive and Hunter has been perfect. Life for them is moving forward.”
She squeezes her fingers between mine. “I’ve been thinking of moving back here for years,” she says. “D.C. has never felt like home and I miss that feeling.”
“It’s funny, home didn’t feel like home to me for a long time. I’m not sure if it’s the location that makes a place feel like home, Cam.”
Her golden gaze is locked on mine, and I know she can read between the lines.
“I’d love to meet your wife and Gavin,” she says, pulling her hand from mine.
“And I’d love to know where our daughter went,” I say, standing from the booth, realizing Ever has been in the bathroom for at least ten minutes now. I know there are no windows to climb out of in there, but I don’t know her well enough to judge what she’d be doing in the bathroom for ten minutes.
“I was just thinking that,” Cammy says. She stands up from her seat and walks across the restaurant, strutting perfectly in her four inch heels, which shamefully, I realize makes her ass look way more perfect and mature than it once did. Cammy pokes her head into the bathroom and then walks inside.
After a short minute, the two of them come out of the bathroom and Ever looks a little different. I squint as they come closer and notice that she washed her makeup off and took some of the piercings out.