Camden briefly turned toward me and mouthed the words, “Help me.”
I tried not to laugh and had to put my hand over my mouth. Personally, I thought he deserved to be a little bit tortured after jumping to such an outlandish conclusion about me.
Carol returned with the drinks and passed them out, taking care to pour Mary-Ellen her “champers.” Camden looked like he was ready to knock back his entire drink in one gulp. I took a big swig of my drink and made a face—both because the strawberry taste was a little overwhelming and from the brain freeze. Carol told us she’d be back to check on us and left some extra champagne glasses.
Having the drink gave me something to do. Mary-Ellen was downing her champagne like her liver was on fire. I wondered how responsible I should be for her. She was still a bridesmaid and Sadie’s cousin. Why wasn’t she as concerned as Sadie about becoming an alcoholic? They came from the same gene pool.
Camden took this opportunity to try to talk to me again. I couldn’t blame him for attempting to disengage with Mary-Ellen. “Look at them.”
He had nodded toward Sadie and Dan, who were still intertwined with one another. “They are adorable,” I said.
“Yeah . . . I think they go into convulsions if they’re farther than six feet apart.” It was a sarcastic remark, which I always appreciated, but I could hear the affection underneath it. He liked that they were so in love. Most guys I’d dated, when they were around a committed couple, freaked out about it and ran in the opposite direction. Like they were going to catch it.
It was refreshing to be sitting with a man who sounded like he was longing for it in his own life.
Upset that Camden had stopped paying attention to her, Mary-Ellen poured a bit of her champagne on his lap.
“I’m so sorry!” she said. “Let me get that!”
She reached for a cocktail napkin and started blotting the liquid in a way that might have gotten her arrested in a Bible Belt state.
Camden quickly stopped her, taking the napkins. “I’ve got it. Thanks.”
“Now where were we?” she said and then launched back into explaining the TV show to him. Camden raised his eyebrows at me, like he expected me to save him, but I was enjoying my frozen fruit. He was a big boy. He could handle himself just fine.
Mary-Ellen had started describing the second episode of the first season when Vance came over and asked her if she’d like to dance. I caught a glimpse of the sneaky look on Sadie’s face and knew that she’d put him up to it. But why? Did it matter who Camden was hanging out with as long as he was having fun? Did it have to be me?
Although, to be fair, he had looked like he wanted to gnaw off his own leg to get away from Mary-Ellen.
After Vance and Mary-Ellen left, Camden moved in closer so that his words were hot against my neck, sending tingling shivers dancing across my skin. “Alone at last.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Technically we weren’t alone. Sadie, Dan, Rick, and Krista were all still in the room.
But I found myself wanting us to be.
I sucked up the last bit of my drink as I saw Carol walking by. I waved her in and asked for another. “You got it,” she said.
Then I made the mistake of looking over at Sadie, who waggled her eyebrows at me, silently cheering us on like we were her favorite couple on a dating reality show.
“It seems like Sadie is trying to send you not-so-secret signals,” Camden remarked. Of course he’d seen.
“She wants me to be nice to you. Like I’m your wedding geisha or something, here to entertain you during the festivities.” The words slipped out of me and while they were a tad bit tinged with resentment at being put in this position when I’d told everyone I didn’t want to be, the truth was I did enjoy being around Camden. No matter what I said to everybody else.
“Or she just thought we’d hit it off.”
“She’s very delusional that way,” I said.
“If there’s one thing I’ll say about Sadie, she’s definitely not delusional.”
Carol returned with another frozen daiquiri and I thanked her while I tried not to think about what Camden had just said. Because what was that supposed to mean? Was he just appreciating her realism or was he hinting that there might be something between him and me?
I hated trying to figure out men. Especially ridiculous men who thought ridiculous things.
“Girls do this. Especially when they’re brides. They want to set everybody up and have them all pair off like we’re about to board Noah’s Marriage Ark. Do your friends do that?” I asked.