Cam

CAM

AS WE PULLED through a wrought-iron gate and down a long path, I nervously glanced over at Karter from the passenger seat. The antithesis of nerves, Ty was singing a song about scarecrows and pumpkins in the back.

"It's fine," he assured me. "Don't worry so much. It's just a party."

"Yeah," I answered sardonically. "Just a party. Just a party that your parents, one of whom I haven't met yet, and a bunch of people you know will be at."

Add on the fact that we were going to try and goad Lucas into admitting some of the stuff he'd done while my phone recorded him from the front pocket of my shirt, and I was kind of a wreck. Even though it was my idea, carrying out secret plans was not exactly in my wheelhouse.

"Whoa!" Ty's shock rang out from the backseat as Karter's mothers' mansion came into our view. "Holy cow!"

It was enormous, and completely decked out for Halloween. Black and orange twinkling lights swirled around the columns of the wrap-around porch, and carved pumpkins, glowing with candlelight, were scattered around the front. The front yard had a lot of cars already, meaning there was already a ton of people there.

Ty was out of the car like a shot, practically hopping up and down in his neon bright Epic Power Squad costume. Karter had warned me that all the kids and even some of the adults wore costumes for the party, but I'd had enough to worry about. Anyway, I hadn't had too many choices for shirts I owned with a front pocket, so for once plain black would have to do. I wore an unzipped hoodie over it so I wouldn't freeze.

I let out a shaky sigh before unbuckling my seat belt and getting out. Karter was instantly by my side, threading our fingers together, giving my hand a comforting squeeze.

"Everything will be fine," he repeated. "You'll have fun."

I was extremely doubtful of his statement, but I managed to force a small smile onto my face and give him a light nod.

As we approached the front door, I couldn't help marveling at how huge and expensive all the elements of the house were. The porch was massive, and had tons of nice furniture scattered around.

"I knew your family had money," I muttered to Karter. "But I didn't know you grew up in a literal freaking mansion. You didn't even warn me."

He shrugged, and when I looked up, he looked vaguely embarrassed.

"I would have felt like an idiot going on about my family's finances when you've had to work so hard for everything."

I bit down into my lower lip to suppress a laugh at his chagrined expression. "You sure do worry a lot about what I think."

"What you think is one of the most important things in the world to me," he said pointedly. "I don't want you to think I'm a soft, spoiled nepo-baby."

"I don't," I promised him. "I'm sure it was hard for you in different ways."

"You think my life was hard?" He scoffed.

"I wouldn't want to have to worry about whether people really wanted to be my friend or if they just wanted to use me for my stuff. I'm sure that wasn't fun."

He stared at me for a few seconds, before bringing a hand to my cheek, holding me steady for a kiss. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but of course it was during this brief window of time that the front door was yanked open by a petite woman with short, dark hair in a polka-dotted ‘50s housewife costume.

"Oh!" She let out a surprised sound as Karter's lips lifted off mine. "I'm sorry, I can give you two a minute if you need it," she teased us. Her voice had a little southern twang to it.

"They're always doing that," Ty responded impatiently, waving a hand dismissively to indicate his feelings on our annoying habit of kissing.

"Oh, really?" She asked, giving Karter a knowing look, but she looked thrilled by the announcement.

"Mom," he greeted her calmly. "This is Cam and Ty." I noticed he used the name I'd asked to be referred as, for once. Maybe he liked being the only one to call me Cameron, too.

"Tracey," she introduced herself warmly. "Aren't you two just cute as a button?"

Only half of the two of us were as cute as a button, but I could only nod wordlessly. Ty, however, was not overly flattered.

"You have bobbing for apples here?" He questioned, trying to peek around her into the house like it would be filled with buckets of water.

"Ty." I said his name in a low warning. He had a tendency to be very single-minded when it came to things he was excited about.

"Well, we won't be doing that one until later but we have a lot for you to do in the meantime," she told him, completely unfazed. She'd raised a son too, so I guess she was used to it.

"Okay," Ty said, agreeably. As long as he could eventually dunk his head in some gross water with other kids' spit in it and bite into an apple, he would be happy.

We walked into the house, which was filled with mostly adults milling around with drinks or little plates of snacks in their hand. The backyard, which was visible through the massive bay windows and sliding glass that formed nearly one whole wall of the living room, seemed to be the place for the kids. There were a bunch of them out running around already.

"Can I go play, Dad?" Ty asked, tugging to be released from the grip I had on his hand. "Please?" He asked pointedly.

"Just hold on a minute for us to get finished talking to Mrs. Tracey," I told him. He sighed.

"Oh, you can send him right on out," she said. "Farrah and a bunch of the other parents are out there already."

"Ah..."

Ty's face perked up at her suggestion, his eyes widening to give me a pleading look. I didn't want to let him out of my sight, after the things Karter and I had figured out about Lucas.

"I'll take him," Karter cut in, sparing me from having to look rude by turning down her request. "It's not like I need a tour of the house I grew up in, anyway."

"Oh, good!" Tracey clapped her hands together once. "That means Cam and I can talk."

"Bye, Dad!" Ty called out to me as he skipped ahead of Karter and out of the sliding glass door. The moment it opened a collection of shrieks and giggles poured in from the yard, muffled once again after it slid shut.

It had all happened so fast I hadn't been able to react, and now I stood alone with Karter's mom. We weren't really alone, there were people all around, but I felt like I was in a bubble of awkwardness. At least she seemed to approve of me more than her wife.

She led me through a few parts of the house, also festively decorated for Halloween and fall in general, giving cute anecdotes about Karter related to certain rooms.

"So Farrah told me y'all met at a coffee shop, and about Karter sharing his donut with Ty. That's a cute story, seeing as how everyone's just meeting on apps these days."

"Yeah, it is," I agreed, smiling. "He's been great with Ty, since the beginning."

"I always thought he'd make such a sweet dad," Tracey sighed. She was very obviously thrilled for her son to be in a serious relationship. I wasn't sure I'd feel the same when Ty got around to that. The idea made me feel kind of itchy.

We chatted a bit more before she allowed me to join Karter and Ty outside. The night passed pleasantly, with Karter introducing me to several acquaintances and neighbors. We both watched Ty carefully as he romped around, but nothing seemed or felt out of the ordinary. And we hadn't even seen Lucas yet.

We helped Ty carve his chosen design into his pumpkin for the little contest, where all the kids won a cute little ribbon and a prize bag, which was filled with candy and little toys and stickers.

At some point during the night, we found ourselves in a little circle with Farrah and Tracey, where Tracey teased Karter sort of mercilessly.

"He started to worry me for a minute there," she said, shaking her head. "33 and not even engaged! Spending all his time working and sleeping. Shameful. Your parents are lucky," she added, giving a little laugh as she looked at me. "You sure didn't make them wait too long for a grandbaby, did you?"

"I'm not sure they saw it that way, exactly," I answered, but I wasn't offended. It was hard to feel offended when she was so obviously happy with the situation. "But actually, my parents passed away when Ty was only two, so…" I trailed off, not sure what to add to soften the words.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said regretfully, giving me a sympathetic look. "It's a hard, hard thing losing your parents. I'm amazed you've gone through all that, and still so young, too."

"It's okay," I assured her, shaking my head a little. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel guilty about bringing it up. "Sometimes it's been hard but… I don't really feel like I'm doing it by myself anymore."

At my words, Karter's fingers curled into mine. When I shifted my gaze to him, his eyes were intense.

"You aren't by yourself," he promised me.

I forgot, for just a brief moment, that we were in front of his parents, surrounded by cheerful party attendees and shrieking kids (including mine). My heart stumbled in my chest, and suddenly all I wanted was to be alone with him so I could show him how incredibly happy I was to be with him.

Tracey let out a delighted squeal in response to his words to me, knocking me out of my brief little moment of self-reflection.

"The two of you are just so cute, I don't know what to do with myself," she said, making moony eyes at us.

"Mom," Karter's voice was a bit tight. "Please don't embarrass me."

I couldn't help but giggle a bit at that. It reminded me too much of Ty when he felt that I was endangering his cool reputation in front of his little friends.

Farrah seemed a lot more comfortable with us this time. It seemed that a lot of the awkwardness during our first meeting really had just been due to the shock. She asked if I was enjoying the party, and seemed glad that I was.

Later, Karter spotted Lucas in a crowd of people, mingling and laughing. When he pointed him out to me, I couldn't help but internally groan. He looked perfect as always, in slim-fitting slacks and a textured cable-knit sweater with a scarf in perfect deep orange, a perfect match to the autumn leaves littering the ground. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

We watched him carefully, trying desperately not to seem like we were. I couldn't help but notice that he didn't seem to be paying any attention to us at all, and especially not Ty. But when he finally, after what felt like forever, drifted away from the crowd toward a table with some snacks and a punch bowl, I didn't need to be told that it was time. Quickly fiddling with my phone to turn the record function on, I subtly slipped it into the front pocket of my shirt, so the camera part peeked just over the hem.

As luck would have it, no one joined him at the table before I reached it, pulling up right beside him so he had no choice but to notice me. When he did glance over in my direction, clearly recognizing me, he rolled his eyes a bit before stepping away. I was surprised by that. I thought he'd love an opportunity to insult me to my face instead of meddling with my life behind my back. But I couldn't let him get away so easily, so I pretended like I really wanted some baby carrots from the veggie tray as an excuse to step right back in front of him.

"Do you mind?" He asked, when my violation of his personal space became too much.

"Oh, sorry." I tried to inject as much genuine feeling into my fake apology as I possibly could. "I'm such a klutz. I'm Cam. I'm here with Karter Morrison."

"I know who you are," he responded, sounding kind of bored. It was definitely not the kind of reaction I'd expected from him. As much as he seemed to hate me, I was expecting… Something, at least.

"You went to school with Karter, right? And you work with him?"

"That's right," he said, with a tone suggesting I was an annoying kid asking him why the sky was blue.

Nerves and anger tangled up in my stomach until I wasn't sure what exactly would be the best course of action to goad him into admitting something. I wasn't going to let him play dumb.

"Look, I know everything," I said. I waited an unreasonable amount of time for some recognition to pop into his eyes, but there was nothing. "Karter does, too," I added.

"What do you want from me?" He asked, giving me a look like I was a fly he was forbidden from swatting at. "So I had some pictures taken with your boyfriend. Get over it. We don't all want to wait tables, you know."

"You did a hell of a lot more than that," I snapped, at my limit of keeping up the charade. "We know you're the one who filed the report with CPS, and you didn't even bother covering your tracks with buying out my apartment."

He blinked at me like I'd been speaking another language. "What the fuck are you even talking about?" When I didn't respond, too shocked by his incredible skill in acting, he scoffed and rolled his eyes again. "You know what? Why don't you go play with the kids and get back to me when you can legally drink."

I was old enough to legally drink but I wasn't quick enough to think of a good response as he sailed past me and back over to his little group. After a few moments, some of the people in his little circle glanced back at me, snickering. Great.

I marched back over to Karter, who'd been watching the exchange carefully.

"Did you get anything good?" He murmured softly, eyes flickering to the phone still settled in the pocket of my shirt. I fished it out, turning off the recording app.

"Not exactly," I admitted. "We can talk about it tonight."

He gave me a subtle nod, and we let it go for the rest of the night.

When the time came to bob for apples, Ty was more or less a shark in the water. I had no idea how he was so good at it, since as far as I was aware he'd never done it. But he won the game and got a little plastic trophy for his troubles, which we promised him he could display in his room.

Once the night had wound down and people were starting to leave, Farrah and Tracey walked us to Karter's car.

Farrah thanked us for coming, and it seemed genuine. I thanked her for having us. She gave Karter a look with maybe a drop of sentimentality in it as she clapped him on the shoulder, like she was congratulating him for something.

"You just have to bring Ty over for Thanksgiving," Tracey begged. "We make so much food, there's plenty to go around. And we would love to see you guys again just as soon as possible."

"We can do that," I promised, after glancing over at Karter to make sure he wasn't obviously protesting. "We'd love to come over," I revised my statement to make my enthusiasm more obvious.

"We never have holidays with other people!" Ty piped up. He seemed excited by the idea, too. "It's always just me and Daddy."

"We haven't had anyone to spend a holiday with since my parents passed," I explained.

Tracey's eyes filled with tears before her arms sprang out from her sides, wrapping me in a tight hug, squeezing a shocked yelp from me. I didn't have time to squirm before she moved on to Ty, kneeling down to give him a strong squeeze. He laughed, hugging her back. He didn't have any issues with physical affection.

"You don't worry about a thing, sugar," she said, sniffling. "You can come over here and spend any holiday with us you want. Hell, any day of the week."

"Thanks," Ty said sincerely, glancing over at me with raised eyebrows like we'd just been awarded some grand, coveted prize.

And on the ride home, while he snoozed in the backseat and Karter kept shooting flirty looks at me from the driver's seat, I was pretty sure I agreed with him.