10. Luke

10

luke

“Listen, little miss. You’re supposed to eat those meatballs, not smush them into the highchair.” Miri just giggled at me like I was the silliest person she’d ever met and continued to smash her meatballs.

Spending the weekend with her had been exactly what I needed. Things had been great since Joel and I had finally cleared the air. After that amazing night together, we’d talked every day and had even grabbed lunch a few times. I was seeing him again tomorrow for another date, after he spent this weekend with Cameron. I was glad Miri was here because it kept me occupied so I didn’t spend all my time thinking about what they were doing.

I wasn’t jealous, like I’d been afraid I might be. But I was curious, and maybe I’d been thinking about their dynamic more than was probably healthy. How did it work? They seemed to slip in and out of it naturally—was this something they discussed beforehand or was it more organic than that? What were they doing right now? Were they fucking? Why was the idea of that fantasy so hot, and not just because of Joel?

I glanced at Miri and the sauce covering her entire body. There wasn’t even that much marinara on the meatballs, so how was it possible for it to make that much of a mess?

Sighing, I pulled her out of the highchair. “All right, sweet pea, I think it’s time for a bath.”

The rest of the night, I focused solely on my granddaughter. Once I finally got her asleep, I thought I would be preoccupied with thoughts of Joel and Cameron again, but I was so tired, I barely turned a show on the TV before I dozed off on the couch and didn’t wake up till 6 am, when Miri started to stir in the Pack n’ Play.

River was coming after breakfast to pick his daughter up, so the morning was spent cleaning up and gathering all her belongings that had somehow gotten scattered throughout the house. How did someone so small have so much stuff?

As soon as her bag was packed and Miri was fed and dressed and playing with some toys on the floor, my phone buzzed. It was from Joel.

Joel:

Hey, amato. Hope you had a nice weekend with Miri. After she leaves, would you mind if Cam and I stop by?

Immediately, I had my guard up. Both of them? I thought we’d agree we’d keep boundaries between the two relationships, so I had so many questions.

Is everything ok?

My phone started ringing only an instant after the read notification popped up on my message.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sorry to interrupt your time with your granddaughter,” Joel’s husky voice said down the line.

I leaned back on the couch. “It’s fine. She’s just playing now. River should be here soon. What’s going on?”

Joel sighed heavily. “Cam is . . . getting some messages. He agreed to let me show you. I wanted to see if Logan would be willing to look into it for him?”

I frowned. “I’m sure he will.” He was a missing persons detective, not that kind of cop, but I was sure he still had resources or at least knew someone who did. “What kind of messages?”

“It’s better to show you. Would we be able to stop by later?”

“Uh, sure. Yeah. And you’re sure Cameron is okay with me knowing about this?”

“Yes, absolutely. I think it’s freaking him out more than he’s letting on.”

My stomach knotted. I might still be confused about Cameron and my sudden fascination with his sex life, but I cared about him a lot. I could hear the worry and barely contained fury in Joel’s words. I wanted to do whatever I could to help, even if that was just passing along the information to my son-in-law.

“I’ll let you know once the baby leaves.”

“Thanks, amato . This means a lot to both of us.”

My heart fluttered. “Of course,” I replied somewhat awkwardly, the mild praise hitting me harder than it should.

I was a bundle of nerves by the time River left with Miri, and I texted Joel that he and Cameron could stop by whenever. He let me know they were just leaving the city and should be here within the hour.

I needed to keep busy, so I headed to my garage to fiddle with my project car that I had been working on for years. I never had the chance to put in as much time on it as I wanted to, but I didn’t mind. Whenever my mind got too busy, I came out here and worked on it. It would probably never be done, at least in my lifetime. Maybe I’d finish it in time to pass on to Ro. Gods, he was almost old enough to drive. I didn’t want to think about that too much.

I had my comfort grunge rock blasting so I wouldn’t hear when Joel and Cameron arrived, but I kept the garage door open so they would see me and know where to go.

As usual, though, I got so lost in the comforting rhythm of messing with the car that I didn’t notice them until someone squeezed my shoulder.

I jumped out of my skin and spun, wrench still in my hand. I could finally breath again when my eyes met Joel’s amused ones. He leaned over and gave me a chaste kiss on the lips.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you heard us.”

I started to answer but stopped mid-sentence when my gaze caught on Cameron.

He was hanging back at the edge of the garage, his arms wrapped around himself, like he wasn’t sure if he’d be welcomed. It was so fucking odd to see him that hesitant that even if Joel hadn’t told me, I’d know something was wrong. I’d seen more of this side of Cameron in the last week or two than I had in the entire time I’d known him. It surprised me how much it was twisting me up to see him like that.

That was then I really took him in. Instead of his usually bright and tight-fitting clothing, Cameron was wearing an oversized, boxy black sweater that almost came to his knees. He seemed to be wearing leggings with it, but I couldn’t tell for sure since the sweater was so huge and the clunky boots he’d paired with it fell right below his knees. His hair wasn’t styled and fell loose into his eyes. I didn’t think he was wearing any makeup either. My throat felt dry, and I was itchy with worry.

I put my tools down and shut off the music. “C’mon, let’s go inside.” I figured whatever had happened, this conversation shouldn’t be had in the middle of my garage.

Joel threw his arm around Cameron’s shoulders and guided him into my home.

We all got settled in the den. “Do you want anything to drink?”

Cameron shook his head but still didn’t speak. Fuck, what was going on?

“We’re fine, thank you, amato . Come sit please?”

I didn’t want to sit. I needed to be active when my nerves were strung like this, but I figured that wouldn’t help anyone, so I sat on the coffee table in front of Cameron and Joel. Joel pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. Based on the Hello Kitty case, I figured it was Cameron’s.

“Last night, Cam received a video from a blocked number. It was of him in his bedroom of his old apartment having sex with someone. He had no idea there was a camera or that he was being filmed. This morning, he received two more nearly back-to-back. All three videos were from his bedroom, and from what we can tell, there were three separate men in them.”

Cameron was shaking by the time Joel finished, and I had this nearly uncontrollable urge to go to him and wrap him in my arms, protect him. Which was . . . not my place. Joel was perfectly capable of taking care of that. I white-knuckled the edge of my coffee table, forcing myself to stay put. They were coming to me to help figure out who was sending the videos, not to comfort Cameron.

Still, he looked so vulnerable, and that hit every one of my buttons. How was I supposed to sit here and do nothing? He needed comfort, to be held. He needed—

Joel wrapped his arms around Cameron and kissed the top of his head. I forced myself to take a deep breath and turn my attention back to Joel. “You don’t think it’s any of the guys then?” If it was the same one, I’d be questioning it, but it was highly unlikely if we’re looking at three separate hookups.

“No.” Cameron finally spoke. “I’m really careful not to leave any of my hookups alone for this exact reason. Plus, these were months apart. I have an obsession with new pots for my plants, and all three videos have different pots.”

Okay . . . That was . . . Honestly, I had no idea if that made it better or worse. “Your roommates?”

Cameron looked down at his lap while he nervously picked at his sleeve. “We think so,” Joel answered for him.

“Are you okay with Logan having your phone and seeing these?”

Cameron nodded. “I deleted the one off his phone, but I have a copy of it. I left these two when they came this morning. We’re going to get Cam’s number changed after we leave here,” Joel informed me.

“That’s smart.” I knew that I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help myself. I leaned over and squeezed Cameron’s knee. His head shot up, like he was surprised as fuck at the gesture. I was pretty surprised myself. I smiled awkwardly at him, hoping I could offer him at least a little comfort.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, Cameron. I swear.”

His cheeks flushed. “Thanks. I just feel so stupid. How did I not notice?”

“Cameras are so small these days, it’s easy not to see them. Besides, why in a million years would you expect that? Especially if it was your roommates. You thought they were your friends.”

“I just—I knew I should never have hooked up with Sammy. River kept telling me he was shady, but I was only thinking about having a good time.”

“Which was fine, caro ,” Joel said firmly. He grabbed Cameron’s head and tilted it so he was looking him right in the eyes. “You’re allowed to have fun. You’re allowed to have sex with anyone you want as long as it’s consensual and you’re careful. You did nothing wrong.”

Cameron shrugged, like he didn’t really believe Joel. His vulnerability was physically hurting me, so I couldn’t even imagine what it was doing to Joel.

I felt this uncontainable urge to do something, though I had no idea what. “Let me call Logan and see what he can do, and then . . .” Then what? “Do you have work today, Cameron?”

Surprised at the change of subject, both men turned to me. “Um, not till 9.”

“Okay then, after I talk to my son-in-law, how about we all go catch a move or something? After you get your number changed, of course. Try to get your mind off it.”

Cameron rewarded me with a saucy smile, and I finally felt the world righting itself. There was the Cameron I’d known and loved all these years. “You wanna go to the movies with me?”

“All three of us.” Then I looked at Joel. Was that crossing some unspoken line I wasn’t aware of? “I mean, if that’s okay?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Joel told me. He held out his hand and I immediately reached for it. “That sounds great. Baby boy?” he asked Cameron.

“Sure, why not? Beats pacing my apartment waiting for another video to show up.”

I had no idea what to say to that, so I grabbed his phone and went in the other room to call Logan while I left Joel to take care of his boyfriend.