Brides and Brothers by Anneka R. Walker

Chapter 32

Camille

Camille woke to arguing outside her door. She’d fallen asleep reading an online discussion from one of her classes while she waited for her brothers-in-law to come home. Her laptop was still open on her bed, and her neck was kinked. She picked up her phone. It was eleven at night. With a yawn, she slid her feet into her slippers. She padded out of her room in search of the chaos in the kitchen.

“You can give her a chance to explain tomorrow,” Benson growled. His normally soft-spoken voice had risen by several decibels.

“I deserve to know why my arm was broken tonight.”

Camille’s mouth gaped as she turned the corner to see Daegan’s arm in a cast. “Oh no! Did this happen in the fight?”

Daegan’s expression softened, but only minimally. “I fell down the stairs while we escorted Macey’s boyfriend out.”

Camille turned and blanched when she saw Easton’s jaw was yellow and green. She blinked her tired eyes a few times, but his jaw stayed green.

Cade had a faint black eye—ironically, a twin to the bruise on Daegan’s face. How fitting. Benson was the least rumpled, except for the fierce scowl that was normally a stranger to his face.

“You all look like you took bats to each other.”

Easton was the only one who smiled, but his sore jaw made it crooked.

Cade growled, “This wouldn’t have happened if those so-called friends of yours, the ones you attested to being as sweet and innocent as doves, hadn’t cheated on us. And they picked real winners. If we hadn’t shown up when we did, these two”—Cade motioned to Benson and Easton—“would have let Raina and Macey walk out with a couple of punks.”

Camille opened her mouth to respond, but Easton spoke first.

“It’s our fault now?” Easton huffed. “I can’t believe this.”

Daegan’s voice was charged with frustration. “We’re only saying the situation should’ve been taken care of before we even got there.”

“Oh, you guys took care of it, all right,” Benson threw back. “But you could have tried the decent way first and talked to them.”

“What about you?” Cade grumbled. “You didn’t do any talking.”

“By that time, there was only one thing anyone was going to listen to. I did what I had to do to keep them safe,” Benson growled back.

“And so did we,” Daegan said. “Those jerks weren’t going to back off with a polite request.”

Camille leaned back on the counter. “I thought married life was stressful. Dating is so much worse.”

The kitchen went quiet for a moment. She tried to think of a way to pacify the men. She went to the freezer and pulled out several ice packs. The Petersons kept more than a few on hand for sports injuries. As an afterthought, she grabbed a Ziplock bag of frozen cookies. She handed out the ice packs and plopped the cookies into the microwave.

One by one the boys slipped into the kitchen chairs. Camille took that as a cue they needed to talk. She put water on the stove for hot chocolate and carried the cookies over to the table.

Where was Aiden when she needed him? Even Flynn’s presence would’ve been nice, since he hadn’t been involved. Unfortunately, he was meeting Sage’s parents this weekend and had driven to Utah.

“What happened to Trevor and George?” Camille asked, biting into a cookie.

Benson looked up. “They’re about as roughed up as us, but we all agreed not to call the police so long as they never show their faces around Raina, Macey, or any of the others.” He paused. “It was pretty late by the time we got out of the hospital for Daegan’s arm, so we didn’t go back to the apartment to check on anyone.”

“Check on them?” Daegan growled. “They should be checking on us!”

Benson glared at his brother. “The other reason we didn’t go back is because Daegan is too hotheaded to keep his temper in check.”

Daegan stood and pushed his chair back from the table. He tried marching from the room, but Easton grabbed his good arm.

“He’s right,” Easton said. “You and Macey have a good thing going, and discussing what happened before you calm down won’t help anything.”

Daegan probably didn’t like his younger brother telling him what was what, but he stared at the ground without a retort.

Cade huffed. “Don’t we deserve to know what happened? We put our necks on the line, and I think it’s perfectly fair we get our answers tonight.”

“Please, listen to me,” Camille said. “I know what happened. Macey is friends with Shondra, the girl Daegan and Cade asked out.”

Cade blanched. “What?”

He looked at Daegan, who looked equally pale. “Shondra couldn’t have said much about us since neither of us ever took her out.”

“The trust was still broken,” Camille explained. “My friends were angry and wanted to show you how it felt.” No one spoke for several minutes, but the guilt was evident on the twins’ faces. “I’ll invite my friends over for breakfast, and we can either hash it out around the table, or you guys can split up and talk it out.”

Benson and Easton nodded.

Camille returned to her room and texted all her friends with the breakfast invite. When no one responded, she tried calling a few of them. None of them answered. Things must’ve been worse than she thought. She threw her phone on the bed. She was going to have to make up an excuse about why her friends didn’t come. Fessing up to the alternative, that the girls were too mad to forgive them, would be almost more than she could handle right now. She felt responsible for pushing her friends and her brothers-in-law together in the first place. She picked up the phone and tried calling Daisha again. On the fourth or fifth time, she gave up and called Aiden.

“Isn’t this a little late for my early-bird wife to be calling?” Aiden’s deep voice rolled lazily from the phone line, and Camille savored the sound. He must’ve been asleep.

“I was hoping you were still up working or watching television. I’m sorry I woke you.”

Aiden yawned, and she immediately yawned too. “I knew it was too late for you to be calling. You must be upset about something. What’s happened?”

Camille moaned. “Everything.” Where to start? She was frustrated with his brothers and frustrated with him for being gone and leaving her to deal with all of this.

“Sweetie, I’ll be home in less than a week. Nothing is allowed to go wrong until I get there.”

Camille almost laughed into the phone. Instead, she sighed and kicked off her slippers. Tucking her feet under the covers of her bed, she melted against her pillow. “If only life would cooperate.”

“I know what you mean. I think I’ll pull my hair out if I have to stay here one more day. I might come home bald. Would you mind?”

“Premature baldness? Yeah, it’d be a tough call.” Camille turned on her side. “But seriously, things are getting a little out of control over here.”

“Is it Flynn?” Aiden asked.

“Flynn? No, I think he’s the only one who doesn’t have problems right now.”

“You have shaken things up around there,” Aiden said, amazement in his voice.

Guilt pushed tears to her eyes. “Does it have to be my fault? Because right now it feels like I’m to blame, and I wanted you to tell me the opposite. I haven’t figured out how things went so wrong so fast.”

Aiden laughed softly. “I can’t help you. I don’t even know what happened.”

“Daegan broke his arm.”

“Did you arm wrestle him or something?”

“No,” Camille said.

“Then how did you break his arm?”

“I didn’t.” Camille told him what she knew of the story and finished by recounting how none of the girls would answer their phones.

“I don’t see why you’re blaming yourself for any of this.” Aiden’s words should’ve comforted her, but they didn’t.

“I’ve been so excited that everyone is dating each other, I didn’t think about what would happen if everything fell apart. I didn’t consider having brothers who hated my friends and vice versa. I’m stuck in the middle, and it’s my own fault.”

“Millie the Matchmaker can’t quit because a few matches went awry. Who will match up our kids?”

“Very funny.” Camille wasn’t even going to think about matching up her children. She put her hand on her stomach. She ached to have Aiden home so she could share the news with him about their baby. She was tired of waiting and needed something happy to focus on. “By the way, I have important news for you.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you sleeping?”

Aiden’s answer was slurred. “No. Yes.”

Wanting so badly for him to thoroughly appreciate the moment, she decided to wait for a more convenient time. “I’ll let you go to sleep. Please keep us in your prayers.”

“Night, love.”

“Night.”

“I thought you had our backs, Camille,” Easton teased. His bruise was still green and yellow, but his smile was more natural than it had been the night before.

Everyone was sitting around the table, picking at their breakfast burritos.

“I knew we should’ve called them last night,” Cade said, running his hands through his already tousled blond hair.

Camille shrugged. “I’m sorry, guys.”

“Why don’t we head over there right now.” Benson pulled his coat off the back of his seat. It was Saturday, and he didn’t have much work to do, but if Camille could count on one thing, it was Benson’s readiness for anything.

Daegan picked a thread off his sling and balled it up with his fingers. “They should be calling us. I’m not going to go begging for an apology.”

Cade’s body went rigid. “Wait, you don’t think those jerks would try to stop by again, do you?”

“Not if they want to avoid the police,” Daegan said. “It makes me sick to think what could’ve happened if we hadn’t shown up when we did.” He turned to plead his case to Camille. “Our lab got out early. I assumed they wouldn’t mind us coming over there an hour earlier than normal. I bet it was heaven’s way of preventing a bigger mess than the one we got.”

Benson cleared his throat, his voice soft when he spoke. “I know most of us are quiet about how we feel about God, but I have never questioned my brothers and their dedication to Him. Daegan, you’ve always been able to recognize when heaven is trying to tell you something. I think if you listened now, you’d see the Lord doesn’t want you to be angry. He wants you to resolve things with Macey, but in a way that will avoid hurting those women any more. If you love Macey, and I think you do, or you wouldn’t be so fired up, then you should let this go. You too, Cade.”

Goosebumps ran down Camille’s arms. Benson’s words sounded like something Aiden would have said. Aiden had a way of settling everyone in the room, but in his absence, Benson had stepped forward.

After a minute Cade quietly mumbled, “Once we have a discussion, Daegan and I’ll be able to get through this. George was nothing like Raina’s type. I’m Raina’s type.”

Daegan blew out his breath. “I agree. We need to talk it out.” He turned to Camille. “How long do girls stay angry? And why are they mad at all since their revenge worked? How long are we going to have to wait until they’ll explain?”

Camille pushed her plate away. “I’m sorry I’ve been lumping us women together like we all think and want the same things. I don’t know why my friends are mad, only that they are. They could be mad forever, but I doubt it. You’ll have to be patient. Tonight, you can try again and give them a call.”

No one seemed to like her answer. Benson left the kitchen, frowning. Easton stood and stared out the back window before grabbing a tortilla and eating it plain on his way back to his room. Daegan and Cade wandered into the family room and flipped on the sports channel.

For the first time, Camille’s homemade breakfast was hardly touched.