“Willow?” Mom prompted me from my thoughts. Always here but never present. That’s what Dad lovingly said when I drifted off as a kid. He didn’t find that same quality quite so enchanting now that I was an adult.

“Sorry,” I apologized out of habit. “So why don’t you just run it over to him yourself?”

Mom cringed. “Well, I grabbed his boots— It’s a long story, but I was there when it all happened, so I thought he might be a bit embarrassed to see me.”

“As opposed to being delighted to see me?” I tilted my head. “You know he can’t stand me.” Cam’s loathing of me was the worst-kept secret in all of Alba, and we were known for fast gossip. Even when I’d been with Sully, Cam had barely tolerated my presence those last months before he went off to basic, and then it had been under obvious duress.

It hadn’t always been that way, but it was sure where we ended up.

“Right, and that’s why he stepped in front of a loaded gun for you,” Mom chided. Oh yeah, she was miffed that I hadn’t filled her in last night.

“He did what?” Thea shouted, the sound echoing off the bare walls.

“Calm down,” I mumbled. “He had on a bulletproof vest.” Not that I’d known. When I’d thought that bullets had penetrated his chest… I never wanted to feel like that again. As for what I’d felt, well, I wasn’t pausing to examine that, either.

“Not on his head, he didn’t,” Mom retorted.

“Who had a gun?” Now it was Thea glaring at me.

“Arthur Daniels,” Mom explained. “Don’t worry—Xander locked it up. But you can’t tell me that boy hates you when he literally put his life on the line for yours.”

My mind drifted to his mint-and-pine scent. His arm locked around my waist. The way he’d ordered me to go, both before his father shot him…and after. Glad to know he was still a walking contradiction.

I sighed, letting my head rest against the high back of my chair. One thing I’d learned about Camden was that he might absolutely abhor my presence, but he’d never stand by and watch me get hurt.

“I never said hate. He no doubt did that because he loves you guys. Always has. And I’m sure he feels some weird sense of responsibility because Sullivan died.”

Both Mom and Thea averted their eyes, as usual.

“I can say his name. You can, too. It won’t hurt me any more than it already does.” Sure, his loss still ached, but not in the way it had. That first year, it had been a sucking chest wound. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t see past the next few minutes.