Page 108 of See You Again

James glanced at her profile. “I agree. You should.”

Her head swiveled to look at him, her eyes appearing almost black in the dim light. “I’m not going to drop this. Amy deserves better. And I’m sure as hell not going to let some weirdo scare me away from doing my job. We’ve compromised. Madison is going to be ‘sick’ for a while, and I’ll do it alone.”

A heavy weight settled on his sternum. “I had a feeling you were going to say something like that.”

“You’re not going to argue?”

He wanted to. “Would you listen?”

“No, thank you for understanding.”

James might understand, even admire, her dedication, but he wanted to scream at the thought of her putting herself further in danger.

If this was Crawford, he was a dead man.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Change of plans,” Cara said, when James picked up the phone call from his sister the next morning.

“Meaning?”

“I may have let it slip that we were all getting together today, and your mom is a little offended she wasn’t invited to our lunch.”

“Cara,” James groaned.

“It was an accident! I wasn't thinking clearly last night… Wes was distracting me, so really if you want to blame anyone, blame him.”

She giggled, and James’s face scrunched in horror. “You better not be implying what I think you are. Married or not, you’re my little sister?—”

“Don’t be such a baby. Anyway, she wants us all to come to her house now. And when I say all, I mean all.”

“You told her no, right?”

“Not exactly. I told her I'd have to check. But then, she for sure knew something was up because why wouldn't we come there?”

James's stomach sank. It wasn't only that he didn't want his mother worrying about their investigation into David Bloom’s death. What twisted his stomach into knots was that he'd have to lie to his mother about the true nature of his relationship with Cami. They still hadn’t had a conversation about what, if anything, had changed.

He scowled, remembering how she had marched straight into the guest room and closed the door last night.

That was not how he’d planned on spending the night.

“Hello? Earth to James?”

“I’m still here. Cami was supposed to answer your questions on thallium poisoning.”

“I know. Hence the all. I’m excited to meet her. You realize she’s the biggest reason your mom wants to be included. You do know how dumb it makes you and Luke look when you keep acting like Anne doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“We’re just trying to protect her.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. She knows more than you think.”

“I’m not sure if Cami’s still available today,” James improvised. “We had a really late night, and she’s very busy. She’s filled me in on all the information from the Alvarez case I can?—”

“What’s the problem, James?”

“Nothing. She has a podcast to put out.”

“Do you not want to introduce her to your mom for some reason? Dahlia said she’s great.”