A CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL: Best Friend to Lovers Romance Read online

  Apparently, Cam didn’t get the memo. Her phone rang shrilly on the nightstand at just after eight, displaying his name and contact number.

  Lana’s hand shot out, eager to stop the shrill sound. She fumbled for her phone, nearly knocking it onto the floor before she managed to get it to her ear.

  “Hello?” She croaked out, fully aware that she sounded exactly like what she must look like- a freshly awakened mess.

  “Good morning my fake girlfriend.”

  A groan wanted to escape her throat, but she swallowed it back. “First of all, there is nothing good about calling this early. Don’t you know that I work at a bar? That I’m awake until three or four in the morning on Saturday nights?”

  “I wasn’t aware you had to stay out that late.”

  “Everyone is aware. Anyway, what do you want?” She tried to force some of the hostility from her tone. Cam was the one doing her a favor after all.

  It wouldn’t kill me to be nice.

  “I was wondering if you wanted to get together for a drink. Get our stories straight since we are heading to your parent’s house in a couple of days.”

  “It’s a little early for a drink, don’t you think?”

  “I was talking about a coffee, maybe a tea. A latte if you’re feeling fancy.”

  Despite her hazy brain and heavy lids and the three odd hours of sleep she’d had the night before, Lana actually smiled. She couldn’t help herself. Cam’s voice, overly cheerful, far too eager, friendly, and so achingly familiar brought it out in her.

  She realized, with a small start, that she was glad he was home. Of course she was glad, but she was truly glad. She’d missed him during the years he’d been gone. Social media was a poor substitute for a real best friend.

  “Yeah. Sure. Give me an hour to get up and get in the shower and try to appear decent.”

  “If you went to bed at three then you should be well rested.”

  “I went to bed at five. And even if it had been earlier, I wouldn’t call it being well rested.”

  “You won’t fall back asleep, will you?”

  “Of course not. Sunday mornings are my favorite, especially the real early ones. I wouldn’t want to miss a minute of it.”

  “You know, you’d make a terrible doctor.”

  “Because lack of sleep and shift work would kill me?”

  “Exactly. That and the fact that you hate the sight of blood.”

  “Goodbye, Cam. I’ll call you back in an hour to meet up.”

  A strange, jittery, nervous excitement pulsed through Lana’s veins as she climbed out of bed and forced herself into the shower. It didn’t make sense. Oddly enough, she’d felt the same way seeing him when she’d walked into that restaurant for their lunch. It had been a very, very long time since she’d seen him last. Of course she missed him, but strangely her body reacted in the same way she’d reacted to any other man she found pleasing and attractive.

  She’d noticed that Cam was a man, not just her best friend who had been gone for ages. It was a more than a little nerve-wracking.

  Maybe it was just the fact that she’d gone for lunch with the intention of duping him into doing her bidding because he never could say no to her. She would have begged him if that’s what it took. She felt like she had one last shot at fulfilling that stupid fantasy that had haunted her since she was old enough to be haunted.

  She more than half regretted her ridiculous need to know what it was like to spend a night with Dale. No, she didn’t really regret that. If anything, she regretted dragging Cam into it. She was fine with blackening her own soul, but she shouldn’t use him and darken his in the process. She wouldn’t have asked any other person on earth and what did that say? She just couldn’t think of another way. Cam was right. Dale wasn’t the best person on earth but that didn’t change the fact that he was blonde and gorgeous and that he’d occupied all the secret, sacred spots in her dreams for the past decade and a half.

  One kiss was all it took to get her hooked. That kissing booth had started it all. She’d always noticed Dale, as her brother’s best friend, but she’d really woken up and noticed him after that.

  Once the warm spray hit her, it did indeed serve to wake Lana up and force her back to the present. She found that, oddly enough, she was actually looking forward to meeting with Cam. Mixed with her anticipation was a small amount of guilt. Smaller than it should have been. She knew what she was doing wasn’t right. She should never have asked him to do any of this. He’d only agreed for her, and that was the wrongness of it all.

  An hour and a half later, seated at the mall of all places, in a coffee shop, sipping a chai tea, Lana still didn’t regret the early phone call. She hadn’t quite managed to shake her guilt either. Cam, on the other hand, looked like he actually didn’t mind the strange scheme she’d come up with and trapped him into.

  Cam’s eyes sparkled with excitement. He clearly was well rested. No bags or dark circles under his eyes like her own, no creases at the corners, no visible haze. He had on a red and black plaid shirt that accentuated the broad set of his shoulders and narrow waist. He’d opted for faded jeans which had obviously seen heavy duty wear but on him, they looked just right. Some guys tried to buy that look off the rack, but Cam came by it honestly.

  He’d never cared to be fashionable. Growing up he was always in a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She remembered his old black high-top sneakers. He’d been so proud the day he got them, right before the first day of grade eight. Soon those shoes were grey from dirt and wear and full of holes. He hadn’t wanted to give them up. He’d been irate when his mother threw them in the trash one day while he was in the shower. By the time Cam emerged looking for them, the bag was already on its way to the landfill in the back of the garbage truck.

  His dark black hair, cut shorter than at their last meeting, was gelled or oiled back. He was freshly shaved, his skin almost gleaming in the overhead lighting. Lana had the insane notion that if she pressed her nose to that smooth skin, she’d inhale the spicy scent of aftershave. His dark eyes sparkled. His lips were turned up in almost a perpetual smile. He just looked happy to be alive, so happy it almost hurt Lana’s chest like too much sugar hurt her teeth.

  “So, I figured we should get everything straight. The details, like how long we’ve been together, why we started seeing each other, when we realized we were into each other, all of that.”

  Lana nearly frowned. She stared down into the swirling foam of her chai tea latte, inhaling the fragrant, crisp scent of cinnamon on her inhale. “Wow. You’ve really thought this through.”

  “I can’t say that I haven’t. It’s a little nerve-wracking, what you’ve asked me to do. It’s not every day that I’m someone’s fake boyfriend.”

  “When was the last time you were a real one?” Cam scowled at her, but she knew he didn’t mean it. “I know, I know, you’ve been far too busy saving the world to have a real life.”

  “Right on the money.” Cam sipped his black coffee. The shop was nearly empty save for the two of them. It opened up into the mall and they’d chosen a little bistro set right at the entrance to avoid being overheard by nosey baristas who had nothing better to do than eavesdrop. “Anyway, answer the question.”

  “I… uh- I guess we can say that we’ve always been really good friends so there was always a connection and it blossomed from there. We can say that we connected over long distance, video chat and social media and what not. When you got back, we were so excited that we couldn’t wait to tell people. It will of course, be expected. Everyone always thought we were sleeping together when we were old enough to figure out that we had the right anatomy to do it.”

  Cam rolled his eyes. “Crude.”

  “It’s not my fault. You know I’m right.”

  “Do you think your parents will be happy about it?”

  “I already know they’re going to be. I called them a couple days ago and told them you were coming with me. My mom sounded really excite
d. You know that they always liked you better than they even liked me.”

  “Pretty much.” Cam smirked. He raised his mug to his mouth for another long pull of coffee. “You know, for a four-dollar cup of coffee, this really isn’t that good.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it. Everything here is over-priced.”

  “I guess it’s not that good because I’m used to drinking the real thing.”

  “Yes, I bet.” Lana didn’t really know what Cam thought about being back in Austin. It occurred to her that she’d never done the right thing and actually asked. Some friend I am. “How are you finding it? Being back here,” she finally asked after a long pause.

  “I don’t know. Alright I guess. It’s hard to get used to going back to set hours and grocery stores, actually stores in general. It’s a different way of life down there. No one has much money so that doesn’t really matter. People aren’t working hard to have a bigger house and better things, always trying to get more and more and more, they’re working hard just to survive. Their families mean everything to them. Community and tradition are very important. I miss that most, that sense of belonging.”

  Cam blinked fast, but not fast enough to banish the fleeting look of sorrow that entered his soft brown eyes.

  “You miss it then?”

  “Yes. Very much. At least, certain parts. The people, the culture, the community. That part I miss. Feeling like I could never do enough no matter how hard I tried… that I don’t miss.”

  On pure impulse, Lana reached across the table and covered Cam’s large, strong hand with her own. His hands looked different than when she’d sent him off four years ago with well wishes at a party thrown at his parent’s house before they left Cedar Creek. The fingers seemed more defined with their square, blunt nails. The veins stood out, blue and rigid. His knuckles were sharper. They looked like the talented hands of a man who really had tried to change the world. She didn’t doubt that he was always working.

  The contact of their hands sent a zinging jolt down her arm. Lana nearly gasped. The flaxen hair on that arm stood on end. She shivered and removed her hand, let it rest to the side of Cam’s on the table as a natural gesture of solidarity, when what she really wanted to do was draw her hand back to her chest and stare at it to see if she’d truly been burned.

  Did he feel that too? What the hell was that?

  “Enough? Cam?” Lana forced her heartbeat to calm down. She pushed the words past a closed-up throat. “Don’t you realize that of all of us, all fifteen of us who graduated together, you’re the only one who is doing anything with your life? I work at a bar for god sakes. I hardly have any friends. I only go home a couple of times a year. I always forget to call my mom back and she’s always worried. My parents think that I’m too wild. They don’t like that I never seem to settle down. I don’t exactly date guys. I just… I don’t even know what I’m doing. Even my brother has said that I’m too wild. I don’t even party. I guess that it’s just the fact that I work as a waitress for a living in a dive bar and that I’m still single. I haven’t met anyone who holds my interest.”

  Cam shrugged. He moved his hand and Lana at last felt like she could retract hers. She saw a flicker of something dark in Cam’s eyes, he blinked too quickly for her to read it. Her own words echoed back at her in the near silence of the café and the sleepy mall. Most shops weren’t even open yet.

  Haven’t met anyone who holds my interest. The odd thing was, at the moment, Cam held her interest. She felt strangely captivated. A twinge ripped through her stomach and she told herself it was just the fact that after four years, he was almost a stranger. Those butterflies were just nerves.

  “I’m sure you’ll get it figured out.” He swallowed the last of his coffee and pushed back his chair. “Ready to get our shopping done?”

  “Shopping?” Lana glanced up questioningly. She was unprepared for the shocking rush of longing she felt when her gaze settled back on the impressive figure Cam cut. He was a handsome man. He probably always had been. She had just been too blinded by casualness and friendship and seeing him every single day to notice.

  His lips pulled back in a charming smile and his eyes glistened with humor. “Yes, shopping. If I’m going to be your real fake boyfriend, it’s only right that we pick out the gifts for your family together. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you’ve literally done nothing yet.”

  “Okay, you may know me too well,” Lana ceded. “You’re right. I haven’t bought one gift.”

  “Of course not. It’s always the last possible minute or the day before that you do it and always in a mad rush.”

  She rolled her eyes and stood, scraping back her chair with a purposeful screech. “Okay then Mr. Know It All, that’s why you brought me to the mall, isn’t it?”

  “Pretty much. Lead the way then.”

  “Maybe you should pick out the gifts if you know me and my family so well.”

  “I would be honored.” Cam chuckled. He set off, a pace ahead of her.

  Lana let him keep the distance at first, mostly so she could shamelessly let her eyes wonder over his form. What a fine figure he cut. He was an impressive man, naturally graceful and athletic, fit, trim and muscular in all the right places. He made clothing look good, better than any ridiculous model she’d ever seen. He was tanned, and it looked good on him, the golden hue only adding to his dark allure.

  Allure? Had she really just thought that? Complexion. That would have been a better word to use.

  “Are you coming?” Cam eventually spun around, still grinning. “Come on. There’s a tea shop up ahead. I know how much your mom loves tea.”

  “I wouldn’t have even thought to get her that. Maybe you do know my family better than I do.”

  “You bet. I pretty much grew up at your house and you at mine. You’re lucky I dragged you out. I know that you hate this part of Christmas. You always have, and I know you always will. I’ll drag the humbug right out of you and since I’m a genius, we’ll make quick work of this.”

  “Yeah, alright,” Lana grumbled.

  She hurried to keep up as Cam walked off. He was right. The prospect of getting in and out with her gifts as painlessly as possible in a mall that was soon going to be overcrowded, choking the breath out of her lungs and drawing a curse to her lips. She should have, but for some odd reason, the prospect of going back to her silent apartment for a nap didn’t hold the allure she thought it should.

  Her stomach tightened again and she gave herself a shake. Just nerves. That’s all it was. After all, she was about to head to her parent’s house with a fake boyfriend in tow just to fulfill some ridiculous fantasy she should have let die when she graduated over a decade before.

  CHAPTER 3

  Cam

  Walking into the DeLangly residence was like entering a time warp. Nothing had changed. The house had last been remodeled in the early nineties, at least Cam remembered thinking so. He recalled a time when the kitchen had been gutted, but it was an early memory and he wasn’t sure how much of the rest of the house had followed suit. Lana’s parents, Jocelyn and Frank, were always doing projects over the years. Her dad liked to putter around in the small workshop at the back of the house.

  Though the house was located in town, it was along the border edges and had a double or triple lot. The play structure that they’d enjoyed so much as children still stood. It had once been painted a bright, fire engine red, but time and the elements had faded it to a dull, weathered grey. It had been another project of Frank’s and came complete with a tree house minus the tree, a wood swing with metal chains, a tire swing and the ever-popular horse swing. It had once been one of those rocking horses for small kids. Frank had removed the springs and the base, freed it from its tethers and attached it to chains that gave it wings like any other swing.

  Lana let them in after they arrived. They’d dropped their bags by the front door, shed their shoes and made it into the small kitchen that overlooked the backyard befor
e Jocelyn and Frank caught up with them.

  Cam froze at the footsteps beating a hasty path to the kitchen. He’d perhaps underestimated the awkwardness of coming back into his best friend’s home as something more than just friends.

  “Lana! Cam!”

  Jocelyn’s face was radiant. She hadn’t aged at all since he’d seen her last and it had been a good five years. Dark hair with a few strands of grey was swept up into a high, cheerful ponytail. She had on a green and red festive sweater and black leggings. Lana’s mother had always been trim and tall, like her daughter.

  “Mom!” Lana spun around from the patio doors. She ran to her mother and stepped into those open arms.

  Cam was struck by just how much Lana resembled her mother. She had when she was younger of course, but the resemblance was deeper now, almost uncanny. It wasn’t so much the color of their hair, which was different, it was their facial features, their body types. Lana looked a little older and her mother somehow looked younger with the joy of seeing her family again.

  “What’s this? My Lana, back like a thief in the night?” Frank’s face dissolved into a huge grin.

  Lana giggled. “Sorry. I just let myself in. I knew I’d find you sooner or later.”

  “And Cam. What a nice surprise.”

  Frank hugged Lana first then surprised Cam by pulling him in for a hug as well after a firm handshake.

  A trickle of guilt flooded Cam’s stomach when he stepped back and realized just how happy Lana’s parents were to have them there, as a couple.

  “It’s good to be home,” Lana said, tone tinged with happiness. “What do you have planned, mom? I know that this is your season and I doubt I’ll escape without having to play board games for hours on end.”

  “Dale and Jason should be here any minute,” Jocelyn announced, still glowing. “I have a pie to put in the oven and then we can round everyone up for a few tournaments.”