A Trip Home
This was getting old fast JC muttered to himself. New York. Los Angeles. Atlanta. Orlando. Chicago – then do the same damn thing over again. He didn’t rack up these kinds of frequent flyer miles as part of NSYNC. It had all been insane enough before Cam and Kara. He’d even bought a car he left at the airport – it was cha-chinging up the rates, too. A keyboard resided in Cam’s bedroom so he could compose when the mood struck him. Why didn’t he get off the merry-go-round?
Because it felt like home, he decided as he turned onto the long lane that led to the Delaney farm. A moment later he pulled in front of Cam’s house. Before he had parked, Cam stepped out on the porch with a big, welcoming smile on her face. Thank God for Wednesday afternoons. This is why he stayed on the dizzying ride called his life – Cam and the little girl who called him ‘Dad.’
“Josh!” Cameron called as he got out of his SUV. “I didn’t expect you back so soon!”
JC took the steps two at a time until she was in his arms. He swung her around in a circle just to hear her giggle. “I couldn’t stay away.” His mouth sank on hers, refreshing his memory of her flavor. “We got time to get sweaty before the munchkin gets home from school?”
“Wednesday, remember? She has catechism after school, then Riley picks her up.”
“Wednesday is my favorite day of the week,” he declared with a grin.
“So we can get sweaty at least twice as long as we share a shower afterwards.”
JC laughed. “Which usually leads to one more time.”
She pulled away and took his hand, leading him into the house and up the stairs. “Can I help it that seeing you naked with water sluicing down your fine hot body makes me horny?”
At the landing, he pulled her against him for a long drugging kiss. “Keep talking like that and we’ll start and end in the shower.”
“We’d be all wrinkly,” she pointed out breathlessly.
“Sweetheart, take me to bed,” he growled against her neck.
JC and Cameron lay wrapped, sweaty, sated and content, in each other’s arms. She traced patterns on his damp chest and every once in a while he would brush a kiss on whatever part of her anatomy he could reach.
“This is one of my favorite parts,” she murmured.
“Parts of what?”
“Making love. I mean it’s wonderful to feel you in me and us soaring together, but this...holding each other afterwards makes me feel so connected. Am I making any sense?”
“I feel the same way,” he confessed. “I’m glad, Cammi. I want us to be connected.”
She sighed happily and snuggled closer.
JC tightened his arms, pressing her to him. He wanted to absorb her. When he could spend these precious moments with Cam, he was whole again. At fourteen, he had known she was special – he hadn’t even dreamed she would be the true love of his life.
“What’s wrong, Josh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, the unexpected visit...you’ve been quiet, even for you.”
“I missed you and Kara.” He kissed her nose teasingly. “And it’s hard to talk when I have my mouth busy doing other things,” he reminded her, laughing.
“It’s becoming a problem isn’t it? Juggling us into your schedule?”
“Sweetheart, if something else has to give, be assured you and Kara won’t be that ‘something’.”
“I read an article where JC Chasez said girls took a backseat to your career.”
“Since when do you read that crap?”
“Riley was a fan at one time.”
“Was?”
“Josh...”
“JC Chasez didn’t know he had a child.”
The words hung between them – part accusation, part explanation, part promise – all painful.
“I did what I thought was right for the boy I loved,” Cameron whispered. She released herself from his arms and sat up grabbing up her tee-shirt, she held it to her breasts like a shield.
He sat up as well, feeling a sudden wall between them. “I don’t know, Cam. I just don’t know if all I’ve gained was worth missing out on all Kara’s firsts.”
“I didn’t want you having to make a man’s choice when you were just a boy.”
JC moved to hold her. “I realize what you did, Cammi. You were very brave.” He kissed her tenderly. “But there is like this question I can never answer. What would I have done? Would I have been man enough?...”
“Disney would have dumped you – and your dreams would have been shattered – all because I didn’t make you use protection.”
“That road goes both ways. I knew where babies came from. I could have gotten condoms.”
“I didn't want to trap you...”
“Then why, Cam? You said every other guy had to use condoms.”
Cameron gave him a wry smile. “I knew where yours had been. Couldn’t be sure where theirs had been.”
Even he had to chuckle at that. “Did you ever think maybe young Cam maybe wanted to get pregnant, maybe subconsciously?”
“You mean to get back at Maureen?”
“I think more to have someone to love.”
“I had you,” she reminded him softly.
“A skinny kid who thought you hung the stars, who had big dreams.”
“Who didn’t listen to the snickers and gossip about me because he was too good for the likes of me.”
“I didn’t see what they saw. I saw a beautiful, bright girl who opened her heart to me from day one.”
JC kissed her, lingering to soothe and heal. “Cam, JC Chasez didn’t have you. Josh Chasez does.”
“I’m not so much.”
“You’re more, so much more.”
So much for painful, soul bearing. “We have 20 minutes until Kara comes home. I guess we skip the joint shower.”
“Damn.” He smiled.
“And I don’t have dinner started...”
“I’ll take my girls to dinner.”
Usually, Cameron would protest on a school night. “You’re on!”
“Daddy!” Kara cried happily as she burst through the front door. She had seen JC’s car in the drive when Riley dropped her off.
“Heya, munchkin!” JC swept her up in his arms.
“I missed you.” Her little arms wrapped around his neck in a hug.
“I missed you too. That’s why I came home.”
“You gonna be here on Friday night?”
That would really be cutting it close. “Why? Do you want to go out on a date?” he teased.
Reminiscent of her mother, Kara rolled her eyes. “I can’t date you. You’re my dad.”
“Darn.”
“We got a thing at school. I want you to come.”
“What kind of a ‘thing’?” he asked as he moved to the living room with Kara hanging from his neck. He sat on the sofa with his precious child on his lap.
“A program. I get to do a so...so...” Kara struggled with the word.
“Solo?” he asked.
She grinned. “Yeah, a solo!”
“Tell him the song.” Cameron came into the room. Standing behind the sofa, she wrapped her arms around JC’s neck. “She is so your daughter.” she murmured for his ears only.
Kara hopped off JC’s lap and started humming, strutting and twirling an imaginary boa. “My heart belongs to Daddy, so you know I could never be bad. My heart belongs to Daddy…Da da da da da da da da da!..." She launched herself at JC with a giggle.
“I see a lot of Chasez,” Cameron said.
“I see a lot of Delaney,” he retorted lowly. “Batting her eyelashes and wiggling her hips.”
“Please come, Dad. Puleeze!” Kara begged.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, munchkin,” he assured his daughter. “Why don’t you call Grandma and Grandpa and invite them too?”
Kara brightened and looked to her mother. “Can I?”
“May I,” Cameron corrected.
“No. I want to.”
JC laughed.
“Go ahead. Just don’t be long. Dad’s taking us to dinner.”
“Yippee!” The girl skipped off to use the telephone.
“We do have a camcorder, don’t we?” JC asked as he rose.
“Yessir!” Cameron saluted.
He looped an arm around her waist. “Damn…”
“You weren’t planning to stay that longer, were you?”
He shook his head. “No, but my family comes first.”
“I can film it,” she offered grudgingly.
“And break my baby girl’s heart? That is not happening.”
Cameron smiled up at him. “I’m glad. For Kara and for me.”
JC bent his head to hers. Their lips met in a tender salute.
Kara came running back into the room. “They can come!” she announced happily. “Mush!”
“Mush?” JC grabbed her up, tickling her ribs. “I didn’t get any sugar from you, Miss Kara.”
Grabbing his face in both hands, Kara gave him a loud smacking kiss on the lips. “Muwah!”
“Let’s go,” Cameron suggested.
During dinner of pizza, Kara chattered animatedly, filling JC in on every detail of her life since she had seen him last. Almost before the last bite was swallowed she drooped like a wind-up doll running out of steam. Tenderly, JC lifted her from the booth and carried her to the car. Propping her up to put her seatbelt on, he was careful not to wake her.
“She misses you,” Cameron announced once they were headed home.
“I miss her. I miss you. Hell, if you had told me last year I’d be feeling like this...”
“Last year you were dating an actress.”
“Don’t, Cam. You gotta know that’s over for me.”
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice of me.”
“Where do we go from here? Tell me, baby. What in the hell am I gonna do? I want you both with me.”
“I don’t know, Josh.” This is what she had feared – exposing herself and more importantly, Kara to the media circus of JC Chasez’s life. He hadn’t said he loved her – oh, he wanted her; she believed that – but love? Permanent ‘I do’ kind of love had not been offered.
“She’s my baby, dammit!”
“Josh, you can’t want to uproot her from everything she knows. You don’t even stay very long in one place yourself. She has family here – even your parents...”
“I know. I know. I just don’t want to miss anymore...”
Once again the words hung in the air like an accusation.
At the Delaney farm, JC saw Cam was nearly as done in as Kara. He carried the child up the stairs with her mother close behind.
“I’ll put this one to bed. You go put yourself to bed.”
Cameron smiled sleepily. Normally, she would object. Not tonight. The fight was wrung out of her. “Thanks.” She headed to her room.
JC propped up a barely functioning Kara as she brushed her teeth and washed her face. He assisted the limp child in getting into her pajamas. As he guided her arms into her sleeves, he was struck by how small she was, how fragile. How in need of his protection. Cam had never had a father to feel this way...Was that why she decided Kara hadn’t needed him?
Tucking the covers around her, he leaned forward to kiss Kara’s forehead tenderly. She gave him the same sleepy smile Cam had. “Story or song?”
“I’m already asleep,” Kara murmured. “Night, Dad.”
“Night, baby.” He was almost to the door when JC heard the sweetest words he’d ever known.
“I love you, Daddy,” she said.
“I love you too, Kara.” He could scarcely breathe past the pain in his chest. Could he make Cam see that Kara needed him? Would he have to fight the woman he loved for the child he loved?
Cameron was in bed, nearly asleep when JC came in. “I just came in to get my pajamas,” he mumbled, going to the drawer that had been given to him in her dresser.
“You aren’t sleeping here?” She yawned.
“I didn’t think you wanted me to.”
“Josh, it’s a big bed.”
“Cammi, I can’t sleep with you and not want to hold you.”
She sat up and looked at him steadily. “How can you want to touch a woman you believe had ulterior motives beyond wanting to spare you pain and embarrassment for not telling you about our child?”
JC sat on the edge of the bed. “We need to hash this out, hammer and tong. But do you want to do it tonight when we are both tired and defensive?”
“No...But you’ll be gone Saturday morning. I work tomorrow. Kara has dress rehearsal after school. Friday is the program and your parents will be here...then you’ll be gone.
He sighed. He’d planned on going back to Chicago for a flight after Kara went to bed Friday. “It just can’t be tonight, Cam. I’ll free up sometime soon. Okay? In the next few weeks. I’ll make sure it works for you too.”
“Mean while I get to worry on what you are going to do.”
“It’s either that or we do it now and all the anger and fear and shit will come out and we’ll say things we don’t really mean,” he reasoned. Even through his own pain he felt her turmoil. He pulled her against him, her head on his shoulder.
“I don’t like this.” Cameron’s arms held him. “The one person I counted on to comfort me is now the person I am afraid of.”
By now the people of Draperville Elementary were becoming accustomed to the presence of Kara’s famous father. Though dressed like other fathers and wearing his glasses, JC Chasez was still – well –
JC Chasez. Being a very close, protective farm community, word had not made it to the media, miraculous as it seemed that close to Chicago. JC expected to be treated like every other parent – and was proud as every other parent. If he was a curiosity, no one ventured to ask.
“There’s our princess!” Roy Chasez called when Kara came out before the program to greet her grandparents.
“Hiya, Grampa!” Kara squeezed back as tight as she could when wrapped in his bear hug. She leaned over to give Karen Chasez a hug. “Hi, Gramma.”
“Hello, Kara. I see you are your father’s daughter – a solo?”
“Yeah! I picked the song for him from Mom’s stuff.”
“Oh?”
Kara looked to her parents. “It’s a s’prize. Don’t tell,” she warned.
“My lips are sealed,” Cameron promised with a smile.
“Yes, ma’am,” JC answered, grinning.
“You’d better go backstage, sweetie,” Cameron urged and Roy set her to her feet. She reached for daughter’s hand.
“I want Dad to come.”
JC watched the emotions flicker across Cam’s suddenly pale face. Hurt. Betrayal. Anger. Jealousy. This wasn’t good for any relationship he wanted with her. As proud as he was at Kara’s demand, he had to turn her down. “No can do, munchkin. I have to find the best spot in the place to film my girl.”
“Oh...okay!” She smiled up at her mother. “Can Gramma come?”
“I suppose for a while...you go show her around. I’ll be right there.”
When Kara took Karen’s hand and walked away, Cameron’s eyes followed a moment, then she looked to JC. “Thank you,” she murmured.
JC leaned close to kiss her cheek. “Anytime, Cam.”
“I’d better go. Save me a seat?”
“You got it.” He gave her a wink.
“You two are like strange cats,” Roy said as he observed his son watching Cameron move away.
“I’m gonna lose her, Dad,” JC announced huskily. “She and I are not agreeing on Kara.”
“You didn’t think you could just move in and make decisions did you?”
“No...well, maybe some.”
“Cameron has had to do it all alone; she isn’t going to just hand over the reins.”
“She doesn’t want me to take Kara anywhere.”
“Maybe she has some valid fears.”
“I guess she does…”
Cameron stood back as Kara introduced her friends to her ‘new’ grandmother. She supposed many might believe Josh was coming in as ‘step-father’ status. No one asked. She didn’t offer. As far as Draperville was concerned, Doc finally had a ‘man’ in her life.
Karen approached Cameron when the teacher announced it was time to get into ‘performance’ mode and the guests should find their seats.
“I commend you on a job well done, Cam,” Karen said.
“Kara? It’s a job half-done.” Cameron smiled.
“She is a bright, open child. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“My grandmother is one of the town matriarchs that made it easier. I was a hometown girl. The community took me back with open arms.”
The two made their way from behind the stage to the entrance to the auditorium.
“I’ve been meaning to ask. What is Kara’s middle name?”
“Marie. My grandmother’s name.”
“Kara’s a lovely name, how did you decide on that?”
Cameron stopped mid-step. “You’ll think I’m lying,” she whispered, looking away, feeling very much like the shamed teenager she had been.
“Of course not, dear.” Karen put an arm around the younger woman.
“I named her after you. You were always so kind to me...”
“Oh, Cam...” Karen’s eyes misted. “Thank you.”
“Even though you wouldn’t know it, I wanted your grandchild to honor you somehow...”
When the Chasez men came in search of their women, they found them hugging with tears in their eyes.
“Uh-oh, female moment,” Roy teased.
Releasing Cameron, Karen swiped playfully at her husband.
Roy put an arm around her. “Let’s go to our seats.”
“Cammi?” JC questioned once his parents were gone.
“Hold me a minute?” she asked. “I need a hug.”
They reached for each other. Time ticked by as they simply held each other.
“Baby, let’s work this out,” JC whispered against her cheek. “Let’s not lose each other.”
“I don’t want to lose my friend.”
His arms tightened. They had spent two days avoiding each other. Now when he could finally breathe again, he had to leave. After the program they would go to her grandmother’s for cake. They’d have no time alone. He kissed her softly. “Cammi, I...”
“Break it up you two!” came Riley’s chastising tease. “Geeze, ten years and you still...”
“Riley Ann,” Marie Delaney grabbed her youngest granddaughter’s ear and led her into the auditorium.
“Ow!…Grams, let go. I’ll be good...”
JC and Cameron laughed.
“I guess we’d better head in,” Cameron said.
“I’m changing my flight,” he announced abruptly.
Cameron’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“I’ll catch a flight Sunday night.”
“Can you do that?”
He grinned. “Just watch me.”
JC watched with a father’s unabashed pride as Kara sang and danced her heart out on stage. His father took over camcorder duties, leaving JC free to concentrate on his daughter. People knowing his history would say she was her father’s girl, performing was in her blood. He saw Cam with every toss of her head, every flash of her eyes. The kiss Kara blew in his direction when she finished was pure, vintage Cam Delaney.
“Do you give third graders standing ovations?” he whispered in Cameron’s ear as he applauded his child’s performance.
She shook her head smiling. “No, you just let her preen when you see her afterwards.”
“She’s just like you, Cammi. All sass and sweetness.”
She looked surprised. “I thought she was like you. Didn’t hit one wrong note.”
Karen overheard the whispered conversation and caught her husband’s eye. Roy nodded in return.
“I was good!” Kara announced when her family collected her for the ride home. She went to her mother and hugged her waist. “Huh, mom?”
“Your name will be in lights on Broadway,” Cameron assured her. “Miss Kara!”
Next was JC’s turn to praise her. He lifted her to his hip as she gave him a smacking kiss. “You’re a star, munchkin.”
“Did you like my song?” the child demanded.
“Yep. My heart belongs to you, too, baby,” he answered a tad huskily.
Kara reached for her grandfather. Roy held her up as she asked, “Were you s’prized?”
“That you can sing?” Roy questioned.
“No, silly. I picked a song for Dad. We each got to pick. I picked that song,” she declared proudly.
“I was very surprised,” he assured her.
“How about Mommy?” Karen asked her namesake. “Does your heart belong to her?”
Kara rolled her eyes as if she thought the answer should be obvious. "I always love my mommy, even when she makes me mad.”
Everyone laughed and Roy set the girl to her feet.
“Didja like it, Grams?” Kara asked Cameron’s grandmother.
“I think I have a very talented great granddaughter,” Marie told her with a hug.
Kara nudged at Riley, seeking her ‘older sister’s’ approval.
“You’ll do, squirt,” Riley muttered and they grinned at each other.
It was decided that Kara should ride with the Chasezes so she could direct them to the farm. That left JC and Cameron alone for the ride home. Immediately, he got on the cellphone.
“Dude, I can’t make it until Monday.” JC listened, his jaw tightening. “Then you’ll have to book a different time...Sorry, no can do...You know, you’re right. I won’t.”
“Josh...” Cameron didn’t want him hurting his career.
“Hold on,” he muttered and punch the hold button. “Cam, when I got here on Wednesday, I said you and Kara wouldn’t have to be that ‘something’ that gave. I’m trying to prove it.”
“Darling, I understand...”
Darling? Damn! She hadn’t called him that in a while! He took the call off hold. “Back...No, not for a chick.” He winked and mouthed ‘two chicks,’ making Cam giggle. “Later, man.” He rang off then unceremoniously tossed the phone over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. He grinned.
A moment later, they pulled up the drive. Parking the car in the shadows, he released their seatbelts and pulled her to him. “I can’t wait any longer,” he growled.
Their mouths came together in sweet, shared hunger, tongues tangling. Her arms stole around his neck as his hands on her hips pulled her tighter against him.
“I want you so much, sweetheart...” he told her as his teeth nipped at her earlobe.
Those words were like ice water along Cameron’s sizzling nerve endings. Shoving at him, she reached for the door handle.
“Oh, no you don’t,” JC muttered. For the first time in their history, he forcibly detained her. He jerked her back to him. “What the fuck is the matter?”
“Those were not the words I wanted to hear,” she said angrily.
It dawned on him what she had wanted to hear. “Think, baby. Have I ever said ‘I love you’ in the heat of the moment?” At her mutinous expression he continued. “No. And do you know why? Because my first lover didn’t trust men who said ‘I love you’ before or after sex. She said they usually meant ‘I wanna fuck’ or ‘thanks for the fuck’. Remember that girl, Cam?
She looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
“You said it only meant something, fully dressed in full light. Do I want you? Hell, yeah! You’ve been making me hard since I was fourteen.” JC flipped on all the lights in the vehicle. “Close as I can get at the moment,” he murmured. He cupped her chin tenderly to bring her eyes to his. “Do I love you? Yes, Cam, I do love you. I love you so much it scares me sometimes. Am I in love with you? I’m crazy about you, have been since I was fourteen.”
Cameron offered a tearful smile. “Thank you for remembering.” She reached her arms back around his neck. “I love you, Josh. I think I’ve loved you forever.”
He held her close. “We’ll make it work, baby. I promise, we’ll make it work.”
There was a thump on the driver’s side window. It was Riley. “If you’re gonna neck, turn the lights off,” she called with a smirking grin.
For once, Cameron did not find her cheekiness amusing. Swinging out of the car, she rounded it and waited for JC to join her. “Riley, just shut the fuck up.”
The parents jointly oversaw Kara’s bedtime routine. Cameron read her a few pages from her favorite story before the child drifted off to sleep. JC lovingly adjusted to covers and kissed his daughter’s cheek.
“Sweet dreams, baby girl,” he whispered before he joined Cameron in the hall. “I have to go grab my pajamas.”
“What for?”
He frowned. “Aren’t we sleeping together tonight?”
She chuckled. “Silly man. I meant why bother with pj’s.”
With a low laugh, he pulled her tightly against him, letting her feel how eager he was. He wanted to devour her, but he settled for a hungry kiss. “For when the munchkin jumps in bed with us tomorrow morning.”
“I am so glad I have tomorrow off.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I do. I took back to back Saturdays the last two weeks.”
“We should have sent Kara with my folks, so we could have some time alone.”
Cameron shook her head. “Both Kara and I need you, Josh.”
As JC had predicted, Kara did want to come in and snuggle on Saturday morning. It was a rare treat to have her father home on a weekend. She knocked on the closed bedroom door as she had been told, then called, “Let me in, sleepyheads!”
JC moaned at the sound and rolled to bury his face in the pillow.
“Sorry, Mr. Chasez, that doesn’t work around here. She won’t go away,” Cameron said laughingly.
As if to prove her mother’s point, Kara demanded, “Are you alive?”
“Yes, Kara. Come in,” Cameron replied.
A brief moment later, the pajama-clad child was jumping onto the bed. “What’s the matter with him?” she asked, pointing at the man who pulled a pillow over his head to shut out the morning.
“Your father isn’t a morning person.”
A masculine grunt of protest came from beneath the pillow.
Kara giggled. “Grumpy old bear.”
JC sat up abruptly and grabbed the girl. “Grumpy old bear, am I? Guess I’ll just have to eat you for breakfast!” He growled and teasingly pretended to take bites out of her shoulder.
“Daddy!” Kara squealed and giggled with delight.
It was so beautiful to watch – Josh and his child, Cam thought. Beautiful and scary. Kara was so much his…
“Mommy, help! Daddy bear is eating me!” Kara pushed at JC’s head, only to succeed in having him chew her arm playfully. “The mean, old, grumpy bear—“ She broke off on a fit of giggles as the growling man nibbled at her nose. “Daddy, that tickles!”
JC stopped. “That’s better. Call me a bear…”
The child wrapped her arms around his neck. “Good morning, Dad.”
“Morning, munchkin.”
Kara wrinkled her nose. “The bed smells funny.”
“Funny?” Cameron questioned.
“Kinda sweaty and something…”
JC barely suppressed a laugh.
“Jamie says their bed smells that way when her parents are making babies. Are you and Mom making babies?” she asked. JC nearly choked on a mixture of laughter and surprise. “I’d like a little sister.”
“I-um, Cam?...” JC stuttered. He was new at this parenting business. He had no idea how to proceed.
“Don’t worry, Josh. She’s a farm girl. She knows the Birds and the Bees.”
“Jamie says they get naked and her dad bounces up and down on her mom. They make funny noises and her mom says dirty words and—“
“We get the picture, Kara.” Cameron broke her off.
“Do you and Dad do that?” The child’s blue eyes went wide.
“It is more complicated than that. Making love is something that two people do when they care deeply for one and other…” the mother told Kara gently.
“You aren’t making a baby?”
“You don’t make a baby every time.”
“Darn! I want a baby sister.”
JC winked at Kara. “Maybe we can convince Mom to quit practicing and get serious about baby making.”
“Joshua!” Cameron protested, appalled.
“In the mean time, why don’t you go watch that morning program you like, so Mom and I can get dressed,” JC suggested to Kara.
“Okay.” Kara gave him a kiss, then gave one to her mother. She hopped off the bed and left the room.
Cameron turned on JC. “I don’t appreciate you—“
His mouth came over hers in a long, drugging kiss. “We make beautiful babies, Cammi,” he told her huskily. “I wouldn’t mind making a couple more with you.” His lips skated down her throat. “Marry me.”
“M-marry you?” This came as a total surprise.
“Yeah. Why not? We love each other and then Kara could have both parents.”
“There is so much to discuss…”
“We’ll get it done, Cammi.”
“Where’s Mom?” JC asked Kara when he came downstairs after his shower. The child was still in front of the television in her pajamas.
“Dunno – and I’m hungry,” she replied.
“Umm…Grab a Poptart and I’ll make breakfast in a bit.”
“Goodie!”
JC went back to Cameron’s bedroom to find her sitting on the bed. She’d obviously taken her shower and dressed for the day. She held something in her hand and wept as if devastated. “Cammi?”
Cameron’s head jerked up and she tried to dash the tears away with her empty hand.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” He knelt at her feet and saw she held her birth control pills.
“Just look at what I’ve done!” she sobbed, holding out the disk.
“Umm—I don’t anything about those.”
“It’s Saturday.”
Taking a closer look, he saw the little arrow was pointing to Wednesday…It dawned on him what her concern was. ”You forgot…”
“Since you’ve been home.”
They had been having unprotected sex…She could be pregnant. While he wanted to whoop for joy at the possibility, he understood her concerns. “We’ll just use condoms until we know for sure,” he told her, stroking her hair comfortingly.
“Josh…I didn’t want to trap you…”
“Do I look upset? Truth be known, I would love it if you were pregnant. I’ve already asked you to marry me – so no entrapment is even involved.”
“But our lives—“
“Cammi, I love you. I love our daughter.” He placed a hand on her stomach. “And if we have a little one here, I love him already. Yeah, it’s complicated, but we’ll make it work for us.”
“We’d have to have a third,” she murmured.
“How’s that?”
“I’d like at least one child conceived in wedlock.”
JC chuckled. “We’ll have as many as you want.”
“A houseful?” She smiled, her heart lighter than when he had come in the room.
“You got it. You know I like ‘making babies’.”
He got to his feet and pulled her to him. “Kara is starving, so I’d better go feed her.”
“What you tuck into your jeans is pretty potent, Chasez,” Cameron announced over the phone several weeks later.
JC laughed at her pronouncement. “What?”
“The little thingy says ‘plus’.”
It took him a moment to follow. “As in positively pregnant?”
“Uh-huh.”
“We got a bun in the oven?” He grinned broadly.
“What a charming euphuism. Looks that way, but I’ll make an appointment with my OBGYN.”
“I’ll be with you this time, Cammi,” he promised.
“But your solo album—“
“How many times do I have to tell you? We will work it out.”
“Josh…” Inexplicably, she wanted to cry.
“I wish I were there to hold you, sweetheart.”
“The clinic…I’ll have to quit.” She couldn’t wrestle animals during her pregnancy – and some animals carried disease that could be harmful to the fetus.
“You could take a leave of absence.”
“No, that wouldn’t be fair to John. I’d be taking a lot of time off to be with my husband when Kara is out of school…”
She was going to really marry him! “Name the day and I’ll be there with the rings and a huge smile.” He made a note to get an engagement ring for his next trip home.
“Darling, you know what this means, don’t you?”
“That you’re marrying me?”
“Well, there is that – and no more condoms. I hate the darn things.”
“Cam, guys are supposed to complain about them, not girls.”
“Sexist pig,” she taunted.
JC laughed again. “I’ll be home in a week. We’ll make plans then.”
“Okay. Love you!” Cameron called.
“I love you, too, baby. Bye.”
Ringing off, JC decided life was good.