“Jesus. Is your Mama giving you grief about settling down?”
His family went well out of their way to avoid the topic of him and marriage, a state of affairs Cam was generally completely okay with. “Nope. That honor goes to Mitch.”
“Then I expect he’ll be happy to commiserate, now that I’m back.”
“Gotta admit, I’m surprised. I always figured you for a lifer.”
Liam’s expression darkened for a fleeting instant and was gone. “Well, I did too, but things change.”
“I was really sorry about your dad.” A little over a year before, Liam’s father, John, had dropped dead of an aneurysm while under the hood of his beloved 1969 Mustang.
“With Wynne off to New Orleans and both Jack and Cruz still in for a while, when this contract was up it just made the most sense to step off the train. Somebody needs to be home to look after Mom.”
Cam smiled into his beer. “Don’t let her hear you say that.” The pint-sized Molly Montgomery had kept three sons, a daughter, and a husband in line, all while working a full-time job and regularly volunteering on various committees around town. She was a force to be reckoned with. But Cam understood the sentiment. After his mother’s cancer diagnosis, he’d dropped out of grad school and come home to take care of her.
When Liam didn’t respond, Cam followed his gaze across the room to a buxom brunette currently embracing Liam’s sister, Wynne.
“Who is that?”
“Who? Riley?”
“That’s Riley Gower?” Liam’s eyes all but bugged out of his skull as she turned where he could see her face.
Cam elbowed him lightly in the ribs. “Pick your jaw up off the floor, man, before your mama sees you. Yeah, that’s Riley Gower. I don’t guess you’ve had occasion to see her since she grew up.”
“She’s my baby sister’s best friend. I haven’t seen her since I enlisted. She was a freshman in high school, I guess.”
Which explained the shock. Since then, Riley had gone from awkward and a little bit heavy to 1940s bombshell.
“She bought out the pharmacy when your mom decided to semi-retire earlier this year,” said Cam, though he was pretty sure, given the look on the other man’s face, that wasn’t the information he was looking for. “She’s single.”
Liam shook himself and turned his focus back to Cam. “What?”
“Riley. She’s not seeing anybody.”
“Wouldn’t matter if she was. I was just…surprised, is all.”
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, buddy. But Cam gave the man a break and changed the subject. “So, what’s the plan now that you’re back?”
“I’m not sure what to do with myself just yet. It’ll take time to get used to being without my unit, without orders, but, I have to say, I’m looking forward to being my own man.”
“I’ll certainly keep my ears open. If I hear of anybody looking to hire, I’ll let you know.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Oh, you helping anybody find a job. That’s rich, Crawford.”
Cam turned toward the voice dripping with sarcasm and barely repressed venom.
Roy McKennon stepped up, a long-neck bottle hanging loose between two fingers. “The Councilman here has made it a priority to block any and all incoming industry to town. So don’t be thinkin’ he’s got your best interests at heart.”
Sometimes Cam really hated civil service. “Now Roy, that’s not entirely accurate. There were reasons for—”
“Reasons?” Roy pivoted to face him. The slur in his voice made it evident he’d had more than a couple of beers. “What reasons do you have for stopping Ford from building that manufacturing plant here? What reasons do you have for denying hard-working people the possibility of a job?” Roy’s voice was rising, and Cam was aware of others starting to look their way.
Cam knew he needed to diffuse the situation. “That’s not what I was doing.”
“I got three kids and a wife to support, boy. Since the plant closed, we’ve got no insurance. Had to go on goddamned assistance like a bunch of reprobates. April made me let her sign up for WIC and Medicaid just so the kids are covered. My youngest has chronic asthma.” Roy punctuated each point with a jab to Cam’s sternum.