The Truth Within (Pelican Bay 3)

“Nah,” Sawyer said with a smile that I could only classify as forced. It was so unusual to see Sawyer like that. “It’s nothing. Would you mind telling the guys I went down to check on that rabbit in the small animal building? I’ll be right back up.”

I knew for a fact that Sawyer had already checked on that rabbit tonight before he’d come into the house because I’d heard him giving Dallas and Nolan an update on it.

“Do you mind if I come with you?” I asked.

Sawyer wasn’t the only one surprised by the request. I was too. I usually went out of my way to avoid spending one-on-one time with anyone. But after Sawyer had embraced me that one day and told me that I could trust Cam, it seemed like something had shifted in our relationship. Yes, Sawyer was a flirt sometimes, but there wasn’t anything behind it. It was almost like there were times he was trying just a little too hard to come off as the happy-go-lucky guy he made himself out to be.

“Um, yeah, sure,” he said.

We both walked to the kitchen and while Sawyer went to tell Nolan where we were going and grab our jackets, I went to the living room to let Cam know. Dallas was kind enough to pause the game so Cam could look at me as I spoke.

“Everything okay?” he asked when he looked between me and Sawyer. I could tell he wasn’t exactly thrilled that I was going to be spending some alone time with the good-looking vet. It was another Cam-ism that I added to my list. I loved his possessiveness but also that he wasn’t over the top with it.

“Yeah, just going to get some air,” I said in a way that I hoped he got. He once again looked at Sawyer and studied him for a moment. I saw the moment it clicked for Cam that our little walk wasn’t about me, but Sawyer. He nodded.

“See you in a few.”

“Yeah,” I said. I turned away from him, then thought better of it. I didn’t know what it meant that I was about to do what I was about to do, but I didn’t overthink it either. It was what I wanted to do in that moment and I was just going to fucking go with it and not care about the consequences.

I leaned down and kissed Cam softly on the mouth. He was clearly startled by the move, but he kissed me back within a fraction of a second. I didn’t care what the men around us thought, but we did manage to keep the kiss PG in consideration of Newt.

“I’ll see you in a few,” I repeated when I pulled back from him.

I’d clearly blown Cam off his axis because he swallowed hard and dumbly nodded his head as he said, “Um, yeah, right, in a few minutes because you’re… um, yeah, see you in a few.”

I chuckled at his little bout with verbal diarrhea. He was so adorable that I couldn’t help but give him another quick peck. When I turned to follow Sawyer, I noticed that all the other guys were watching us with little smiles on their faces, but as soon as they saw me looking, they pretended to be preoccupied with something else. Isaac moved so quickly to put the milk container back in the fridge that he ended up spilling the entire glass of milk he was holding in his left hand on Maddox.

“Shit, I’m sorry, honey,” he said.

“Ooooh, you said a bad word,” Newt called from the living room.

“Damn,” Isaac groused. Another reprimand from the child followed, but I didn’t stick around as Isaac started saying something about why he shouldn’t get punished because it’d been an accident. Sawyer handed me my jacket when we were outside. We stopped at his truck long enough for him to grab his medical bag.

We didn’t speak as we made our way toward the small animal building, but when he took the path that was considered the shortcut, I came to a standstill.

“What?” he asked as he looked around us.

“N…nothing,” I said.

But it wasn’t nothing. The shortcut led past Gentry’s habitat.

I’d been helping at the sanctuary for weeks now, but I’d never once walked near the animal’s enclosure. I’d deliberately set out not to. It was one thing to help out the people whose animal had been so cruelly attacked by my own flesh and blood, but to actually see the animal up close… no, I just couldn’t. I knew that made me a coward, but it’d been just another emotion I’d stuffed into my box.

Only now, that box was coming apart at the seams and shit was just starting to spill out.

The truth was starting to spill out.

“You want to go the long way?” Sawyer asked. I could hear in his voice that he’d figured out what my hesitation was.