Make Me Believe
"Customer at table 4, Cam!"
Nodding over the chaos in the diner, Cameron sat a tray of dishes in the kitchen window and grabbed the order pad from her apron. Tucking her dark hair behind her ears, she headed toward table 4 without so much as glancing up. The lunch rush was in full swing, and she was more than determined to pocket as many tips as possible before the day was over.
Stopping at the side of the table, she flipped her pad open and glanced down to fish the pencil out of her apron. "What can I getcha?"
"What's good?"
The deep voice reverberated within her chest and she couldn't stop her dark eyes from flying to Mark's smiling face. "What the hell are you doin' here?"
Looking over the menu, he smirked and met her eye again. "Well, seein' as this is a restaurant, and I'm hungry," he started, flinching when she smacked his shoulder. "Woman," he warned in a low tone, a rumbling laughter following the word.
It had been nearly a month since their tawdry affair, and Cameron hadn't heard from him since. Ryan wasn't perfect, but he was trying to be more supportive. He was working out with her when his schedule would allow, and accompanying her to a few of her shows. He had even agreed to move to Georgia when she and Del explained what an amazing chance it was for her career. She wasn't interested in ruining the perfection by dragging Mark back into the equation.
"You look good, Cameron," he complimented after holding her stare for a few seconds.
The blush crept up her neck as she forced herself to break the eye contact. "So do you," she admitted. Though they'd shared one passionate weekend together, she was sure that she had flushed Mark Calaway from her system. She was over it, and there was no need to revisit it. Until he showed up.
Mark nodded and allowed his eyes to drift back over the menu. "Del says you signed the deal," he said, a grin of approval spreading over his features. "When do you leave?"
"July," Cameron answered, her face lighting up at the thought of starting her new life. It was all she could do to keep herself in Tyler, but she knew that they needed to tie up the loose ends before running off to a new city. "Three months that feel like forever."
She was still the cutest thing he had ever seen. Tossing the menu to the table, Mark folded his hands on the table before him and met her gaze again. "Give me the Angus burger, medium rare," he ordered. "With fries."
Cameron jotted the order onto her pad and added an iced tea that he hadn't requested. He would have, she knew, if she had asked. "Comin' right up," she smiled politely, hurrying away from the table as quickly as she could.
She had to get out from under his scrutiny. She couldn't hear his voice. As much as she wanted to believe that she could sweep their evening under the rug, seeing him again brought a throbbing to her body that she wanted to forget. She was happy. Without him.
When he finished his meal, and had signed a few autographs, Cameron approached the table once again. "Did you need anything else?" The wicked smile he shot her sent chills up her spine. "From the menu?" she asked with a knowing smirk.
Shaking his head easily, Mark shifted off of his seat to fish his wallet out of his pocket. "So I'm stayin' with Del tonight," he informed. "You should stop by. We can have a couple beers and celebrate your big move."
With a shrug, she tore his bill from the pad in her hand and slid it into the place in front of him. "Sorry, but I have a date," she winked. He seemed surprised. "With my husband. And the ALCS," she added.
"I didn't know you liked baseball." Leaning forward, Mark watched her carefully. There were so many things he didn't know about her. So many things that he wanted to know.
Cameron's eyes clouded as she rolled them. "I don't," she said, chuckling when he pressed a bill into her hand. "But Ryan lives for it. And we're trying to enjoy each other's worlds a little bit more."
Somewhere inside, Mark had always known that this was the life that Cameron wanted. Even when she was with him in McDonough, he had sensed that she would have rather been with her husband. But he couldn't lie. He'd been happy that Ryan was being an A+ asshole. He was thrilled that the kid didn't know what he had, and that Cameron had seeked some comfort in his arms.
Now she was truly happy. She had everything that she wanted, and he really wished that he could be happy for her. Wasn't that how it was supposed to be? Wasn't he supposed to want what was best for her, even if that wasn't him? "And how's that goin'?" he asked as easily as he could.
For a brief moment, Cameron could have sworn that he was disappointed that her marriage was succeeding. But he was her friend - he had offered her nothing more. There was no reason for him to be jealous. And there was no reason for her to care if he was. "It's great," she forced her smile, wanting more than anything to assure him that he was still important to her, even though she knew that she couldn't.
When Mark slid from his seat and stood beside her, he couldn't help resting a hand on her shoulder as he towered above her. "If you get bored with the game, you're welcome to come on over," he extended the invitation once more. "And if not, then it was good to see you again."
More than anything, Cameron wished that she wasn't blushing. She wished to hell that his presence wasn't affecting her, that every cell in her body wasn't recalling his touch. "It was good to see you, too, Mark," she whispered, giving him a little wave as he turned to leave. Though she wanted nothing more than to jump into his arms and let him know that he had brightened her day in more ways than one, she knew that everyone in the diner was watching to see what would happen between little Cami Tucker and her big-shot friend.
Trying her best to ignore the butterflies in her stomach, Cameron cashed out the bill and went about her day. She would finish her evening and take dinner home with her. She would head to Georgia in a few months. She would pursue her dreams with the man that she loved. She would forget about Mark eventually. Won't I?
-----
Pulling up to the trailer, Cameron felt her heart sink. She had brought surf and turf meals for herself and Ryan, along with a case of his favorite Coors Light. But somehow she didn't think that was going to feed the owners of the five cars parked along side the house.
"Great," she groaned, cutting her engine and stepping out of the vehicle. "Just fuckin' great."
It wasn't that she minded his friends hanging around - she knew that he was going to spend as much time as possible with them before the move. But this was supposed to be date night. They were supposed to be alone. She wanted to snuggle up on the couch and make fun of him when he yelled at the umpire on the television. She wasn't in the mood to share him.
She was well-aware that her mood, at least in part, was due to Mark's surprise visit. The duration of her afternoon had been spent trying to get his sent out of her nostrils. She had done everything she could to get the mischievous twinkle of his eyes out of her mind. The deep rumbling of his voice wouldn't clear out of her ears. And now she had Ryan's dumbass friends to contend with.
The celebration was in full swing when she opened the front door, though she had been able to hear them cheering from the porch. The smell of pizza assaulted her as she kicked the door closed and struggled not to drop the beer on the floor.
"Oh, come on, tough girl," one of his friends chided when they turned to look at her. "You can lift a case of beer, can't you?"
Setting the case on the table, she flipped the group off and moved to the refrigerator to deposit the dinners she had brought home. Ignoring the guys, she stalked off to her bedroom, slamming the door for effect. Ryan was right behind her, a dopey grin on his face that said he'd already had a beer or two.
"Come on, baby," he motioned toward the door. "You gotta come celebrate with us."
Cameron just shook her head and sank to the bed, kicking her sneakers off and rubbing the bottoms of her feet. "Give me a second," she shot. "I've got a raging headache, Ryan," she added. "I thought it was just us tonight."
With a shrug, Ryan lowered his lean frame to the bed beside his wife. "That was before," he bit his bottom lip, as though that would help him contain whatever news was bursting inside of him. "I've got some awesome news, Cami Bear," he laughed, grabbing her hand. "Ask me what I did today."
Squinting her eyes, she turned to him. "You better say that you worked your ass off," she warned. "Our cable bill's due," she reminded him, knowing that the bill was larger than normal since they had ordered Armeggeddon on pay per view the month before.
"I kinda skipped," he grinned. "But when you hear why, you'll totally understand," he added. "Jeff and I went to an open tryout with the Rangers."
The way he was smiling like a crazy kid told Cameron that he was really proud of himself. "You what?" she asked, unsure of how to process the information. He had never so much as mentioned knowing about an open try out, let alone wanting to go to one. Yeah, he played on a community softball team, but he hadn't really played since high school and she hadn't heard word one about him having any desire to do it again. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Shrugging, Ryan stood and pulled his wife up to his side. "Jeff heard about it on the radio this morning. He called me on the way to work and we figured 'what the hell,' right? So we drove up to Dallas and went for it."
Her mouth gaped. She could tell from his expression that he expected her to be proud of him. "Why the fuck would you do that?" she asked. Just because she knew what he was expecting didn't mean that she would give it to him. "Ryan, that is the most asinine thing I have ever heard."
"I got a call back, Cam," he defended, crossing his arms over his chest. "Out of three hundred guys, I got asked back for another work out. Do you realize how hard that is?" Rolling his eyes, he assumed a defensive stance. "Or is it just that you don't wanna see me realize a dream?"
Standing, Cameron shook her head and reached for her shoes. "This isn't your dream, Ryan," she told him. "This is your revenge."
She had done a lot of stupid things in her life. In the ring, she had done more than her fair share of embarrassing things. But nobody had ever made her feel like a fool. Not like he was now. He had played along. He had convinced her that they could make it work. But the first chance he had to stick it to her, he had taken it.
"What are you talking about?" Ryan asked, turning to his wife in pure confusion. "Revenge? I went for something that I've always wanted to do, and I might be good enough to attain the dream. Isn't that what you're doing? Why is it okay for you, but not for me?"
Ripping her waitress uniform from her body, she searched for a pair of shorts and a tank top. "Because we are supposed to be moving in three months. Three months!" Grabbing a hooded sweatshirt from the floor, she yanked it over her shoulders and zipped it up the front. "You're doing this to hurt me, not because you want it!"
His friends pretended to be focused on the game when she emerged from the room, but Cameron could have cared less if they weighed in at the moment. She just wanted to get away from the man who had gone from the top of her list to the bottom in less than thirty minutes.
"Everything is not about you, Cameron," Ryan spat as she grabbed her keys and yanked the front door open.
She slammed the door without another word, cranking the engine of her car and peeling out of the driveway. Though Cameron prided herself on being a pretty chill person, she had never been so angry in her entire life. Maybe she was over-analyzing. Maybe Ryan had gone to that try out on a whim. But she seriously doubted it.
When she reached her destination, she let herself into Del's house without so much as a knock. The door clanged behind her as she kicked her flip flops to the side and shed her jacket violently. "Del's at a bodybuilding show in Houston this weekend," she told Mark, who hadn't even managed to jump up off of the couch in surprise by the time she moved over the coffee table and straddled his legs, working the buckle on his jeans without meeting his eyes.
Taken slightly aback, Mark managed to set his beer bottle on the table before Cameron raked her fingers over his bare chest and looped her arms around his neck. "I thought you had a date," he stammered, shocked by her forwardness.
With one finger over his lips, she snaked her hand into the front of his pants and shook her head. "I'm not even sure I have a husband anymore."
