His Family. Muriel Jensen

pressed to him for comfort, arms wrapped around him. He could feel the soft inside of her leg hitched over his thigh, her pearled breasts against his chest. The image was very real and it shook him to the bone.

      “Campbell? Cam!” Killian’s voice.

      Campbell came back to the moment to find everyone around the table watching him in concern. Had he said something? he wondered. Groaned? He looked across the table at China and saw that she was as perplexed as the rest of them. Odd, considering how real those images had been, that she didn’t remember inhabiting them.

      “Yeah?” he asked.

      “I said that I spoke to Brian about checking in at the house every couple of days while we’re all away,” Killian repeated patiently. “And being available to Winfield if he needs him.”

      “Why would your butler-cum-security-force need Brian?” Sophie asked.

      “Sometimes when he’s worried about Mom’s safety and does or doesn’t want her to do something, he needs support from one of us to get her cooperation.”

      “And you’ll all be available to come right back,” China asked, “if Janet suddenly calls?”

      Killian nodded. “We’re just an overnight flight away.”

      “And we’ll be close enough to drive home in a few hours,” Sawyer said.

      “What about you, Campbell?” China challenged with a smile. Mentally, he had to put clothes back on her. The tips of her breasts were driving him crazy. “How are you going to get away when you’ll be so new on the job?”

      He pushed away from the table, returning her polite smile. “My employer’s prepared. I explained when I accepted the job that there was a family complication. Of course, at the time I thought it was you.”

      As the words left his mouth, he realized that he’d called her a complication. His hope that no one had noticed was dashed when Killian gave him a raised eyebrow. China, however, took it with a lift of her chin and a go-to-hell glance. “I always thought you were the complicated one,” she said.

      He stood and pushed his chair in. “If you’ll all excuse me, I’ve got to pay some bills tonight so the household accounts are all caught up when I leave. And don’t forget tomorrow night.”

      Sawyer’s brow furrowed. “Tomorrow night?”

      Killian groaned. “Sorry, Cam. I forgot to tell him. And I’m supposed to be the smart one.”

      Campbell snorted and addressed Sawyer. “I’m taking you, Killian, Brian and Daniel to dinner at Fulio’s while the ladies are at Cordie’s baby shower.”

      Sawyer put a hand to his heart in a dramatic portrayal of an attack. “What? You mean you’re choosing to be with us? Even treating us?”

      “Only because I won’t have to see you for some time afterward. Six o’clock. Be ready.”

      “Ah…wait. I’m happy to have Daniel with us, but I thought he was driving the girls to the shower. I’m not wild about the idea of them trying to get around in the city.”

      “I’m driving,” China said. “I fight the freeways in L.A. I assure you we’ll be safe.”

      “But you know L.A.,” Sawyer argued. “You don’t know New York.”

      “The shower’s not in the city,” Cordie put in. “It’s in Westbury on the west end of the island. And I’ll be navigating.”

      “Oh, God!” Killian exclaimed. “They’ll be in Nebraska by morning. We need a plan B.”

      Cordie walked around the table to pummel him. Laughing, he pulled her into his lap. “All right, all right,” he said, holding her fists in one hand. “I’m just remembering the time you were supposed to navigate us to the Dawsons’ open house and we ended up in a creek.”

      “We’ll let China use the tractor,” Campbell proposed with a straight face. “She drives it quite well, and can mow down anything in her path.”

      “Does it have global positioning?” Sawyer asked.

      Campbell excused himself again and left the room, the laughter still going on. The coziness was beginning to get to him. Life with his brothers had been one thing when Killian had been a workaholic and Sawyer had been determined to kill himself. He’d been able to hold his practical, no-nonsense approach to life up against their baggage and feel somewhat superior.

      He couldn’t do that anymore.

      And it had been easy to plan to leave when the house had been always quiet. In those days, Killian seldom came home from the city, even on weekends, and though Sawyer was home, he kept to himself a lot, working on the foundation’s projects and other charitable community functions. Chloe had a busy social life and came and went all the time. The staff was like family, but they were all good employees and worked hard.

      So Campbell had spent a lot of time alone, and he’d thought he’d liked it that way—though he’d been determined to spend it alone someplace else. But now that the house was full of women, children, laughter and plans, he felt as though the place had a grip on him and didn’t want to let go.

      “Uncle Cam!”

      That, too, was something new. He turned to see Sophie’s two youngest racing toward him from the family room down the hall where they’d gone to watch movies after dinner. Their older sister, Gracie, was staying the night at a friend’s.

      “What’s going on?” he asked, leaning down to catch them in his arms.

      “We’re going to have a wedding!” Emma said, dark eyes bright at the prospect. “And we’re all going to wear pretty dresses and flowers!”

      “Oh, no!” he exclaimed. “I don’t have a pretty dress!”

      She giggled and tugged on his hand. “You’re not gonna wear a dress, silly! Just the ladies wear dresses. You have to wear a special suit.”

      “A tux.” Eddie made a face. “Me, too. I’m going to carry the rings. I hate tuxes.”

      Eddie was lively and imaginative, and Campbell thought he’d make a great Abbott. “Why?”

      “Because I’ll look stupid.”

      “I don’t think you will, but if it’s any comfort, all of us guys will be wearing tuxes, so you won’t be alone.”

      “When are you going away?” Emma asked.

      “Saturday,” he replied.

      “Sawyer says we’re going to come and see you.”

      “That would be very nice.”

      “And Grandma Chloe’s gonna have a big party for you before you go. And we get to come. On Friday.”

      “Right.”

      “It’s too bad,” Eddie said gravely, “that China isn’t Abigail. We really like her.” Since their mother’s involvement with Sawyer, the children knew all about the family’s search for their missing member, understood why China had come to visit.

      Campbell nodded, suddenly a little short of breath, out of words. He had to think, clear his throat. “Yes. We all like her. But it could be that the adopted sister she grew up with might be Abigail. Do you know what ‘adopted’ is?”

      “It’s when you don’t have a mom and dad,” Emma put in knowledgeably, “and somebody else’s mom and dad let you live with them.”

      “You have to go to court to be adopted,” Eddie said. “And the judge makes your name the same as the new mom and dad’s name. One time when we went to court, there was this kid there who was getting adopted. I remember wishing we could get adopted by another dad, only, Mom could come with us. But the court doesn’t ever do that.”

      “Because