“I’ll go with you guys, work can wait til later,” she said immediately, not willing to be left out of the fun.
Samuel had no complaints, throwing her a smile before he pulled the car out of park and they were on their way.
In the end, they spent most of the morning running around shopping, and they had to find a place to stop for lunch. They found a fast food place, and Camila was almost amused at how Brianna seemed to marvel at everything she saw. After eating, they went back to their shopping trip. Camila even bought a few things for herself, but refused when Samuel offered to pay for her.
They stopped at a small family diner to eat before heading back. As they ate, Samuel asked, “Do you want me to bring you home, or can you stay the night?”
Camila smiled. “Let me text Mom and let her know I’m staying with you.” She pulled out her phone and typed, Mom, I’m staying at Samuel’s tonight. I’ll be home sometime tomorrow.
After a moment, her phone dinged with a return text.
Stay safe,was all her mom had sent.
She didn’t complain, because this wasn’t a new thing. Camila had pretty much moved into the mansion, now. She even had clothes and other stuff stored away in Samuel’s room. The three of them, she, Brianna and Samuel were all much more relaxed with Adrien gone. They were building a life for themselves at the mansion.
When they arrived back at their house, Brianna immediately had some servants help her carry all the things she’d purchased back to her room to try on. Both Camila and Samuel watched her skip happily behind them.
“She looks really happy,” Camila murmured, following Samuel to the front parlor.
Neither of them was so tired they wanted to go to sleep, and with the weather growing cold out, it was just perfect for sitting near a relaxing fire.
“I’m happy that she’s happy,” Samuel said, sitting down and dragging her to sit beside him, holding her close to his side. “If she continues to improve like this, I might talk to her about trying out for college. She really needs to get out of the house more, and she needs to be around more people around her age, make more friends…”
“How did she handle school, by the way? Was she home schooled?”
“In a sense. She worked with private tutors, but even that was pretty limited because she didn’t trust strangers, so she ended up doing a lot of school online. I think if we take some time and try again, she’d be open to it.”
There was a bottle of wine chilling in a bucket on a stool beside the chair, and Camila wondered if he’d called ahead for this without her realizing. There were glasses as well, and the fire was already burning. They were just close enough, and yet far enough away for it to be comfortable. Samuel opened the bottle and poured some wine for them, and then they both relaxed and enjoyed each other’s presence.
Camila was thoughtful as she sipped her wine and leaned against Samuel. After a few minutes, she got the courage to say what was on her mind.
“Would you… say that I’m technically living here?” she asked, looking up at him.
Samuel met her gaze with a curious tilt of his head. “What do you mean? You do sort of live here now, and if you wanted to move in, I wouldn’t exactly mind.”
Camila felt her face warm up and ducked her head, a blush creeping up her cheeks. “I’m not getting ahead of myself, am I?”
Samuel chuckled, squeezing her close. “Of course not. I would have asked, but I didn’t know if you’d say yes.”
She sighed. “I just realized that over the past couple weeks I’ve only stopped by home three times and slept over there once. I also moved a lot of my stuff here because of that. But… I’m not really comfortable leaving my mom alone by herself. Ever since she… came out of prison… it’s only ever been the two of us.”
She had been feeling guilty about it, even as she reveled in her happiness with Samuel, and Brianna. She was practically abandoning her mom, after all, and after what she’d gone through to protect them both, Camila felt this wasn’t very fair to her.
“Would you like to move her in?” Samuel asked.
Camila turned wide eyes to him at the casual offer.
“I don’t mind if she comes to stay here too, and Brianna wouldn’t mind, either. It’s a big place, after all. Even with all the servants, we’re pretty used to it feeling empty. One more person wouldn’t make a difference, especially if it’s your mom.”
Camila blinked at him, dazed for a moment. When she came back to herself and opened her mouth to respond, she had to stop because her phone was ringing in her purse.
They both froze.
Samuel assessed her gaze, before picking up her purse and pulling the phone out. He answered the call and only listened for a bit before cutting the call, but Camila could tell from his stony expression who it was. Sure enough, Samuel made a call to report Adam had another burner phone sneaked into his cell.
“Why is he still trying?” Camila asked after he’d finished his call, mostly in frustration now, and not the fear from the first few times it happened. “How it he still trying? We report him every time! Or does nothing happen when we do?”
Samuel sighed and rubbed his forehead. “No, he gets in even more trouble every time. He might have actually managed to win his bail appeal if he hadn't done this in the first place. It’s not anything we need to worry about, though. At this point, he’s just acting desperate. Just ignore him, and he’ll stop eventually.”
They resumed the silence between them, but the atmosphere had been totally ruined. Camila wasn’t relaxed anymore. At least she still had Samuel beside her, but she couldn’t help feeling worried that things weren’t so simple as Samuel was making them out to be.