Roses and Sonatas [Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns]

Chapter 56

When we reached my house, I led Cam back to the baby's room, saying, "Rob slept on a cot in here while he stayed with me. You can sleep there for now—it's not the most comfortable bed, but it's not the worst either. I hope you won't mind the girliness of the room."

Cam shook his head. "I don't mind. I mean, it's not like I only like 'manly' flowers, right? Pink's just a color."

I gave him a rueful smile. "Honestly, I hadn't planned to decorate her room with pink at all. I kind of favored a nice sunny yellow, like sunflowers or moondrop flowers. But then Rose gave me a stack of little pink blankets she'd made, and she persuaded Eileen to paint the walls a bright rosy pink, too, though I had her repaint it a softer shade as soon as I saw it."

He gave a snort of laughter. "Yeah, Rose does like things traditional. Pink for girls, blue for boys—that's her style. But of course, you don't have to do a lot of pink if you don't want to—use it as an accent color. Or not at all—just because you have some pink blankets doesn't mean that you have to make her room pink."

"I suppose so." I stepped back out of the room, Cam following, and then turned to look at him with a serious expression. "Are you quite sure you're okay with this, uhh... arrangement? I mean, what about... what about when Mikhail comes back? If he comes over... will you be able to cope with that?"

He turned pale and flinched. "I... I hadn't thought about that," he admitted. Then he looked me straight in the face, and although he made no effort to hide the pain in his eyes, he said, "I offered to stay to help you, Alice. Not to try to insinuate myself back into your life or to keep tabs on you or interfere. I know that helping you now won't make up for the past, but that isn't why I'm doing it, anyway. I... I really just want to help you as much as I can. I feel responsible for the mess we're in, and I want to at least try to make things better. I don't mean that I'll enjoy being here while you have Mikhail over, let alone if he... if he stays the night. I... I think I'll have to return to Howard's those nights. But I'll still do whatever I can to help you."

I sighed and rubbed my aching back a little, saying, "Well, you probably don't have anything to worry about anyway. He's gone most of the time lately, preparing for his trip. And when he is in town, he won't stay here with me. He says he doesn't feel it would be right for him to do so while you and I are going through counseling, that he'd feel like an interloper. So I haven't seen much of him since he announced his upcoming tour, and we certainly haven't done anything more than just an occasional kiss since that one night." Again I sighed.

Cam looked surprised. "Really? He said that? I... I wouldn't have expected anything like that from him."

I looked at him sharply, scowling a little. "You know, he's really behaved very decently through all of this. He even told me all about how you rode out to try to find me, despite the severity of your injuries and the blizzard and everything. He made sure I knew just how upset you were, too, when you saw me unconscious. I swear it almost seems like he's trying to get us back together. You'd think he'd be happy that we're separated...." I shrugged helplessly. Then watching him thoughtfully, I asked, "And what about you? You and that... girl, I mean. Are you...?"

Cam stared blankly for a moment, then flushed red and looked away. "No," he replied emphatically. "I'll be honest, even if you'd rather not hear it from me now. I'm just not interested in anyone but you. I don't know what the hell I... why I.... Anyway, no. Not that she hasn't tried—Laney told me that she came around a number of times looking for me while I was recovering in the clinic."

"And... has she found you yet, then? I really don't want some strange girl showing up on my doorstep, making a scene...."

"Yeah, she finally did. In fact, you probably saw her. She was that girl I was arguing with before you showed up to give me the time for our first appointment."