On My Way to You

Chapter 13: Beach Volley... Among Other Things

"Maybe you're telling it wrong," he said amidst Cameron's breakdown for the sole purpose of annoying him.

Cam made a face and an impatient noise. "I'm not."

"Oh." Emery feigned being overwhelmed with wonder as he widened his eyes at Cameron, who rolled his eyes menacingly. "I guess your joke wasn't very funny then."

"It wasn't my joke," the blond quietly grumbled to himself.

Emery smirked and turned away. Maybe one of these days he'll manage to annoy Cameron into revealing his true self that will tick all the boxes on Emery's ick-list. Maybe Cameron offends easily when his masculine ego is provoked. Maybe he'll start trashing Emery with "yo mama" jokes or walk out like a five-year-old. Regardless of whichever of those things happen first and if they do happen, Emery's ongoing problem would definitely solve itself.

"Whatever, just wrap it up so you can eat lunch. Your stomach's growling eight ways to Sunday," Cameron said, voice teasing as he flipped a dismissive hand. "You had lunch, right?"

"Oh shut up," he said, but like a flustered creep caught with a stash of shame-deserving porn, Emery's shoulders cowered, heat spreading across his cheeks as Cameron walked outside, laughing. He didn't realize his hunger was making that much of a fuss, and the fact that Cameron must've been hearing it for the past hour and just decided not to say anything until now filled him with even more dread.

"Ugh," he mumbled, blushing.

By the time he dropped the last box on the ground, Emery's arms were throbbing, and quick breaths that felt like Satan's wishes escaped his mouth, very unlike Cameron who in his state looked like he could lift several more and a healthy cow. It almost made Emery resentful of God's obvious humor when He was making him.

"Don't like working out huh?" Cameron teased.

Emery looked at the blond once, raising his brow. "Do you know what my dad says about guys who work out too much, Cam?" he jested.

Uncapping, his bottled water, the blond cluelessly answered, "No."

Emery cleared his throat, pausing before he began reciting in his father's thick accent. "Well, there's only so much of their bodies they can invest to make bigger."

Cameron let out a startled noise, coughing as water probably burst out of his nose. Emery giggled, watching as the blond gave him a dirty look from underneath his brows. Just as Cameron was just about to say something in return, a voice from afar called out their names, followed by "Lucas brought snacks!"

The two looked over in the direction of the voice and saw Allison and Ian skipping back inside the house, presumably following the lead of free lunch. Emery decided to join in later and enjoy the quiet for now. Cameron apparently had similar plans.

"They're setting up a net," Emery said as he watched Blake and Asher try to keep a pole upright from far away. "Are they playing volleyball?"

Cameron sniffed, sitting cross-legged on the sand beside Emery. "Yeah, Cate said something about that," he said. "Blake was..."

At that point, Emery wasn't listening. Lucas had just joined the others in a practice round a few moments after the Asher successfully positioned the net without Blake's help, but that wasn't the most riveting thing on the court. If Emery wasn't too distracted watching Blake struggle to put his beach shorts back up following Bryce's cruel trick of pulling them down to keep Blake from catching the ball, he would've been able to keep up with Cameron's follow-up question.

"Do you?"

Emery didn't bother hiding his confusion when he looked up to face the blond.

"Do I what?" he asked.