Keep a min distance away from object while moving towards it

I have game where a player moves in spaces kinda like a chess board. And every time the player moves two objects also move following him. How I did this is I have him move with the press of an arrow key and then I put a script on the other objects that say when an arrow key is pressed move towards the object and it works great. But I need to keep them from getting to close to him and this is where im having trouble. I tried to do a set up like this:

             if(transform.position.x >= 0)
             {
                 if(Mathf.Abs(currCam.transform.position.x) - Mathf.Abs(transform.position.x) < minDistance)
                 {
                     float setFromCamX = (Mathf.Abs(currCam.transform.position.x) - Mathf.Abs(transform.position.x) - minDistance) * 1;
                     transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x + setFromCamX, transform.position.y, transform.position.z);
                 }
             }
             else
             {
                 if(Mathf.Abs(currCam.transform.position.x) - Mathf.Abs(transform.position.x) < minDistance)
                 {
                     float setFromCamX = (Mathf.Abs(currCam.transform.position.x) - Mathf.Abs(transform.position.x) - minDistance) * -1;
                     transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x + setFromCamX, transform.position.y, transform.position.z);
                 }
             }

What that does is it checks where both objects are at, then it will subtract or add distance to set them a mid distance away from him and keep the object on the correct side. But my objects always end up as a diagonal away from him. So what is a better way to approach this problem?