Cameron’s body tensed against mine. It was only an instant, but all the hard muscles I was leaning against flexed and tightened with his breath.
María clapped her hands, recalling my attention. “Yay!” she exclaimed, throwing herself at me without warning. “Celebration hug,” she said against my cheek, and I couldn’t help it. I squeezed her in my arms. Then, as if she wasn’t thinking about it, she let out a soft, “Ah. This feels so good. We should do it more often.”
I hugged her even tighter.
When she released me, she was smiling, and I didn’t know what my face was doing but my chest felt like mush. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Adalyn.” She looked at the man sitting by my side. “I’ll see you tomorrow, too, Coach Campanile.”
Robbie muttered something under his breath.
Cameron let out a chuckle, bringing his arms around my shoulders and pulling me back to him again.
“Oh!” María said, already walking away as she pulled at her dad’s hand. “Don’t forget to give Coach his shirt!” Then, she disappeared around the far end of the long table, dragging Robbie along with her.
“What shirt?” Cameron asked.
I sighed. “That was supposed to be a surprise.” I shook my head. “It’s back ho—” I stopped myself. I didn’t know why, but I did. I cleared my throat. “Back at the Lazy Elk.”
Cameron hummed. “Close,” he murmured, his arm snaking around my waist. “It’s okay, love. I’m not one to give up at halftime.”
* * *
Cameron unlocked the front door of the cabin and stepped to the side.
I looked inside, toward the hallway that turned to the right, leading to Cameron’s room. Right across from what had been mine. My eyelids fluttered shut for just an instant.
I turned around. Faced him. Blocked his way into the cabin. Deep green eyes met mine, and I said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said back. His lips twitched, and I thought he’d give me a slow smile, which would dazzle me and perhaps distract me from my thoughts. But instead, he clenched his jaw. I watched his eyes as they roamed all over my face, settling on my lips for what felt like a long time, but was just a second or two, and that giddiness, that anticipation, before Cameron had been so uncharacteristically mine, bubbled up inside.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked him.
He brought his hand to my face, brushing my cheek with the back of his hand. “Several things,” he confessed in that calm, stern tone, as if he didn’t mind I was keeping us from crossing the threshold of the door. “I’m thinking, thank God, that dinner is finally over.” I smiled at that, and the pad of his thumb grazed my bottom lip. “I’m also thinking, Christ, she’s so beautiful in this light. With the full moon shining so brightly over us. Would it be too corny to point it out? Would she laugh? I love her laugh.”
My smile fell, my heart doing this weird thing against the walls of my chest. “That would be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been told.” I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, felt his pulse under my thumb. It was a quick, hurried beat. Was he nervous, too? “I wouldn’t laugh. I would probably stall for a longer time.”
“Stall,” he repeated slowly. “Tell me why.”
I opened my mouth to say something I suspected sounded a lot like: Because it’s you, and it’s me. And I’ve never felt like this. But the answer that left me was, “It’s hard to explain.”
If today—the last days—had proved anything, it was that I wasn’t a seductress. And with Cameron I didn’t mind. It’s me who’s in charge. He said that earlier today. I wanted him to offer again. To take charge. I’d never felt safer, freer, than when he took over for me. And yet… this nervousness made me wonder and doubt myself. What could I possibly have done to deserve this, to earn him wanting me this much. I—
“Try me,” Cameron said.
“I…” I tried, knowing I probably would voice it in a way it didn’t make sense. “I’ve always felt like I never really clicked anywhere. Like, I always needed to make a bigger effort to show everyone that I deserved to be there. And here you are.” I shook my head. “Making me feel like you’d close the gap to get to me. Like, I don’t need to convince you. You—”
“Fuck him,” Cameron said, bringing my gaze to him. “Fuck them. Fuck everyone who has made you feel like you’re not worth everything you deserve.”
Something locked inside of my chest. Loudly. So very close to my heart. “You don’t have to—”
I was lifted up and dropped on a wide shoulder.
“No more overthinking,” he said, walking us both inside. “No more questioning how I feel toward you. I didn’t sit through a full hour of campfire songs so you could find a reason to boot me when I finally get you home.” His other hand fell over the backs of my knees, securing me against him, as if he feared I’d try to jump out of his arms. “This,” he said, stomping into the living room. “I had to restrain myself from taking you and throwing you over my shoulder like this. Josie is a horrible singer.”
I blinked down at his back, his ass, his long legs, and I… I burst out laughing.
He came to a stop immediately, loosening the vise of his arm, removing me from his shoulder, and placing me in front of him. I steadied myself against his chest.
“I’m already tempted to do that again,” he said, his eyes dancing between my mouth and eyes. The beating of his heart drumming against my palms, quicker than a few moments before. “I could do it every day. With every door.”
“It can be discussed.” I was still half laughing, but when Cameron’s jaw clenched again, all of that lightness dissolved. “Okay, I should give you your spoiled surprise.”
He opened his mouth, but I was already stepping away from him and whirling on my heels. I walked to the guest room and fished the gift out of the wardrobe I’d hid it in.
When I turned around, Cameron was leaning against the frame of his bedroom door, right across from mine. I swallowed. Padded closer to him with the pink bag in my hands.
I offered it to him.
Cameron opened it and extracted what was inside. The bag dropped to our feet. His hands held the shirt in the air.
“?‘This coach kicks monkey bum,’?” he read out loud. He swallowed. “?‘Coach Chamomile, Green Warriors of Green Oak. Six Hills Little League, NC.’?”
My heart raced. “It’s so silly,” I said, hearing my voice sound low and guarded. “I had it made so the girls could sign it tomorrow.” A shaky breath left me. “María helped come up with the first part.”
Cameron’s arms dropped. He looked at me with an emotion I didn’t recognize. One that wasn’t any of the ones I’d expected the shirt to cause.
“It was supposed to be a joke,” I explained. “I… I thought you’d find it funny.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped. “There’s no press attending tomorrow’s game, is there?”
My stomach dropped at my feet. “Of course not.”
“There hasn’t been any press at any game.”
My throat tightened, clogged, and I had to make myself swallow. “I would never put your anonymity or privacy at risk. Not after what you told me.”
“But you only found out about that recently,” he countered, taking a step closer to me. “You changed your mind before that. Why?”
I felt myself shaking. Trembling. “I could still make it work.”
Another step. “At the cost of your ticket back to Miami?”
My mouth clamped shut. My heart raced. My eyes fluttered shut.
Cameron’s fingers brushed my cheek. “Yes or no, love?”
I met his gaze, and there was so much in there, so much that mirrored exactly how I felt. Desperate. Needy. Falling so fast and hard I could barely breathe. “Yes,” I said. “At any cost. I was and will protect you at whatever the cost.”
He cupped my face. “I see you, Adalyn.” His other hand joined, and the shirt he’d been holding fell to our feet. “I goddamn see you, love. But you finally opening up like that for me? It makes it impossible for me not to crack open in return.”