Camilla
THE SUN IS BRIGHT ON my face as we take the path off the side of the house and head towards the tree line. My hand is tucked in Dom’s and he’s holding it like it’s his lifeline.
“There’s a picnic table just beyond those trees,” I say. “We can sit there.”
“Okay.”
We walk quietly until we’re through the trees and at the little wooden table. It has all of our initials carved in it. I sit on one side, Dom sits on the other.
“How do you feel?”
“Better today. How are you?”
“Sad.”
He runs his hands down his face. “Cam, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorr—”
“No, baby, listen to me. I’m sorry. For a lot of things.”
“I went and was told not to. I see why now. I got you hurt. That’s really hard to live with.”
“Let’s forget about that night, okay? If we’re going back with twenty-twenty vision, I shouldn’t have fought. I was hurt as fuck to start with and was being hard-headed about doing it. It was like I was proving to myself I could. I don’t know. It was stupid.”
“It was stupid.”
He takes my hand and holds it in the center of the table. “Fact of the matter is this: I shouldn’t have pushed you away like I did. I was mad. Maybe that was valid. But . . . I’ve never had someone treat me like you do. With respect. With loyalty. You showing up there to support me just blew my mind. I thought I could tell you to stay home and you would. No one has ever cared about me like that.”
“Of course I do, Dom. It hurts me when I’m not a part of something you’re doing. Like I can’t be a part of your life because it’s off-limits to me. But then I see Red and she certainly can, and I don’t mean to bring her up because I know she’s nothing to you, but it makes me jealous that she can have that part of you in any way at all and I can’t.”
“I guess I always thought you shouldn’t or wouldn’t really want a part of it. It’s a dirty, nasty world. Why would you want to be in it?”
“Because you’re in it. And I want to be wherever you are. Don’t you see that?”
He rubs a small circle on the back of my hand, a sexy smile drifting across his face. “Come here.”
My favorite words fall on my ears, causing a spatter of goosebumps to dot my skin. I stand and walk around the table to him, sitting next to him but facing the other way.
He takes my hand and laces our fingers together, resting them on his thigh. “Let’s do this. For real this time,” Dom says. “And by that I mean no excuses. We’re all in. If you don’t think I’m good enough for you, tell me now. Because once you commit, I’m holding you to it.”
“Hold me to it, please.” I look at our hands. “And if you think I’m too much of a liability to you, tell me now. Because once I commit, I’m definitely holding you to it.”
“Please do.”
We exchange smiles, like we used to before the fight, and I feel my insides melt. He leans forward, his lips hovering over mine. His breath is hot and spicy and I can taste the desire in the air.
“Cam?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell you one more thing?” he asks, brushing the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Yeah.”
“Make it two.”
Laughing, I pull away, squeezing my legs together to dull my pulsing core. “What is it?”
“I cleaned out my locker today at Percy’s. I told him I wouldn’t be back in, at least not for a long time.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“I did. It’s time to find other coping mechanisms for things. Guess it might have to be your body,” he shrugs.
“Oh, darn,” I deadpan.
Laughing, he looks at me with that killer smile. “The other thing?”
“Yes?”
He takes a deep breath, the smile on his face the widest I’ve ever seen it. “I love you, Cam.”
“I love you too, Dom.”
One month later . . .
Camilla
“DO YOU HAVE TO GO?” I hold my sister in my arms. We’ve done this before, said goodbye as she heads out on a new adventure, but this time feels different. “Stay here. Please.”
“Oh, stop it,” Sienna laughs, pulling away. “You can come visit me anytime. The next time Dominic turns into an ass, just hop a plane and come to Illinois.”
“I still don’t get the whole Illinois thing,” Lincoln says. “What do they know about fashion there? Isn’t it like cornfields or something?”
“Soybeans, I think,” Ford adds. “Either way, get going or you won’t make it far by nightfall.”
I walk with Sienna to her car. It’s loaded down with all the stuff she didn’t want to send with the moving truck. Troy and Nate helped get the final few things loaded while Sienna, Joy, and I made a last trip through her house earlier this morning.
Dom watches me from the porch of The Farm. He’s talking to Barrett and Huxley about fishing, something I didn’t know he knew about. He gives me a sweet smile as I say goodbye to my sister.
Things have been good between us the last few weeks. We’re taking it slow, one day at a time, but it feels like we’ve already been together forever . . . it’s just different now.
There’s no second guessing, no worries about outside influences. The only thing I have to worry about is my mom getting all flustered when Dom’s around. She thinks he’s the cutest thing she didn’t birth since my father.
Joy finishes her goodbye with Sienna and she and Nate take off, leaving our family to have a few moments alone. Mom and Dad go over the last-minute instructions about not talking to strangers, no picking up hitch hikers, and keeping your doors locked.
“It’s not like she hasn’t done this before,” Ford tells Mom. “Let her get out of here.”
Mom dabs at her face with a handkerchief. “I hate to see you leave, sweetheart, but I know you have to do what you have to do.”
“I’ll come back. You know that,” Sienna promises.
“Here’s a few bucks,” Dad says, handing her a wad of cash.
“I have a credit card.”
“And she knows how to use it,” Graham sighs. He pulls her in for a hug. “I’m heading into the house. Good luck to you. Call if you need anything.”
“I will, G,” she says, kissing his cheek. “Congrats on the engagement. You should elope to Vegas. I’ll be your attendant.”
“No Vegas weddings in this family,” Mom interjects. “Goodness. Are you trying to kill me?”
Graham laughs, joining Barrett and Dom on the porch. Ford says his goodbye, followed by Lincoln. Before I know it, it’s just me and Sienna.
“Once I get settled, we’ll make plans to meet up. I heard the boys in Illinois are super cute. You can be my wing girl.”
“Dom’s totally not going to go for that,” I laugh. “But I’m all about coming to see you.”
She looks at Dom and gives him a little wave. “He’s good for you. I’m proud of you for fighting for what you want.”
We hug again. I feel Dom’s palm rest on the small of my back as I give my sister a kiss on the cheek.