A few people lingered nearby, and some ran morning laps. Cam didn’t know if he was just paranoid or if their eyes really followed him. With any luck, they would barely notice his return. But he wasn’t the lucky sort, and the accident had changed their small town.
On the field, the football team ran suicides. He hated football, yet he envied them. The black Tartan turf of the track held a familiar peace under Cam’s feet. He used to think it was where he was meant to be.
Now, it represented a past he wanted to forget. Cam walked around the track to the bleachers and climbed up a few rows before sitting down. He recognized a few kids from the track team but didn’t approach them. He wasn’t one of them anymore.
In truth, without running, he didn’t know where he fit anymore.
He bowed his head and ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair. At the far end of the bleachers, a girl ran the steps. Cam lifted his eyes to watch her, a familiar yearning in his gut.
Peyton.
He knew he’d eventually see her but wasn’t prepared for it to happen so soon. The last time he’d seen her had been the best night of his life…until it turned into the worst. And now, he couldn’t separate the memory of finally admitting the feelings he’d had for years and the accident.
A big part of him had been relieved he was in the car with her brothers that night instead of her. But it was hard to feel that relief when he had to live with the consequences.
He closed his eyes, picturing the rickety tree house behind Addison Parker’s house. It had just been the two of them. He’d had so much to apologize for that night. Avery and his football buddies had been making fun of Peyton’s weight, and like an idiot, he didn’t defend her.
He still hated himself for that.
“Peyton.” He wiped a tear from her face with his thumb. “You know I could never think…”
He couldn’t actually say it, and he knew he’d been wrong to avoid it the moment he stopped speaking. Peyton shrank in to herself.
“Believe me, I know what people think of me.” Her voice was quiet, but it wrapped around him like a cloak of sadness. “I’ve lived with it most of my life. I just thought…” She shook her head.
He leaned in. “What did you think?”
When she lifted her eyes, they shone with unshed tears. Her emotion slammed into him, stealing his breath away. Peyton had always kept her feelings carefully guarded. It wasn’t the first time people had made fun of her. Their school was cruel. But she’d always kept a mask of uncaring coolness firmly in place. Now it had crumbled into dust, revealing the girl he’d only seen a few times throughout their childhood. Vulnerable. Fragile. And just as beautiful as the strong girl he’d always known.
Her eyes pleaded with him to take back his question. She couldn’t lie to him, and something told him she didn’t want to give him an answer.
He needed to know.
His eyes scanned her face as it reflected the shadows of the night. Silver moonlight bounced off the curves of her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her pale, frozen lips parted to release a puff of air.
“What did you think, Peyton?” He wasn’t letting her avoid the question. Not this time.
Her brows pulled together as silence stretched between them. After a few tense moments, Peyton shocked Cam by leaning forward and pressing her lips to his.
He didn’t respond at first as his mind worked faster than his body.
Peyton pulled away, rejection in her eyes.
Cam wanted to erase every bit of hurt he saw there, so he did the only thing he could. He pulled her back to him, melting her icy lips with his kiss.
A sigh escaped her.
Cam rose up on his knees to change the angle and deepen the kiss. His hands wound through her hair, tilting her head up as he took control.
Something clicked into place inside him, a rightness. His feelings for Peyton had been so confusing for months, and now, he knew why. She hadn’t simply been his best friend, not in a long time. She’d been Peyton, the girl who owned a piece of him, who’d always cared for him.
“Cam,” she whispered against his lips. “Is this real?” Her hands skimmed the width of his chest as if exploring him for the first time. Maybe it was the first time. They’d slept in the same bed for years and curled up against each other for movies.
But now they were strangers, getting to know new sides of each other.
“Yeah, Peyton.” He leaned back, running his fingers down her face until they rested on her swollen lips. “This is real.”
“You’re still my best friend. You know that, right? This doesn’t have to change anything.”
He rested his forehead against hers. “This changes everything.” His eyes slid shut. “Sorry it took me so long.”
She laughed, and he snapped his eyes open, enjoying the sound. “I’m glad you find me amusing.”
“Cam.” She shook her head. “You’re the most oblivious guy in the entire world. You don’t know how wonderful you are. How many girls you leave brokenhearted by refusing to date. It’s one of the things I like about you.”
“Do you want to know what I like about you?”
She grinned. “Yes.”
Honesty. He could be honest. Just this once. He’d never been good at sharing his feelings. Most people at school thought he was a robot, only caring about his next running time. They were wrong. He cared…so much. He just didn’t know how to express it. No one had ever taught him. His parents gave him their single-minded drive, their ambition, but little else.
“You’re kind,” he began, a slow smile spreading across his face. “The kindest person I know. You can make me feel like the world isn’t such a bad place, like I’ll be okay if I don’t achieve everything I’ve been working toward. When I’m with you, I see different things. My future isn’t only clouded by Olympic rings. I don’t know what’s going to happen or if I’m going to make it, and that terrifies me sometimes. But every time you tell me it’ll be okay, I believe it.”
He cupped her cheek. “You make me fearless, Pey.”
Fearless. He shook his head. All he’d known since that night was fear. He should have spent the following months dreaming of Peyton and spending his days lost in her. Instead, his sleeping hours held nightmares of raging water and dying friends while his days held hard reminders that everything he’d felt before was now tainted with pain.
A loud thud ripped him from his dark thoughts, and he jumped to his feet as Peyton slammed face-first into the bleacher steps.
“I’m okay,” she groaned, rolling onto her back.
At one time, he would have laughed at her clumsiness. Peyton had never been exactly graceful. But as he rushed to help her up and she lifted her eyes to meet his, he couldn’t breathe.
Because Peyton Callahan was angry. And she hadn’t changed at all.
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About Ann Maree
Ann Maree Craven is an Amazon bestselling author of Young Adult Contemporary Fiction and YA Fantasy (her Fantasy fans will know her as Melissa A. Craven). Her books focus on strong female protagonists who aren’t always perfect, but they find their inner strength along the way. Ann Maree’s novels will appeal to audiences of all ages and fans of almost any genre. She believes in stories that make you think and she loves playing with foreshadowing, leaving clues and hints for the careful reader.
Ann Maree draws inspiration from her background in architecture and interior design to help her with the small details in world building and scene settings. (Her degree in fine art also comes in handy.) She is a diehard introvert with a wicked sense of humor and a tendency for hermit-like behavior. (Seriously, she gets cranky if she has to put on anything other than yoga pants and t-shirts!)
Ann Maree enjoys editing almost as much as she enjoys writing, which makes her an absolute weirdo among her peers. Her favorite pastime is sitting on her porch when the weather is nice with her two dogs, Fynlee and Nahla, reading from her massive TBR pile and dreaming up new stories.
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Also By Ann Maree Craven
Redefining Me:
Dating My Best Friend
Dating the Boy Next Door
Dating My Nemesis
Discovering Me:
Dating Nashville
Dating Washington
Dating Texas
Emerge Series (Written as Melissa A. Craven):
Emerge: The Awakening (Book 1)
Emerge: The Edge (Book 1.5)
Emerge: The Scholar (Illustrated Character Journal)
Emerge: The Volunteer (An Emerge Short Story)
Emerge: The Judgment (Book 2)
Emerge: The Catalyst (An Emerge Short Story)
Emerge: The Captive (Book 3)
Emerge: The Assignment (An Emerge Novella)
Emerge: The Heir (Book 4)
Emerge: The Betrayal
About Michelle
Michelle MacQueen is a USA Today bestselling author of love. Yes, love. Whether it be YA romance, NA romance, or fantasy romance (Under M. Lynn), she loves to make readers swoon.
The great loves of her life to this point are two tiny blond creatures who call her “aunt” and proclaim her books to be “boring books” for their lack of pictures. Yet, somehow, she still manages to love them more than chocolate.
When she’s not sharing her inexhaustible wisdom with her niece and nephew, Michelle is usually lounging in her ridiculously large bean bag chair creating worlds and characters that remind her to smile every day - even when a feisty five-year-old is telling her just how much she doesn’t know.
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www.michellelynnauthor.com
Also by Michelle MacQueen
Redefining Me:
Dating My Best Friend
Dating the Boy Next Door
Dating My Nemesis
The Invincible series:
We Thought We Were Invincible
We Thought We Knew It All
Discovering Me:
Dating Nashville
Dating Washington
Dating Texas
The New Beginnings series
Choices
Promises
Dreams
Confessions
Fantasy and Fairytales (Written as M. Lynn)
Golden Curse
Golden Chains
Golden Crown
Glass Kingdom
Glass Princess
Noble Thief
Cursed Beauty
Legacy of Light (Written as M. Lynn)
A War For Magic
A War For Truth
A War For Love
Dating Texas (Discovering Me #3) Page 19