“What about you, ma’am?”
Dazed, Nora shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Okay, well, hang tight. We have medical on the way, just in case.”
Ramsey was off to the side, talking to a man I didn’t recognize. He was still visibly shaken but comfortable with the conversation, Thea tucked under his arm.
Aiden Johnson caught my eye and left his conversation with yet another suit to head my way. “He hit the window,” he said when he got close, pointing at Nora’s house. “You’ll need to get that fixed tonight.”
“I don’t give a fuck about a window. What the hell happened here?” Nora moved off my lap and we stood up together. She instantly wrapped herself around my side.
Aiden’s eyes dropped to her. “You good, babe? Luckily, he was too freaked to have had any aim, but you took a nasty spill on the sidewalk.” He grinned, and up until that point, I’d doubted he possessed the facial muscles to pull off such a gentle feat.
Leo had been smart when he’d hired this guy; Aiden Johnson was intimidating as hell.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, shifting impossibly closer.
I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Who the hell are all these people?”
His dark eyes came back to me. “Oh, right. First off, we figured out who was tailing your cousin. It took a little while because the feds aren’t usually real excited to discuss an open investigation, but Leo called in some favors.”
“What?” I snapped, Nora parroting the same sentiment beside me.
“And they weren’t even the only ones.” He crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “Seems your boy owed some bad fucking people a lot of cash. When he didn’t have it, he made a deal to oversee a handoff of some product, which eventually turned into him escorting drugs through the county on their way to Atlanta and down to Florida. Problem was, feds caught word and started digging. This set off all kind of alarms for the cartel and they came to the conclusion that Caskey had flipped and was setting them up with the authorities. Based on the timing of your return to Clovert, Caskey’s dumb ass thought this was all somehow your fault, even though he had one foot in the grave long before he arrested your girl here.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing he was never the brains in the family.”
I blinked, trying to process all the flaming shit he had just thrown into the already raging Caskey dumpster fire. Some of it made sense. Some of it was unbelievable. Some of it made my fists ache for another piece of him.
But it was the promise of one thing that put a shit-eating grin on my face.
“He’s done,” I stated. “There is no coming back from all of that. He’ll be lucky if he ever gets out of prison, and messing with the cartel like he has won’t make his stay very comfortable, either.”
He deserved everything that was coming to him and more.
Aiden barked a laugh. “That man is lucky he’s still breathing. An order was given to take him out last night. Long story short, you beating the shit out of him back there might have saved his life. Don’t let the motherfucker say you never gave him anything.”
Nora tilted her head back. “It’s over?”
“It is.”
She beamed up at me, the return of her smile—although wobbly—breathing new life into my soul. “Like, really over?”
“Yeah, babe.”
And it was.
All our pain.
All our suffering.
All our heartache.
With Jonathan behind bars, it was finally fucking over.
My head snapped up. “I want his computer seized. He has videos—”
Aiden lifted his paw in the air. “Way ahead of you. Apollo is over at his place now. Nothing he has will ever see the light of day again.”
I dipped my head with gratitude, and about that time, Ramsey and Thea came walking back over. Thea appeared slightly calmer; meanwhile, Ramsey still looked like he might puke at any second.
“Hey,” he breathed, giving his sister a head-to-toe. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Nora flashed him a smile. “I promise.” She lifted a pinky in his direction, and he fought some serious emotions back before hooking his finger with hers.
After Aiden excused himself, the four of us stood there. Ramsey and I were like bookends while Nora and Thea hooked their arms in the middle.
That day could have ended in disaster. One slip of his finger, one wrong move, and all of our lives would have been irrevocably changed.
But, every now and again, something good comes from all the bad.
Arm in arm, we watched Jonathan Caskey kick and cuss as they loaded him into the back of a police car.
With the click of the door behind him, four people who had crawled through hell on their hands and knees were finally set free.
I clung to Camden’s arm as he tried to get out of bed. “Don’t go.”
He laughed and stood up despite my best efforts. It wasn’t often when I missed the days of him being scrawny and clumsy, but being able to overpower him long enough to tie him to my bed so he could never leave held a lot of promise.
“Trust me,” he said. “This isn’t my idea of a good time, either. But if we don’t hurry, I’ll miss my flight.”
I sat up, crisscrossed my legs in front of me, and pouted. “You said no more goodbyes.”
“I did. But then someone who shall remain nameless decided they wanted to finish the last two months of the school year before moving. And I realized my cruel and unreasonable boss won’t pay me to lie on her couch, waiting listlessly for her to come home and get naked.” Resting his palms on the bed, he bent and kissed my nose. “Relax. I’ll be back next weekend and then you’re coming to New York the following and so on and so forth. By the time June hits, you’ll be sick of me and begging for a goodbye.”
I tugged on the front of his shirt, dragging him back down. “Blasphemy. I’ll never get sick of you.” My lips twisted. “The leaving-the-toilet-seat-up thing though…”
He smiled, wide and life-changing—or at least it was for me. “I’d apologize, but I have a very riveting game of Is-that-a-dead-rat-or-just-the-hair-Nora-left-in-the-drain to play before we can leave.” He pecked me again, this time on the mouth, and I reluctantly let him go.
“I hope it’s a rat this time!” I called as he disappeared into the bathroom.
It had only been two weeks since Jonathan Caskey was arrested, and while it seemed like the days had flown by, we’d crammed a lot into that time.
As soon as news of Jonathan’s arrest broke, Clovert’s gossip mill exploded. Partially because, within a matter of hours, his father was taken into custody on embezzlement charges after Jonathan had sung like a bird on the entire family. Seriously, the Caskey family was a shit storm, but for once, it wasn’t raining down on me. By the end of the week, Camden’s grandparents had pulled up roots and moved to Florida, and despite the dozen shrieking threats she’d left on his voicemail, Camden’s mom steered clear of Clovert too.
With help from a sexy attorney who I later stripped out of a tailored, navy suit to show my undying gratitude, the prosecution dropped all charges against me. My principal canceled my suspension, but I took a week of personal leave anyway, because.… Well, I deserved it. Also see the aforementioned part about the sexy attorney who was no longer in the navy suit but still working remotely from my dining room table.
It had been a whirlwind of getting to know each other again, but Camden and I had made great strides in our relationship. And by this, I just meant we spent every waking minute together, bickering or laughing. Sometimes laughing and bickering at the same time.
One day for lunch, I made him a chicken salad sandwich. They were, after all, his favorite. Ham, pickle, and mustard being his second choice. His face when he realized I’d remembered was priceless. The only thing better was when he dragged me onto his lap, tore the sandwich in half, and insisted we share. Shortly after, he closed his laptop and peeled my shirt off so we could share a few other things as
well.
I’d only had him back for a little over two weeks and I had no idea how I’d survived the last five years without him. He was only going to be gone for a few days and I was already dreading every single minute of it.
This time, he was coming back.
Then, the next weekend, I was going to him.
The way it always should have been.
On that thought, I climbed out of bed and made fast work of getting dressed.
After a quick breakfast and two travel mugs of coffee, Camden and I left for the airport. We’d returned his rental a week earlier, so he was behind the wheel of my Honda—a car he hated but I secretly loved seeing him drive because, well, it was mine and it was his now too.
“Now, listen,” Camden said as we drove through town. “I need you to tell Forehead Freddy you’re taken as soon as you get back to school. I don’t like the way he looks at you in pictures.”
I thought he was probably kidding, but it still made that Camden Cole warmth seep into my chest. “I’m sure he’ll be devastated.”
“As he should be.” His hand had been anchored to my thigh since we’d backed out of the driveway and he gave me a squeeze.
I tapped my finger against the window. “You should have turned there. Juniper is going to be super backed up with all the road work.”
Another squeeze. “Maybe.”
“No maybe about it. They’ve had one man single-handedly repaving that road for two years. You have to sit and wait until—” The words died on my tongue when he slowed and hit the blinker right in front of the Leonards’ house. “What are you doing?”
“We just need to make a quick stop. It won’t take but a minute.” He pulled into the long driveway leading up to the brick ranch-style home where Mr. Leonard’s elderly son, Sam, now lived.
“What for?”
He grinned. “You’ll see.”
My pulse quickened even if I didn’t understand why. He was up to something.
He stopped and put the car into park in front of the two-car garage. Still sporting a massive grin, he lifted my hand to his mouth, kissed the back of it, and said, “Come on. I want to show you something.”
There was nothing at the creek he could have shown me that I hadn’t already seen, but my stomach still dipped with excitement.
After we both climbed out, he waited for me at the front of the car and laced his fingers with mine. It had been years since I’d gone out to the Leonards’, but as Camden led me around the back of the house, childhood memories came rushing back.
Our creek had been my safe haven. The quiet lull of water had drowned out the chaos in my mind. The cute boy who’d played Slapjack with me under the trees. A friend when I’d needed one more than ever. It was my escape from reality when life became more than I could bear.
Things looked different now. The grass in the field had grown and some of the banks had washed away in a flood a few years back, but our sacred spot of dirt and beach were still there as though no more than a few days had passed since we’d last visited.
We stopped next to his favorite rock, and I could almost still see him wearing those penny loafers and perched on top of it the first day. I’d loved that boy with my whole heart even before I had known what love truly was, but the man standing in front of me now was better—so much better.
“God, I missed this place,” he whispered, hooking an arm around my hips and pulling me in for a hug.
“Me too.” Smiling, I drew in a deep breath that was equal parts fresh water, trees, and Camden Cole. The perfect scent in my opinion.
“You know, for a lot of years, I never understood why you didn’t move away from Clovert. I couldn’t fathom that you had a lot of positive memories rooting you to this place. But then, when we’re here, all the good times come flooding back.”
“Get out of my head, Cam. I was literally just thinking that.”
He chuckled, but his smile quickly fell. “I don’t want to lose it. In New York, it’s different. It’s busy and chaotic. We’d have to travel for hours to find a place like this. When I moved away from Alberton, this kind of life was exactly what I was trying to escape. I needed to get away from the memories clinging to these trees or there was a solid chance I’d still be sitting at this creek, waiting for you to come back.”
My stomach knotted. It was both super sweet and crazy sad, and it made me feel wicked guilty. I slid my hands up his chest and circled my arms around his neck. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you dare apologize. It took a while, but we got here eventually. The problem is, while I was trying to get away, I ended up creating a whole new life that can’t really be done in Clovert. I worked my ass off for a lot of years, and while I’m sure there are plenty of people who need an attorney for public intoxication after the Fall Festival, they aren’t exactly my target clientele.”
I giggled. “Oh, come on, Ed Lewis could keep you in business year-round all on his own.”
“Probably. But that’s not what I want, babe. And I also don’t want to strip all of this from you, either.”
“You aren’t stripping—”
“I am. You have family here. Friends and students who love you. A summer lunch program that, honestly… It fucking kills me to think you won’t be here to watch it thrive. I need you. I need you in every single facet of my life, but not if it means giving up your own. I want the best of both worlds, Nora. A few days ago, I finally figured out how we can make this work, but I need your help.”
“Anything.”
He chewed on his bottom lip for a second, his blue eyes locked on mine, and then finally announced, “I want to buy the creek.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
He chuckled. “I want to buy it. Come on. This is our creek. It might as well be named the Stewart and Cole Worm Farm. The house is shit. I did a walk-through with Sam a few days ago. I swear it hasn’t been updated since the seventies. But we have time to do a remodel. Make it ours too.”
I blinked. “Um, wait. I’m confused. Didn’t you just say you can’t do your job in Clovert?”
“I did. But my boss has a summer house in Maine. He takes his whole family and goes there June through August. We could do that, Nora. We’ll get something small in the suburbs and then we can come back here for the summer. I’d still have to work and maybe fly back a few times a month, but you could still oversee your lunch program.”
He released me and walked over to two trees, his voice filling with almost as much excitement as his face. “But, at night, we could hang a hammock up out here.” He swung his arm down to the deep end of the water. “And on the weekends, we can have Joe and Misty over for cookouts and go swimming. I know we’ve talked about taking things slow and getting to know each other again, but maybe one day we could raise our kids here—happy kids, kids who will never have to deal with the hell we went through. We can make new memories until this becomes their creek too.” He hurried back over in front of me. “I get it. It’s going to take compromise from both of us, and it’s not always going to be easy. But, for the right price, Sam said he’d be willing to sell us this place. And I don’t give a damn what the right price is. I want this, Nora. I want it with you.”
He finally stopped talking and stared at me expectantly, but I couldn’t breathe much less string together a complete sentence.
Me. Camden. Kids. Our creek. A lifetime of laughter and happiness. I’d never even dreamed that big before.
Sweet Jesus, Freaking Camden Cole was still the genius of all geniuses from all those years ago.
“Say something,” he whispered.
I nodded a dozen times.
His smile grew with each one.
“I’m in, Cam. All in. Just tell me what you need me to do,” I choked out, fighting an onslaught of emotion back.
He rested his hands on my hips and playfully rocked me from side to side. “I need help paying the down payment.”
“Uh, I’m not sure the rainy-day-slash-Louboutin fund is big en
ough for it, but I could save up or take out a loan.”
He laughed and shook his head. “No, crazy. I need the ten in your back pocket. I think it’s time we put the original Stewart and Cole Worm Farm money to good use.”
Our ten-dollar bill had not been in my back pocket when I’d gotten dressed that morning, but based solely on the pride in his eyes, I was positive it was there now.
Dipping low, he brushed his nose with mine. “That ten has always been a safety net for us. A way we could find each other and a reason to come back. It was what bound us to one another when we couldn’t be together in reality. We don’t need it anymore, Nora. This is real now. It’s you and me forever. From here on out. Every day. No searching for just-in-case moments. No fallback plans or fail-safes. If I need you, you’ll only be in the other room. When you need me, I’ll be just outside. What better way to use that money than to put it down as the first building block on our future together?”
I dove into his arms, tears spilling from my eyes. “I love you so much, and I love every single thing about the words you just said too. I will happily give you ten dollars as soon as we get back to the car. But you have lost your mind if you think I am ever getting rid of our ten-dollar bill. That is mine. Do you hear me? You gave it to me, and I’m finally ready to accept it.”
“Well, it took you long enough.” He laughed deep and rich, cocooning me in his strong arms, which had been holding me up even from a distance for the majority of my life. Arms that I had no doubt would hold me close, through good times and bad, every day for the rest of my life.
God, I loved this man.
I didn’t deserve Camden Cole, and I never would, but I wasn’t entirely sure anyone on the planet was good enough for a soul like his.
Choices. Everyone makes them.
And by some miracle I would never understand, Camden chose me.
Ten years later…
“Nora!” I called, using my foot to shove the front door open, my hands—and face—filled with Fraser fir needles. “Where do you want this?”
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