Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Yeah…not sure we have the same relationship.” We were quiet again, and my damn pulse was slamming against my skin. Every couple of minutes I fidgeted in the seat. “My place or yours?”
“I figured yours since you’re more comfortable there? I mean, not that you’re not comfortable at my place, but your condo is yours, and—”
“And I’m delicate and you need to baby me? Come on, man. Don’t do that.”
Cam glanced over at me. “I wasn’t trying to do that.”
No, I knew he wasn’t. Camden was just a nice guy, one who took care of people who were important to him. He’d done it his whole life with Sawyer, and somehow I’d found myself in the place where he did it with me as well. “I don’t do this, ya know? I don’t need other people. I don’t let myself get close to other people. Not in the ways that matter, at least.” It was something every girlfriend I had over the years struggled with, not that I blamed them. They deserved someone who could fully give themselves to them, but caring meant losing, and losing meant turning into my dad.
“Except with Rush,” Cam said, his voice tight.
“Because I’ve never known a time in my life when Rush wasn’t there, or wasn’t important to me, but let’s be real, I do it with you too. I have from the start. Do you think I would have shared with just anyone that I was in love with Rush? You’re the only person I could have said that to.” What I didn’t understand was why. Camden had shamelessly flirted with me from the start. He’d called me beautiful, something I typically didn’t like, but the word didn’t bother me coming from him. In fact, it made me feel good. I’d befriended him and trusted him and talked to him. Those were things I didn’t give to most people. Not in an honest way.
“I know,” Cam replied. “I see that. Don’t think I don’t. Now, let’s wait until we get home, and am I allowed to reach over and put a hand on my boyfriend’s leg? And just so you know, I also expect you to really ask me to go steady. You can pass me a note and—spoiler alert—I’ll check the yes. Do you have a letterman jacket I can wear?”
Shaking my head, I chuckled. There was something about him that was so damn electric, so contagious, in the best way. Even when he was doing what he was doing at the moment, which was simply trying to make me feel better. If it were anyone else, I would brush the attempt aside, tell them I appreciated it but didn’t need it. Hell, even with Rush, but I wasn’t doing that with Cam.
What I did do was reach over, put my hand on his thigh, the way he’d asked to do to me. “Thanks, Cam.”
“Eh, not like it’s a hardship. You have nothing to thank me for.”
From there we really were quiet all the way back to my condo. When we got there, Cam took off his suspenders and untucked his shirt. “Sorry. I need to get comfortable. I’m not used to this shit.”
“No, no. It’s fine.” I removed my jacket and got us each a beer as we sat down on the couch.
“You told Rush you were dating someone?”
I appreciated the fact that Cam started the conversation, but I wished we didn’t have to talk about it. “Fuck.” I ran a hand over my face. “Yeah. It just sort of happened.”
“As these things often do in Fever Falls,” Cam teased.
“We were talking about the wedding, and fuck, he wants to marry Lincoln. I can see it, but I think he’s worried about me. That I’ll be alone.” Like my father was. We Sandoval men loved hard when we let ourselves do it. Rush and I had that conversation more than once over the years. My dad had spent his whole life alone after he lost my mom. He hadn’t known how to be happy without her. He hadn’t known how to move on, even for me. “I don’t think he believes I’m not in love with him anymore. And I don’t know, it likely doesn’t make sense to anyone else—Rush worrying about me that way, especially since he and Lincoln are together and in love now. But I know Rush, and I know how he feels.”
“So you made up someone you were seeing and he believed it? I mean, not that anyone wouldn’t want to be with you, but he thought there was a mystery person no one knew about? And that you would care enough about them you would forget him?”
I knew exactly where Cam was going with that. “Rush believed it because he needed to. Not that I think he even sees that. He’s not that kind of man, but he can’t stand the thought of me hurting.”