I try to help her, but she swats my hand away. Camden stays frozen in place. These kinds of encounters probably don’t happen where he’s from. Everyone is too busy with their own life to worry about yours. That isn’t the case here in Sutten. Not even close.
Rosemary stops halfway to the door, her wise eyes bouncing between Camden and me. “One more thing before I go. You make sure to use that condom, you got it? Or I can ask Dr. Boone if you’re on birth control, Pippa?”
A blush creeps over my cheeks just when I thought I’d gotten rid of the flush from the last outlandish thing she said. This is another terrible thing about a small town. We all share the same doctor, who hopefully wouldn’t share details about my health—like my current birth control status.
“You have a great night,” I squeak, pretty much pushing Rosemary out the door. I’d much prefer to forget this encounter ever happened—and for Camden to wipe it from his memory as well.
“Good night, dear,” Rosemary calls over her shoulder, completely unbothered.
When the door shuts behind her, Camden looks at me, his eyes wide. “Well, that was an experience I never thought I’d have.”
I let out a long, controlled breath. “Can we pretend that never happened?”
His nice shoes make a smacking sound against the floor as he walks to me, holding the flowers out between us. “Happy first date.” He says the words with a hint of a smile on his lips.
They’re stunning. There are too many of them to even count. When I try to hold them, it takes two hands to even grab them because the bouquet is so massive.
“No one’s ever gotten me flowers,” I whisper, regretting it the moment the words leave my lips. He doesn’t need to know that although I’ve dated, no one has really even attempted to sweep me off my feet. I once had a boy give me a dandelion in the fourth grade, but other than that, there haven’t been any surprise flower deliveries or flowers on the first date.
“I’d have bought you more if the florist had any left.”
“Did you buy Ms. Lori out of roses?”
“I did.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He reaches out and traces my jaw with his thumb. “I wanted to.”
My heart thumps erratically in my chest, like it wants to jump right out of it and nestle right into his. It’s happened so fast that I don’t think too deeply into it. Things have moved quickly as we’ve run straight from arguing all the time to flowers on a first date. But I’m happy at this very moment, so I don’t want to dwell on thinking of moments that haven’t passed yet or even focus on moments that have already come to pass.
I want to think about right here and right now and whatever unexpected thing is happening with Camden.
“I love them,” I tell him, leaning into his touch.
“I thought about you all fucking day,” he admits, running his thumb along my bottom lip.
“Good.”
“Did you think about me?” He tries to lean in, but the flowers get in the way. He lets out a grunt of disapproval, swiping the flowers from my hand and holding them at his side so nothing stands between us any longer.
“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.”
“My guess is you did.” He leans in and places a quick, chaste kiss against my lips. It seems more special than the long, heated ones we’ve shared for some reason.
“I guess you’ll never know,” I tease, running my hands up his back. His muscles tighten underneath his shirt from my touch.
“God, you’re so frustrating.” He kisses me again, this time swiping his tongue along the seam of my lips. “I fucking love it.”
His tongue caresses mine, and suddenly, I’m melting into him. My fingers clutch his shirt to stay steady, the power from his kiss making me light-headed. He knows how to kiss. Expertly. So good that I wouldn’t tell him this, but I dreamed about kissing him all day. I thought about all the things that could happen tonight. I’d messed up multiple coffee orders because I couldn’t think of anything but him.
Finally, we both pull back to get some air. It feels hot in the cafe, despite me keeping the AC at a low temp. Maybe it’s because my mind flashes with the memories of what happened here the other night—right up against the window behind him.
The hand of his not holding the flowers reaches down to hold my hand in his. “So what did you have planned for us?”
37
CAMDEN
Pippa gives me a nervous smile. She shouldn’t be nervous—I’d be excited about anything she planned. I just want to spend time with her. To get to know her a little bit more. To try and wrap my head around what it is about this girl that drives me fucking wild. She’s always driven me wild. At first, with anger; now, it’s with something else. I can’t put a finger on what exactly, but there’s something about her. Something different. Something special. And because of that, she could plan a date with the two of us in the middle of a cornfield, and I’d be ecstatic about it.