“Fuck him,” Cameron said, bringing my gaze to him. “Fuck them. Fuck everyone who has made you feel like you’re not worth everything you deserve.”
Something locked inside of my chest. Loudly. So very close to my heart. “You don’t have to—”
I was lifted up and dropped on a wide shoulder.
“No more overthinking,” he said, walking us both inside. “No more questioning how I feel toward you. I didn’t sit through a full hour of campfire songs so you could find a reason to boot me when I finally get you home.” His other hand fell over the backs of my knees, securing me against him, as if he feared I’d try to jump out of his arms. “This,” he said, stomping into the living room. “I had to restrain myself from taking you and throwing you over my shoulder like this. Josie is a horrible singer.”
I blinked down at his back, his ass, his long legs, and I… I burst out laughing.
He came to a stop immediately, loosening the vise of his arm, removing me from his shoulder, and placing me in front of him. I steadied myself against his chest.
“I’m already tempted to do that again,” he said, his eyes dancing between my mouth and eyes. The beating of his heart drumming against my palms, quicker than a few moments before. “I could do it every day. With every door.”
“It can be discussed.” I was still half laughing, but when Cameron’s jaw clenched again, all of that lightness dissolved. “Okay, I should give you your spoiled surprise.”
He opened his mouth, but I was already stepping away from him and whirling on my heels. I walked to the guest room and fished the gift out of the wardrobe I’d hid it in.
When I turned around, Cameron was leaning against the frame of his bedroom door, right across from mine. I swallowed. Padded closer to him with the pink bag in my hands.
I offered it to him.
Cameron opened it and extracted what was inside. The bag dropped to our feet. His hands held the shirt in the air.
“？‘This coach kicks monkey bum,’？” he read out loud. He swallowed. “？‘Coach Chamomile, Green Warriors of Green Oak. Six Hills Little League, NC.’？”
My heart raced. “It’s so silly,” I said, hearing my voice sound low and guarded. “I had it made so the girls could sign it tomorrow.” A shaky breath left me. “María helped come up with the first part.”
Cameron’s arms dropped. He looked at me with an emotion I didn’t recognize. One that wasn’t any of the ones I’d expected the shirt to cause.
“It was supposed to be a joke,” I explained. “I… I thought you’d find it funny.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped. “There’s no press attending tomorrow’s game, is there?”
My stomach dropped at my feet. “Of course not.”
“There hasn’t been any press at any game.”
My throat tightened, clogged, and I had to make myself swallow. “I would never put your anonymity or privacy at risk. Not after what you told me.”
“But you only found out about that recently,” he countered, taking a step closer to me. “You changed your mind before that. Why?”
I felt myself shaking. Trembling. “I could still make it work.”
Another step. “At the cost of your ticket back to Miami?”
My mouth clamped shut. My heart raced. My eyes fluttered shut.
Cameron’s fingers brushed my cheek. “Yes or no, love?”
I met his gaze, and there was so much in there, so much that mirrored exactly how I felt. Desperate. Needy. Falling so fast and hard I could barely breathe. “Yes,” I said. “At any cost. I was and will protect you at whatever the cost.”
He cupped my face. “I see you, Adalyn.” His other hand joined, and the shirt he’d been holding fell to our feet. “I goddamn see you, love. But you finally opening up like that for me? It makes it impossible for me not to crack open in return.”
I grasped his wrists. “And how would you do that?”
“Treating that side you hide,” he said against my mouth. “I want to spoil it rotten, just because I can. I want to bury you in pillows when you’re cold and carry you to my bed in my arms every night. Kissing you hard when we bicker and reminding you just how crazy you make me.”
A kind of pressure I wasn’t familiar with rose in my chest. It reached my eyes, making them sting. And I wanted to burst. Really burst. I felt so happy, so ecstatic, so… full of that something I didn’t think I could say out loud, or even think, that I wanted to burst open at the seams and let him see.