Page 116 of Stolen Bases

I shrug. I want to hear him say it. No, I need him to say it. To take the ache he made and filled with doubt disappear. “I don’t know.”

“Let me spell it out for you. One day, not too far from now, I’m going to wife you up. Miller will be the name you wear. I only said all that in front of your mom to buy us time. I’m not leaving. Ever. Please believe me.” Cam holds his hand over his heart, his eyes pleading for me to believe in him again. He didn’t technically leave if he was standing here waiting for me to come back to my room. He didn’t wait to explain.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” he asks, unsure if he heard me correctly.

I nod, my tears drying up.

He curses under his breath, his smile growing from ear to ear. “You don’t know how happy that makes me. How happy you make me.”

“I’m still mad, but you make me happy too.”

“Good, because I’d only stand on this death trap for you. No one else.”

I peek out the window and look down. Holy shit, it’s higher than it appears. “Okay, I believe you. Now, get down before you kill yourself.”

“Not without you.”

“Hate to break it to you, big guy, but I have no athletic ability. I can’t climb out this window without causing serious damage to you or myself.”

“Believe me, I know, baby. Do you still have your bag packed?”

Over my shoulder, I see my overnight tote—packed and ready to go—sitting by the door. I nod.

“Then grab it and meet me down the block.”

“It will be too suspicious if I walk out of here with an overnight bag.”

“Good call. Hand it to me.”

I rush and grab my small duffle and hand it to him.

“Now, put on some scrubs and tell everyone you’re going to work.”

If I do this, I will officially be lying to my family.

Before, it was just omitting the truth. I think back to all the hurtful things Mamma told me. How she treated Cam and chose Nico over me again.

Fuck it.

If she won’t accept Cam, then this is what I have to do. I’m going to listen to my heart, and it tells me to follow Cam.

“Give me twenty minutes.”

“I’ll wait forever.”

I stare at him standing confidently on the overgrown wisteria slats of wood, and I believe him. If I could lean out the window and kiss him, I would. I blow him a kiss instead, and he gives me that sexy, playful grin that makes my panties melt.

Then he drops my bag on the Adirondack chairs below the arbor, squats down, and slides through the cracks, out of view.

twenty-nine

Talia

After a quick shower,I braided my hair into a crown around my head and dressed in a clean pair of scrubs—with a little surprise underneath for Cam.

Aside from Zia Rose, nobody batted an eyelash when I came down in my work clothes and said I was going to work. She tried to talk to me, but I politely shut her down with a mumbled, “Not here,” which gives me extra time to figure out what I’m going to do.

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