Page 32 of Feels Like Coming Home

“Maybe you should start announcing where you’ll be and invite me,” I threw back.

She paused, putting our verbal sparring on hold. As I sat across from her, I tried to take in every fine detail of her face. From the freckles that scattered across her nose to the way the laugh lines spread away from her pink, plump lips. From where I sat, I could see the small flecks of gold that mixed with the hazel color of her eyes.

She took in another deep breath. “Cam, what are you doing here?Really?”

For a split second, I thought about lying. I thought about making up a story about how I was on a break between football seasons and I decided to hit the coast and it just so happened that she and I ended up in the same place at the same time.

But then another part of me decided she deserved the truth. So that’s what I gave her.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since we ran into each other six months ago and I wanted to see you again. Since the season is over and I had a few months of downtime, I decided to try and track you down.”

Her eyes grew as I spoke but I didn’t give her any space to cut in.

“First, I went to Wilmington and was hoping I’d just run into you somewhere but then quickly realized that was a stupid fucking idea, so I looked you up online. That’s when I saw that you were here, in this town, so I drove down yesterday. I figured I would find you at a local coffee shop because you were a freak about them growing up, always dragging me to any new one you could find. Thankfully for me, there’s only one coffee shop in town, so I committed myself to coming here until I saw you. I appreciate you being here so early, you saved me a lot of wait time.” My lips were turned up and I gave her my best cocky grin.

Her face was frozen in an expression that you normally only saw in TV shows or movies. Her brows were furrowed together, her jaw slack and hanging open, and her chin had dropped just enough to where she was looking at me through her lashes. Something about her stunned expression made me puff out my chest. I felt a deep sense of pride knowing I had made Haley Jones speechless.

A few moments had passed between us and Haley still hadn’t said anything. I started thinking that I had scared her or worse, caused her to have a stroke.

“Jones…?” I leaned closer to her as I said her name.

She blinked a few times and shook her head, slowly coming back from wherever she had gotten lost in her mind. Her hands then rubbed her face and she tucked both sides of her hair behind her ears, exposing more freckles that were sprinkled down her neck. Noticing them made my core a little warmer.

“Cam…” She sighed, crossing her arms in front of her and leaning back in her chair. Her expression told me she was upset and I braced myself to hear her say that I was an idiot and needed to go home. “Did you call me afreak?”

My head fell backwards and I brought my hand to my chest as I laughed loudly in the crowded coffee shop. Out of all the things I just said to her,thatwas what she was focused on? I couldn’t fucking believe this woman.

“Yes, I did call you a freak, because you are a freak,” I started, still laughing. “I didn’t even need totryto be able to know where to find you, Jones. You went exactly where I expected you to go because you’re afreakfor these kinds of places.”

“Hey, I take offense to being called a freak,” she started in on me and I was happy to let her. At the same moment though, a server came by with our meals and Haley bit back whatever jab she was about to throw at me.

We ate our breakfast in silence, both too focused on our food to say anything. As I ate, I tried to sneak a peek at her, but every time I tried, she was already looking at me. It surprised me how easy this felt. We hadn’t seen each other in six months, and before that, over ten years. Being with her like this felt like putting on an old jersey that you hadn’t worn in a few seasons. Worn in, comfortable, and kind of like home.

I cleaned my plate and sat back in my chair to look at her. I marveled at how beautiful she still was after all this time and begged the universe to let me live like this forever. Just watching her be her.

She finished her meal not long after I did and pushed her plate away from her. “So, how long are you here for?” I asked. She chewed on the inside of her lip before speaking, considering whether I was worth an honest answer.

“Through the end of March. Piper and I rented a place on the water to use as a planning hub for a conference I'm hosting for my business in April.” She wiped her pale pink lips with her napkin and finished her coffee. I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

I guess that’s all I’m getting.

“That’s awesome,” I started. “Aren’t you going to miss home though? That’s a long time to not sleep in your own bed.” I knew that Haley ran her own company, but beyond that, I didn’t know what it was or what she did. I wasn’t surprised to hear she was doing something big like a conference, she never shied away from a challenge, which is something I always admired about her.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked down at her hands, an expression of sadness on her face. I don’t know what I said, but it had upset her.

When Haley spoke again, she said something that took me back to a time we shared before. Another time in our relationship where I thought I had totally fucked things up for good between us. But again, Haley looked past it like she always did for me.

“You wanna go for a walk?”

17

HALEY | NOW

Icouldn’t believe what was happening right now. If you told me when I woke up this morning thatthisis what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have believed you.

When I looked up to see Cam’s deep emerald eyes looking back at me in the coffee shop, I didn’t know if I was supposed to yell at him or throw up. A small part of me wanted to throw my arms around his neck and hug him. To allow the sense of safety and peace he always brought me growing up to fill my insides once again. Cam always made me feel safe growing up and it was one of the many reasons why I fell for him. He was a protector and you felt that when you were around him. At least I always did.

Now I was here, walking down the street with the man who used to be the boy I’d been in love with growing up. The boy I’d loved until the day I realized he couldn’t love me back and I knew I needed to move on for the sake of my own heart. Years went by. Life happened. And I moved on, falling in love with a different man who could love me in the way I needed to be loved. But that man is gone now and a small piece of me was gone with him.

---