Page 39 of Feels Like Coming Home

“Oh…what are you doing here? Oh, my…” I heard her footsteps padding down the hallway, getting closer as she moved toward where I still sat.

Before I knew it, she was back in the door frame with a devious look on her face. I looked up at her with confusion.

Why is she looking at me like that?

“Special delivery,” is all she said before I saw him.

I felt my jaw drop and my whole body started to tingle.

There was Cam, leaning over from behind her, two giant take-out bags full of what I assumed was food, hanging from his hands and a big goofy smile on his face.

As I locked eyes with him, I couldn’t ignore the heat that I instantly felt in my cheeks.

21

CAM | NOW

Oh my god, she’s so beautiful it hurts.

Earlier in the day, I’d decided to make what could have arguably been a horrible mistake of surprising her and Piper with dinner. After seeing her though, sitting in a chair and looking back at me with a small smile on her lips, I knew I’d made the right choice.

She was sitting at the end of a long table that had a lot of chairs around it as if it were meant for meetings. While she sat there on her own, she would have held the attention of anyone who filled the seats.

Her hair was tied up on top of her head, a few loose pieces falling into her face, framing it perfectly. She was wearing a light cream sweater and had the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, which were on the table. She had a pen in her mouth, which was something I remember she would do when she was deep in thought.The flow, as she called it. I wanted to pull it from her mouth and replace it with my lips. To feel her lips on mine again after all this time. I was awestruck by her, unable to form full sentences or create coherent thoughts.

“So beautiful…” I thought to myself again.

“Excuse me,what?” Piper whipped her head around quickly and looked directly at me.

Oh shit, did I say that out loud?! I cleared my throat and stood up straight as I was leaning around Piper to look toward Haley.

“So busy, I said ‘So busy!’ It looks like you’re so busy.”And you look like a complete dumbass. Haley let out an airy laugh and covered her smile with the back of her hand, her freckled cheeks now a faint shade of pink.

“Nice catch.” Piper rolled her eyes at me and yanked the bags from my hands before she turned to head toward the kitchen with the food I’d just brought. I straightened my shirt and took a step forward, now leaning on the doorframe and looking at Haley again.

“Hey, Jones.”

“Hey, Johnson.” The way she bought into our old ways so fast made my heart skip a beat. Damn did this woman have me wrapped around her finger.

“I wasn’t lying; you do look busy.” I pointed toward her computer which sat open in front of her and the collection of papers that were strewn all over the top of the table.

“Yeah, well…” She took a deep breath and stood from her seat. “When you’re planning a conference for 400 people, there’s a lot that goes into that.” She was standing near the edge of the table and it took everything in me not to close the gap between us, grab her face, and kiss her right where she stood.

“I see you still do that thing with your pen when you’re deep in thought. Your ‘flow’ I think you called it.”

Her face shifted into disbelief at my comment, “You still remember that?”

“I remember everything, Jones.”

Haley’s face fell and she took a step closer to me, my heart was beating fast and hard inside my chest. I don’t know what possessed me to say that to her, but it was the truth. I remembered everything about her as if it were tattooed into my brain. Her laugh, her weird quirks that I thought were cute, even her favorite takeout order—which was Thai food, always. While she hadn’t been part of my life in a long time, being with her now made it feel like no time had passed. It was as if she never truly left me at all.

We were standing in the office, within arm’s reach of one another but not saying anything, allowing the silence between us to speak all the words we wanted to say but weren’t sure if we should. The sound of Piper shouting from the kitchen broke the spell and made Haley nearly jump out of her skin.

“Let’s go you two, time for dinner!”

I moved first, turning my body outward toward the hallway and motioning for Haley to go ahead of me. I was following closely behind her until Haley stopped in the hallway. I watched as she turned around to look at me, pausing for a moment where she stood.

She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, then smiled and shook her head. Then, without saying anything at all, she turned on her heels and walked toward the kitchen where Piper and the takeout I had delivered were waiting for us.

---