Page 95 of Feels Like Coming Home

“Beautiful, I'm all yours. Forever and always.”

As he pulled me back into his lips, I knew he meant it.

45

HALEY | NOW

Iwas standing in the entryway, taking in the last few images of the bungalow.

Looking around, so many memories from the last ten weeks swarmed my mind. The late nights when Piper and I would drink wine on the couch. The time Cam showed up with bags of food and coffee one morning and left his number on the note. When Cam stayed in my bed for the first time after coming over for dinner. It had only been ten weeks, but to me, it felt like an entire lifetime.

When I booked the bungalow, I was trying to escape.

Escape my house that felt like it was suffocating me. Escape my mind that was holding me hostage. Escape a horrible nightmare that I could never wake up from. But now, as I was leaving it, I didn’t feel like I had to escape anymore. I felt like I had finally been freed and I could breathe on my own again.

The final week and a half at the bungalow was a dream I will never forget.

Cam stayed with me every night and Piper and I finalized all the last-minute details for the conference. When we weren’t working, the three of us cooked dinner together, sat on the back porch sipping wine and beer, and laughed until we were too exhausted to function anymore. Then, I would take Cam with me to bed and we would whisper under the covers as if we were in high school doing something we weren’t allowed to do. He thought it was fun to try to get me to cry out while his head was between my legs or we were having mind-blowing sex with Piper asleep across the hall. We didn’thaveto be quiet, but we didn’t want to be rude either.

A few days ago, Cam and I walked to Coastal Brews and sat at the same table I was sitting at when he walked up to me back in January. It was weird to think that it was only ten weeks ago, but sitting at the table filled me with a sense of nostalgia I wanted to hang on to forever. As we sat together, Cam eating a bear claw and me sipping on an iced macchiato, he asked me if he could stay with me in Wilmington until after the conference was over.

“I have spring training starting soon, but I want to stay with you until it starts,” he’d said, “Would that be okay? I can rent something there if it’s weird for me to be at your house.”

My heart swelled at his offer. I had told Cam how I felt about being in the house Connor and I called home, and it meant so much to me that he didn’t want to cross a line. He found a condo to rent for a month downtown that same morning as soon as we got back to the bungalow.

I wasn’t sure how we would make things work between us once we got home, with him needing to be in Charlotte and me needing to be in Wilmington, but I knew we would. Cam reminded me of such every night before we fell asleep.

“Just so you know, I love you and I'm never leaving. It might not be perfect, but we’ll make it work. I would do anything for you, beautiful,” he would say before kissing my forehead. Every time he pressed his lips there, all the voices in my head would go quiet.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I also knew I could believe him.

“You ready, beautiful?” Cam’s warm voice from behind me pulled me from my thoughts and back into the present day.

He had a bag slung over his shoulder and another in his hand and was standing in the front doorway of the bungalow. His teeth were showing through the smile he was giving me and his eyes caught the light in such a way that I swore, they sparkled. I took a deep breath and swept the inside of the bungalow one more time with my eyes before turning to him.

“Yep! Let’s go.”

We walked out of the bungalow together and I turned to lock the door behind me. Piper was standing next to my car, keys in hand, looking at Cam and me with a knowing look.

“You two lovesick kids ready or what?! I wanna get home and sleep in my bed and not have to listen to you two fucking across the hall for once!” She shouted across the driveway as she lowered herself into the car.

“Piper!”

“Oh stop, sweetie, I’m just teasing. I’m always glad to hear that Camden is making you happy.” She winked at me and pulled the car door closed. I rolled my eyes at her as Cam opened my door for me.

“I’m so sorry for her,” I said to him as I slipped into the car.

“I’m not. I’m glad she can tell how crazy I make you just by the sounds you make.” A cocky smirk spread across his face. I shook my head at him.

“I hate you. Get in the car.” He closed my door gently, checking to make sure I was in before he did.

Cam took his place next to me in the driver’s seat and we waved at Piper as she pulled out before us. I looked to Cam, who gave me a warm smile before leaning over the dash to give me a quick kiss.

“I love you, Haley Jones. Forever and always.”

“I love you too, Camden Johnson. Forever and always.”

As we pulled out of the driveway, with Cam’s hand on my thigh, I looked back to the little bungalow that had been nothing more than a picture on my laptop screen ten weeks ago. A place I didn’t know, a place that was a stranger to me. Leaving it now though, it didn’t feel strange at all.

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