Page 97 of Feels Like Coming Home

“Oh…” My heart dropped suddenly. “Someone bought the place.”

My eyes looked at the big red and white “SOLD!” sign that was in the front yard as sadness filled my belly. While I knew people had stayed in the bungalow since we had left it a year ago, it made me sad to think we wouldn’t be able to come back here to visit again. Cam weaved his fingers through mine and pulled me toward the front door, pushing through the little gate as we went.

“Cam, stop, we can’t do this,” I said as we walked up the front walkway. “Someone else owns this house. I don’t think it’s a rental anymore. We’re trespassing.” Fear and worry were starting to sink into my belly, and I looked around panicking that a cop would roll up any second.

“Jones.” He kissed my forehead once we were standing on the front step of the bungalow. “Tell the voices in your head to be quiet. We’re fine.” He pressed another kiss to the spot on my forehead and I felt the voices in my head start to settle.

“But Cam, we can’t?—”

“We can, beautiful.” That’s when he pulled a single key out of his back pocket and dangled it in front of his face. My eyes went wide staring at it before they went back to Cam’s.

“Cam…what did you do?”

“Are you happy?”

“Cam, what the hell did you do?”

“Why are you always asking me that?” The cocky grin I loved so much was on his face. I squealed and jumped into his arms and he picked me up and spun me around.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you did this! We can’t live here though, you play back in Charlotte and I have the condo in Wilmington.”

He was unlocking the front door as I spoke.

“I know we can’t live here, not yet at least. But I’ll be retiring in a few years and then I thought we could move in here together. Until then, we could use it as a place to escape when we want to be alone or just get away.” His voice was behind me now as I walked into the front entryway. Looking around the bungalow, I had never felt more at home.

“Oh my god, Cam, I can’t believe you?—”

I turned to face him again and stopped when I found him down on one knee. My breath caught in my throat and my heart started to race.

“Cam…”

“Haley Jones”—he took one of my hands and kissed the back of it—“I have loved you since we were fifteen and trying to figure out life in a small town in Pennsylvania. I may not have been able to get my shit together right away, but I have now.”

I laughed a little as tears started to prick my eyelids.

“When I saw you in that coffee shop in Charlotte, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to let you get away again. I made a promise to myself that very day that I would do anything,anything, to have you in my life again. And now that I have you, I will do anything to keep you in it.” He stood and I had to lift my chin to keep my eyes on him.

“Jones, I promise to tell you I love you every single day and to remind you that I will never, not ever, leave your side. As long as you will let me, I will be here for you. Keeping you safe and making you feel loved. You’re mine, beautiful, and I never want to let you go. I love you, Haley, forever and always.”

Tears streamed down my face and he moved his thumb to wipe them away.

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

“Will you make me the luckiest man in the world and be my wife?”

When he opened the box he had been holding, I gasped.

The ring was modest in size but covered in diamonds. A center set stone with a halo and a diamond-studded band with rose gold metal. The exact ring I had wanted since I was a little girl. The one I would dream about casually with Cam when we were growing up.

He had remembered.

“Yes!” I squealed and jumped up to wrap my arms around his neck. Cam slipped the ring onto my finger and kissed me in the entryway of our new home.

“She said yes!” he called out and then my mom and Piper came racing out of one of the bedrooms down the hall. Both were crying and Piper was squealing right along with me as I showed her my ring.

I turned to Cam after gushing with Piper and my mom. He was standing behind me and watched me as I closed the space between us, a look of contentment and happiness on his face. I wrapped my arms around his neck and dug my nose into his neck, taking in his scent. Earth, pine, and AstroTurf. Just like always.

“Are you happy?” he whispered just loud enough for me to hear.

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