Page 61 of Camilla & Dallas
Camilla’s younger sister held up the casserole dish. “I thought I’d bring you something to eat.”
He sighed and peered at her before glancing around the clearing. There was an extra ATV parked next to the one he usually drove. “Did you come out here alone?”
She let out a quiet laugh. “Were you expecting Camilla?”
Shaking his head, he sighed again. “No.”
“Can I come in?”
“I don’t know if that would be a good idea,” he said.
Either she didn’t hear him, or she didn’t care. Isabelle pushed past him and entered the small cabin. “You look like death.”
“Yeah, well, I feel it.”
She placed the casserole dish on the countertop and turned to face him, hands on her hips. “Tell me what happened.”
Groaning, Dallas remained by the still-open door. He even gestured toward it. “You should go, Isabelle. I don’t think Camilla would like it if she knew you were out here.”
“No.”
This time, he released a dark chuckle. “No? I get that this cabin technically belongs to you and your family, but I’m the one using it right now and I’m asking you to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you were so dumb.”
Fury curled in his gut, tightening like his fists had moments ago. “I wasn’t dumb.”
“Really? Because from where I’m standing, you were.Are. You don’t even seem to realize what you’re losing.”
He took two long strides toward her and pounded at his chest, his voice hot and loud. “I know exactly what I’m losing.”
To Isabelle’s credit, she didn’t even flinch at his temper tantrum. She stared at him blankly, expectantly.
“I didn’t tell Camilla that my job here was only temporary. That’s it.”
She scoffed. “That’s not enough to get Camilla to tell everyone she doesn’t want to see you anymore.”
He froze and all the wind was knocked from his lungs. “She said that?”
Isabelle nodded sharply. “She said that you broke her heart. Twice. And that she’d told everyone from the very beginning that she didn’t want you here. She basically gave a whole speech that could be summed up with the words, ‘I told you so.’”
Dallas’s arm shot out as he leaned against the sofa he found himself standing beside. He gripped the upholstery, his fingertips grasping for purchase. Camilla wasn’t going to hear him out. She wasn’t going to give him the time of day to explain. How was he supposed to get her to see reason if she couldn’t stand to look at him?
Absently, he dug his hand into his pocket where the ring had been stored away. It was still there, burning a hole in the fabric. He wrapped his hand around the box and pulled it out, staring at it like it held all the answers to his problems.
Isabelle’s gasp ripped through the quiet cabin. When he looked up at her, she had a hand over her mouth.
He offered her a sad, wry smile. “I was going to ask her to marry me.”
She blinked several times before she inched closer. “Can I see it?”
His hand tightened around the box protectively.
“It’s okay if you don’t want me to…” She glanced up at him, then away. “I’m sorry this is happening.”
“It’s my fault anyway. I should have never left seven years ago. I should have known that leaving a note for Camilla wasn’tgoing to cut it. I just knew that if I had to tell her to her face, I wouldn’t be strong enough to walk away. I would have stayed.”
“Wait, what?” Isabelle’s head whipped up and she stared at him, pale. “What did you say?”
