My anger seeped out of me, replaced by guilt. “I didn’t mean to. I just left my phone in the car.”
He didn’t say anything as he smoothed the washcloth under my eyes, wiping away the mascara. “You didn’t need to leave.”
“I overreacted.” My lashes lowered and I let out a breath. “The guy… he really hadn’t done anything wrong. He just surprised me and I overreacted. I ruined the party.”
“You didn’t ruin the party. And that son of a bitch shouldn’t have been grabbing you. Fuck. I heard you say ‘let me go’ and I know damn well he did to. Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted as… strongly as I had, but fuck it. He was grabbing you and I didn’t like it.”
Yeah, I had told the guy to let me go, but he’d been drunk and stupid. All he had wanted to do was dance with me. I knew when a guy became a threat. He hadn’t hit that stage. Who knew if he would have, but it had been the memories that had sent me over the edge.
“You didn’t need to come here,” I said finally, suddenly very tired. “You should be at the party having fun.”
Cam was quiet so long that I had to look at him. The expression on his face was a cross between wanting to strangle me and something far, far different. There was a dipping motion in my stomach, very much like it had been at the party before everything went to hell.
“We’re friends, right?” he said in a quiet, low voice.
“Yes.”
“This is what friends do. They check on each other. Brittany and Jacob would’ve been here, but I made them stay there.”
Maybe I totally misread that moment we were having. “I need to get my phone and call—”
“I’ll text Brittany. I got her number.” He rocked back on his heels, watching me. “The fact that you wouldn’t expect anyone to check up on you is… I don’t even know what it is.”
I didn’t say anything and started to look away, but his hand came up, resting against my cheek. His thumb moved, smoothing across my skin. Our eyes met, and I wished I had something witty to say, something that would erase this night. Well, everything except the way he’d looked at me at the party. I sort of liked that.
Okay. I had really liked that, but whatever.
“Why were you crying?” he asked. “Wait. Did that fucker hurt you, because I will—”
“No! Not at all,” I said quickly. I had a feeling he’d track that guy down and beat the crap out of him if he thought he’d hurt me.
“Then why?” His thumb moved again, and I moved out of some long forgotten instinct. I turned my head into his palm. “Talk to me?”
Talking was so easy for most people, but most people had things they actually wanted to talk about. “I don’t know. I guess I was just being a girl.”
His brows rose. “You sure that’s all?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
He didn’t say anything again for another long moment. Instead, his eyes moved over my face in a slow perusal. “You okay?”
I nodded.
His hand moved down and his thumb brushed the edge of my lip. I sucked in a sharp breath, becoming hyperaware of how close we were. Strange, I realized. I had wanted something to say to make the night disappear, but it wasn’t necessarily words I needed.
A touch, a single look was just as powerful.
I wasn’t thinking of anything but him in that moment. There was a freedom in that I hadn’t experienced before.
His gaze was centered on my lips and as soon as I realized that, my heart kicked up, sending my blood rushing. There wasn’t a lot of space separating us. All he’d have to do is move two or three inches and that would be it.
Then his gaze flicked up.
Cam closed the little distance between us before I had a chance to move away. My heart leapt in my chest at the thought that he might kiss me, that I was literally seconds away from my first kiss, and I had no idea what to do. My mouth felt funny after all the crying and I was sitting on a toilet, which probably wasn’t the most romantic of all settings.
But he didn’t kiss me. He pressed his forehead against mine and let out a ragged breath that smelled of mint. “You drive me fucking insane sometimes.”
I drove myself fucking insane. “Sorry?”
Cam pulled back a little, his eyes searching my face. “Don’t run off like that again, okay? I was worried shitless when I couldn’t find you and no one knew where you were.”
I almost apologized again, but apologies were really like wishes. There were an abundance of both in my life and neither really made a difference. So I did something I don’t even think I’d ever done, not even before.
Scooting forward, I pressed my lips to his smooth cheek. His eyes widened, and I inched back. Under his intense stare, I wondered if that had been the wrong thing to do.
Cam started to move forward and then stopped. His eyes were so large and they were truly beautiful, unique in the way the hue seemed to deepen and darken. “Avery?”
I swallowed. “Cam?”
He didn’t give me his lopsided grin or show off his one dimple. “Go out on a date with me.”
There was a tugging in my chest and I was reminded of that moment when he’d come back to campus early after fall break and had come straight to my apartment. Something had cracked inside me then and it did so now, like a wall of… reservation. The party hadn’t worked out, but Cam… he was different. He’d always been different.
And he was here. That had to mean something. It sure felt like it did.
My brain was telling me this was a bad idea and I told my brain to shut the fuck up, because it rarely told me anything helpful. I took a breath, one I didn’t need. “Yes.”
Jacob sat across from Brittany and me in the small coffee shop in town, rocking a pair of dark shades and the bowler hat from his Halloween costume. The three of us had skipped History. It had been his idea, and honestly, I was way too wired to be sitting in class. Besides, the only class I’d missed all semester had been the first day of astronomy. Skipping one more time, even if it was my major, couldn’t be that big of a crime.
He groaned as he sipped his latte. “Whoever let me drink as much as I did last night should be smacked in the face.”
I glanced at Brit as I picked at my chocolate chip scone. She shot him a sheepish look. “Well, you let me spend ‘quality time’ with Jimmie, so whatever.”
“And how did that go?” he asked, sliding his glasses down and pinning her with bloodshot eyes. “You looked like you were walking a little funny to the car.” Brit snorted. “Yeah, you’re giving Jimmie way too much credit. I left with you and when Jimmie did text me later, because hello, why wouldn’t he? I didn’t answer. I was a good girl.”
“Good, because if the guy isn’t making you walk funny after sex, then he probably isn’t anything to write home to mom about.” Jacob shifted his gaze to me. “But you, missy, I’m still ticked at you.”
“So am I,” Brit joined in, smacking my arm as I reached for my hot chocolate. “You scared the shit out of me last night. I thought you had been kidnapped.”
“I really am sorry for that. I went home and left my phone in the car.” When I thought she wouldn’t whack me again, I wrapped my fingers around my cup. “I do feel terrible. I didn’t want either of you to worry.”
“Well, we did…” He grinned. “When we realized you were missing. That took about an hour or so.”
Brit made a face as she nodded. “That’s true. So if you were kidnapped, well, that would’ve sucked.”
I laughed, almost choking on my drink. “Wow. I don’t know if I should feel less guilty now.”
“Yeah, we’re shitty friends.” Jacob sat back, tipping his hat up. “Except we totally redeemed ourselves by involving Cam.”
My heart did that cartwheel again.
“We really thought you were with him,” Brit said, sneaking a piece of my scone. “That’s why it took us so long, but then we saw him coming out of one of the rooms with Jase and Ollie.”
“He was really worried when we asked if he’d seen you.” Jacob rubbed the skin above his brows. “He went right out there with Ollie and started looking for your car.”
Brit nodded as she eyed my scone. “It was kind of romantic, especially since you weren’t lying dead anywhere.”
I laughed as I slid the scone toward her.
“And then he rushed off, like a knight in shining armor, leaving the party and one very unhappy Little Skanky Red Riding Hood behind.” Brit dug into the scone happily. “Seriously, Avery, I know you’re saying you’re not taking hard to get to a whole new level, but you need to go out with him.”
“I am,” I said quietly, holding onto my hot chocolate.
“Because he’s not going to keep asking,” she continued blithely. “He’s going to move on and you’re going to be sitting in your apartment, crying your little heart out and—”
“Brit, shut it for a second.” Jacob leaned forward and slid his sunglasses down. “Wait. Did you just say you were going out with him?”
“Yeah.” Now my heart did a back flip. Just talking about it filled me with an absurd amount of nervousness. “He asked me again and I said yes.”
Brit lowered my scone from her mouth, her eyes wide. “What? When did this happen?”
“Last night,” I answered.
“When he left to check on you?” Jacob asked.
I nodded.
“Holy shit,” Brit whispered. “You’re going out with Cam.”
“On a date,” I added. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
Of course, it was a big deal to me. This would be my first date—this was huge. No way was I sharing that little tidbit with them. It was bad enough that Cam already knew that embarrassing secret.
“I would be clapping like a seal right now if I weren’t so fucking hung over, just so you know. Inside, I am doing happy jumping jacks for you with glittery pom poms.” Jacob laughed at the face I made. “It’s about time. He’s only been asking you out for…?”
I shrugged. “Not that long.”
Brit gaped at me and a piece of scone hit the table, causing me to giggle. “He’s been asking you out since the end of August. It is the first day of November, Avery, just in case you can’t tell time. Most guys don’t even remember a girl’s name during that length of time.”
My brows rose.
“It’s true,” Jacob commented. “I forget your name about once a week.”
I laughed.
“So when are you guys going out?” she asked, tugging her ponytail down and then redoing it. “What are you doing?”
I was pretty sure that my heart was now doing the jumping jacks that Jacob claimed were going on inside him. “We’re not going out until next weekend. He’s got a paper he’s got to write this weekend and he’s already got plans with Ollie—something about one of those mixed martial arts fights on pay per view.” Cam had invited me to come over then, but it seemed like it was a guy night. “I think we’re going to some restaurant in Hagerstown next Saturday.”