Wait for you

I caught his hand and untangled by hair, gri

“I deem you a sophomore now.” He plucked up my hair again, this time trailing it across my cheek. “What I say goes.”

“Then how does it feel finally being a senior. Next year isyour last.”

“Amazing,” he replied, tracing my lower lip with the ends of my hair. “It feels amazing.”

Wiggling closer to him, I wrapped my fingers in the collar of his shirt. “It feels pretty damn good to be a sophomore.”

“Would be better if you didn’t sign up for summer classes.”

“True.” I was taking bio over the summer to get it out of the way. And it would work out. Cam was helping out with a summer soccer camp for kids, so he’d be here most of the time. I was going to miss Brit and Jacob though. They’d already headed home.

Smiling softly, I managed to get closer. Cam spread his arms and I placed my head on his shoulder, throwing an arm and a leg over him.

“Close enough?” he asked.

“No.”

He chuckled as his fingers trailed up and down my spine. My body relaxed under the soft ministrations. His lips brushed my forehead and I smiled.

Things were different between us since I’d told him the truth. It had been rough and awkward immediately afterward. Rather Cam admitted it, he hadn’t been sure on how to proceed forward with our relationship. Like what he should say or do and it wasn’t like a miraculous change occurred overnight. Three weeks had passed before anything sexual happened between us. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to, but I knew he hadn’t wanted to push me. It took me taking control and basically attacking him for him to get the message. Of course, we hadn’t had sex, yet, but the one time had regained how far we’d come in that aspect.

In a small way he did look at me differently, but it wasn’t as I feared. He knew the whole story now and that did change us.

For the better.

I was more of myself, the way I was before. I even went to a party thrown at Jase’s last weekend. There’d been moments of unease there, but Cam had been there to help me through it instead of dealing with it on my own. I had danced with Cam.

He’d really enjoyed that.

There weren’t any secrets between us and we had the whole summer ahead of us to explore, but there were things on my mind. Resolving the issues with Cam had been important and a much needed step, but there were still things I needed to face, still needed to take care of and they were big things.

Rolling on top of Cam, I straddled his hips. “Hey.”

His eyes got that heavy, sensual look to them as he placed his hands on my waist. “Hey there.”

“So I’ve been doing some thinking.”

“Oh God.”

“Shut up.” I laughed and then lowered my head, kissing his lips. “Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. There’s something I want to do.”

“What?” His hands slid down over my shorts and rested on my thighs.

I bit my lip. “I want to go home.”

Cam’s brows shot up. “Like back to Texas?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

Placing my hands on his stomach, I sat back. A flicker of tension ricocheted across his face as I pressed down on him. Part of it was on purpose. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy. For just a day or two.”

His grip tightened. “Damn. There goes my master plan of spending the summer like a sex-crazed bachelor.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What do you want to do if you go back there?” he asked, smoothing his hands over my thighs.

“I want to see my parents,” I admitted. “I need to talk to them.”

“About what happened?”

“I’ve never talked to them about what happened, not since that night.” I tapped my fingers along his chest. “I need to talk to them. I know this sounds like it being a bitch fest, but I need to tell them that what they did was wrong.”

Cam let go of my thighs and placed his hands over mine. “It doesn’t sound like  a bitch fest, but do you think it’s wise? I mean, do you think it’s going to help you and not…”

“Hurt me?” I smiled softly. “There’s really nothing more my parents can do that will hurt me, but I feel like I need to confront them. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No.”

“I need to do this.” I took a deep breath. “I also need to talk to Molly.”

“What?”

“I need to talk to her and try to explain why I did what I did. I know it’s risky and if it comes back and bites me in the ass with the non-disclosure, then it does, but if I can get her to understand just a little a bit, then maybe it will help her and she’ll stop contacting me.” And that would be a hell of a nice change. Since we talked, she still sent me messages. Sporadic ones, so I guess that was an improvement, but I wanted them to end.

I wanted to move on completely.

Cam eyes met mine. “I don’t know about that. The girl seems like she’s not the most stable person out there.”

“She’s not crazy. She’s just mad and she has a reason to be.”

“And you’re not the reason why it happened to her. You know that, right? You’re not responsible.”

I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure if that was the truth. If I hadn’t dropped the charges, Blaine wouldn’t have gotten away with what he’d done and that may have been enough to stop him from doing it again. Or not. That would be a great unknown.

“I need to do this for myself and for Molly,” I said finally. It wasn’t going to be pretty. “I don’t want to run anymore, Cam. And I know I can never really put this behind me. What happened… well, it will always be a part of me, but it won’t be me. Not anymore.”

Cam was silent for a moment. “You know what I think?”

“I’m awesome?”

“Besides that.”

“What?”

“I think you’ve already made it that far, Avery. I think you have accepted it will be part of you, but it’s not you. You just haven’t realized that.” His hands moved to my hips. “But if you want to do this, then you’ll do this and I’ll be there with you.”

“You want to go with—” I squealed as Cam rolled suddenly and I was on my back and he was above me.

“You’re not doing this by yourself. Hell to the mother fucking no,” he said, resting his weight on his arm. “I’m going with you. And you’re not talking me out of it. When do you want to do this?”

“Got any plans this weekend?”

A silent laugh shook his shoulders. “Jesus.”

“I need to do this.”

He dropped a kiss to the tip of my nose. “I don’t think you do, sweetheart, but if you think you do, then that’s what matters.”

I loved his belief in me. It was beautiful. “You really want to come with me?”

“That’s a stupid question, Avery. And yes, there is such a thing as stupid questions. That was one of them. Of course I’m going to be there with you.”

My lips spread in a smile. “I love you.”

“I know.”

“Cocky.”

“Confident,” he replied, lowering his head to mine. He kissed me softly, but my body stirred to life. “I love you, sweetheart.”

I started to wrap my arms around him, but he rocked off me and grabbed my hand. “Hey! Get back here.”

“Nope. We got stuff to do.” He hauled me off the bed. “And if you start feeling me up, we aren’t going to get anything done.”

“What are we doing it?”

Dipping down suddenly, he picked me up over one shoulder and spun toward the door. “We got some tickets to book.”

#

It seemed absolutely insane that we were Texas two days later, but here we were, checking into a hotel not too far from my parents’ house. Not wanting to delay what I needed to do today, as soon as we dropped off our luggage, we hit the road. I didn’t tell my parents I was coming to Texas, so I had no idea if they’d actually be home.

Cam let out a low whistle as he followed the winding road around the bend and my parents’ estate came into view. “Good Lord, that’s a house.”