“Bree, I’m sorry for how I treated you, and the things that I said outside of the restaurant the other day. I had no idea who you were, and I’d kind of snapped. That’s never happened to me before,” I offered.
“It’s cool. He should have told you. I knew he was dating someone, though I didn’t know how serious you two were, but I should’ve known he would have kept it from you unless I gave him permission to tell you. See, that’s the thing about Camden, he’s loyal to a fault. He never spills secrets, even if it could ruin everyone else around him. I know that I have three other brothers who would drop everything for me if I asked, but Camden has always been the one who reaches out to me. He’s the one who acts more like the big brother versus the little brother. I rely on him too much, and I wished I wouldn’t have asked him to help me. It’s caused a shit storm of a mess, and I’m very sorry about that.”
I shook my head. “No, don’t blame yourself. He should have told me, just like he should have told me about a lot of things. But I guess you’re right about Camden being tight lipped about stuff. It’s just that it’s ‘mum’s the word’ with him all the time, and all I want is for him to feel comfortable enough to talk to me.”
She reached over and grabbed my hand. When I glanced up at her, I wanted to burst into tears. She looked so much like Camden, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. How did I not see it in the photo? Well, I guess if I wasn’t looking for it, how could I have?
“He does feel comfortable enough with you. He loves you Keegan.” I was about to argue, but she stopped me. “No, just listen to me. I’ve watched him grow up and date girls here and there. Do you know how many he’s ever brought home?”
“No.”
“Zero. Do you know how many he’s stuck with for as long as he’s been with you?”
“Huh-uh.”
“Zero. And do you know how many he’s told that he loves them?”
Tears sprung to my eyes and I said, “No.”
“None, Keegan. He’s never said it to another girl.”
“But he’s never said it to me either.”
“Do you think he even needs to? Camden sees something in you that is clearly special, and I see it too. You’re different than the other girls. He pushes and tests those that he lets in, because he wants to know that they will fight for him, like he will fight for them. Oh boy did you fight.” She laughed. “He needs someone like you who’ll give him a challenge. I knew that Camden was never going to settle for a girl who was shallow or vain. He likes other qualities…qualities that are real. Give him another chance, Keegan, he deserves one, and so do you.”
The corners of my eyes had crusted dry tears, and now they were wet again. “Thank you for talking to me. Your brother is pretty special to me, and I think you’re pretty great as well.” I paused. “Wait, what are you going to do, you know, about the whole baby thing?”
She exhaled loudly. “That’s the question of the year isn’t it? I think I’ll be heading back home to let the guy know and make a decision from there. I never thought I’d be in this position, but I am so I guess I better face the music.”
I squeezed her hand. “Good luck, Bree. I know you have other people to talk to, but I’m here if you need someone.”
“Thanks,” she said as she got up from the bed. Before she walked out the door she faced me. “Keep him on his toes slugger. He deserves you.” Then she walked out.
I’d kept my bags packed but didn’t leave. I went over and over in my head some things that Camden had said. He told me that I needed to get on board with him, that he was set in his ways. Camden had never done relationships, especially ones where his girlfriend was already living with him. At what point did I not cut the man some slack for that? It was a big adjustment for the both of us. At twenty-five years old, he’d been doing things on his own for quite some time, and now he was having to make adjustments to almost every part of his life for me to fit in. If he didn’t find me worth it, he wouldn’t have. In my heart I knew this, but waiting for my brain to catch up wasn’t so fun. My instincts were screaming at me to give him the chance that he deserved. If I walked out, that would have been it for us. I decided I was going to stay and fight for this, for us, because we deserved it. I loved him. Camden consumed me, and as scary as it was, it was still the best feeling I’d ever felt.
He had been gone for two days now. I’d texted Dodger after the first night to ask if he’d seen his brother, to which he responded that he was at his house, and he didn’t know how long he’d be there. I felt sick that Camden wanted to be away from me. If this was what it was going to be like not having him around, I didn’t like it at all. I was barely functioning as it was, but with each passing hour my heart was screaming at me to run to him. It was nearing midnight on night two when I’d passed out on the couch. I woke up to the sound of the lock clicking on the front door and the sight of a very disheveled looking Camden walking in. His hair was all over the place, his t-shirt was wrinkled, and if I had to guess, I’d say he had probably worn the same thing two days in a row. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. He looked out over the living room as though he were searching for me. The moment our eyes met, it was like I could breathe again. Rising from the couch, I went to him. Without hesitation he opened his arms to me, and it was like he was welcoming me back home. I pressed my face into his hard chest and let him wrap his enormous arms around me like a present. His scent invaded my senses, and I did everything I could not to climb up his body and cling to him like a monkey. He buried his nose in my hair, and he fisted a handful of my hair. We stayed this way; not speaking, not moving, just simply being, for quite some time. It could have easily been thirty minutes that we held each other like that when I felt it was time for us to talk.
“Please don’t leave me,” I mumbled into his neck.
“Never,” he stated, squeezing me tighter.
“You were gone for a while. I wasn’t sure if you were going to come back, or if you wanted me to leave before you got back.”
“You’re ridiculous. I just needed to work some things out in my head, is all. This all just went south really quickly and before I got a chance to fix anything, something else happened.”
“And have you worked out the stuff in your head?”
“For the most part. Seeing you is making it better though. These last couple of days have been hard.”
“For the record, I don’t think I could ever walk away from you Camden. You’re sort of my person. I kind of like you.”
I heard him chuckle sleepily. “Good, cause I’m pretty sure I kind of like you too. But we do have a lot that we need to talk about Keegan.”
Loosening my hold on him, I said, “Come upstairs with me?”
He nodded, taking my hand and walking upstairs. In his bedroom, we both stripped down and climbed into his bed. Once we were settled, we were lying down facing each other, our feet tangled together, and our faces only inches apart.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you, Camden. You didn’t deserve how I treated you, or not letting you explain yourself to me. I’ve not been very understanding lately, and I think I’ve been scared that you’d get too close and then realize that I wasn’t worth it.”
“That’s never going to happen. It wasn’t until I met you that I knew that something worth it even existed. I think you and I are just going to have to work on a learning curve. Because we already live together, we have to do things differently. I’d never change us or our situation, but we both are still making adjustments. As long as you know that I’m in this with you and I’m not leaving, everything will be fine. I told you, you’d be the girl that could ruin me, and I meant it.” He lifted one of my hands and placed it over his heart. “Do you feel this?”
“Yes.”
“It’s yours. It’s not beating for anyone else, just you. I love you too Keegan. I didn’t get the chance to say it back to you, because I think I was more shocked when those words left your beautiful lips than anything else. Never in my life did I think I’d find the girl who turns me upside-down and changes the way that I do things or how I think. Then in walked you, this blond-haired girl with the brightest blue eyes, and you’ve knocked me off my axis ever since. Our world spins a different way, and I like that.”