“Cam.”
I opened an eye. “Avery?”
“You’re not asleep,” she said, voice husky and unbelievably sexy.
“You were.” I turned my head side to side. “And I was asleep.” Total lie, but I doubted she’d be cool with knowing I sat here almost the entire time and watched her.
She wetted her lips, and dammit if I didn’t want to swoop down and catch the tip of that tongue. “I’m sorry I fell asleep on you.”
“I’m not.”
Her cheeks flushed. “What time is it?”
“After midnight,” I said, staring at her moist lips.
“You didn’t even look at the clock.”
“I just know these kinds of things.”
“Really?” she whispered.
“Yes.
“That’s a remarkable talent.” Her hand curled into a loose fist on her leg. “What time are you leaving in the morning?”
“Are you going to miss me?”
She made a face, but her eyes glimmered up at me. “That’s not why I was asking. I was just curious.”
“I told my parents I’d be home by lunch.” Using my other hand, I scooped a few strands of hair off her face and then I rested my hand on the top of her head.
“So I probably have to leave between eight and nine.”
“That’s early.”
“It is.” When her eyes drifted shut, I wanted to kiss her. “But the drive is easy.”
“And you’re not coming back until Sunday night?”
“Correct.” I took a deep breath. “Are you sure you’re not going to miss me?”
She smiled, but with anxiety. “It’ll be like a vacation for me.”
I laughed. “That was entirely mean.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“But I know you’re lying.”
“You do?”
“Yep.” I moved my hand, gently touching her cheek. Her eyes snapped open, and I smiled down at her. “You’re going to miss me, but you’re not going to admit it.”
Shortcake was silent as I trailed my fingers from her jaw to her chin, coming close to her bottom lip. “I’ll miss you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes drifted closed as she relaxed against me once more. I continued to trace a path from her cheek to her lip, haunted by what she had said in her sleep. “You talk in your sleep.”
Her eyes opened, and I swear she paled. “I do?”
I nodded.
“Are you messing with me? Because I swear to God, if you’re messing with me, I’m going to hurt you.”
That unease was back, and I wasn’t sure why. “I’m not messing with you, sweetheart.”
She sat up, twisting on the couch, facing me. “What did I say?”
“Nothing really.”
“For real?” Her expression was so earnest and so serious I wished I hadn’t said anything.
I leaned forward, scrubbing my hands down my face. “You were just murmuring stuff. I couldn’t really make out what you were saying.” I looked at her. “It was kind of cute.”
She held my gaze, seeming to take what I said as word and then glanced at the clock. “Holy crap, you suck at your special ability at knowing the time.”
I shrugged. I knew it was well past three in the morning. “I guess I should be going home.”
She opened her mouth, closed it, and then tried again. “Be careful when you drive.”
Standing, I stretched my back. “I will.” And before she could freak on me, I bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “Good night, Avery.”
Her eyes were closed, hands balled together in front of her chest. When she spoke, it sounded like she was whispering a prayer. “Good night, Cam.”
I made it to the door before she sprung up like a tight coil, hands gripping the back of the couch. “Cam?”
My heart beat wildly as I stopped. “Yeah?”
She took a deep breath and that heartfelt expression was back. “I had a really good time tonight.”
I smiled and was amazed to see her lips do the same. “I know.” I opened the door, stopping on my way out as I turned to her. She was still there, kneeling on the couch, watching me. “I’ll see you Monday.”
“Okay.”
I didn’t want to leave. “Bright and early.”
The smile reached her eyes, lightening them. “All right.”
And for the first time in forever, I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to stay here. I had to force myself out the door.
Twelve
Jase shocked me with a text before I got out of town, asking if he could tag along. Him going home with me wasn’t so much of a surprise, but I had thought with the four-day break, he’d be at the farm.
He was waiting for me at the house he stayed at when he wasn’t home—a frat-run party central not too far from campus. I’d spent many a night, none recently, passed out in one of the many rooms in the large three-story home.
Climbing in, Jase clapped his hands together, rubbing them. “God, it’s getting fucking cold.”
“True.” I slipped the gears into drive and whipped around in a mean U-turn. “You’re not spending time . . . ?”
He ran a hand through his hair, causing it to flop all over the place. “Got an extra hat?”
“Just the one on my head. Want it?”
“No.” Slinking down in the seat, he sighed as he shook his hair out. “They decided to head up to Pennsylvania to see some cousins or something.
I stole a glance at him as I hit the main route, heading for the interstate. “And you didn’t want to go?”
“Nah.”
There was definitely something else behind it, because there was no way that Jase would pass up spending that kind of time with Jack, but if I knew anything about Jase, he talked about shit when he was damn well ready to do so.
Halfway into the drive, Jase passed out and only woke when I hooked a right onto the narrow lane leading up to my parents’ home. Sunlight sliced through the thick trees, casting patches of shimmery light on the road. When we were kids, my sister and I played a mean game of hide-and-go-seek in these woods.
I followed the driveway around the back of the house, parking the truck next to the detached garage I’d help Dad put in during my, uh, extended stay.
The house was silent and toasty warm as we entered through the back patio. There was a faint smell of pumpkin in the air, and I grinned. Mom must’ve been baking. It was still early afternoon though, and neither of my parents or my sister would be home for a while.
Jase and I devoured the freshly baked pumpkin pie over a beer. There was a pensive, brooding look to his face and when he disappeared upstairs to the guest bedroom he typically stayed in; I let him be and headed to my old bedroom.
Mom kept it the way it was when I lived here, except neater. The same bed was butted up against the wall, in the middle of the room. Trophies lined the wall shelving that Dad had built. The TV on the dresser and the desk I rarely used hadn’t collected even a speck of dust.
I smiled as I shuffled toward the bed, kicking off my sneakers. There was a time, after the incident with Teresa’s ex-boyfriend, when I had hated these four walls. I’d loathed this house and this town and this state and myself.
Crashing on the bed, I stretched out and closed my eyes. Things were . . . different now, better. The only problem with coming home, it was impossible to not think about what happened in the house almost three years ago or Thanksgiving morning when Teresa finally told us the truth. The kind of rage that had slipped over me was something I’d never experienced before, but had only read about.
Murderous rage. It really did exist and it really was like tasting blood in your mouth. And that anger hadn’t faded in the hours after learning the truth nor had it really dissipated when I found that living punk ass and returned the favor with my fists. Afterward, that anger had warped into something unmanageable and it had eaten away at me like a cancer.
To this day I wished I had done something different that night, but there still wasn’t an ounce of regret in my veins. The judge, the lawyers, the community service and the weekly meetings had done nothing to change that, but when I thought about Avery, I wished I did feel that way. I doubted that she would want to be around me if she knew the truth.