CHAPTER THIRTY
Adalyn
Cameron pulled up a few feet before Josie’s Joint.
He killed the engine, and the silence that filled the car made it easier for me to hear my heart beating in my chest. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
His palm fell on my thigh again, heavy and warm, and my whole body awoke at the touch. Goodness me, is this what adolescence should have felt like? This restlessness, this sultry warmth climbing up and down my bloodstream, this… horniness.
“What are you sorry about, love?” the man beside me asked, like I didn’t have about a hundred reasons to apologize.
“Because you organized a beautiful night, and instead of gazing at the stars, I somehow managed to babble at you, leave you sexually frustrated, and get you to pick up my mother.”
He shook off a laugh that made me glance at him. Ugh, he was really so handsome when he smiled like that. “I thought I’d made myself clear…” he said, throwing his door open.
I started frowning, but then my gaze was glued to him, his ass, his shoulders, all of him, as he walked around the car with confident long strides. This was possibly worse than being sixteen.
Cameron pulled open the door and leaned inside. “The stars in the sky are not going anywhere,” he said, his voice nothing but a low rumble. “You don’t babble, ever. You shared something with me after I asked.” His head dipped, his expression turning severe. “I’m the furthest thing from sexually frustrated,” he added, his eyes sweeping down my neck, and all the way to my chest before returning to my mouth. “If anything, I’m starved.” He cleared his throat. “And I’m curious and a little excited to meet your mother.”
“Of course you are,” I murmured. “Everyone is curious, and a little excited, where Maricela Reyes is concerned.”
“Let it go,” he said, before kissing me hard and fast on the lips. “Whatever is making you worried, make it disappear. There’s no use for it now.” He touched his forehead with mine for an instant. Just a touch. “I’m here.”
My throat contracted as I looked up at him. But that part of me that had been always willing to fight him, to contradict him, was down for the night, and probably would be from now on, seeing as I was incapable of resisting Cameron Caldani anymore. The truth was that I loved when he did that, when he stated things so certainly. It made me feel lighter, less burdened. It made me want to release the control to him, just so he’d prove to me that I could.
I sighed, then I told him, “Lead the way.”
He snatched my hand in his and pulled me up and out of the car. He didn’t let go. Not even when he pushed the door open for me and waited for me to go in first, and not when I scanned the shockingly crowded café and found my mother surrounded by a group of laughing locals.
“Mom?” I asked, and whatever Cameron had heard in my voice made him squeeze my hand.
My mother’s head turned, her whole face brightening when she saw me. “Adalyn, mi amor.” She scrambled out of the chair she’d been elegantly sprawled on. “Excuse me,” she told the people around her as she moved toward us. “My daughter is here!”
Maricela Reyes launched herself at me with an “Ay, hija.” And when her voice wavered, my chest did, too. Ugh. This was what I’d been trying to avoid all along. “I was so worried about you.” She released me from the hug but planted her hands on my shoulders. Her eyes narrowed. “Have you been sick? Your cheeks are red, and your lips look swollen.”
My hand flew to my mouth. Or it would have, if it hadn’t been held by Cameron.
Maricela tsked, looking me up and down. “Your father wouldn’t tell me where you are, can you believe that?” A shake of her head. “Always with his little secrets, but that’s not new. But to do this to my own daughter, as if you were one of his chess pieces. Ay, no.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Josie, sweetheart? Can you bring some water for my daughter? She looks about to faint.” Her gaze shifted to my right. Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe two glasses instead of one?”
“I’m—” Cameron started, making me notice I hadn’t introduced him.
“Cam,” my mother finished for him. “Coach Cam. I’ve heard about you. Just now. You took my daughter into the woods. At night.”
Cameron didn’t wince. Instead, I felt his thumb swiping over the back of my hand. “That’s the one, yes.”
“Well, Cam,” my mother said, arching her brows. “I hope you were up to no good. Because my daughter needs a little—”
“Mami,” I warned.
Maricela Reyes rolled her eyes just as Josie popped over her shoulder with the two glasses of water. “Thank you, Josie. You were right, I like them together. They’re even wearing matching outfits and I’ve never seen my daughter in mountain boots, let me tell you that much.”
Cameron’s head came down, and he whispered, “I like her.”
“Of course you do,” I muttered.
Cameron was obviously happy about her praise for the stupid boots but also, who wouldn’t like beautiful and fun Maricela Reyes?
“What are you two whispering about?” my mother said, holding the two glasses and shoving them into our chests. “Drink,” she ordered. “Then, you can tell me what your intentions are with my Adalyn.”
I spat out the water. “Mom.”
“Siempre mom this, mother that.” She waved her hand in front of her. “Soy tu madre, I say it like it is. I didn’t go through a ten-hour birth to bat the bush around.”
“Beat around the bush,” I corrected her.
“I like batting better,” she answered, nonchalantly. “It comes from hunting times, you know. I read it in a magazine,” she explained, looking over at Josie like she was her new best friend. She pulled up her arms. “They used to hit at bushes and trees, and you know what they used? Sticks. Now what’s just like a stick to hit on things? A bat. No offense, but some of these things you say don’t make sense.”
Josie clicked her tongue. “Oh my God, she might be right.”
“I…” I released a deep breath, readying myself to ask her what in the world was she doing in Green Oak, but a couple I recognized as parents of one of the kids on the team came into the café, a very enthusiastic nine-year-old dashing right behind.
For the first time, I took in the inside of the café, noticing how crowded it was for this time in the evening, how loud and excited the chatter was.
I shot Josie a questioning glance. “What’s happening here?”
She blinked. “I told you on the phone,” she said, but I must have been frowning at her because she immediately elaborated. “One of the teams leading the Six Hills was disqualified.” She clapped her hands, and my frown deepened even more. “A whistleblower called the County Gazette, they apparently had thirteen-year-olds in their roster. Every team in the standings is climbing up a spot. So that means that—”
“The Green Warriors are in the final,” I finished for her.
Josie gave a delighted jump, and I could only blink at her.
The Green Warriors are in the final.
For an instant, I was too stunned to speak. Or move.
And then, I was moving. Just like that day all those weeks ago, when I’d turned my life upside down. Only this time, the dam had broken for a completely different reason.
I launched myself at Josie. With a shocked laugh, she wrapped her arms around me. We squeezed each other, and when I released her, I turned on my heels.
Cameron’s eyes were on me, just like I’d known they would be, wrinkling at the corners with a smile. I threw myself at him, too. And when I landed against his chest, his arms were already open. Laughter rolled off him, and it was deep and rich and it traveled right into my heart.
I was happy. Ecstatic.
“We made it, Coach,” I said into his neck. And I didn’t care that my mother was there, or Josie, or the whole team and half the town. I didn’t even care that this was just some recreational team with a roster of kids. I didn’t even care that we hadn’t won anything yet, or that I was celebrating some other team being disqualified. I could only think of how happy my kids would be. How big María’s smile would be. How good this would be for the town. “We freaking made it!”
Cameron’s mouth came to my ear, and he said low, so low only I could hear, “I could fucking eat you right now.” Which only made me giggle.
“Mira, mira. Look,” I heard my mother say with a laugh. “They totally banged. Do you think they’re past the situationship stage?”
Josie’s laughter reached my ears. “I sure hope so, Maricela.”
Cameron let out a grunt that I interpreted as a promise.
I extracted my head off his neck, but he didn’t release me. I guessed that that was okay, social cues had never been his thing. “Where in the world did you learn that, Mom?”
“I have a TickTack now.”
“TikTok?”
She rolled her eyes. “A clock always made ticktack-ticktack, so if anything, that name is wrong.”
Oh God.
She was actually right.
Cameron pressed his lips to the top of my head before lifting my mother’s giant suitcase and walking out.
My mother stared at him as he left, just like I had been doing, and then turned to give me a look.
“What?” I whispered.
“No, nada,” she said, lifting her hands in the air. But I could see her smirk. She took one of the stools from Cameron’s island out and plopped herself down. “Sit down with me.”
“Mami,” I warned with a sigh. “Cameron will be back in a few minutes, and he’s taking the couch tonight. We should probably call it a night and have whatever conversation you want to have tomorrow morning when we are all rested.”
“Okay, one?” She lifted her hands in the air. “There’s no need to be coy around me. You two can share a bed.” Flashes from earlier tonight came back, making me feel breathless. My mother clicked her tongue. “And two? That man will not be back until you go looking for him. He said he would get the rooms ready for us but he’s giving us space to talk. So sit.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “But—”
“Ahora, Adalyn.”
I took out the stool with a roll of my eyes. “Happy?”
“Not really,” she said, her expression serious. “Why did you not come back home immediately? Why would you take part in your father’s games? And more importantly, why did I have to buy Matthew off to know where you were?”
“What could you possibly offer him to rat me out like this?”
My mother shrugged. “I’ll never say. A mother doesn’t betray her children. And that man is like the son I never had.”
I opened my mouth to complain but my mother arched her brows, reminding me I had questions to answer. “This is not a game. I really messed up, Mom. There’s a conduct clause in my contract—”
“You are his daughter,” she interjected. “He shouldn’t care about clauses.”
“I’m also his employee,” I countered, feeling that chest tightness that stopped air getting to my lungs. “And hopefully, because I’m both, one day I’ll be the one he picks to take over for him.” These were words I’d said more than once, words I’d worked for, dedicated myself to fulfill, but somehow… Someway, they now tasted bitter in my mouth. I ignored it. “I needed to fix it. To show him he could trust me. I also wanted to help the team after my… slip.”
Maricela Reyes shook her head, making those beautiful dark waves move around her face. “There’s something you’re not telling me. I know.”
I willed my face to remain still, my expression blank. I couldn’t tell my mother about David, or what Dad had done out of some… sense of responsibility that only made me feel small and inadequate. If my mother heard about any of that, what had happened to Sparkles wouldn’t be anything in comparison to what she would do. She would catch a flight to Miami right now and—
That was exactly how Cameron had reacted to the story. Tonight. It had been so clear from his words, his face, the way he’d held me, everything. He… cared about me. That much.
“You know how much I love my job,” I continued, a little breathless. “The club. How much respect I have for what Dad does.”
“You’re getting it all wrong, mi amor.” A long sigh left through her nose. “I loved your father. I still do. I don’t think you can ever stop loving your first great love, and he was that for me. But ever since you were little, you’ve had him on this pedestal nobody else can reach. Not even you.”
“Is that so wrong?” I asked her, honestly. “Is it so bad to aspire to be like him? To want to impress him?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, and I believed she genuinely didn’t. “But while you’re on your way there, you’re climbing, getting higher and higher, and I’m scared you’ll fall. I’m scared he’ll do something to shatter all that faith you have in him.”
I felt the ball in my stomach shift. He’d tested that faith, hadn’t he? But then, he’d also succumbed to David’s demands to protect our relationship. To spare me the heartbreak after learning he’d asked David to marry me. And that meant something. It had to.
“Your father is a good man,” she continued. “Or maybe he was, once upon a time. Now he’s too wrapped up in his own greatness. He believes that everyone around him is at his disposal, for his own plots and schemes.” Her hands went up in the air, and she spread and wiggled her fingers. “He believes he’s the puppet master.”
“One doesn’t get where he is without that kind of scheming.”
“I wouldn’t know.” She averted her gaze for an instant, and when eyes as brown as mine returned to my face, I knew my mother was about to tell me something she never had before. “I don’t like that you’ve kept things from me. Not when your father has, too. Secrets.”
“I’m sorry, Mami.” For better or worse, I had kept things from her. “Deep down I kept this from you not to upset you. Do you think Dad meant to do that, too? With his secrets?”
“I don’t think so. Otherwise I’d know where he came from,” she offered. “There’s a black smudge covering a big part of his past. He lets people believe he’s from Miami, but he’s not.” A shake of her head. “I found out from the letters.”
“The letters?”
“Right before I discovered I was pregnant with you, I found a stack of letters in his desk. And I wasn’t snooping.” She rolled her eyes at me before I made the remark. “They were all from a woman, addressed to him personally, and when I asked him about them, he went pale as a ghost and mumbled something about his childhood. That’s how I knew. You know your father doesn’t shake up easily.”
“Was he—”
“Cheating?” she finished for me. “No. He swore it wasn’t that, and I believed him.” A finger tapped the side of her head. “You know I can tell when someone’s lying.” She really could. “But he never told me what it was really about.” Her hand reached out across the tabletop, and when she wrapped her fingers around mine, I squeezed. “That’s why I never married him. I am sorry for not giving you a normal family, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t the letters, it was him not trusting me enough to tell me the truth. I was an open book, I gave him my all. And him keeping from me the things that made him the man he was… It showed me that I was never an equal to him.”
“You’ve never told me any of this,” I said, barely managing to suppress the emotion in my voice. “And you’re my family, okay?” Did my mother really believe I blamed her for not marrying my dad? That our family wasn’t normal? “You were all the family I needed growing up.” I cleared my throat. “And let’s face it, you make any room, any house, feel like it’s full of people.”
That had been meant to be a joke, but God, it was nothing but the truth.
My mother smiled, and her eyes began to water. “Love is a funny game, mi amor. There are no rules, and no matter how hard you try to win, one way or another, your heart is always on the line.” A shaky breath left her. “I’m sorry I never told you this. I never wanted to change the way you looked at him.”
I clasped her hands in mine. And thought of her words, of how true they rang in my head. How heartbreaking it must have been for her to know she was pregnant and had to share a life with a man she loved but who didn’t love her back enough to trust her.
She shook her head. “So, speaking of love, are you going to finally explain to me why you’re living with a man?” A wink was thrown my way, and luckily, I wasn’t given an opportunity to speak. “I won’t complain, though. This Cameron is so handsome. And tall. Oh, how tall he is.” She arched her brows. “I would also bet he could pick both of us up and not break a sweat. And those tattoos I’ve just seen on his arm?” Her lips pursed with mischief. “Does he have mo—”
“Mami, no.” I was not going to discuss Cameron’s possibly hidden tattoos with my mother.
“You’re no fun,” she said with a shrug. “Then tell me if he’s the reason you didn’t go back to Miami. Does he treat you like you deserve?”
My whole face flushed all shades of red. “He…” I trailed off, suddenly lost for words. Does he treat me like I deserve? My heart pounded in my chest with the answer. “Yes. He treats me like no one ever has.”
My mother blinked once, twice, three times. And to my utter shock, she broke into laughter. “Dios mío, hija.”
I felt the tips of my ears burn.
“I’ve never seen you like this.” She patted her chest, one last chuckle rolling off her before she sobered up. She pinned me with a serious look. “You have it just as bad.”
“Just as bad?”
“As him, mi amor.” She jumped off the stool and came to stand in front of me. She cupped my cheeks. “I’ve been in town for two hours, and every single second of the time he’s been in front of me, he’s been looking at you like you’re un pastelito he wants to eat.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I was joking about the banging earlier. I wanted to see if he’d react in a way I didn’t like.” My eyes widened with horror. “Don’t worry, he passed my test. Now, really, have you kissed him yet?” My jaw fell to the floor. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
Cameron’s words echoed in my head, I could fucking eat you right now. Then the memory of his lips against mine. His hands, all over me. The way I’d— No. I couldn’t think of that with my mother, apparently a witch, here.
“I like you like this,” she said, so softly I barely heard her. “You’re shining.”
Show me how fucking bright you burn.
My heart leaped in my rib cage, and a chuckle left my mother’s lips before she wrapped her arms around me, enveloping me in Maricela Reyes’s tightest hug. “This is all I wanted. Making sure that you were okay. Now that I know that, I will be here for just the night.” She sighed, but it wasn’t sad. “I know that man is not going to touch you as long as I’m here and, hija, you need to get—”
“Mom. Jesus, please stop,” I begged. But this time, it was with a laugh.
And to her credit, she did stop. Although not without telling me, “I don’t think we want to bring Jesus into this particular conversation, mi reina.”
I couldn’t sleep.
There was too much noise in my head. My conversation with my mother had left me… unsettled in both negative and positive ways. For one, I felt like I understood her, now more than ever. And I wished we’d talked about this before. That I wouldn’t have shut her down so many times in the past and had given her the chance to tell me these things. I also felt bad for not taking her side more. Horrible. Guilty, for allowing my father to claim he cared about her when he could never back up those words with actions.
It wasn’t the only reason I felt restless. There was this constant hum at the back of my head. One that had been there ever since I’d met Cameron. Growing louder with every day that passed. With every second spent in this roller coaster our relationship had been. A hum that had shifted tonight. A hum that batted its wings when I thought of every day preceding this night. Or the way I felt with him. Or how I’d never been looked at like he looked at me. Even at the beginning, when we’d clashed, disagreed, and bickered, I’d never felt invisible when it had been him in front of me. He’d always, always given me his full attention. For better or worse.
And now… now I wanted more. I wanted more than just his attention. I wanted to feel like I’d felt tonight. Seen. Connected. Not to someone, but to him. Cameron.
Without really knowing how, I rolled off Cameron’s large bed, and my bare feet padded over the hardwood. I made it to the living room and immediately zeroed in on his shape.
He occupied most of the couch, and the blanket that had once covered him was bunched up at his waist. The urge to go to him doubled. The need to wrap myself around him and cover us both. It wasn’t a sexual thing, even though I knew the moment I touched him, my blood would once again swirl with need. No, this was something else.
I walked to the couch. There was barely any space by his side, but I didn’t care. I felt vulnerable, as if I’d been torn inside out, my rawest parts on display. I set a knee by his hip, and slowly curled beside him.
A grunt left his throat, and in a swift, smooth motion, his arms were around me and he was on his side. He looked down, eyes half-open, and pulled me into his chest.
“Hi,” I whispered.
He hummed, and I felt the sound against my belly and breasts. “Can’t sleep?”
I gave him a small shake of the head. Without a word, I moved my hands, reaching the hem of his sleeping shirt. Not breaking eye contact, I slipped my fingers under it. I set my palms against his smooth and hard skin, letting the warmth travel up my arms and down my spine.
Cameron let out a shaky exhale. “Love,” he said, and I knew it was a warning.
“I just need to touch you,” I confessed, moving my hands up, pressing the tips of my fingers into his skin. “I need to feel you close.” His eyes darkened, and his mouth pressed into a line. He was looking at me so seriously. So stern. As if my plea was a life-changing event. “I want you as close as anyone has ever been.”
His arms tightened around me, and he pulled me close, much closer, lodging me into his body and trapping me there. I could feel his heart, pounding in his chest. “Better?”
I nodded and closed my eyes, reveling in the feeling. “Can you touch me, too?”
A growl fell out of his lips, and I knew it was costing him part of his restraint, but he complied. Of course he did. Cameron pulled the blanket over us, and only then, moved his hands beneath the only thing I wore over my underwear—one of his shirts—and he wrinkled it up with his wrist as his palms traveled up my back.
I shifted against him, feeling him growing hard against my belly. A shallow breath left my parted lips. And before I could move again, Cameron stilled my body against his.
“Cameron?” I whispered. “Can I ask you something?”
“Don’t ask me to fuck you, love,” he said, his voice nothing more than a rasp. “Because I will.”
A breathy laugh fell off my lips. “I would love nothing more,” I told him, meaning every word. And he must have been shocked by my admission because his body froze beneath mine. Just for a second. Then, it resumed with a shake, and I could feel his blood pulsing under my touch, his need growing with mine. “But I know it wouldn’t be fair with my mother across that wall. I know…”
My throat worked with the unfinished thought.
But I knew—felt, deep inside of me, based on tonight, and based on an instinctive and intrinsic part of myself that only answered to him—that sex with Cameron wouldn’t be just a quick and silent affair. It wouldn’t be something I’d like to do with my mother on the other side of the wall.
“Hmm,” I murmured. “On a second thought, maybe we should put my mother in Sweet Heaven Cottage.”
“It’s not a cottage,” he grunted quickly. I frowned but he rearranged me, thrusting one of his knees between mine and distracting me. “And that we you said like nothing?” A pause. “It all but killed me. So ask me your question.”
“Do you think I’m a little like her?” A shallow breath left my lips, and Cameron waited, as if he knew that wasn’t what I actually wanted to ask. “Or do I fade away beside her? Am I not a little black-and-white and cold and dull?”
We’d always been so different, she and I, and sometimes… Sometimes I’d wondered if I couldn’t be a little more like her. Now, I also wondered if my father had seen me before that video at all. If the world had. If Cameron really did.
He nudged his forehead against mine until I looked at him. His eyes were so bright, so open and full of raw honesty, that it made my pulse waver. “You are all I can see,” he told me, his words falling right on my lips. “Even when I close my eyes, you’re all I see.”
It was my turn to hum against his skin, just so I would tame the uproar in my rib cage. He always did that. Always gave me these perfect answers I almost couldn’t believe. “Cameron?”
“Yes, love?”
My question was nothing but a whisper. “Tell me a secret. Something no one knows.”
If he was surprised by my words, he didn’t say or do anything to show me. All he did was bring one of his hands higher, until it rested against the back of my neck. “I was so scared,” he said, and I knew what he was talking about. He gently brought my head against his chest, offering himself as a pillow. Asking me for a comfort I’d never deny. “I’m still terrified.” I counted his heartbeats—one, two, three, five, ten—under my cheek, wishing I could stay there forever. Every night. Until the end of time. “I never dated Jasmine Hill. That was all Liam, my agent. He set me up, and I sat through dinner not to be rude. The media blew it out of proportion, but I haven’t been with anyone since coming to the US.”
We remained in silence for another moment, and I was so busy restraining myself after his last confession that I almost missed his next words.
“The lodge is mine now,” he said, and I stilled. “It wasn’t easy, but I closed on the purchase of Lazy Elk this morning.”
My heart tripped. Then started pounding at double, triple, quadruple pace.
“What?” I whispered. But what I wanted to ask was why?
Cameron seemed to understand. “I’m not shy when I want something. And I’m not shy with my money, either. I worked hard for it.” His voice turned lighter. Confident. Cocky in a way only Cameron made work. “That cottage is coming down. I’ll build you something else.”
I… wanted to let him. I wanted the implications of all of that, too. They made me happy. The happiest I’d been in a long time. And a handful of other emotions I didn’t think I’d be able to handle if I wasn’t in his arms. “That’s more than one secret,” I told him. “And I only asked for one.”
Time ticked by without a word being said, and I was so warm, so comfortable, so safe, tucked against Cameron’s body, that I started tipping into darkness. Half here and half not. So, when he spoke again, I brought his words with me. Into my dreams. “I’ll always give you more than what you ask for, love. Even when you don’t know what you want.”