“So…did you tell her how you felt?” she asked carefully. Trying to dig for answers but in a polite way, making him smile.
“Yeah. I did.”
“Oh, Cam.” Mindy sighed, kept her gaze locked on the road before her though she was practically bouncing in her seat.
“‘Oh, Cam’ what?” He frowned, ran his hand along his freshly shaved cheek. He’d kinda grown used to his I’m-depressed-don’t-screw-with-me beard.
“You know what this means, right? Now that you’ve told her you love her?”
“Um, why don’t you enlighten me?” He was exhausted, he wasn’t thinking straight, and it felt like Mindy was talking in circles.
“It means you’re coming back.” She smiled. “You know you can’t stay away from her.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” His own smile grew and he glanced out the window, watching the pine trees disappear as they drove down the mountain. “I can’t stay away from her.” He couldn’t imagine living without her.
“I’m so happy for you,” she murmured. “We’ve finally got you back.”
He finally got himself back, too. All thanks to Chloe.
Chapter Fourteen
Cameron wasn’t gone for two weeks. He’d been gone for more than a month. The first assignment led to another one. And then another one. But he swore when the last one finished, he was coming back to Lone Pine Lake. He’d reassured Chloe of that just last night on the phone.
“We should be wrapping up everything soon,” he said in that familiar, rich deep voice of his. The one that made her whole body tingle, especially when he said something sweet or funny or even better, sexy.
He was in Florida, on assignment for another magazine. Some article on the Miami nightlife. Images of beautiful women throwing themselves at him flitted through her mind at the weirdest times.
Like always.
How she hated feeling like a jealous shrew. But Cameron was so handsome, an irresistible force when he wanted to be. More than anything, though, she worried he might not ever come back. Once he left his hometown, he stayed away. Was she important enough to make him want to return? Thinking of that now left her with moments of despair late at night, when she was alone in her bed and missing him like crazy.
But he called her as much as he could. Texted her more often, quick little notes that made her smile when she received them. And she saved them all, sometimes reading over them when she was feeling low after not hearing from him for a day or two. He’d warned her it could be like that. He got so busy, he had no time to think, let alone call her.
He admitted it was a fault of his. That he let his work consume him so much he thought of nothing else. She tried her best to be brave but it was so hard when she went a few days without hearing from him.
Just when she thought the worst, he would call. Or send her a photo. Sometimes of the local scenery where he was, and sometimes, he included himself in the picture.
Those were her favorite of all, to see his handsome face, smiling as he took a self-portrait with his phone. She sent him photos of her bathroom’s renovation progress, her classroom and students, and occasionally one of herself, especially when he would request it. She had a hard time denying him anything.
She wore his shirt to bed almost every night. She knew it was sort of gross, that she hadn’t washed it since he left, but she couldn’t help it. His scent still lingered, spicy and masculine.
She was pitiful.
At least she was back at work and that kept her mostly occupied. She’d set up her classroom that first week Cam had been gone, then launched right into the school year. Her class was sharp, mostly sweet with a few troublemakers, but she knew how to handle them.
She was handling them now, a whole bunch of them, since she tended after school bus duty. Lining the kids up for the two different buses that serviced the school. The younger grades needed the teachers to round them up, or otherwise, they’d be all over the place.
So every day she
dismissed her class a few minutes early, walking with the ones who rode the bus after dispersing the others to either the after-school program or the pick-up line. It was a Friday, the afternoon cool and breezy, forcing her to slip on the black cardigan she kept on her desk chair to protect against the sudden chill. Summer was officially over but the warmth had still lingered on stubbornly, which was why she’d worn a dress that day. Thankfully, a storm was predicted for the weekend and she was eager for the break.
She caught a glimpse of Ali in the near distance, handing off her kindergarteners to the parents who lingered outside her classroom door. Their school had all-day kindergarten, which was always an adjustment, especially for the little ones who didn’t attend preschool, and Ali was usually pretty exhausted the first month of school.
They were supposed to get together this weekend for lunch, something they hadn’t done lately. Their relationship had taken a semi-hit after the Cam disaster and Chloe regretted that. But they were working on it, easing back into that friendship she cherished so much. Though she had the oddest feeling that Ali was keeping something from her…
The last bell rang, meaning children would flood the front of the school in mere seconds, especially since it was a Friday. Chloe picked up her step, calling out, “Let’s go, guys!” to get her little group motivated to hurry to the buses before others started showing up and getting in line.
“Miss Dawson?” A little hand tugged on hers and she looked down to see Kendall Conti staring up at her with big brown eyes, her hair pulled into adorable braids that were a bit of a mess after running around all day.