“Do you want me to come there? I can drive down—”
“No,” I said, drying my eyes. “I’ll be okay.”
“Well, call me later.”
“I will. Bye.” I hung up and took a deep breath.
“Hailee?” Cameron’s voice made my heart soar, but it quickly crashed back down to Earth.
“Come in.”
The second he stepped into the room, I saw my greatest fear etched into every single line of his face.
He looked at me with sad eyes and said, “I think we need to talk.”
Cameron
“It’s okay,” Hailee said, completely catching me off guard. I’d come here prepared for a battle. After spending the day with Xander trying to figure out how to tell the girl I loved more than anything that I couldn’t be the guy she needed right now, I still didn’t know how to say the words.
To tell her I needed to be there for my family.
Yet, she was sitting there, with nothing but resignation in her sad expression.
“You don’t need to do this, Cameron. I know what you came here to say, and it’s okay.”
I blinked, hardly able to believe my ears. “I— I don’t understand. What exactly are you saying?”
“I would never ask you to choose between me and them. You need to be here, more than ever. I get it, and it’s okay.”
Relief slammed into me. She got it.
Fuck, she got it.
“Thank you.” I went and sat beside her on the edge of the bed. “I need to do this, for Xander, for them.” My voice shook as I tried to find the words. “She’s terminal, Hailee. They can make her comfortable and give her meds to manage the symptoms, but there is no surgery this time or magic fix.”
“Oh my god, Cameron.” She threw her arms around me and I sank into her embrace. It had been the hardest thirty-six hours of my life. I’d spent all day with Xander trying to explain everything to him and then picking up the pieces of his meltdown as his developing brain tried to process things.
“I’m so sorry.” Her tears splashed on my sweater.
I cupped Hailee’s face, touching my head to hers. “Your mom said you were sick?”
“I’m okay now.”
Our lips were so close I could almost taste her, but I didn’t come here for this. I came to tell her I needed time and space to be with my family. But now I was here and she was clutching onto me as if I might disappear at any moment, I was overcome with the need to love her. To just be with her.
“Cameron?” Her eyes glittered with so much love it gutted me, and I knew if I asked it of her, she would give me whatever I needed.
“Come here.” I tried to hold her tighter. I didn’t want to be that guy, the guy who used sex as a goodbye, but I wanted it.
God, I wanted her.
Hailee made the decision though, sliding her mouth over mine.
“Hailee, wait...” I grabbed her shoulders, swallowing the ball of emotion lodged in my throat. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
“I need this,” she said, her hands trailing down my chest and tugging my sweater away from my body. “And I know you do too.”
“You’re sure?”