“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.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. Bree was right. But didn’t I already know that? Camden Brooks just told me he loved me. Me. The girl who never dared to dream past getting a nursing degree and having a stable environment. I smiled the biggest smile I think my face had ever made, and he reciprocated. Somebody pinch me because I thought I was dreaming.

“No more not trusting, no more secrets, no more hiding. I promise to tell you everything, even the dirty ugly secrets about myself, but I want to know the same about you. To know everything there is to know about a person is a powerful thing.”

“Agreed.”

Sighing deeply I said, “I’m going to need your help with something.”

“Name it, you’ve got my undivided attention.”

“I need to go speak with my mom about Sarah, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be pretty. Come with me?”

He cupped my cheek while he held himself up with one arm. “Of course.”

My heart melted. “K. We’ll go tomorrow afternoon while Sarah is at a birthday party.”

“No problem, whenever.” He bit his lip, and I recognized that playful look in his eyes. “What sort of dark ugly secrets do you have? Share one right now. Aaaand go!”

I laughed. “Okay well, it’s not really a dirty secret, but I’m really strange about peanut M&M’s. I eat them in threes. One goes in each cheek to get warm and melted, while I suck on the third one to get the candy shell off. Then I just rotate them around as I eat them.”

“You are weird.” He poked me in the side, and I squirmed away.

“Stop it, I’m not that bad. What did you expect me to say, I like to chew my toenails off, and I keep them in a plastic baggy in my closet?”

His eyes got wide. “Shit, do you do that?”

“You don’t?”

He got quiet, and I busted out laughing. “Okay that’s a break-upable offense. Just saying. If your toenails have been in your mouth at any age past childhood, we’re going to have problems. I can’t kiss a girl who might have foot fungus on her tongue.”

I shoved his shoulder. “Shut up.”

He took hold of my wrist and pinned it above my head, causing him to lean over the top of me. The lightheartedness instantly heated up.

“You ever going to push me away again?”

“Probably, but it’s what I do.”

He gave me a half smirk. “Smart ass. Do you trust me?”

“Without a shadow of a doubt.” And I did.

He brought his lips to mine and kissed me reverently. I soaked it in like I was basking in the sun after a long harsh winter. He was my warmth, my comfort, my home. The way that he touched me while we took our time loving each other was a new experience. We weren’t just doing it out of greedy passion, it was because we’d moved to the next level together. I knew I’d love Camden until I no longer existed on this earth. No one would ever make me feel the way that he did.

I’d called my mom to let her know that we were coming to talk with her. She had agreed that some things needed to be resolved, so I was hoping that she had an open mind about all of this. When we pulled up, I took a moment to steel myself for whatever kind of shit storm I was about to walk in on. I figured Mom would be in a defensive mode, but that was okay, I was prepared to deal with it.

Camden got out of the car and came around to my side. Opening my door, I got out, and he placed both arms on either said of me, caging me in. “You good?”

I nodded my head.

“I’m telling you this right now, Keegan, if she so much as raises her voice at you, I’m going to step in and say something. No way will I be able to keep my mouth shut.”

Looking into his brown eyes, I could see he was serious. “Okay.”

“K.”

Dropping his arms we walked to the front door and I let us both in. It was weird that when I came back now, this house no longer felt like my home. It was just the place I used to live. Walking down the hallway I saw Mom sitting in the living room waiting for us.

“Hi Mom,” I said, walking to the couch to sit down and get comfortable.

She gave me a tight smile. “Keegan, Camden, I’m glad you both came. Would you like something to drink?”

Why was she being so formal? “No, I’m good Mom. I just want to talk and then we have some things to go do.” She tipped her chin down and waited. “Okay, so you already know how I feel about you leaving Sarah alone by herself, but I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me that you will be home with her when she’s here. She’s too young for you to leave her here so you can go to your boyfriend’s house.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Well, whatever. I don’t really know where you go, but it needs to stop. If you need to leave, at least call me to see what I’m doing. It’s likely that Sarah could come over and hang out at the apartment until you pick her up.”

Her lips thinned. “I thought that’s why you moved out. So you could get some space from us.”

My forehead wrinkled. “What? No! I left because I needed to separate myself from you, from this house, from everything. Being here was hindering my progress at school.”

“So you did want to get away from us.”

“No, not us mom, you.”

She gaped at me. Camden took hold of my hand and laced his fingers with mine. It was his silent way to let me know he was here.

“And what did I do that was so terrible that you felt the need to run away.”