No one.
He broke away, drawing back and leaving her to steady her erratic pulse.
“Um, okay.” His voice was a little shaky.
His expression was dazed, confused. Affected. But his arms still cinched hers, firm and sure.
His voice was never shaky. He was the confident one, the sure one. Goal-directed and purposeful.
But not now. Right now he looked…flummoxed. Uncertain. And a little flushed. And she would have taken great pleasure in all those things except for the fact that she was completely discombobulated too.
“Hadley,” he said. “Look, I—”
Suddenly Nick walked in, swinging two bright orange paint buckets. “I brought some five-gallon…” His voice trailed off when he saw them tangled up together, completely soaked. “Oh, hey, sorry,” he said, starting to back away.
“Come in, Nick,” Cam called as he released her, and they both scrambled to their feet. She felt relieved and sad all at once, more proof of how upside down he made her feel. Still staring at her, he spoke to his brother. “I was just telling Hadley…telling Hadley that I think we sprung another leak.”
“Oh yes, definitely.” She smoothed down her wet hair and grabbed one of the buckets from Nick. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Okay,” Nick said, “I see…things are a little out of control here. I’m going back out to my truck to bring in more cleaning supplies.”
Out of control was an understatement. Hadley wanted to curl up in a dog crate and disappear. But she couldn’t. So she started picking the ceiling pieces off the floor. When Nick left, she turned to Cam, who seemed to be making a concerted effort to stay as far away from her as possible. “What…what were you about to tell me?” she managed.
“Oh. Um, just that…you’d better watch out. I think we’re in for more trouble.” He pointed up at the ceiling, where more huge chunks looked about to give way.
She had no idea what he’d been about to say, but it wasn’t that.
And yet…trouble. Yes. That was very, very true.
How had they gotten from sloshing around buckets of water to…this?
All she knew was that things between them had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.
Chapter 12
Two days later, thanks to his talk with Hadley, Cam found himself on the bleachers at the high school football field watching the football team finish their laps around the track. From his vantage point high up in the stands, they looked like a tiny colony of ants following their leader. The rain from the past few days had finally stopped and the sun was out, a brilliant yellow ball in a perfectly blue sky.
Being here always made him emotional, but today, doubly so. This was where it had all begun—the moment he’d been picked out of a crowd and set on a fantastical path he could never have dreamed of. The idea that he could make a living doing what he loved the most was something that had never seemed possible before then.
It was also the place where he’d first talked with Hadley—really talked with her. He’d thought she’d basically written him off as a dumb jock until one evening she’d sprained her ankle running, and he’d carried her to his car and driven her home.
Back then he’d thought that a girl like her would never look twice at a guy like him. He’d been the first person in his family to go to college. Belonging to a swim club, being gifted with a car, even if it was an old one, assuming access to a college education was a gift—those were all part of a foreign world.
And yet…deep down where it counted, he and Hadley had been very much the same. Hardworking, determined, both wanting to make the world a better place.
So here he was. Trying to set aside his own dilemmas and do something to help somebody else, thanks to Hadley’s voice in his head. He knew he had some serious work to do to get himself together. And he was ready to start.
But just seeing a field again in the summer heat, sitting in the empty bleachers, and hearing the roar of the crowds in his head bombarded him with memories of other fields and accolades and triumphs, and even the crushing defeats. The memories brought on a desperate yearning he feared might crush him.
But still, he stayed. Like everything else he’d ever done, he understood that he was never going to be able to truly move on unless he faced up to his fears.
Hadley had been right about that.
It was weird to agree on something instead of butting heads or poising to fight to the death over the Palace.
Yet their kiss two days ago had proved that they still had the same unholy chemistry as ever.
Times ten.
A slap on his back pulled him from his thoughts. “Hey, you showed.”
Cam stood and clasped hands with his old high school friend Drew McDowell, then hugged him, returning the back slap Drew gave him. “I couldn’t let the youth of this community be brainwashed solely by you, could I?”
“Hey, I’m respectable now.” Drew ran a thoughtful hand over his short beard and assessed Cam in that way he both loved and hated. Loved because Drew always saw him for who he was. Hated because, true to his being a counselor as well as the football coach, Drew sometimes saw too much. “But my guys can use a talk from a hometown boy who became a big star.”
“Still the same hometown boy.”
“Noted. I’m glad you’re here. The boys will be too.” Drew paused then added, “Hey, I heard the Palace got deluged. What’s the damage?”
“Extensive.”
“Sorry to hear it. How’s Hadley taking that?”
Cam shrugged. “She thinks her grandma wants to keep the place going. But I’m not so sure.”
“I hate to see you two on opposite sides.” Drew must have taken Cam’s silence as a license to give some advice. “She’s still a catch, man. You two were crazy about each other. Good opportunity to rekindle those old feelings, right?”
Cam frowned. “Why does anyone who’s happily married want everyone else to be too?”
“Because it’s great. Also, Christine wants you to come over for dinner.”
“I’d love to.” Drew and Christine had dated since high school and were expecting their third child. Cam knew that, in a different world, that could’ve been him and Hadley.
Where had that thought come from? Because they were talking high school here. How many people actually ended up with their first loves?
The boys were running up the bleachers, pounding big feet against the aluminum stands and making a racket. “So, how’s your team?” Cam asked, eager to talk about something safe like football.
“It’s a little different here than when we were young. The economy’s not as good. Some of the families have fallen on tough times. These kids don’t have enough role models to push them to dream big dreams. That’s why I took you up on your offer to come today.”
“I get it.” Cam certainly didn’t grow up in an easy time—money was tight and his dad was a struggling single parent who worked hard to provide. Yet Cam had grown up believing that any goal was possible with hard work and discipline.
“I meant what I said about you joining us once a week,” Drew said. “I know you’ve been going through a lot, so if you’re not up for it—”