Page 56

His lips twitch but not necessarily in a smile, and he stands, his own chest rising. “I’m catching a ride back to campus with Fernando in the morning. I’ll be gone before she wakes up.”

“If this is because of Trey…” I shake my head, my mouth growing sour at the thought of him. “He’ll be gone again soon.”

“It’s not, man.” He shakes his head, taking a deep breath. “She told me a long time ago there was nothing left for us, and I just refused to hear it.”

“But why are you walking away now? What’s changed?”

“When I told her I was going to fight for her, she was available.” His eyes hold mine. “She’s not anymore.”

My heart starts beating wildly as realization sets in. “You told her already.”

“I did.”

“And she…?”

“Didn’t say it back? No.” He lets out a low laugh. “No, she didn’t. She said she had to go.” He sighs. “And then she ran out into the middle of the road and hopped in the truck with you.”

Ran into the middle of the road…

“Wait.” I push closer. “When did you tell her?”

“Maybe an hour after I told you.”

My muscles lock, eyes frozen on his.

He told her.

She knew he was in love with her before she came home with me that day. Before I kissed her outside my truck and before everything that came after.

A slow thump starts in my chest, and it only grows louder, faster.

Alister smiles and grips my shoulder as he goes to walk by, but I spin.

“Wait.” Discomfort draws lines to my forehead. “This isn’t why I invited you here, you know, to see if she’d turn you down or whatever. I was raised better than that. It was an honest invitation because I didn’t like the thought of you, or anyone for that matter, being alone on a holiday.”

“And that says a lot about you, Lancaster. I appreciate it, and I had a great time, but I am going to go. Before I do, though, let me be the one to do something kind for you.” He pauses, and my brows dip in the center. “Don’t leave yourself open for regrets.”

“It’s…complicated.”

Alister smiles, looking up at the back deck of the house, where my friends, my family , are drinking and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. “I don’t know, man.” He brings his attention back to me. “Looks pretty simple to me.”

With one last pat on the shoulder, he walks off, and my eyes go back to our crew.

Ari is standing there with a smile, Noah’s arms wrapped around her with his lips pressed to her hair. Payton is leaning against the railing with a blanket pulled around her shoulders, watching Mason from across the way, the father and son duo dancing to some country song.

I’ve never been prouder of a best friend than I was the day he claimed that little boy as his own. He has no idea what that will mean to Deaton one day, and I know Mason will spend his life making sure that kid never feels like anything less than his son.

My chest rises and falls on a long breath, gaze continuing along the others.

Mason’s cousin Nate is here with his girl, Payton’s brother with his fiancé, who also happens to be Nate’s sister.

I look for the rest of our crew, finding Paige is off the deck, sitting on a rock by the firepit, Fernando standing across from her telling a story that has her laughing a bit, but her eyes keep moving across the flames, and what do you know? It’s my other best friend she’s looking at.

He’s glaring right back but not at her—at his teammate who’s talking to her .

Huh. Seems that most of us are all coupled up, just a few of us left to figure out where life is going to lead us—to the person we want or some other unknown.

My eyes go to Cameron, standing by the fire too, with Trey at her side.

She’s got a pair of baggy sweats on, the bottoms all bunched up and shoved as best as she could manage into a pair or fuzzy boots in an attempt to keep the sand out.

It won’t work. Her upper body is drowning in a hoodie, and I hate that it’s lacking my name or number.

Her hair is tied up on her head in a mess of blond, little pieces blowing free around her face.

I want to push them away, tuck them back behind her ear.

How do I tell her I’m gone on her?

That she’s all I can fucking think about and how I hate that I no longer get to say she’s mine, show she is .

I want to make her mine in every way, but this is fucking monumental for me, and I’m downright terrified.

When I give myself to someone, fully and completely, it has to be endgame, like a franchise player who signs on the dotted line and stays there until his very last play.

I’d be asking a lot of her, expecting even more. There are things I need in my future that I can’t not have, but I need to fucking have her too.

The music is turned up a little louder, and I glance up just as the others file down into the sand. Noah grabs Ari and starts spinning her around, and Mason follows his lead, both his little man and little mama in his arms.

My eyes lift, finding Cameron watching them all with a small smile, and my gaze narrows at the strain between her brows.

What’s the matter, baby?

Suddenly, my view of her is blocked by a large frame—large but smaller than mine.

I glare as Trey holds a hand out and gives a little bow that has her lips curving .

She puts her hand in his and he tugs her toward the dance floor that doesn’t exist but our friends pretend is there.

Her hand falls on his shoulder, and he gently grips her hip, and no.

Uh-uh. I’m already on my feet, moving across the sand.

Someone claps my back as I walk by, and someone—maybe a few someones—chuckle, but I ignore them all, attention locked in on a certain blond.

I’m about four feet from her when those pretty eyes of hers pop up, colliding with mine. I wait for a gasp, for shock or certainty, but I get none of that.

She simply stares, an almost curious if not impatient expression etched across her perfect face, like she wants to hit fast-forward, but someone else is hogging the remote.

I step up so I’m facing them, and Trey glances over with a grin.

“Hey, man.”

“She’s not available,” I tell him, my eyes moving to hers. She raises a bratty little brow, and I slip into the small space between the two. “You’re just not.”

Her chin rises, going tough, little Cammie on me, but I see the softness she tries to hide. It bleeds from her every pore…but maybe it’s only for me to see.

“Is that right?” she sasses, her voice strong, but there’s a thickness to it that isn’t usually there.

Hope?

“Yeah, baby,” I whisper, everyone else fading into the background as I step up to her, one hand cupping her neck, the other pressing on the small of her back to draw her closer. “That’s right.”

I don’t give her any time to decide, but she doesn’t seem to need any.

We meet halfway, mouths colliding with a desperate need to claim .

It’s not messy or clumsy. We’re in sync, the perfect pairing—the ocean and the sun, me and football.

Me and my girl.

Because that’s what she is.

Mine.

And I want to show her what that means.

Bending, I swoop her up, and she giggles, a sweet fucking sound that goes right to my dick. I carry her into the house and up the stairs, kicking the bedroom door closed and trusting that the others will know not to go into Ari’s room—the one right next door that’s connected by a bathroom.

I toss her on the bed, and she smiles up at me from the pile of purple pillows.

“Took you long enough,” she teases.

I nod, the words I want to say not coming but no longer from nerves. I suddenly have no fear here. Cameron will accept me for the things I am and the things I’m not alike—just like she always has.

This will be no different.

She’ll still be her, and I’ll still be me, but we’ll get to do filthy things to each other now. And goddamn, do I want to do so many dirty things to this woman.

“I’m a liar,” I tell her.

She fights a grin. “Are you now?”

“Yes. I told you someone else wanted to be the real deal to you, but what I didn’t say was I did too.”

“I see.” She smashes her lips to one side, amusement bright in her baby blues.

“Everyone sees me as a campus playboy.” A small frown starts to form across her forehead, but I keep going. “Ask around, and you’ll be told I slept my way through the sorority houses my first year here.”

That little frown deepens, and she starts to shake her head. “Brady?— ”

“They’re wrong. I did hook up with…enough of them.”

“Brady, I know who you are. You don’t have to tell me any of this.”

“I didn’t sleep with any of them,” I admit, heart pounding in my chest.

Cameron’s brows snap together, and I know that look. “You don’t have to say that, Brady. There’s nothing about you that I would ever judge you for.”

“I know.” I nod, trying to pack as much truth into those two words as humanly possible because I do know this. It’s why we’re in this room together right now in the first place.

“Then why lie?” she whispers.

It’s a fair question and there is a lie in there, but it’s not the words I spoke. “I have lied, mostly without saying a word. By letting people talk and leading them to believe. But I’m not lying to you now.”

“Brady, you’ve slept with some of them.”

“I’ve slept with none of them.”

Her brows snap together, the air in the room shifting. She’s getting upset and rightfully so. “You’re?—”

“A virgin.”

If there were a picture of shock, it would be Cameron’s face in the frame.