“It’s okay,” she whispered as the ride began.
Lacey entwined their fingers, and they went on to explore the realm of the pirates and their cannons and ships for a few minutes before being returned to their escort, who asked them what they wanted to do next. Cameron didn’t want to drop Lacey’s hand after the ride, but she did and decided to talk to Kennedy soon about solidifying their plan because she wanted to be able to touch the woman she was dating without fearing someone taking a photo and calling her a cheater.
“Do you want to ride anything else? Stay for the fireworks?” she asked Lacey.
“We can do whateveryouwant to do. It doesn’t have to be all about me.”
Cameron looked at their escort and said, “Can we go to the other park and do the Toy Story ride? I kind of want to kick her ass at it.”
Lacey laughed as the escort nodded and told them that was fine, and then, Cameron and Lacey were again escorted through special passages meant for employees and into the line for Toy Story, which they were able to skip. They spent the next several minutes aiming toy guns at targets wearing ridiculous 3D glasses and laughing until Lacey managed to pull off hitting the world’s smallest target and earning way more points than Cameron had scored the entire time.
“As much as I’d like to watch the parade and fireworks with you, I kind of see them from my apartment all the time, and I’mnot big on parades. Any chance we could go back to my place?” Lacey asked.
Cameron’s eyes went wide.
“Not for that,” Lacey whispered. “Maybe hang out and eat the rest of this dessert if we’re hungry. If not, we can just hang out.” Lacey leaned in a bit and added, “I want to be able to… touch you, Cam.”
Cameron really liked that idea and told their escort for the evening that they were ready to go. In no time at all after that, they were back in the SUV she’d ordered and on their way to Lacey’s place. Cameron had taken Lacey’s hand immediately and hadn’t let it go, even when Lacey was trying to unlock her front door, which had made it more difficult for Lacey and made them both laugh.
“I want to hang out, but I think maybe I should go,” Cameron said once they were inside.
“What? Why?”
Lacey turned to her and took both of her hands in her own.
“Because I want to do this right, Lacey. This is our first date, and right or wrong, I have wanted you since I first saw you. If we sit down and watch something or eat more dessert, I’m going to end up wanting to stay the night. I’d be a perfect gentlewoman, but it would be really hard.”
Lacey smiled up at her and asked, “You’re trying to be noble?”
“You know how we were talking about lessons from our relationships earlier?”
“Yes.”
“I learned another one. When Ken and I met, we fell so fast and so hard that neither of us really understood that, beyond that, we might not be all that compatible. We kept putting patches on the things that were wrong over the years and accepting things about our relationship as fact instead of tryingto work toward repairing them, and we moved too fast, Lace. I don’t want to move too fast with you.”
“Okay,” Lacey said and cupped her cheek. “But you’re not leaving until you kiss me. And I meanreallykiss me, Cam, because I’ve–”
Cameron cupped both of Lacey’s cheeks and pressed their lips together then. Lacey had been caught off guard, but she returned the kiss seconds after Cameron had started it. Cameron moved her hands to Lacey’s hips, and she didn’t just hold on to them; she gripped them because she didn’t want to let them go as Lacey’s arms wrapped around her neck, pulling Cameron in closer. Cameron slid her tongue into Lacey’s mouth, and Lacey’s played with it. They stayed like that, with Cameron trying not to let her hands roam everywhere they wanted to, until she pulled out of the kiss and smiled softly at Lacey.
“Wow,” she let out after a moment of silence. “Sorry, that’s probably lame to say, but that’s how it feels.”
Lacey looked a little shocked, too, and said, “Yeah, it is. I haven’t been kissed like that in a long time. That’s what I was going to say. I wanted the next person who kissed me like that to be you.”
Cameron kissed Lacey’s forehead and said, “I’m going to go home now, but I’ll text you when I get there, and if you want to FaceTime until we fall asleep, I won’t have a problem with that at all.”
“No?” Lacey teased.
“Nope. And I’m free tomorrow night. Well, I’m free a lot right now, but I want to see you again soon, Lace. When can we do this again?”
“Let’s talk about it when you FaceTime me later,” Lacey suggested and kissed Cameron’s lips quickly.
“I’ll talk to you in an hour or so?”
“I’ll be changed for bed by then, yes.”
“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” Cameron teased. “What do you sleep in, Lacey? I’ve seen you in the morning, but not in what you actually slept in.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Lacey teased back.
