“Oh,” Cameron said. “I figured there was a reason you didn’t want to go inside.”
“It’s your house with her.”
“I know. But it’s not forever, and it won’t be for long. I’m working on it. I can get us a hotel room tonight, if you want. I can order us fancy room service breakfast, and we can eat it in bed.” She lifted Lacey’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “Shit. You probably have to leave super early. I should’ve just gone to you, Lace. I don’t mind.”
“You’ve gone twice already.”
“So? I don’t care. I’m not working right now, and I want to spend time with you,” Cameron told her as Lacey pulled up the restaurant’s address on her phone and held it out for Cameron to see before she got them on the main road. “Oh, I go there all the time. Cool.”
“What? You do?” Lacey asked.
“Yeah. It’s great.”
“I was trying to take you someplace you’d never been.”
“It’s, like, ten minutes away from my house, Lace.”
“You’ve been there with Kennedy?”
“No, actually. She’s not a fan of Mexican food. I go there with friends or just by myself to pick it up on the way home from work or something. It’s one of my favorite places.”
“Cam, is this too soon?”
Cameron pulled up to a red light and turned to her.
“Not to me. Is it to you?”
“I don’t want to go into your house because of the ghost of your ex-girlfriend.”
“And I didn’t want to sleep in the same bed where you’d had sex with River. I think that’s pretty normal, Lacey.”
“I know, but you shouldn’t have to get us a hotel room.”
“I don’t mind. Hotels around here are nice. And I like spoiling you, remember? Are you worried that we’re jumping into things too fast?”
“I’m worried that I live there, and you live here. I had to cancel morning appointments and skip a late one tonight to get here.”
“Why did you cancel your morning appointments?”
“Because I wanted to stay over. If I hadn’t, I’d have to leave by, like, six to miss some of the traffic, and I didn’t want to do that.”
The light changed, so Cameron turned back to the road.
“Babe, I know you have a business and that you need to work. I really don’t mind coming to you.”
“For how long?”
“What do you mean?”
“How long will you make the drive?”
“However long I need to. Honestly, if I get sick of it, I’ll just get a car and have someone else drive me there. I want to have as much time with you as possible, and I liked waking up next to you the other morning.”
Lacey smiled and said, “I liked it, too.”
“And I’m working on the other stuff as well,” Cameron said. “Kennedy and I are over, so I’m going to figure out my living situation so that if youdocome, it won’t be in a place that we used to share.”
“I can’t promise the same. I have a lease I have to keep.”
