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It took me a good three minutes to find the right room on the second floor of the small building. There were a few staff members sitting in the area outside the conference room, but I ignored them, as well as the receptionist’s calls for me to stop. I threw open the door to the conference room. Cam was seated in a chair at one end of the table.
“What is the meaning of this?” Jeb Stewart, the head of the town council, asked as I barged into the room.
But I only had eyes for Cam. He stood when he saw me. His grim expression told me everything I needed to know.
He thought I’d told people about the accusations Riley had made against him back in Detroit.
“Cam, I didn’t—”
“Are we done here?” Cam cut in, his eyes going to the members of the committee.
“Yeah, son, we are,” Doc Cleary, the town’s long-standing veterinarian said. “Thank you for clearing all this up. We’ll wait to hear from your lawyer.”
“Lawyer?” I whispered. “He didn’t do anything wrong,” I practically yelled. “Whatever my uncle Curtis and Art Tobin” – I looked around to point out the man but didn’t see him anywhere – “said is a lie! You can’t—”
“Ford, let’s go,” Cam said as he grabbed my arm.
“No,” I said, pulling free of him. “He never hurt anyone,” I yelled in frustration. “He was proven innocent! If you knew him like I do—”
“Ford!” Cam shouted.
I snapped my mouth shut at the anger in his voice. I could feel the tears building.
“No,” I whispered. “I can’t lose you. Not like this.” I turned to face him. “I’ve waited my whole life for you. I’m not letting you go.” I grabbed his face. “You know me! You know I would never hurt you like this. I’m guilty of a lot of things, but I would never do that to you. You know me! Like I know you!” Not caring who was watching, I kissed him.
But he didn’t kiss me back.
He didn’t fucking kiss me back.
“Please, Cam, please, you promised you wouldn’t give up on me.” I kissed him softly. “I love you… please, Cam.” I held onto him so tight I was afraid I’d leave marks on him. His eyes were closed and I could see him struggling not to give in to me. The thought that I was causing him such pain that he couldn’t even look at me tore something open inside of me. I wanted to scream and rage at losing him like this, but I wouldn’t do it in front of him. Carter had manipulated Cam for years by using his feelings against him. I refused to do the same thing, no matter how badly I wanted to keep Cam.
I released him and turned to the council members to unleash my fury on them instead. But Cam suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. His mouth crashed down on mine. I let out a little cry of surprise and relief, then kissed him back. When he tore his mouth free of mine, he whispered, “I know you didn’t, Ford. I’m sorry I doubted you. I—”
I cut him off with another kiss. He didn’t owe me any apology and I used the kiss to tell him so. It wasn’t until someone coughed discreetly that I remembered where we were. Cam reluctantly pulled back from me but I grabbed his hand so he wouldn’t go far.
It was Doc Cleary who addressed me and Cam after eying our joined hands for a moment.
“Art Tobin and Curtis Tulley are the ones who told several members of this council about the accusations against Sheriff Wells and that the young man who made those accusations is now staying with him. The lawyer representing that boy’s family called Art to tell him the case against Sheriff Wells was being dropped and that the child is here in Pelican Bay. Several of us already knew about the accusations because we’re on the hiring committee but some of the members of this council” – Doc Cleary eyed a couple of people around the table who visibly began stirring in their seats – “wanted to hear about it directly from Sheriff Wells. What they didn’t know was that although Sheriff Wells was under no obligation to inform us of any of it, he contacted Jeb and me this morning after he talked to that boy’s family.”
Cam squeezed my hand. “I wanted to let them know I was going to seek temporary custody of Riley. I was planning to talk to you about it this afternoon,” he explained to me.
“We didn’t tell Sheriff Wells that it was Art and your uncle who’d told members of this council about any of it because we’re handling the matter internally. If we’d known you and Cam had a personal relationship, we certainly would have told him that it was Art who told your uncle about everything that was happening, not you.”
