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Her heart stopped. The moment of truth.
“I’m not saying anything more without my attorney.” Fergus refused to even look in her direction.
Reggie shrugged and jerked his chin toward the door. “Take him down to the station.”
The detective gave her a curt nod and walked over to where another officer waited by the door.
She sank down into the kitchen chair, her wobbly legs too weak to hold her. It was over. It was finally over. With Fergus spilling the beans, she wouldn’t be targeted anymore.
Cam stopped in front of her. If she’d trusted her legs not to give out on her, she would stand up and get the hell out of Fergus’s apartment before she started crying. But running wasn’t an option anymore, and after everything that had happened, she was done with hiding.
“You almost died because of me.” The words fell out of her mouth before she could clamp it shut, the pain of it all too raw to be held back.
He winced, pulled up a chair, and sat down beside her. His knee rested against hers and set off alarm bells in the sane part of her brain. “But I didn’t.”
“Everyone I’ve ever loved has died before their time.” Long-buried broken dreams of forever and family forced their way to the surface because of Cam—because of how he made her feel. “I couldn’t handle it if that had happened to you too.”
He placed a finger under her chin and turned her head to face him. “You love me?”
Afraid she’d break down if she looked into his eyes, she kept her gaze locked on the uniformed officers milling around the living room, pretending not to be eavesdropping on her conversation with Cam. “Yes, you idiot.”
“But I’m no good for you.” The dull flatness in his tone nearly broke her heart.
“No. You’re not. You’re the best for me.” She looked up at him, ready to publicly plead her case if that’s what it took to make him understand. “Please, don’t go.”
“I’m here.” He took her face between his palms. “I will forever be here. You’re mine. I’m yours. The others don’t fucking exist. It’s just us. Remember?”
That had been her line in the motel room. She’d been so sure of him that day—so sure of them. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Today the only thing she was sure of was the aching hole where her heart had been when she thought she’d never see him again. “Promise?”
“Forever.” His hands slid from her shoulders and down her arms until his large hands wrapped around hers. “I lov
e you, Drea Sanford.” He leaned in close, stopped inches from her lips.
Her heart went into overdrive. “So why don’t you quit stalling and kiss me?”
He chuckled. “In front of all these people who are pretending not to watch?”
She smiled. “Let them watch.”
She wanted them to see, to know that she was his and he was hers. She inched in and closed the distance between them. “Isn’t a public kiss like this what got you into trouble in the first place?”
“Without a doubt.”
And she didn’t have one single doubt in her mind when she leaned over and kissed the man she loved in full view of half the Harbor City police department.
Chapter Eighteen
“Being happy never goes out of style.” - Lilly Pulitzer
Boxes with KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM, and BEDROOM written across the sides lined the freshly painted yellow walls in the Waterburg bungalow. Cam sat back on the couch still covered with a moving blanket and stared at the white picket fence outside his living room window. Who’d have thought he’d ever end up with a house in the suburbs? He sure as hell hadn’t.
Drea made her way through the handful of friends eating pizza off of paper plates as their reward for being unpaid movers and stopped in front of him. She tapped his beer with her own and sat down beside him. “I still don’t know how you talked me into moving to the ‘burbs.”
“The same way I got the police to drop the charges related to breaking you out.” He trailed his fingers across her smooth knee. “I’m very persuasive.”
“We both know we have the judge and his many connections to thank for that.” She looked around at the domestic chaos around them. “We aren’t hosting BBQs.” She was adamant, but there was no mistaking the desire threading through her tone.
“Only during football season.” In the last few months, Cam had developed a strong sixth sense for just how far he could push Drea. He’d gotten damn close to that line when he’d suggested they move in together, but for once, she was the one who surprised him when she said yes.
