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I got dressed to the nines in a purple mermaid dress that clung to me invitingly. Campbell showed up in black trousers and a button-up. Hal offered him a tie, which he declined with an easy laugh. Pamela took a bunch of pictures of us and told me to have a good time. She stuffed condoms into my purse before I left.
Campbell helped me into his truck, and then we were off. Except we blew past the school on the way out of town. We only stopped when we reached the lake house at Ransom Canyon that we’d pooled our collective prom-ticket money to rent for the evening.
When I stepped into the one-bedroom, it was nothing special at all, and somehow, it was our sanctuary. He turned on our song—“The Best of Me” by Starting Line—and we danced as if we were at prom. Then, he scooped me up and carried me to the bed. We didn’t surface until I had to be home the next morning.
I blinked away the vision of prom and just how he’d swept me off my feet. Because as cherished as that night was in my memories, it didn’t hold a candle to Campbell Abbey today.
“Wow,” I breathed.
“My sentiments exactly,” he said, his eyes crawling over my dress. He held a hand out to me. “Shall we?”
I swallowed. Once I crossed the threshold, there was no turning back. “Yes.”
I put my hand in his and let him draw me out of the house. Instead of a beat-up pickup, he now had a shiny Range Rover. He helped me into the passenger seat.
“What were you thinking about?” he asked after he got into the driver’s side and pulled out of the driveway.
“Hmm?”
“You looked like you were thinking something specific.”
Damn. Sometimes, I forgot that he could read me like that.
“Oh. I was thinking about prom.”
He chuckled. “Ah. What a great night.”
“Do you ever wish that we’d gone?”
His eyes slid to mine, and he reached across the seat to take my hand. “I wouldn’t change a thing about that night.”
He was right, of course. I could see how it would have been fun to rub it into perfect Jill Patton’s face that we were in love. But in the end, had it mattered? We’d been happier without the drama.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Dinner,” he said with a conspiratorial smile.
Two could play at this game. If he could read me that well, I realized, now that I was looking at him, I could do the same.
“Oh dear, what do you have planned?”
His head whipped to me. “Why do you think I have something planned?”
“Because I know you.”
A pleased grin came to his face. “That’s right. You know me.”
“Well?”
“Then, you also know that I’d never spoil the surprise.”
I laughed. Also true.
So, I leaned back against the cool leather interior of the SUV and let The Civil Wars coming through the radio lull me. We arrived ten minutes later to the front of the Campbell’s hotel.
I looked at him. “West Table?”
“Of sorts.”
“If I’d known, then I could have just driven over here.”
He came around to the other side to help me out. “Yes, but then I wouldn’t have gotten to pick you up.”
I couldn’t fault his logic even if it was ridiculous. So, I put my hand in his and let him walk me to the front of the building. We stepped inside, and I turned right in the lobby to head toward West Table, but Campbell kept my hand in his.
“This way.”
He directed me toward the set of elevators. I shot him a suspicious look, but his face was a mask. I had no idea what I was walking into, and he was giving nothing away. I stepped onto the elevator with him, which whisked us straight to the top floor.
“After you.”
I stepped out before him, and then we took the stairs up to the rooftop. After, I’d run out on him on the Fourth of July, I hadn’t thought he’d bring me back up here. Yet here we were, and he didn’t seem concerned at all. I guess we were past that.
When I stepped outside onto the dingy rooftop, where I’d been only a few weeks ago, my jaw dropped. The entire place had transformed. A red carpet had been rolled out from the entrance of the stairs all the way to a table set with a fancy white tablecloth, candlelight, and real china near the edge of the rooftop. A bucket of champagne was set next to it. Strings of Edison bulbs illuminated the roof. Soft instrumental music played from hidden speakers.
I choked in shock at the display. “Campbell, what did you do?”
He laughed. “I might have pulled some strings.”
“This is…beautiful.”
“Anything for you.”
I stepped up to the table and admired what he’d done for me. It was stunning. I needed to document it. So, I took a minute to take pictures of the table and do a quick video of the walk down the red carpet. Campbell and I weren’t in any of the pictures, but it was too pretty not to have photographic proof forever.
