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“I suppose,” I answer anyway. “Although I don’t see how any date could get better than this.”
“You’re going to have to let me work my magic, baby.” He releases my hand and spreads his arms out, leaning them against the chairs beside him. “I’m the king of perfect dates, Blaire.”
I can’t stop the eye roll. “Okay, I take it back. Date ruined by your ego,” I say with a smile on my face.
He laughs and places his hands on top of the table, pushing himself to stand. Camden collects our empty food bins and discards them into the nearest trash can. When he comes over to me, he reaches for my hand. “Come on. Let’s make another stop at the sharks on our way out. I know how much you love that snaggle tooth one that looks over a hundred years old.”
Grabbing his hand, I let him pull me up and we head toward the creepy sharks.
* * *
Makinga detour toward the sharks on the way out had been a great idea because it was feeding time and witnessing thousand-pound animals with sharp, jagged teeth shred apart other fish was an experience. Some of them fought over the dead fish they were fed, and it turned into a frenzy of who can get the most pieces of fish flesh.
As we walk back toward his car, I can’t help but notice how right this feels. Camden makes me smile and laugh, and when he looks at me, I get these butterflies in my stomach I have never felt before. It sounds cheesy, like some Hallmark Christmas movie, but I can’t help but feel that way around him.
The simple act of trusting someone should be easy. Trust is gained through gestures and words, all of which Camden has provided. He is slowly breaking down my walls and earning the trust I desperately want to give him.
We approach his Jeep and a small part of me is excited that it is so lifted he has to help me inside. Having his hands at my waist feels nice.
I secure my purse strap on my shoulder and open the door. He is right behind me, looking a little too eager to lift me into the car. He raises his eyebrow as if to ask if I’m ready and I nod in response. The heat from his hands burns through my dress once again as he places me in the seat.
Just as I’m seated, my purse slips off my shoulder and falls to the ground. After making sure I’m fully inside, he bends down to pick it up.
“Jesus, Blaire, you carrying around a paperweight or something? Why is this so heavy?”
I blush and grab for the bag. “No, jerk, there isn’t any paperweight in there. I just have my phone, house keys, wallet, and a book.”
He reaches for the bag again. “A book? Seriously? You thought our date was going to be that bad?” he jokes. “For real, though, this weighs like ten pounds. How are you not walking around with a limp after carrying this?”
I roll my eyes at him but don’t reach for the purse again. “You’re being dramatic. If that’s heavy to you, you need to hit the weights, mister.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says. Camden opens the flap of my purse and looks at me, silently asking for permission to go inside. I nod, giving it to him. “All right, let’s see what kind of book is worthy of first date material.”
He pulls out my copy ofThe Confidence of Wildflowersby Micalea Smeltzer. I fell in love with the cover after walking past it in Target one day. Since starting it two days ago, I haven’t been able to put it down and am almost finished. I had planned to go to the store after our date and get the next book in the duet. Salem and Thayer’s love story has kept me on the edge of my seat, and I am going to need that second book before finishing the first.
He grabs the paperback and flips the back over, reading the description. “Damn, Blaire, an age gap like that? I know it’s fiction and all, but I’d kill a dude in his thirties if he tried getting with my eighteen-year-old sister.”
“Oh my gosh.” I grab for my book, clutching it to my chest. “Yes, it is fiction, but you just don’t get it. Their love is beautiful, and their age means nothing when they are soulmates.” I never thought age gap books would be something I would be into, but recently they have grabbed my attention. I think it’s the forbidden aspect that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, but their love is so strong they can’t not be together. I could only hope for a love that strong.
Camden leans forward, resting his forearm on the doorframe. “Aw, baby, are you one of those hopeless romantics who falls in love with book boyfriends?”
His face is so close I can smell the piece of gum he has been chewing since we left the aquarium. “Maybe,” I say quietly.
“Trazia is into that shit too. Huge bookworm. I feel like you two will hit it off when you meet.” He hands me back my purse and I sit there frozen as the door shuts. Meeting his sister? After just one date? Okay, I feel like there will be more seeing Camden, but meeting someone so important to him terrifies me, because what if she sees I’m not good enough for him?
As we drive back to my apartment, Harry Styles’s “AsItWas” fills the silence around us. Since Camden’s Jeep is a stick shift, he has to change gears every so often and when he does, the back of his hand grazes my bare thigh. I don’t know if he does it on purpose, but each time goose bumps scatter across my skin where he leaves a trail.
My body’s reaction to him is something I have never experienced before and I like it. I like his soft touches and the way he looks at me as if he wants to grab me and protect me from the world. I don’t know if it is just in Camden’s nature to be a protector after his father left and he took over as the male figure in the household, but it makes me feel like I am safe around him.
Camden speeds up some and shifts into a higher gear as we get onto the highway. His hand grazes my thigh again and I clutch my handbag, waiting for the goose bumps to appear. This time, he doesn’t move away. The backs of his fingers move up and down my leg, and I suck in a breath. He flips his hand over and lazily lays it on my thigh, just above my knee. When he doesn’t go to move any higher, I release the breath.
“Is this okay?” he whispers.
It is okay. Surprisingly, I was more comfortable with his hand there. The heat from his palm feels nice.
Releasing the grip on my purse, I place my hand on top of his and run my thumb along the smooth skin. “Yeah. It’s okay,” I tell him.
We sit in silence most of the way to my place, enjoying the variety of music the radio is providing us and the sunshine coming in from the open windows. My hair is for sure going to be one giant knot when I get out, but I’m too happy to care. Camden makes me feel good and relaxed and as I lean back into the seat, I can’t help but look to my left at him driving and take in his features. The scruff along his chin and cheek from not shaving for a few days, the slope of his slim nose, his thick eyebrows that match the brown color of his hair, and his full lips. The freckles on his face seem to have grown and maybe he has been spending more time in the sun the last week because his skin looks to have a fresh glow from a tan.
