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Lunch passed much quicker than I wished it would, and Mr. Proctor boxed up the rest of the pizza and handed it to me. The ginger ale was tucked under Camilla’s arm as she excused herself early to go to the ladies’ room. Before she left, I kissed her cheek softly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Proctor smile.
My old teacher stood beside me and leaned against the bench, sighing as we both watched Camilla walk back into the school.
“I am glad she found you,” he said.
“Hmm?” I said, snapping out of the trance that watching Camilla’s hips wiggle as she walked tended to put me in.
“I said, I am glad she found you,” he repeated.
“Oh. Yeah, so am I. I’m very lucky.”
“So is she,” he said, and a hint of sadness crossed his face. I got the impression that at some point either she had told him a bit of her history, or he’d found out from someone else. It wouldn’t surprise me. While Proctor wasn’t a gossiper, he was a man who was in a school full of them. He couldn’t help but overhear people talk if they did. And in that school, I knew for a fact that people talked. If someone found out about Camilla’s past, it would get passed around there so fast everyone would know by lunch.
“I hope so,” I said, nodding.
“She is,” he said. “She deserves a good man in her life.”
I let out the breath I didn’t know I had been holding. I wondered how long I’d had that pent-up anxiety. I knew my reputation wasn’t exactly sterling when it came to women. I knew that of all people, Mr. Proctor was aware of that. Silently, in a part of my brain I hadn’t dared to address, I knew that he might judge me for that. That he might think I wasn’t worthy of someone like Camilla because of my past.
But hearing him say that lifted that weight from my shoulders. Suddenly, I felt a lot more like I was accepted, not just as her boyfriend or the person she was seeing, but someone that other people could seriously see as her partner. I worried that I would never be that person, and yet, if Mr. Proctor believed I could be…
The older man held out his arms and embraced me in a hug. I grinned and said my goodbyes as he left. The grin on my face stayed the rest of the day.
CHAPTER 25
CAMILLA
We might not have gone the route of the rom com with the moving truck showing up instantly, but it seemed we were drifting in that direction. After that first weekend spent together a couple of weeks before, neither one of us was particularly interested in spending those days apart.
It had already gotten hard enough to not be together during the week. Alex’s visits up to the school to have lunch with me when he could were wonderful and kept me going. Our long talks on the phone and constant texting filled in the gaps.
But there was nothing like actually being able to be in each other’s arms and just enjoy one another. So come Friday night, I didn’t just get ready for our usual date night. That night we weren’t going to go out to a restaurant or go scouring the area for another touristy spot to giggle our way through.
That Friday, he was scooping me up from home as soon as he was done with his work at the vineyard and bringing me back to his house so we could spend the weekend together. I was excited as I packed my bag. It was a big step actually purposely planning a weekend spent together at his place, even if it was just as his house. I wasn’t crashing there after a long night out or ending up there just because it was convenient.
We had made the plan for me to go there and spend the next two nights together. He had always come to my apartment and settled in after our Friday date, then ended up not leaving until Sunday. But this time, we had been talking about it for a few days and were going to spend it at his house for the first time. There was a hint of domesticity in it, and I couldn’t wait.
I was packed and ready when Alex got to my place to pick me up. He seemed just as excited, and we didn’t waste any time scurrying out to the car and heading to his house.
“This is it,” he said, opening the front door and letting me step inside in front of him. “Home sweet home.” He cringed. “I can’t believe I actually just said that.”
I glanced back over my shoulder at him and laughed. “It was cute.”
