he knew she sometimes opened?

“Audrey insists on leaving me notes everywhere,” he explained, though it wasn’t much of an explanation.

Pamela dropped the notes and continued her search for the pad of paper. “Yes, but why have you saved all of them?”

The kitchen was silent for a moment, with Audrey staring into her bottle of water and Cameron stirring the gravy to a slow death. Pamela bounced a look between Audrey and Cam, slowly picking up on…whatever the hell was going on in here.

She shut the drawer. “I think I’ll go outside and check on Piper.”

Pamela slipped out the back door, leaving the two of them alone.

“I think the gravy needs more flour,” Audrey said in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

“Don’t start,” Cameron warned.

Audrey bit back a grin when she saw him toss a pinch of flour into the pan. She silently sipped her water for a moment while listening to Piper squeal in the backyard. “So, are we going to talk about it?” she pressed.

Heat bloomed across her stomach when Cameron grinned. “You mean the fact that I saved every note you’ve ever written?”

She pointed at him. “Yeah, that.”

“I only did that because I knew people wouldn’t believe me when I tell them you only communicate via Post-its.”

“Funny.”

Cameron set the spoon down and turned to face her. “Okay, you want to know why?” When she nodded while swallowing past the lump in her throat, he went on. “I wanted to have something to remember you by when you leave.”

Oh. Oh.

“I was thinking maybe I could cradle them in my lap while I watch The Notebook.”

She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. What had she expected? “Now you’re just being an ass.”

He turned back to his gravy. “Yep.”

She came closer and set her water bottle on the counter. “No, but seriously. Why did you save all those?”

“I just told you,” he said with a shrug.

She snorted. “You’re not going to sit down and watch a Nicholas Sparks movie.”

“Maybe I am,” he told her. “The Notebook was pretty damn good.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. “You’ve actually seen The Notebook.”

He jabbed his gravy spoon at her. “Only because I was forced. I want to go on record with that. I don’t sit around and watch Nicholas Sparks movies by myself.”

“Why, not enough blood and guts in them?”

“Now you’re getting it,” he answered with a grin, and her heart flipped again.

Yeah, she could totally picture him sprawled out on the couch watching Rambo or maybe one of the Terminator movies. And maybe she’d be curled up next to him with a soft blanket and Piper lying across their laps…

“Okay, but truth time,” she said. “Why do you have all those?”

Cameron continued to stir the gravy before turning the burner to low. Then he pierced her with a look that sent shivers down Audrey’s spine. “Okay, you want the truth? They make me smile. I don’t get enough of that in my life.”

Her insides just about cracked open at his confession. How could he not have enough in his life to make him smile? Everyone needed to smile every once in a while. Cameron had a great one; too good to not be flashing it at everyone he met. Audrey considered it a travesty that more people didn’t get to enjoy that heart-melting grin.

Except Piper. He smiled a lot around Piper. But it was impossible not to be happy around that little girl.

“Okay,” she said.

“That’s it? Just ‘okay’?”

“Did you expect me to mock you?” she questioned.

He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Actually…”

Audrey was about to give him the mocking he was looking for when she realized he was kidding. The grin tugging at the corners of his mouth gave him away.

See, he smiles for you too.

“They’re quirky and different,” he went on. “I like that about you. It’s refreshing.”

Heat flared across her cheeks at his roundabout compliment. And she’d gotten to know him enough to acknowledge the fact that his words were genuine.

Just tell him. Tell him you don’t want to leave.

But Cameron wouldn’t want to settle down, even if, just last night, he’d told her she was it. He wasn’t that type of guy, and she feared it would only be a matter of time before he tired of her. Hadn’t every other one of her boyfriends done that very thing? Tired of Audrey and moved on to the next hot thing?

“I was just going to say the gravy needs more flour,” she blurted out. Because she couldn’t help herself. Because she was a coward who couldn’t admit to her biggest fear.

“No, it doesn’t,” he responded without even looking at the gravy. “And don’t use my food control issues to distract me.”

“It usually works,” she muttered to herself.

“Not this time,” he muttered back and took a step closer to her. “Now, tell me what’s wrong before I have to coax it out of you.”

Make him coax it out of you. She narrowed her eyes.

“You’re blushing,” he said.

He was close. Too close. As in close enough for her to see the brown flecks in his eyes.

“It’s just hot in here,” she said.

His mouth curled further. “Yeah, it is.” His hungry gaze dropped from her face down her body, touching on all the places where she wanted his hands. Her breasts, her stomach, her thighs. Basically everywhere.

“I think the question you should be asking isn’t why I saved all those notes,” Cameron told her. “It should be why you still haven’t said yes to me. What’re you afraid of, Audrey?”

Everything.

She opened her mouth, but the words were stuck in her throat. She was afraid of what he could do to her, and afraid of admitting she was afraid. She’d never opened herself up to a man before, not like the way Cameron was demanding.

She lifted her hand and toyed with the neckline of his T-shirt, momentarily distracted by the strong column of his throat.

“I…don’t really know how to do this,” she admitted.

“Do what?” he pressed.

“Leave myself vulnerable for

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