“You want me to stay here with you?” she questioned.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and offered her a sympathetic smile. “I want you to live here with me. And Piper. We talked about it over the weekend, and we decided we’re not going to let you leave.”
“You talked about it over the weekend,” she repeated. “You and Piper?”
“Yes, ma’am. So last night the two of us took it upon ourselves to move all your stuff over here. We didn’t want you to come home and pack everything up.”
“Just because it’s all here doesn’t mean I can’t pack it all up,” she pointed out, even though that was rather a worthless argument.
“Yeah, but you won’t.”
She nodded and glanced at her shoes arranged neatly on the rack. “You’re sure of that, huh?”
“Pretty darn.”
“There’s one thing you got wrong, though,” she pointed out.
The muscles in Cameron’s throat worked as he swallowed. “What?”
“My sweaters go in a dresser,” she told him. “The hangers stretch them out.”
He chuckled his relief. “Yeah, I actually knew that. But I didn’t have any extra space in my drawers.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, that’s going to be a problem. Because you’ll have to buy another piece of furniture, and I don’t know if your room has the space.”
Cameron tugged her back into the bedroom. “I’ll just get rid of some of my stuff then. I care more about you than I do all my clothes.”
Audrey wasn’t sure how to react to his admission, so she walked to the bed and picked up one of the Post-its. This one read, Fixed the broken porch step. It had been one of the first notes he’d left her, and even then she’d cherished it. Not only the act of the repair itself, but also the note and his strong handwriting. She’d read the thing over and over again before tucking it away in a drawer, just as he had hers. Audrey had no clue how he’d found them all, or when he’d found them.
“What’re you doing with all these?”
“Ah…” Cameron ran a hand over the back of his neck. “You actually weren’t supposed to see it until it was finished.”
She slid him a look. “What’s it going to be?”
Cameron picked up the empty frame. “A sort of collage, I guess. See, they’re going inside this matting; then I’m framing it.” He looked at her and held up one of the notes. “See, these mark a critical time in my life, and I wanted to preserve them. They don’t belong in the garbage. They’re too precious for that.”
Audrey tried to formulate a response in her mind. Thank you was so inadequate, and everything else got caught in her throat. She did the only other thing she could think of. She grabbed him and yanked his mouth down on hers. He stumbled toward her in surprise, but then immediately joined her in the kiss.
Her lips parted and her tongue tangled with his, signifying the days they’d spent apart and the emotion that still hadn’t been spoken between them. She knew Cameron wasn’t good with words, so she let the kiss do the talking.
Audrey’s knees went weak when Cameron tunneled his hand into her hair and held her mouth harder to his. She’d only meant the kiss to be a quick show of her love, of how much his gesture meant to her. It had quickly turned fierce, just as all their other kisses had. But before it could be taken further, because she still had things to say, Audrey pulled away and took a deep breath.
Cameron tried hauling her back, but she shook her head.
“I think it should be hung in the entryway,” she suggested. “That way everyone can see it when they come in.”
“I don’t want everyone to see it,” he argued. “It goes in the bedroom.” He held up a note for her to see. “These are between you and me, and I don’t want anyone else intruding.”
His admission melted her heart even more, further confirming that she’d made the right decision to leave her old life behind and start anew with him. How could she have thought this was a bad idea? That Cameron was a risk? Staying away from him had been the risk. Second-guessing herself had been the only danger to herself, not opening her heart to Cameron.
He tossed the note on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. It was a classic defensive move she’d seen a dozen times, and she braced herself.
“Okay, now I’m just waiting for you to say it,” he announced.
Audrey blinked in confusion. “Say what?”
“How much you love me and can’t live without me,” he said without hesitation. Then he took a step toward her and settled his hands on her hips. “How much you pined for me when you were away. That you cried yourself to sleep each night and that the possibility of letting a stud like me slip away would be crazy.”
Audrey grinned and toyed with the collar of his shirt. “That’s a bit extreme. And I’ve met studlier guys than you.”
He pinched her ass. “Okay, then I’ll settle for you just telling me you love me.”
“I don’t know, it may go to your head.”
He nuzzled her neck. “Honey, it’s already gone to my head. And my heart.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Well, in that case I guess I do love you. But I’m only saying it because you told me to.”
He pulled back and scowled at her. “Since when have you done anything I’ve told you to?”
“Maybe you should try saying please every once in a while.”
He set her away from him. “I’ll try and work on that. In the meantime, I was saving this note for last. I
