Page 18 of Unstoppable Love

“You’re an idiot.”

I took that as a yes.

Chapter 6

Ava

“I think you should go for a replay.”

I pointed a fry at my best friend since kindergarten, Lydia Haven. The town was built and created by her great-grandfather, who was best friends with Cameron’s great-grandfather. Paul Haven and Ronald Tomlinson started the town, and Walter Kelley handled the land.

“I think you’re an idiot like he is,” I retorted, and shoved my fry into my mouth.

As soon as I got back to town, practically jumping out of Cameron’s truck before it was stopped in my parents’ driveway, I barely took a breath to say hello to my parents before I hauled my butt in my mom’s old Chevy truck to head into town for dinner with Lydia. I’d texted her on the way. Filled her in.

Her text back saying, “Holy frak! This is amazing! Get him!” didn’t surprise me.

The fact she had the guts to say it to my face did. Lydia was the only other soul on this planet who knew about the night I’d spent with Cameron. I’d planned on taking it to my grave, but the first time I saw Lydia, I burst into tears. Completely unprovoked, I’d collapsed right into her and told her every single detail.

To which she’d repeatedly muttered, “TMI, friend. TMI, friend.”

Good thing about my best friend was that if I couldn’t take it to my grave, Lydia would. Of that, I had no worries.

“Why not? He obviously still has a thing for you.”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Because around you, Cameron Kelley is still the stupid little teenager who pulls a girl’s pigtails and bullies her if he likes her. It’s his immature way of flirting.”

Lydia was nutso. She was also dead wrong.

“Don’t be dumb. He doesn’t like me, he just gets a sick thrill out of pissing me off, like I’m his little sister or something.”

She snorted. Actually snorted. Across from us, Millie Miller, owner of Millie’s Diner, arched her brows. I shrugged and rolled my eyes, silently letting her know Lydia was at it again.

She smiled as she went back to rolling her silverware inside of napkins.

I refocused on Lydia. My walking, talking, lunatic-of-a-best-friend, Lydia.

“If he thinks of you as a sister, I’ll castrate a dozen calves this fall.”

Lydia hated all things ranching. While she did enjoy her job working with her mom running the grocery market, she despised getting her hands dirty. Every fall, after the Kelleys had calving season and had to bring the calves in to vaccinate, brand, and castrate, Lydia found some reason to be unavailable. Despite the hard work, most of the town showed up—definitely all of their friends and family. It was an all-hands-on-deck kind of day.

I loved it.

It made Lydia want to vomit.

Bonus to me, since it happened in the fall, Cameron was always busy with football or college and so he was hardly ever there.

“Don’t promise things you know you won’t end up doing.”

She made the sign of the cross over her heart. “Swear to you. If, by the time you move into your apartment, Cameron isn’t fighting for you to stay in his home, I, Lydia Lorraine Haven, will assist in vaccination day. And I will do it without puking.”

“I’m not taking the deal. There’s no way to know. I’m not going to throw myself at him for a replay of the most humiliating night of my life, and when it comes time for me to leave his house, Cam will most likely be more than willing to move me into my apartment by himself.”

“All right.” She shrugged and bit into her Reuben sandwich.

She let that go far too easily.

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