Page 4 of Unstoppable Love

I skirted around Mom and Isaiah before Mrs. Kelley reached us and hurried to the dessert table.

Cameron Kelley was the kind of man who followed a strict diet and hadn’t let a single granule of sugar past his lips since he was fifteen years old and started getting noticed by college scouts.

If he were around, which I had no doubt he would be, but I wasn’t wasting my time looking for him, I’d be safe near the desserts and the piles of sugary confections.

In the end, I left the dessert table. I didn’t wander far, but there were too many people I knew who I had to say hello to, or my mother would hear I was rude. Either that, or people would soon start whispering about what was wrong with me for not saying hello. Or they’d start gossiping about how I was gaining weight, “all those treats she had on Easter” would be mumbled for months.

So yeah, I left the safety of the sugar station, but only long enough to grab a drink, say hello to my friends, and play with their kids for a spell before I headed back near the cover of safety.

I was on my second beer, recently filled so it was full, when Mr. Kelley stepped up onto his deck, ringing a large, copper cowbell in his raised hand.

“If I could have everyone’s attention!” Charles Kelly had a booming voice. He had a grumpy exterior, but inside he was a large, squishy marshmallow. If any man loved his wife more than my dad loved his, it was Mr. Kelley, currently grinning a smile the size of Colorado toward the gathered crowd.

“It pleases me to have had the year we’ve had. And it’s not only because the crops and cattle were blessed with perfect weather?—”

A chorus of “hear-hear” and “Amen” echoed through the crowd. Such was small-town farm life. But Mr. Kelley’s smile was contagious, and I found my own smile matching his as he continued.

“In addition to the bounty we were already given, most, if not all, of you know we were given an extra boon in our family this past fall, and that is with the addition of our new grandson.”

I cheered right along with everyone else. I’d met Caleb’s new girlfriend Emily a couple of times when they came to town and I happened to be around. Isaiah and I had a drink with them at Tom’s Saloon over Christmas when Caleb had a break from hockey for a few days. Emily had somehow run into him, after years of not being able to find him, to tell him he had a son.

Now, they were dating, currently holding hands while the breeze blew Emily’s green and crème maxi skirt around her ankles as they stepped up next to Charles.

“And for us,” Charles said, setting down the cowbell and reaching for his beer on the ledge of the deck. “We have more wonderful and bountiful news. We’ve not only gained a grandson, but as of today, we’re looking forward to celebrating that we will soon, officially, have a new daughter as well!”

“We’re getting married!”

Cheers rang out all over so hard the ground shook. Caleb raised his and Emily’s entwined hands in the air, and even from where I stood, I could see the sun hit the large rock on her finger, making it sparkle and shine.

Although that shining rock was minimal compared to the smile on Emily’s face.

“Happy for them,” a voice murmured from behind me.

Everything stilled and stopped. Suddenly, there was no one else. Nothing else.

Cameron’s chest was so close to my back, not quite touching, but close, and the heat that wafted off him, warmed me straight to my little toes and beyond.

God I hated him. More, I hated myself for still carrying a torch for him. Still thought about him. Still dreamed of the night I begged him, pleaded with him to have sex with me.

It was eight years ago. The effects were no less humiliating.

“How’s life?” Cameron asked. “How’s Kip?”

The snide tone in his voice wasn’t real. I imagined it, though. Had to. There was no way Cameron cared about Kip or my relationship with him.

“Fine. Great, actually.” I shrugged and took a sip of my drink. Good thing for me, my hands were steady. No tremors to show my nerves, something Cameron would definitely pick up on.

“You’re not going to congratulate me?” Ugh. That tone. That arrogant, cocky, and somehow still sweet and lovely tone in his voice. It made me want to scream and grab his face and kiss him all at the same time.

“You’re not getting married,” I snipped back.

“I meant for the Super Bowl.”

He’d led his team, the Colorado Mountaineers, to their first Super Bowl appearance in twenty years. It was astonishing. It’d been fantastical. Kip and I hosted a Super Bowl party, but I’d ignored everyone there the entire game and kept my eyes glued to the screen. Much like I always did when Cameron played.

It annoyed the freak out of Kip. He’d spent the next day not speaking to me.

I’d only been bothered by the fact it made me a crappy girlfriend, but yet Kip was so nice to me, so good to me, and loved me so much. I tried every single day to love him the way he loved me, but when I went to bed at night, I’d have that sinking feeling that I once again came up short. I probably should have left him, given him a chance to be loved by someone who could, but every time I opened my mouth to try, I froze. I loved Kip. I did. In my own way. The reason I couldn’t give him everything was currently standing in front of me, smirking down at me.

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