Page 31 of Unstoppable Love

Lydia was going back to her life running the grocery store with her mom in New Haven, and I was starting a brand-new chapter back in New Haven as well.

Fortunately for me, when we returned, Cameron would be in training camp, busy for the next two weeks, which gave me even more time to figure out what in the world I was going to say to him the next time I saw him.

There would be a reckoning, one way or another.

This whole time… he’d known.

“It’s good your job is letting you work remote,” Lydia said.

I’d talked to my boss, and after he had to ask the higher-ups, I received confirmation it was a go. It was either that or give my two weeks’ notice, and since I didn’t want to be unemployed, I was thrilled they agreed.

“Fortunately, with the number of farms around Plum County, I’ll have plenty of content.” I’d need to travel occasionally, and I could do a day trip into the office if I needed to.

Lydia’s smile went soft. “And I get my best friend back, so I’m excited.”

“I’m getting there.”

I brushed sand off my thighs and sat up in my lounge chair. The water was the clearest blue, and every morning I’d come down to the beach for a walk and sip a cup of coffee. Usually I caught some dolphins swimming and jumping.

Destin would be hard to leave, and I was apprehensive when I thought about moving back to New Haven, but there was also a peace in my soul as the time grew closer to return.

For the first time since I graduated college, I was finally making a decision based solely on what I wanted.

It also helped that Cameron’s training camp for the Mountaineers was starting the day we got back. I’d have two weeks to get settled before I had to worry about seeing him again.

Perhaps by then, after a full month had passed after that kiss I swore I could still taste on my lips when I was in bed at night, I’d figure out what to say to him.

“Do you know what we need?” Lydia asked, and she swung her feet off the lounge chair into the sand.

“What?”

Her smile was almost as bright as the cloudless sky above us. “Sarah K’s Gourmet.”

Oh god. I’d eaten enough of those crab cakes to last me a lifetime, but they were so damn good, I couldn’t say no. Whoever Sarah was, she had a gift. We’d eaten from her take-out restaurant almost every day. Outside the beach, her food might be what I missed most about leaving Florida.

“Obviously,” I teased Lydia.

We gathered our things and left our rented beach umbrella and chairs and headed up the wooden walk to the condo building where our place was.

We stuffed ourselves with crab cakes. We spent more time in the sun, we ate dinner, shared a bottle of wine, and then we packed.

The next night, I walked into my parents’ house, dropped my bags, and fell into my mom’s arms and cried.

“It’s so good to be home.”

“We’re so thrilled you came back.”

“And your apartment is settled then, too?” My dad had his standard nightly Jim Beam on the rocks in his hand, and when he shook it, the gray whiskey stones rattled.

“Yeah. That was a nice surprise, but since I hadn’t moved in yet, they called the next in line on the waiting list. I have to cover the first month’s rent until they can move in, but it’s better than paying both to cancel it.”

“That’s good, Ava. And you’re sure this is what you want? You’ve had a rough couple of months….”

I knew exactly where Dad was going with this. He wasn’t raised in this town, Mom was. I was pretty sure he never wanted to move here, and I wasn’t even sure he loved the farm life, even though he did the work without complaint. He moved here and took over Mom’s parents’ farm because he loved her. Was willing to be anywhere she was and do it to the absolute best of his ability.

It worked for him.

I wasn’t throwing away my dreams, though, to live in New Haven. Living in New Haven for the rest of my life was my dream. Small as that may be. I’d had two weeks to carefully consider all the pros and cons of moving back to my hometown, and outside of a few restaurants in Denver I loved, there wasn’t anything there for me.

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