Page 6 of Unstoppable Love

“You’re an asshole, Cameron Kelley!”

He cursed and stepped back, but it was the look of horror on everyone’s faces around us that made my cheeks burn with equal embarrassment and fury.

I’d done it again.

I’d acted like a fool.

But as I ran out of the Kelley’s backyard before anyone could stop me or catch me, I vowed to myself to finally grow up.

Eight years ago, Cameron took my virginity and promptly forgot all about it.

It was time I forgot about him.

Chapter 2

Ava

I dropped the last packed box, filled with the last of my kitchen items, including a couple bottles of wine, and scanned my now-empty apartment that, up until today, I’d shared for the last year with my boyfriend, Kip. Everything else was boxed and moved to my storage unit, except for the last one I had to carry down with me. I had two weeks before my new apartment opened up, but after last week, there was no way I could stay there another second.

I wasn’t mad at Kip. Couldn’t even blame him for wanting me out as soon as possible.

He was a mortgage broker, a good one, in Denver and made an awesome salary. I was a social media coordinator for a farming equipment and feed store. Kip and I were together for three years. Lived together for the last one. I’d known a proposal was coming. He’d hinted at it enough. But in the end, when he was on his knee, thankfully in our currently empty living room, with candles and flowers all over, I didn’t embarrass him in public.

Instead, I’d stuttered. Opened and closed my mouth like a fish and then gaped at him.

He’d be a wonderful husband. He’d call me beautiful like my dad called my mom that every day for every day we had together. He’d give me babies. Let me stay home with them if I wanted, and boy, did I want that.

The only con in Kip’s column? He wasn’t Cameron, and three and a half months after that horrific day at the ranch, I still hadn’t been able to follow through with my vow to forget him.

In the end, Kip stood, taking my silence as a no, which was exactly what it was because I couldn’t force myself to say the word and verbally break his heart.

“I’m going to go stay at Rob’s for the night. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

He went to his best friend’s house and stayed the night, and the next morning, we began dividing our belongings—not much for me other than kitchen appliances and the kitchen dining set, and I’d started finding a new place to live.

I couldn’t move home until the apartment opened up because the commute was way too long to get to work every day. I had vacation time I could take. Lord knew I needed it, but I was saving it.

It was Isaiah who came up with the plan.

The worst plan in history of any plans made.

It was also my only option.

I was also on the phone with him, triple-checking it’d be safe. “You’re one hundred percent positive he’s not there.”

“Cam’s in the Caribbean. Barbados this week, the Dominican Republic next. He won’t be back until he has to report to training camp at the end of the month, so you’re fine, Ava. I swear it.”

“And you’ve told him I’m staying there.”

“Sure, I have.” He said it so quickly, I hesitated.

“Isaiah…”

“I’ve talked to him, Ava. It’s all good. I swear it. Go. It’s Cam’s house or no house, and we both know you can’t afford to stay at a hotel and don’t want to ask Mom or Dad for help.”

No way I didn’t. They hadn’t been necessarily surprised when I told them about Kip, but sad. They’d liked him enough. He wasn’t a farming kind of guy, but he’d tried. He’d helped Dad harvest our winter wheat and potatoes, and he never complained, but when the day was over, he’d always mutter, “Damn, this sucks.”

Which meant my parents liked him enough, but they never loved him.

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