Page 86 of Unstoppable Love

“Time.” I reached over his large center console and settled my hand on his thigh. “Time to trust this will work.”

His hand covered mine. “I’ll give you that.”

“Well, look at you.” My mom had her hands pressed to Cameron’s cheeks, arms stretched high above her head. At five-two, she was even shorter than me, but that didn’t stop her from having a larger-than-life personality when her mood struck. “You get more handsome every time I see you.”

Cameron grinned at her and glanced at me, and I rolled my eyes behind her. “You saw him this morning, Mom.”

She looked at me over her shoulder and frowned. “Now, that’s not a very nice tone.”

“Yeah, Ava,” Cameron crooned. “That’s not very nice.”

I’d show him not nice if he kept up acting like a soldier who’d returned from a three-year deployment overseas and not the man she saw at least once a month. Heck, over the last several years, she’d seen much more of Cameron than I had.

“Leave the boy alone, Connie, you’re smothering him,” my dad said and slapped Cameron on the shoulder. “Good to see you. Good game yesterday.”

“Thanks, Bram. Farm’s looking in good shape.”

Where Cameron’s family raised cattle, our family land was substantially less, just less than a thousand acres, and we harvested winter wheat and potatoes.

“Been a good weather season. Wheat harvest was plentiful, and the potatoes are looking even better.”

“Let’s let the men talk shop,” my mom said, sliding her hand into mine and pulling me through the house to the kitchen.

“Is Isaiah coming, too?” I’d be surprised if he didn’t.

“He said he’d stop by later. Probably be here when we’re finishing up dinner.”

Good. That was good. Isaiah and I had talked, and Cameron had told him he and I were going to be together, but I hadn’t seen my brother much in the last week, and the teasing that would happen when he showed could be astronomical depending on his own mood.

“I’m still mad at you for embarrassing us in the store like that this morning,” I told her when we were alone, and she shoved a bowl full of vegetables to be chopped for a salad in front of me. She didn’t need to tell me what to do, I’d been helping my mom in the kitchen since I could safely stand on a chair.

“I should have called and asked, you’re right. But I was getting anxious, and I knew Cameron didn’t have much time here. You two are good?”

“It’s new, Mom.”

“Please.” She made a sound of disbelief. “You’ve been scribbling your initials inside of hearts since middle school, and if you thought you were hiding your crush on him all those years, you’re in denial.”

“Thanks. This is turning into a pleasant time.” Because I needed the reminder of my long schoolgirl crush, the art girl and book nerd who couldn’t look Cameron in the eye for two months after she got her period for the first time, she was so embarrassed he’d know somehow.

“Don’t pout. It’s unattractive.” She poked me with the end of her wooden spoon, right in the sensitive flesh above my hip.

I slapped her hand away, laughing. “Hey!”

“I’m happy about this,” she said and turned to stir the chopped chicken she was frying in the pan. “I’m glad you’re home, too. And that he’ll be around more. He might play football and be some superstar on the field, but he’s always been a small town boy. I like that for you.”

So much better than that Kip guy, was what she left unsaid.

“I’m happy too,” I admitted. “Although it feels like a dream I’m going to wake up from, and I keep freaking out about it.”

“All great love stories start that way,” she mused, smiling at me over her shoulder. “The best ones stay that way, and if you stop getting worried, you’ll wake up and enjoy the ride.”

She winked at me, and I turned back to the tomatoes she’d grown from her garden. While my dad worked the land and Mom helped, it was her gardens and chickens she tended to the most. Her gardens were so vast and well-loved, we rarely had to buy produce from the store. Hopefully, my own backyard could be as plentiful someday.

“Thanks, Mom.”

She came over and kissed my cheek. “Now, tell me what he’s like when it’s the two of you. He’s kind?”

“Yeah, Sunshine.” Cameron stood in the doorway, and I’d been so immersed in the conversation with my mom, I hadn’t noticed him watching us. Odd, considering I usually had a pretty good Cameron radar working. His look said he’d been there awhile. “Tell her how good I treat you.”

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