Page 84 of Lucky Star

Chapter Thirty-Three

Sarah

Before I knew it, my days in Southern California were up, and it was time to pack up my stuff and head north. As I locked up my house with Duke at my side, I looked around my yard and my street … at the world I’d occupied for the last several years, recalling all the times Cameron had pulled his truck into my driveway, or the nights we’d spent with our friends in my backyard roasting marshmallows over the fire pit … all the little moments we’d spent together never knowing how we truly felt about the other.

Some of the gossip columns were right. We had had a whirlwind romance. And while it might look to others like we were rushing into marriage, I knew differently. Cameron had been a fixture in my life far longer than some marriages lasted, and as I stared back at the house I was leaving to go marry him, there wasn’t a moment I could remember where he hadn’t been a part of my heart.

The physical structure sitting before me might have been where I’d lived, but the man I was about to marry had always been my home.

A few days later, I pulled my car into the cedar-lined driveway. I took a deep breath and exhaled, letting the tension of the drive leave my body. The roads over the mountain pass had been covered with snow and the drive had been grueling, but Duke and I had made it to Eagle Harbour no worse for wear. I stared down at my hands locked in a vice grip on the steering wheel and forced myself to release each finger one by one.

Next to me, Duke barked and shimmied in his seat before standing up and wagging his tail excitedly back and forth. He barked again and when I looked out the window, Cameron was making his way toward us, a huge, welcoming grin on his face. He opened my door and pulled me into his arms before dropping his lips to mine for a long, lingering kiss. Duke whinnied from inside the car, anxious for his own affection.

“Hey, buddy.” Cameron leaned in and ruffled the fur on top of Duke’s head as he leaned into Cameron’s palm, happily accepting the greeting.

“You’re here,” I stated, surprised but ecstatic to see him. The schedule he’d shared with me the day before had the crew in Vancouver until later tonight. Cameron had planned to take the earliest flight out on Christmas Eve.

“Jillian and I wrapped up our scenes earlier than expected. We had a lot of motivation to get everything right on the first take.” He pulled me into another quick hug and then moved to the rear of the car to retrieve my luggage. I ran around the other side to cut him off before he could remove my dress, which I’d laid out across my suitcases to prevent it from wrinkling.

“Turn your back,” I commanded, locking the trunk with my remote so he couldn’t open it. “You can’t see my dress.”

He indulged me with a laugh. “I can’t even see the garment bag it’s wrapped in?”

“Nope.” Carefully, I draped the bag over my arm and jogged into the house before he could sneak a peek. Hiding it in the guest room’s closet, I went back outside, and stood on the porch. As Cameron brought my things into the house, Duke trotted along next to him, his big pink tongue lolling out of his mouth in a huge doggy smile.

As I watched my two favorite guys approach, it hit me all at once that this was it. This was the life I wanted. I would have gone anywhere if it meant I’d get to keep Cameron by my side, but this place, this time, was special. This was home.

“What do you have in here, anvils?” Cameron grimaced as dragged the last of my bags up the steps and into the foyer. While the luggage had been a pain for me to get into the car, they were a piece of cake for him. He just enjoyed teasing me since I’d brought enough stuff to last through the end of the season as I wasn’t planning on returning to L.A. for quite some time.

A few hours later, I was unpacking my bags when Cameron walked into the bedroom with two cups of steaming hot tea in his hands. “I wanted to wait until tomorrow, but you know … patience isn’t my strong suit.” He smirked and set one of the mugs down next to me on the dresser while I finished transferring my clothes from my suitcase.

“Wait for what?” I asked, inhaling the scent of my favorite earl gray from the small teashop in town.

Cameron sat next to my open suitcase and propped his elbows on his thighs so that wisps of steam from his mug swirled in front of his face. “I want to give you your Christmas present early.”

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.” Not that I didn’t like opening presents, but we’d had a plan.

“Don’t worry. It’s not your only present. I know how much you love unwrapping presents in front of the tree on Christmas morning.” The minute I’d stepped foot inside, I’d spotted the ten-foot-tall Christmas tree, sans ornaments, set up in the corner of the living room. Its base was piled high with wrapped presents of all sizes. When I saw how many gifts he’d gotten me, I worried I hadn’t done enough to make our first Christmas special, but then I reminded myself that small things could pack a mighty punch. Besides, what could possibly top a signed Stan Lee signature series comic?

He looked so adorably nervous as he waited for my response that I took pity on him. “Well then, I can’t wait to open it.”

“It’s um … it’s not here.”

“Okay, so where is this mysterious gift you can’t wait to give me?”

He set his tea down on the bedside table and stood in front of me. “Promise we can do this my way? No complaining?”

“That sounds slightly ominous. Besides, I don’t know what I’m agreeing to.”

“You’re agreeing to not spoiling the surprise.”

“Umm …”

“Okay, blindfold it is,” he said, the right side of his mouth hitching up in a tantalizing smile as he reached into the back pocket of his faded jeans and pulled out a black silk tie I had a sneaking suspicion was supposed to have been pressed and waiting for him to don the morning of our wedding.

“Ah, a kinky surprise,” I smirked.

He chuckled, and my insides quivered. “Nothing like that, you filthy girl. Although …”

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