Page 53 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

Closing the distance between us, I dip my head to ensure our voices don’t carry into Davey’s room or out into the living room where Pops sits near the fire. And this close, that orange blossom scent that always seems to cling to her is so strong I can almost taste it on my tongue. “But what I said is true, too, Camille. Whether you want to admit it or not. You are a strong, stubborn, proud woman…”

Her mouth gapes open, and I reach out and tip her jaw up to close it, holding her there, forcing her to meet my gaze and really hear what I’m about to say.

Because it’s stupid and dangerous.

But I’m going to say it anyway.

“But those are all the things I find so fucking fascinating about you. All the reasons I’m so impressed by you and in awe of everything you do every day. All ofthatis why I still think about you every moment I’m not with you.”

Her eyes start to glaze over with tears, and I’m not evencloseto done.

“You kept this place going without any help for months—”

“I failed.”

Her bottom lip quivers, and I brush my thumb across it.

“You didn’t fail. You just didn’t have the resources to do it, no matter how hard you worked, no matter how hard you tried. You were brave and strong and also stupid. And youknowit. I can’t apologize enough for the fact that Pops and I weren’t here to help you from the beginning, but you should haveaskedfor it, from us, from someone else in town. That’snotfailing.”

She clears her throat, stepping back out of my hold. “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t fail at anything.”

I chuckle low, stepping even closer to her until only the baby growing inside her separates us. “That’s where you’re wrong. I have failed miserably over the last few months since I met you.”

And being this close to her in this hallway, touching her like that, makes it all the more evident to me how badly.

“How did you fail?”

“I failed to be a good friend to you. I failed to keep my distance from you and Davey. I failed to close myself off to caring the way I always have, the way Pops taught me to.”

Camille stares up at me with her soft eyes searching mine. “What do you mean?”

Of course, I’m not making any sense.

I never intended to tell her any of this when I came up here.

I shouldn’t.

But now that the floodgates have opened, I feel like I can’t close them.

“It’s always just been the two of us up here since my parents died, and he wanted to keep it that way. I never had friends. I never had a life beyond the homestead, save for occasional visits with people from town who needed to see him. He was my teacher, my parent, my friend, my constant companion. And God, I love the old man. He gave me everything. But he also taught me that anything beyond the mountain is bad, that it’s only going to bring pain.”

And he was right.

I learned that lesson at four years old and am still paying the price for it.

“He told me to shut it all out. That even when I had to go into town for something, that I shouldn’t stop and linger, that I shouldn’t talk to anyone beyond what wasnecessary, that I shouldn’t make connections, that I shouldn’t…”

Her brows rise, so dark over her light eyes. “Live?”

The question makes my back throb and my shoulders tense. “I guess you could see it that way.”

She releases a sigh. “Look, I didn’t grow up here. I didn’t spend my whole life on this mountain. But what I can tell you is that all those things Pops warned you about are true. When you open yourself up, you do give someone else the opportunity to hurt you—intentionally or not. But it also gives you the opportunity tofeelsomething you never will experience any other way. Caring isn’tfailing.”

How I wish that were true…

“It is, Camille. Because I care about you and Davey and this baby who isn’t even born yet, more than I should, more than I have arightto.”

My eyes drift down to her stomach, and she reaches out and grabs my hand, placing it there with her own pressed over it.

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