Page 62 of Stray for You

“And then he ran all the way back to me —ranback to me — to tell me his foot was definitely broken.”

“Mom, please,” Cameron groans as his mother finishes another embarrassing childhood story.

Miss Ortiz and I are too busy laughing to heed his pleas.

“What a drama queen,” I say.

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Miss Ortiz says. “He was always a good kid, but when he decided to get up to something, that made him even more dangerous.”

I try not to grin too broadly at the image of baby Cameron running around pretending he broke his foot in order to get extra candy, but it’s too adorable. I have to bite my lip to keep thesmile from taking up my whole face.

Then I hear the craziest thing beside me. Laughter. Cam’s laughter. I look over and he’s shaking his head as he chuckles at himself.

“Mom, come on, he’s going to head directly to the airport if you keep telling him all this embarrassing stuff,” Cameron says.

My heart flips. I don’t want to presume too much, but that statement really makes it sound like Cameron is hoping for the opposite, hoping I’ll stay, hoping this isn’t over.

I all but float through the rest of the dinner. The conversation remains light, even when Miss Ortiz dredges up the past. I can tell little pieces of it are painful for Cameron. Every once in a while his lips pull taut in a grimace. But he doesn’t stop her from talking and even joins in, and by the time our plates are clear, Cameron is reclining easily in his chair and nodding along to his mother’s stories.

Miss Ortiz sighs during a lull in the conversation. “Let me get these plates,” she says.

Instantly, I leap up to help her, even though there’s only three plates and some forks. We stack the dishes in the sink, along with the baking pan and pot I used.

“I can do the dishes before we head out,” I offer.

She’s shaking her head before I even finish. “I think you have something more important to do tonight.”

My heart could burst for this woman. “Are you sure? I made all this mess.”

“And I’m happy to clean it up. Now go.”

I suspect she means more than the dirty dishes, and in both cases, I’m more than happy to accept her help.

Cameron hugs his mother goodbye, then we pile into his car so he can get us back to his apartment. It’s an awkward drive. We both know there’s a conversation waiting for us on the other end of it, and we both know the car isn’t the right place for it to begin.But at some point in the drive, Cameron takes my hand in his, and that tiny bit of reassurance gives me the strength to get back to his place without fainting from nerves.

We go right to his bed. His room feels like the right place for this. Even with him living alone, this conversation should happen in a secluded, private location.

The dark drapes over us, obscuring our faces as we sit on the edge of the bed half-turned toward each other. Neither of us make any move to flick on a light. Cameron clasps my hand, and I feel his eyes on me, two darker pools of night in the gloomy bedroom.

“That was nice,” he says. “I wasn’t expecting it, but it was nice.”

“Yeah,” I say, “it was.”

We’re both speaking in hushed tones, like we’re in a library. Something about this moment carries the same weight of solemnity.

“So, look, I still have a lot to think about,” Cameron says, diving straight for the heart of the matter. “I mean, obviously I do. This all happened so suddenly. I didn’t plan on any of it. My head is kind of a mess, to be honest.”

“I know,” I say. “That’s okay. I’m not asking you to have everything figured out instantly.”

“Then what are you asking for?”

Those dark eyes fix on me, and I nearly lose my nerve. I want to skirt around this with a joke or by turning things physical. That’s what I would normally do. I’ve avoided anything serious or real for my entire life by being the funny guy, the guy who only does hookups, the guy you never need to take seriously.

My old antics aren’t going to save me this time. Cameron is too important to me, as I’ve blurted out quite bluntly tonight. I can’t hide behind a clown mask, not with those piercing eyes looking straight through me.

I suck in a shaky breath.

“I’m asking for you,” I say. “I wasn’t lying before. I love you, Cam. I have for a really freaking long time. This is what I want, and I’ll do whatever I have to to make it work.”

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