Page 125 of Off Season

Kam: Your forts are my happy place.

That makes me feel good.

Me: You’re mine.

Kam: Can I call you?

Me: Of course.

My FaceTime immediately rings, and I answer. I get a knot in my throat from simply seeing her face. Tears immediately well in her eyes. Maybe Gemma was right.

I try to smile through my emotions. “Hey, beautiful.”

She studies the screen. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the hallway of our hotel. Trey and Gemma are having phone sex in our room and I’m giving them privacy.”

“It’s probably hot. I would totally listen while flicking Fiona.”

I fan my face. “It’sextremelyhot, and I’ve most definitely cuffed the carrot to them going at it, but she begged me to leave them alone tonight, and I wanted to reach out to you anyway.”

She smiles before her face turns serious. “Kitten?”

“Yep.”

“I’m sorry for how I was on our last night together.”

I simply nod. I can’t tell her that it’s alright. It’s not.

She blows out a breath. “I want to shoot straight with you. I’m trying to work on me a little bit. I won’t ask you to wait for me. I’m not sure I’ll ever be cured. I care about you too much to hold you back.”

“Hold me back from what?”

“Women, sex,” she mumbles, “marriage, family.”

I think I’m starting to understand why she acted the way she did. “What are you doing to work on yourself?”

She twists her lips. “Don’t get all girly on me about it, but I met with Dr. Pearl. In fact, we’ve now had two sessions. You’ll be happy to know that in our second session, she substantiated the fact that I mistreated you. I hope you know it’s only because I care.”

I swallow down my emotions. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”

“You are?”

“I am.”

She bites her lip. “I think I’m proud of myself too. She’s really opened my eyes to a few things. I’m excited to keep talking to her.”

I think I know what Kam needs to hear. “Take your time, babe. I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.”

Tears fill her eyes again and she barely croaks out, “You don’t have to wait.”

I trace her face on the screen with my fingers. I wish I could touch her. “Maybe I want to wait.”Because I love you.

“Just know that you don’t have to. I have zero expectations.”

I nod. “Okay. I’ll do my best to bang random chicks when all I really want is to be one of the guys sitting in my room having phone sex with their special girl back home.”

She smiles softly as she stands and appears to prop the phone on something. She then stands in front of the camera and pulls down her sweatpants and panties.

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