Page 129 of Red Hot Harmony

“How do you know?”

“It happened to me too.” He was smiling now. “One minute I had it all, and then I woke up in a hospital bed, unable to remember who I was. And the worst part?” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “There was no one there for me. No one to hold my hand or to tell me it would be all right. So I’m here telling you it will be all right. I’m here for as long as you’ll let me.”

“I can’t seem to get rid of you no matter how hard I try.”

“Maybe you don’t want to.”

“Maybe I don’t.”

There was a pause, then he kissed my lips. It was chaste and didn’t feel like any of the previous kisses he’d given me, and I needed a second to gather my wits because something shifted between us.

“Why are you here?” I finally managed to say the words I’d been wanting to say ever since that night he’d offered to fix the string lights in my back yard.

Famous people didn’t do domestic chores for fun, did they?

“Why, Dante?” I asked again.

“You know why, mama.” His whisper wobbled, as if voicing his thoughts pained him.

“I don’t want to play a guessing game. I need to hear it from you.”

“Because this is the end of the road for me. You’re it. You’re the one.”

The air left my chest, deserting my rabid heartbeat to fend for itself in that strange void in my chest, the void that was waiting to be filled with something new and wonderful. I was at the mercy of his confession now, utterly defenseless against his vulnerability-infused charm.

“I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you, Camille Rockwell. Have been for a while. I know your world is in ruins now, but I believe this is as good a time as any to tell you that I’m not going anywhere and I’m here for you however you need me.”

My knees were weak. “Really?” was all I could muster up.

“Yeah.” He nodded, a smirk tilting the corner of his mouth. “I’m positive.”

“Oh.” I finally heard myself exhale. “Okay... I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll let me in.”

“I’m certain I already did. Multiple times.”What is wrong with me? Why can’t I make mature words form a proper sentence that the man who professes his love actually deserves?

“Well, I wasn’t talking about sex, but I won’t say no to it.” He bit back a smile, but there was fear in his eyes. Fear of rejection. I knew that look better than the back of my hand. It was the same one I’d seen in the mirror so many times before. It was the face of someone who wasn’t sure whether he was enough.

And, God, he was enough and more and everything I didn’t think I wanted.

“You’re horrible.” I pushed down my emotions. “You just sprung this on me while we’re surrounded by rubble.

“I am horrible,” he agreed.

“And you’re a show-off.”

“That too.”

“And you’re the best tutor Ally’s had.”

“Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“And you don’t treat her like an unwanted extension of me. You treat her like a person. You care enough to hear her out and to stand up for her…”

“She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and you, isn’t she?”

“Yes. And you’re probably the best thing that’s happened to us, and there’s a slight possibility I’m in love with you too.” Oh, that was so easy. Easier than I believed it would be. “I’ve never been in love before, but I think that’s what this is. The butterflies everyone talks about.”

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