Page 78 of My Sweetest Agony
I stare at it for a minute.
Two.
Long enough that another song starts, this one instrumental but with the same low, throbbing bass that Cam seems to like.
There’s no way Cam could have ever seen me wear those earrings or even have any idea I owned them. And I wasn’t wearing bright-red lipstick when we kissed the other night. I wasn’t wearing anything but tear stains down my cheeks.
This isn’t me from a few days ago.
This is me from a very specific night…four years ago.
I slowly turn back to him, my body trembling, mind still racing to make sense of it all. His jaw tightens as do his knuckles around the paintbrush he still holds.
“How did you paint this? How did you know?” I swallow the lump in my throat, trying to regain control so I can sort through all these things that don’t make any sense. “Unless you and Drew literally shared a memory, there’s no way you would have seen that and been able to recreate it.”
He presses his lips together and inhales through his nose, long and deep, letting his eyes drift closed, like he too needs a moment to try to find some sort of calm and control.
My knees shake. “That was the night?—”
His eyes fly open and meet mine, a swirling maelstrom of uncertainty overtaking the blue. “The night of my mom’s birthday party.”
I nod hesistantly, holding out my hands as panic wells in my chest. “You weren’t even there. I hadn’t even met you. How did you…”
How?
That moment.
That specific moment.
No one else knows about it.
Not even Marlo.
I never told anyone about what happened that night.
The moment that changed everything between his brother and me.
Cam stands stock still and watches me, like he’s anticipating my response before he even says whatever it is he’s about to unleash on me. Goosebumps break out over my skin as I wait, and finally, he takes a half-step closer. “I was there that night.”
“What?”
His throat works hard as he rubs his free hand through his hair, pushing it off his forehead and tugging on the ends before it flops right back into place. “I hadn’t seen Andrew or our mom in almost a year, and I thought it would be a nice surprise. I checked into a hotel because I didn’t want them to know I was in town, and I took a cab to the house. I wanted to sneak in through the back door and surprise them, but…”
I suck in a sharp breath.
He doesn’t have to say the rest.
All the pieces are finally clicking into place.
Tears pool in my eyes. “But I was sitting out by the pool…”
A vivid memory of that night slams into me so hard that it’s like I’m still sitting there.
The smell of the chlorine.
The slight summer breeze.
The side gate squeaking as Drew walked through it and closed it behind him.
