Page 56 of Cross Check My Heart
“Did he just…kiss my forehead?”
Ah. That’s what this is.
“Yeah, he did, Sunshine.” She blinks at me. “Are you okay with that?”
Lilly gawks at the door for a second before she nods.
“Yes. It’s just…weird.” Unable to resist, I pull her into my chest for a hug, her arms instantly wrapping around my waist.
“He cares about you.” I murmur softly. She might not notice, but I don’t miss how her arms tighten around me slightly.
“I didn’t actually know how much I wanted him to care. But now that I know he does… Now that he’s here and trying to be in my life, I feel like I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
She tilts her head back, resting her chin on my chest as her gaze clashes with mine.
“I feel like I’m waiting for him to realize that he made the right move all those years ago. When he moved down here and away from us. What if I’m not good enough to be his daughter?” A stray tear rolls down her cheek and I’m wiping it away before it even reaches her jaw. Pushing back slightly, I cup her face between my hands gently, giving her no choice but to look at me.
“You are worth everything and more. Anyone who can’t see how utterly spectacular you are, they’re the ones who aren’t worth it.”
Planting a kiss on her nose, I wipe away another tear as she nods her head.
“Now, we can talk more about how amazing you are later, ya know when you’re not concussed. For now, why don’t we get you back to your place before Paige gets there.” Lilly chuckles lightly as a faint blush finally touches her cheeks.
“Um…Paige isn’t coming over. She’s actually going to kill me when I do call her later, but I haven’t told her yet.” She breaks eye contact and stares straight ahead at my chest as she continues. “I assumed you would be sleeping over, but I couldn’t say that in front of my dad. But if I thought wrong—” I cut her off with a kiss.
“Sunshine, you can bet that with or without Paige at your place, I will be keeping my eyes and hands on you.”
“Just get it over with.” I mumble to myself. Not that saying it out loud does anything to make me move. I’ve been sitting at my kitchen island for the past half hour staring between my phone and the bill that I got in the mail from the hospital. It isn’t the remaining balance that’s the problem,I have enough put away in my savings from my time working during college. The problem is that I’m on my mom’s insurance. I know that she needs to hear from me that I had a trip to the hospital instead of finding out when she sees the insurance summary.
Yet I still can’t bring myself to pick up the phone to call her.
It’s been two weeks since Cam showed up out of the blue. I’ve gone over the entire situation countless times and for as much as I want to just forget about it and move on, there’s a few things that keep nagging at me.
For starters, I haven’t heard from him since then. Not a single text or call and thankfully he hasn’t shown up again. Which is probably better for Cam considering that I’ve barely been left alone since then. When I had finally called Paige to let her know what happened, I had to fight tooth and nail to convince her that she didn’t have to come over. The only reason she didn’t show up that night was because Dominik interjected that he wouldn’t leave me alone.
That didn’t stop her from showing up the next day with Garrett and more junk food than any of us could eat. Dominik only stayed for an hour before he had to get ready for his game. Which left us three to set up camp in my living room and cheer him and the Bobcats on. It wasn’t until there was five minutes left in the game that I realized Paige managed to distract me from everything that happened. After the game, Garrett had taken on the role of cleaning up, demanding that Paige and I relax. Really, we both knew he was just being nice and gave the two of us the space to talk alone.
Apparently, Dominik had asked him to hang out and make sure I wasn’t alone incase Cam decided to show back up. Briefly, I wondered if I should have been upset that Dom made that decision without talking to me. But I wasn’t. He knew that I wouldn’t ask for company so that I wouldn’t inconvenienceanyone, so he did it for me. Although I still told him that he should have included me in that decision and that he’s clearly never seen Paige upset before. If he had, he wouldn’t have felt the need to ask Garrett to come over. I’m still certain that if Cam had decided to show up, Paige would have scared him more than Garrett.
Having time to talk things through with Paige was something I didn’t know I needed. Dominik and I had spent plenty of time going over it all, but since Paige knows Cam, she was able to understand some of my thoughts better. If anything, having time to catch up with Paige was the perfect opportunity to tell her everything that led to our breakup with a clear mind. She was pissed that I hadn’t told her sooner, and for a moment, I was worried that she was going to be so angry with me that she would leave, but she wasn’t. That’s the thing about our relationship, we both know not to take it personally when we don’t talk about something right away. Paige simply hugged me as she told me how proud of me she was for finally leaving him.
Another reason I finally opened up to Paige, was because there’s still two things that have been bugging me. One thing is that, even though he’s a cheating asshole, he had never been physical or demanding like he was. The other is that I have no idea how Cam found out where I’ve been staying.
I shove away thoughts of the shitshow with Cam, hoping that no news is good news. Giving in and needing a distraction, I reach for my phone. After scrolling to find my mom’s contact, I hit the call button before I can rethink it. She answers before the second ring finishes.
“Lilly! Oh my goodness. Finally!” She exclaims, shushing whoever is with her. Based on the cut off laughter, I can tell that at least one of my brothers is with her. The sound changes slightly, and I know she has me on speakerphone.
“Hey, how are you?” Of all the things I can think of to say, that’s it.
“How am I?” She repeats back to me, as if my question was offensive. “How do you think I am!? I haven’t heard from you in weeks, not a single call or text. Nothing. I’ve been worried sick about you!”
“I told you to give me time, mom. I wasn’t in the right headspace to talk things through calmly. I was trying to avoid a fight.”
“There was nothing for you to fight about!” She exclaims. “If anything, your brothers and I should be upset with you!”
“You should be upset withme?” I quietly question back.
“Yes! While you’ve been off gallivanting and doing God knows what down there, your brothers and I have been trying to hold Cam together for you. Do you know how tiresome it’s been for us to keep avoiding questions about the two of you? To keep Cam hopeful that you’ll get over this and come home?”
