Page 50 of My Sweetest Obsession
Just like I’ve never known what to do with this hurricane of conflicting emotions Camden Usher created when he stormed into my life unexpectedly.
The raging pregnancy hormones don’t help anything.
It seems like anything and everything can set off a downward spiral that I’m not capable of pulling myself out of alone. I probably wouldn’t have been able to if Cam hadn’t shown up last night, if he hadn’t said those words and made those promises I want so badly to believe.
I shake my head to try to clear away those thoughts that will pull me down the dark path I somehow escaped. “Nothing is wrong. This is…” My gaze travels to her phone still clutched in her hand, the mural still up on the screen. A long breath rushes from my lungs. “This is a good thing. And I want to see it.”
Marlo nods, pushing to her feet and sliding her phone into her pocket. “Let’s go.”
“Now?”
She sighs and holds out a hand to me. “Yes, now. Trina can open alone today.” A grin pulls at her lips. “We need to see this in person.”
It’s even more stunning up close.
From here, I can see every minute detail Cam included in the image. So perfect that it’s like a snapshot in time. Yet he somehow did it with only black and white.
The way one brother closes his eyes as he takes a bite, as if he can’t wait to savor it, while the other grips the sandwich with both hands, ready to devour it, makes it so easy to tell which one is Drew.
He savored life.
Never took it for granted.
Lived each moment with the kind of intense love of it that mirrored the way he loved me.
But Cam…
He devours.
Anything and anyone in his path.
He sees something he wants, and he consumes.
That’s precisely what he did with me, and staring at this image now, surrounded by dozens of strangers who came to see it, too, I somehow know this was meant for me as much as it was for him.
This mural is a love letter to his brother and an apology for everything that went wrong between them.
It was the only way he could say it.
Tears spill down my cheeks, and Marlo wraps her arm around me and squeezes.
“You good?”
I shake my head. “Not really.”
My hands move down to rub at my stomach, where the baby’s movements seem to have only increased since we arrived, almost as if she’s as excited as I was to see this.
That’s your daddy…
And your uncle…
The memory of his large, warm hand pressed against the same spot mine now rests, and the way he held me so tightly through my complete breakdown, threatens to buckle my knees.
But Marlo’s hold on me keeps me steady.
“What do I do?”
I glance over at her, and she offers me a sympathetic half-smile.
