Page 79 of All Mine

“To see about getting my phone screen repaired, a shower, and I have another interview with the police about everything this afternoon. I’ll swing back by and check on you later. Get some sleep.” He leaned in, brushing his lips across my forehead, and my eyes fluttered closed.

“I promise, I’ll take care of you and never leave you again,” he whispered as I dozed off.

I woke to a giggle, and several shushes as my friends filled the room, but I didn’t open my eyes. They were having a good time sitting around my room whispering, and they’d make me have conversations I didn’t want if they all discovered I was conscious.

“The man ran into a burning building to get to her?” my dad’s voice asked.

“And had to fight Stephen, who was trying to keep him out,” Adrian said. “The whole thing’s on the 911 audio recording.”

“That man needs to fry,” my mom’s voice said. “We need to get a lawyer and make sure that man’s charged with attempted murder.” Oh great. Both of my parents were there too, and they all talked about Camden and Stephen. There was a lot for me to unpack. What was I going to do about Camden? His declaration of love and whispered promise to take care of me came flooding back. Could I trust him?

“I think the DA decides on those kinds of charges,” my dad said.

“I don’t care. We need to call the DA then. We all do, and make sure he never walks free and doesn’t get another chance to try to kill our daughter.”

“I agree,” my dad replied, conceding they were hiring a lawyer.

“You guys can go with civil cases no matter what the DA decides on a criminal level,” Adrian said.

“They have to bring criminal charges against him. They just have to,” my mom pleaded.

“Oh, I’m sure they will. The police are interviewing Camden again about the whole thing,” Sloane said.

“Oh, thank goodness he came along,” my mom said. “So they’d been dating?”

“Yeah, but it turned out he was working for Stephen on the sale but didn’t know what he was doing,” Sloane said.

“Well, I think we can forgive him for that. He ran into a burning building to save our baby after all,” my mom said. Great. I’m a nearly thirty-year-old baby. I would hear about that from my friends later.

“This young man now owns the property?” my dad asked.

“Yeah, when I talked to him, he fully expected legal challenges from Stephen, and he knew it might keep him from building the complex he designed, but he wanted to keep it from becoming a pit,” Adrian said.

It hadn’t occurred to me while he was there that Camden had shown me he was willing to sacrifice his dream to save not only my bakery but a part of the town that I loved. When he discovered Stephen was planning to screw him over, too, he could have left town. And not only that, with one of those houses now an enormous piece of charred rubble that fell on him to deal with, he declared his love for me.

“You’re awake,” Sloane announced. Darn it. I’d left my eyes open too long. All heads turned my way.

“How are you feeling?” my mother asked, rushing to get up from the couch and fix an imaginary issue with my bedcovers.

“Groggy,” I replied, glancing around the room with the need to talk to Camden pressing on my heart. But finding only Sloane, Jonah, and Adrian standing around the room. With Eden curled up on the end of the couch next to the seat my Mom had vacated. My mom now sported a new short haircut and was wrapped in a thick heather gray sweater against the air conditioning chill. Dad stood by the wall with his reading glasses perched atop his head. Next to Adrian, he looked small and not the imposing figure of my youth.

“I’m going to text Lindsay that you’re awake now.” My mom pulled out her cell phone and took a minute, adjusting the distance and squinting at the screen.

“You need my cheaters,” Dad said, pulling the glasses off the top of his head and holding them out.

“I do not,” she insisted, waving him off.

Lindsay would be mad at me for not telling her about Camden. I hadn’t talked to my sister at all about this mess. And I hadn’t behaved my best with him either, trying to manipulate him at times for my goals. I’d assumed he’d done the same to me, but perhaps not. He loved me. But, did I love him? How could I tell? His ghosting me had gutted me, and if I didn’t care at all, it wouldn’t have. I’d been too busy with trying to win the vote to comprehend my feelings fully. Oh crap, I loved Camden. I’d caught feelings. When did that happen?

“She says she wants to talk to you when she gets off shift,” my mom said.

“I bet she does,” I muttered.

The door to the room cracked open, and Camden glanced around the room.

“Oh, you have a full house,” he said.

“Is this the young man who saved you?” My mom cried, making a beeline across the room and flinging herself on Camden, wrapping her arms around his neck, squeezing.

---