Page 158 of Head Over Heels

“You okay?” I asked. I’d asked it earlier too, because it seemed impossible to believe that he wasn’t feeling the weight of the day. It wasn’t even my family, and I’d been on the verge of ugly tears for a solid two hours.

Cameron sighed, eventually nodding. “Just wiped. I think I’m going to take a shower.”

“Okay.”

He walked down the hall toward his room, and while I swept up the dirt and emptied the pan into the trash, I heard the water turn on.

I played with Neville for a couple of minutes, dragging the feather toy from Poppy on the ground, and watched him dart after it. Eventually he tired, stretching out on the kitchen floor and twitching his tail when he gave up following the toy.

My feet ached from walking around in sandals all day, and I removed them with a groan, digging my thumbs into the arch of my feet before padding down the hallway. One small lamp was turned on in the bedroom, on Cameron’s side of the bed.

He had a side.

I had a side.

It was so painfully domestic, so stunningly easy that I had to fight the sudden swell of cold, prickly panic at how domestic, how easy it was to incorporate into this man’s life.

I could hear him moving around in the shower, and when I glanced into the bathroom, I felt a painful clench in my chest.

He had his hands braced on the tile wall, his head hung down underneath the steaming spray that came from the showerhead he’d mounted on the wall.

On any other day, in any other moment, it would’ve been the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever seen in my life—the absolute artwork of his strong body underneath all that cascading water.

But what I saw was someone caught in the crosshairs of the grief in his mind, the reality of his dad still being here, his family’s expectations, struggling to keep his heartbreak contained.

Slowly, I pulled my shirt off, then my skirt. My bra and underwear came next, and I wound my hair into a knot on the top of my head before I slowly pulled open the glass door.

His whole frame trembled, and I ducked underneath his arms, twining my arms around his waist and pressing my face into his chest.

Cameron’s arms curled around me immediately, and he held me so tightly, burying his head into my hair while he took great, gulping breaths.

He didn’t speak.

Neither did I.

But tears pricked my eyes when he finally let out a shuddering exhale. Minutes passed while we stood there holding each other, I wasn’t even sure how many. I didn’t know if he was crying, or if he’d even let himself.

It didn’t matter to me. There was no need for Cameron to make a big display for me to know that he didn’t usually lean on anyone in the moments when he carried the biggest weight.

The water slowly cooled, and the tension in his body eventually ebbed. When he lifted his head, his eyes found mine—the sincerity in them enough to wrench my heart into a million pieces.

He slid his hand against the side of my neck, dragging that thumb under my chin. And he kissed me sweetly.

When he pulled back, he rolled his forehead along mine. I found his hand, slipping my fingers between his as we left the shower. We dried off with big, fluffy white towels, wordlessly trading tiny touches as he pulled on his boxer briefs and I slid on my favorite pink pajama set.

Cameron pulled back the covers on his king-sized bed, and I crawled in before him. He turned off the light in the bathroom but left on the bedside lamp as he climbed in next to me.

We still didn’t speak as I burrowed into his chest, one of his arms underneath my neck, the other tight around my back.

I’d been taught my entire life to use the right words in the right situation, what the right thing was to say to achieve specific goals. But I didn’t think words were needed in this one, because nothing I could say would make him feel better.

He just needed to know I was there.

Just like I’d needed him there when he showed up for me.

Maybe that was why falling in love sounded like a sudden, sharp point of action.

There was a moment before—the swing of a hinge, a drop into weightlessness—and an abrupt snap when you hit your new reality.

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