Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,34

thinking of whatever was in there, suffering in the dark, maybe in pain. “Poor thing,” I said.

Cam drove slowly down the potholed roads of the little village, and I stared out the windows at the familiar landscape of my youth. We passed a rock that sloped up out of the ground next to a little green and white cabin on the side of the meadow. “Running Rock is still there,” I said, mostly to myself.

Cam laughed, slowing the car to look with me at the big rock, light grey against the bright green of the meadow beyond. “You call it Running Rock too?”

“I guess that’s it’s name,” I said, just as surprised as he was to find I hadn’t made the name up myself. “I thought only I called it that. It’s the only rock you can run right up the side of if you get a fast enough start down the hill.”

“I know,” Cam said, his eyes meeting mine. “Maddie and I called it that too. Used to run up it every time we went around the meadow as kids.”

I grinned, settling back into the seat as Cam guided the car past the rock. That was one of the things I was starting to remember about Kings Grove—the mountain mentality and the shared lore of the village. These houses had been here, in some way, shape, or form, for a hundred years, and most of the families had been, too. That meant we shared a common knowledge, and a common love, of a place that defied description to those who hadn’t spent their lives here.

I was an outsider in some ways, but I’d still been infused with some of the local magic Kings Grove left on those who lived here. I liked that Cam and I shared that, and that it made me part of a community in some ways. I was realizing that being on my own for so long had been both gratifying and exhausting. It was possible that I hadn’t truly relaxed in the last ten years.

We pulled up a gravel drive to a house that appeared to be perched on a boulder, a wide deck reaching out toward the driveway from the front, suspended over the open ground below.

“Wow.”

“Yeah,” Cam agreed.

I waited while he came around the car to let me out. I knew I could have opened the door myself, but I couldn’t help liking the way it felt to let someone else look out for me. Even just for a little while.

Chapter 9

CAMERON

I drove Harper to Maddie’s, my mind more fixated on my neighbor’s light hair and curves than I would have liked after the evening we’d spent together playing cards. It had only gotten worse over the course of the day. I’d seen her come and go, watched her without really meaning to. I was thankful for the invitation to my sister’s, since having other people around meant I could keep a little distance and give myself some time to think about what exactly I was doing when it came to her.

I knew I was flirting—it was a skill I hadn’t practiced in a while, but with Harper it was easy. She invited the banter, made me want to laugh. I hadn’t felt that in a long time, and it made me feel like I was doing something wrong now, taking something that didn’t belong to me. My mind was in pieces, which I guess matched my heart. I knew I should stay away, that my focus should be looking after my sister and keeping her happy and safe. She was what I had left, and pulling anyone else into my mess wasn’t a good idea. Besides, Harper was a temporary fixture in Kings Grove. My heart had probably had all the disappointment it could handle, and getting attached and then watching her leave wouldn’t be helpful. Easier to just stay away. There was also the possibility that the Cameron Turner curse would hurt her, and I knew I wouldn’t survive that. It might have been nuts, but I wasn’t sure that Harper would survive it if I let myself become too attached to her. I didn’t have a good track record there.

I parked and opened Harper’s door, and together we went to the front door.

“There you are,” Maddie said, pulling open the door at the bottom of the big house. The place was essentially built into a giant boulder, and the main deck hung overhead, jutting out from the side of