Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,82
the end, spending time with the people who had become good friends, with my father, even. And as I joked with Annie Gish toward the end of the night, telling her about my near-death experience with the mountain lion, I had a realization. I was more at home here than I’d been anywhere in the world.
When I really thought about it, it made perfect sense. I was home. It was that simple. This was the place I’d started my life, and the roots ran as deep in me as these big trees were tall. I’d traveled the world, been planted and bloomed in plenty of other places, and I could do it again. But I’d never felt as calm, as right, as I did here among these people, in this place. And I knew I didn’t want to leave, though I also knew I would have to figure out how to handle the promises I’d already made once this party was over. I let the worry slide off my skin, determined to enjoy every second of what was left of the night, of having Cameron close at my side, of feeling this clear sense of happiness and belonging.
Maddie and Connor climbed into their festooned golf cart around midnight, heading for the bridal suite at the Inn. They’d planned a honeymoon to Tahiti, and I knew they were leaving early the next morning to catch a plane. I joined the crowd of people in front of the Outpost, waving them off.
The party wrapped up after that, I was glad again that I’d hired a crew to shut things down, freeing Mike and me up to just go home after a long day.
“It was perfect, Harper,” she whispered, bumping my shoulder as we both walked through the parking lot toward the little road back to the Inn.
“It was,” I said smiling.
Chance and Cam were exchanging a look over our heads, and I felt a surge of joy I could barely contain at being a part of this world, at fitting here so well.
“See you Monday?” I called to her as Cam and I headed for the truck.
She stopped, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. “Monday? But aren’t you…?”
“If my job is still open, I can explain when I come in Monday,” I said.
“Of course it’s open,” she laughed. “See you Monday.”
I climbed into Cam’s truck as he held the door open for me. “You’re sticking around then?” he asked, looking uncertain.
I looked up at him and smiled, my heart filling again as our eyes met. “I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
We didn’t talk much after that, but the next morning we took the dogs out to the pen and pulled the Adirondack chairs to the fence to watch them tumble around as we drank coffee side by side. When I had woken sufficiently, and emerged from the happy haze of spending a mostly-sleepless night in Cameron’s arms, I turned to look at him.
It hadn’t been easy, loving Cam—and I knew now that just as he said he was falling in love with me, I was in love with him too.
He wasn’t the kind of guy who charmed you to death, or who went around sweeping girls off their feet. He was handsome, that was certain. But I doubted many other girls would have gotten past the gruff armor he’d been wearing when we met, doubted may would have gone to the trouble to see the generous man beneath. Maybe I’d seen it only thanks to proximity. Living right next door and being thrust together over and over by circumstance had given me the opportunity to see the things Cam didn’t show most people—the love he had for his sister, the gentle affection he showed Matilda. In fact, I realized as I’d gotten to know him, that while Cam tried to seem hard and unfeeling, the person he was toughest on—meanest to—was himself.
But that would change. I would help. He’d already stepped so far out of the circle he’d held himself inside when we’d met.
“I hoped we could talk a little bit,” I said, earning Cam’s bright-eyed gaze and a lazy morning-after smile.
“Sure,” he said.
“The things you said last night,” I began. “I heard them all. And they made me really happy.” I paused for a breath and saw concern flit through his eyes, but I needed him to let me get through the things I needed to say. “And first of all, I think I’m falling in love with you too, which