Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,108

by, we’d crammed a lot into that time.

As soon as news of Jonathan’s arrest broke, Clovert’s gossip mill exploded. Partially because, within a matter of hours, his father was taken into custody on embezzlement charges after Jonathan had sung like a bird on the entire family. Seriously, the Caskey family was a shit storm, but for once, it wasn’t raining down on me. By the end of the week, Camden’s grandparents had pulled up roots and moved to Florida, and despite the dozen shrieking threats she’d left on his voicemail, Camden’s mom steered clear of Clovert too.

With help from a sexy attorney who I later stripped out of a tailored, navy suit to show my undying gratitude, the prosecution dropped all charges against me. My principal canceled my suspension, but I took a week of personal leave anyway, because.… Well, I deserved it. Also see the aforementioned part about the sexy attorney who was no longer in the navy suit but still working remotely from my dining room table.

It had been a whirlwind of getting to know each other again, but Camden and I had made great strides in our relationship. And by this, I just meant we spent every waking minute together, bickering or laughing. Sometimes laughing and bickering at the same time.

One day for lunch, I made him a chicken salad sandwich. They were, after all, his favorite. Ham, pickle, and mustard being his second choice. His face when he realized I’d remembered was priceless. The only thing better was when he dragged me onto his lap, tore the sandwich in half, and insisted we share. Shortly after, he closed his laptop and peeled my shirt off so we could share a few other things as well.

I’d only had him back for a little over two weeks and I had no idea how I’d survived the last five years without him. He was only going to be gone for a few days and I was already dreading every single minute of it.

This time, he was coming back.

Then, the next weekend, I was going to him.

The way it always should have been.

On that thought, I climbed out of bed and made fast work of getting dressed.

After a quick breakfast and two travel mugs of coffee, Camden and I left for the airport. We’d returned his rental a week earlier, so he was behind the wheel of my Honda—a car he hated but I secretly loved seeing him drive because, well, it was mine and it was his now too.

“Now, listen,” Camden said as we drove through town. “I need you to tell Forehead Freddy you’re taken as soon as you get back to school. I don’t like the way he looks at you in pictures.”

I thought he was probably kidding, but it still made that Camden Cole warmth seep into my chest. “I’m sure he’ll be devastated.”

“As he should be.” His hand had been anchored to my thigh since we’d backed out of the driveway and he gave me a squeeze.

I tapped my finger against the window. “You should have turned there. Juniper is going to be super backed up with all the road work.”

Another squeeze. “Maybe.”

“No maybe about it. They’ve had one man single-handedly repaving that road for two years. You have to sit and wait until—” The words died on my tongue when he slowed and hit the blinker right in front of the Leonards’ house. “What are you doing?”

“We just need to make a quick stop. It won’t take but a minute.” He pulled into the long driveway leading up to the brick ranch-style home where Mr. Leonard’s elderly son, Sam, now lived.

“What for?”

He grinned. “You’ll see.”

My pulse quickened even if I didn’t understand why. He was up to something.

He stopped and put the car into park in front of the two-car garage. Still sporting a massive grin, he lifted my hand to his mouth, kissed the back of it, and said, “Come on. I want to show you something.”

There was nothing at the creek he could have shown me that I hadn’t already seen, but my stomach still dipped with excitement.

After we both climbed out, he waited for me at the front of the car and laced his fingers with mine. It had been years since I’d gone out to the Leonards’, but as Camden led me around the back of the house, childhood memories came rushing back.

Our creek had been my safe haven. The quiet lull of water had drowned out the chaos in