“Whoa, did you just slip up and tell me your real name is Wilhelmina?” Cole sat on the arm of the sofa, folded his arms across his chest, and flashed another unbelievable smile. My neck started growing warm again, so I tried to focus on the atlas.
Enough! Get it together, Camdyn. You are not fourteen years old! Stop blushing every time he smiles at you.
“Nice try,” I told him. “My middle name is Willa.”
“Well, Camdyn Willa,” he said, standing up and moving to the large picture window, “looks like it’s still raining. I might as well count on getting soaked again when I go out to the truck. Or, I could stay until it stops raining. I think that could be a while, though, and you’re probably wanting to turn in. Of course you might not be ready to turn in, but I should still go, right? I mean, I guess I’ll leave it up to you.” He started to chuckle and raked his hand through his hair. “Why do I feel like I’m not making any sense?”
“Because you definitely aren’t,” I laughed. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looked at me sheepishly.
“Please don’t send me away,” he said with a pleading look.
I laughed, shook my head and flipped my atlas upside down, fanning the pages with my thumb. He moved closer until he was standing just inches from me. I tried with all my might not to look at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a soft chuckle. “If this were any other situation, I would just ask for your number, but I figure I’m already here… I mean, I would love to stay and get to know you.”
I glanced down at my 5k t-shirt and the ends of my damp hair and tried to determine whether I was imagining things – this couldn’t really be happening. I willed myself to look up at him. One of his eyebrows rose slightly, and then the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile.
“Camdyn?”
“Sorry,” I stammered, breaking eye contact and accidentally letting the atlas slip onto the hardwood. “I must seem crazy. In fact, I know I seem crazy, but I’m not normally like this. It must be the head wound. Or I could be disoriented from being lost. Or…maybe I’m just mesmerized by your Poison t-shirt.”
You did not just say that.
“Are you making fun of me?” he demanded with a teasing smile. “I will have you know, this is a genuine antique. I have rocked this t-shirt since high school.”
“Oh, no doubt,” I retorted, regaining some of my composure. “I am sure none of the girls could resist your charms then, either.”
“Did you just say I’m irresistible and charming?” he asked with a smirk. I shrugged my shoulders as I watched him reach down and pick up the atlas.
“I have no idea what I’m saying,” I laughed, shaking my head. He smiled and walked over to the couch, sitting down and absently flipping through the maps.
“Why do I smell strawberries?” he asked. I sat next to him and watched him open the book to the map of Missouri with the large lip gloss heart. “So that’s home, huh? You must really love it, with the heart and everything.” He chuckled quietly as he glanced over at me.
“My sister-in-law wanted me to remember where I came from,” I said, pulling my legs up onto the couch and hugging them against my chest.
“Are you prone to forget?” he asked, leaning back and letting the atlas rest on his lap.
I shook my head and told him that Trina drew the heart to remind me that she and Charlie were there. He asked about Trina and Charlie then, and I found myself telling him about how I had lost my best friend forever to my own brother. He didn’t think that sounded so bad, but when I really clued him in on how I could never have any secrets anymore, I think he understood.
Once I had exhausted the subject of Trina and Charlie, he asked where my parents were.
“Actually, my dad passed away when I was four,” I told him. “Car accident.”
“Wow,” he said, concern spreading across his face. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” I shrugged my shoulders and attempted to smile. “My mom… Well, she basically abandoned us after that. She decided to become a flight attendant. We saw her occasionally the first few months, but ultimately she remarried and moved to Italy.”
“So what happened to you and Charlie?” he asked me soberly, those brown eyes resting easily on mine. I inhaled sharply.
“Basically, Charlie and I owe everything in life to the best grandma in the world. She tried to be the parents we didn’t have, and she absolutely loved me unconditionally.” I stopped to take a breath as I felt my eyes tearing up. “She was my number one fan, and she made me believe I could do anything. I could soar as high as my dreams would take me, she used to say. Anyway, nothing has really been the same since she died.”
“When was that?”
“Four years ago.”
Sheesh, Camdyn, you have an attractive guy basically held captive because of the rainstorm, and you are relaying all the sad details of your existence. He’s sure getting to know you now!
I started feeling a little guilty for talking so much about myself, but he listened and smiled and laughed like we were old friends, and it felt so comfortable. Still, as I reached up to brush a tear away from my eye, I knew I needed to change the subject fast.
“Enough about me,” I suggested, trying to sound nonchalant. “What about you? Did you grow up here?”
“Yeah,” he stated with an easy smile, “just a few miles from here. My parents still live there, as a matter of fact.”
“So you get to see them a lot, then?” He nodded, and I felt a twinge of jealousy.
“Yeah, sometimes more often than I want,” he said with a laugh. “My sister, too – she’s just a year younger than me. She lives not too far from here.”
“I bet you were pretty close with her, being so near in age,” I suggested, hoping to keep him talking.
“I guess. Mostly it was just me feeling like I had to look out for her. You know how it is, with brothers and their pretty little sisters,” he told me with a grin. “She’s married to one of my high school buddies now, and they have a four-year-old daughter.”
“So you can feel my pain of having your friend married to your sibling!” I exclaimed, which caused him to chuckle.
“I can relate to the experience, I guess, but it doesn’t really bother me. It’s probably because I don’t have any secrets I need Jeff to keep, like you said earlier. It’s really difficult to have secrets in a small town, anyway. We still hang out a lot. We go to the minor league baseball games in Jackson probably twice a month or so, but we don’t really talk about my sister much.”
“Well, that must be one of the many differences between men and women,” I offered mischievously. “Trina and I talk about Charlie all the time.”
“I’ll bet that terrifies Charlie,” he retorted. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked into his handsome face.
“It should,” I stated simply. “Which team is in Jackson?”
“The Jackson Generals,” he said. “They’re an affiliate of the Mariners. I should say, the Seattle Mariners.”
“Yeah, I know where the Mariners play, you didn’t need to tell me,” I laughed. “One of our traditions was watching all the Cardinals games. My grandma was always a fan.”
“You like baseball?” he asked. “I never would have guessed.”
“Sure, I love it. Did you play?”
“Yeah, I was a West Tennessee High School All Star,” he said with a laugh.
“That sounds very prestigious,” I told him. “You must have been pretty good. What position did you play?”
“Short, most of the time. Occasionally third.”
“Nice. So, did you pursue that after high school?”
“For a while, sure. I played for a couple years at the University of Tennessee before I decided to hang it up.”
“Were you injured or something?” I asked. He looked up at the ceiling as though he was searching for the right thing to say.
“No, I just had some other things I wanted to pursue,” he stated
. “I took the summer off, and then I moved to Nashville and became a firefighter. I was there for a few years before moving back home.”
I didn’t hear what he said next, because I was mentally imagining being rescued by Cole in a firefighter’s uniform. Sigh.
He must have wanted to change the subject, because he asked about me and what I studied in college. I told him that I studied history, of course, which he said he should have known. He told me that he was supposed to have studied business, but he didn’t really do any studying at all. He thought I was probably one of those sorority girls who had a new date every weekend, but I informed him that he was dead wrong about that. Trina and I hung out with each other most of the time, and on the occasions when she wasn’t around, I usually sat in my room and picked out riffs on my guitar.
“Hold up, I have to call a foul on that play,” he laughed. “No way is that true.”
“What, that I sat in my room alone, or that I played the guitar?”
“Take your pick!” he said. I folded my arms across my chest and pretended to glare at him.
“For your information, I spend the majority of my time alone, and I absolutely can play the guitar. If I had one right now, I would prove it.”
“I don’t doubt that you think you can play the guitar,” he said. “Do I believe you were sitting in your dorm room playing riffs? Not a chance.”
“Well, you’re free to be wrong,” I said.
“What’s your favorite?” he asked. “What’s your signature song? The one you pull out the fastest?”
“I suppose I really like ‘Crazy Train,’ ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ …”
“’Crazy Train,’ as in the Ozzy Osbourne song?” he laughed. “I would definitely have to see it to believe it.”
“Really? How about a friendly wager, then?”
“You’re on,” he told me. “If you can play ‘Crazy Train,’ I’ll…”
“Give me that Poison t-shirt,” I suggested, making him roll his eyes.
“And if you can’t play it? What then?” I sat up straight and looked at him defiantly.
“If I can’t play it, you can have my guitar,” I stated.
“That’s no good. How do I even know for sure that you have a guitar?”
“Okay, then, what are you thinking?”
“If you can’t play it, you let me draw a new ‘home’ on your atlas.”
“And he just upped the ante!” I exclaimed. “That’s a pretty bold proposal. Are you going to use strawberry lip gloss and draw a heart, too?”
“If you insist,” he chuckled. “I hear Alaska’s nice this time of year.”
“That might frighten me if I didn’t know I was going to win,” I stated, glaring at him. “Okay, then, Mr. Parker. You’re on.”
When he was finally finished laughing, I asked him whose bedroom I had invaded. He told me it had belonged to Laura, his cousin, who was just married the previous summer. He asked me how the room was, and I told him it was a teenage girl’s dream. Aside from that, I mentioned that the closet was so full of old clothes and board games that I couldn’t move my suitcases out of the way. He set off to see what he could find, returning with Battleship and a grin on his face. He set the game up on the coffee table, popped some popcorn, and then turned the radio on quietly.
As I called out coordinates for the game, I couldn’t help but think about that morning, when I sat with Charlie and Trina and had no idea where I was going. Was that really just a few hours ago? It seemed like days. And how could I ever have imagined, sitting there feeling pretty low in my grandma’s house, that just hours later I would be playing board games with a kind, handsome, funny guy who just appeared out of nowhere to rescue me.
We had eaten over half the popcorn, and Cole had sunk my submarine and my battleship, when he suddenly started smiling and held his hand up, pointing at the radio. I listened as the first few strains of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” streamed out of the speakers.
“Come on, what are the chances of Poison playing on the radio?” he asked me, standing up and reaching out his hand.
“The chances?” I replied. “I thought you didn’t believe in coincidence.”
“I don’t,” he said with a smile as I took his hand. “You are destined to dance with me, right here and now. Don’t try to fight it – I know you can’t resist a guy in a Poison t-shirt.”
“So true,” I acknowledged as he put his hand on my waist. “And I’m in luck, because I am pretty sure there is a picture of Bret Michaels on Laura’s wall.” He laughed and pulled me closer until my forehead was against his cheek. I tried to rid my mind of everything else so I could savor every second spent in his arms. I implored my brain to remember the details of the moment – the gentle pressure of his hand against my back, the warmth of his cheek against my forehead, the way every breath he took brushed my hair away from my face…
“How is it that a girl like you isn’t taken?” he asked. “You don’t have a guy waiting for you in every town you visit, do you?”
“Hardly,” I told him. “I haven’t had a serious boyfriend since college, and even that was only a few months. What about you? Why hasn’t one of the girls around here tied you down?”
“I’m too hard to please, according to my mother,” he said with a chuckle. “I can tell right away whether I could imagine spending a lot of time with someone, and if the answer is no…”
“Well, I’m sure many girls have been bitterly disappointed as a result.”
“I don’t know about that,” he replied quietly. “This is the best date I’ve ever had.” My heart was pounding so hard, I felt certain he could hear it.
“Your best date is with someone who is wearing running clothes and bleeding from the head?” I joked. He pulled back so he could look into my eyes.
“I would trade every date I’ve had up until now for this one,” he told me. My breath caught in my chest. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just stood there gazing up at him.
“Second date, tomorrow night?” he asked, smiling as he brushed the back of his fingers against my cheek. “Please say yes.”
“Absolutely,” I breathed, without hesitation. I stood there completely frozen with my mind racing over the possibility that he might kiss me. Suddenly, we were interrupted by someone pounding at the door. Cole sighed with a smile as he let his hand drop and walked over to the doorway, peering out from behind the curtain.
“Dad?” He sounded surprised as he flung the door open. “What are you doing here?”
“Your mother got me out of bed and told me I had to find you,” I heard him say. “She’s been trying to call you for hours, and you wouldn’t pick up. I was driving by and happened to see your truck. Is Rosalie alright?”
“Aunt Rosalie’s fine, Dad. You should have told Mom I’m a grown man and can take care of myself,” he joked.
“You think I didn’t try that before she made me get out of my warm bed and go out in the rain? What are you doing over here so late, anyway?” Cole looked over at me with a smile and motioned for me to come to the door. I nervously moved towards him, and when I reached him he put his arm around my shoulders.
“Dad, this is Camdyn Taylor,” Cole explained.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Parker,” I said to his dad, who had the same build as Cole, with gray at his temples and kind eyes. He chuckled down deep in his throat and shook his head.
“Well, I’m sure you would have gotten a tongue lashing from your mother tomorrow for any excuse you came up with, save that you were with a pretty girl,” he stated. “I have a feeling she will be very forgiving, even if it is after one o’clock in the morning. Young lady, it was nice to meet you. Cole, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight, Dad.” Cole closed the door behind him, keeping his arm around my shoulders, and I started giggling.
“I feel like a teenager all over again,” I stated, biting my lip. He informed me that he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little mortified at the
moment, and I couldn’t help but laugh harder. He laughed then too, and pushed his hand through my hair as he leaned toward me. I felt butterflies fill my stomach and creep into my chest.
“Is someone here?” I heard Rosalie call from behind me. Cole rested his forehead on mine with a sigh, and then pulled away from me as she came around the corner in her bathrobe, shielding her eyes from the light.
“It was just Dad, Aunt Rosalie,” Cole said. “He wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” she yawned, turning to walk away and then stopping after only a few steps. “Cole Parker, what are you still doing here? It’s really late. What would your mother say? You get on home.”
I started giggling again, and he smiled and raked his hand through his hair.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Rosalie. I’m leaving right now.”
I watched as she retreated around the corner, and I put my hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles.
“Don’t say a word,” he told me. He went to retrieve his wet clothes while I began putting the Battleship pieces back in the box. I carried the game back to Laura’s room and then returned to the living room to wait for him. When he emerged from the back of the house, he was wearing a University of Tennessee t-shirt.
“What happened to Poison?” I asked him.
“I left it, just in case I need it again,” he explained. He took my hand in his and pressed a piece of paper into my palm. “My number, in case you get lost again. Or you need anything at all. Or you just want to hear how beautiful you are.” He leaned down and pressed his lips softly against my cheek.
“Goodnight, Camdyn.”
“Goodnight, Cole,” I whispered. He smiled at me one more time before he headed toward the door. I stood and watched him walk to his truck, waving when he turned around to look at the house. I waited until he was out of sight, and then I locked the door behind me and began to count the hours until I would see him again.
Chapter Four
My phone alarm woke me up the next morning an hour before breakfast. I opened one eye just enough to see the sunlight streaming through the window, dancing across Justin Timberlake’s face on the wall. Suddenly remembering where I was, I sat up, stretched, and looked over to my phone where I saw the little slip of paper with Cole’s phone number.
A Reason to Run (The Camdyn Series Book 1) Page 5
