The Goodbye Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Series Book 3)

by Christina Benjamin

  “Yes, and I’ve already done it.”

  Nate only grinned wider. “Not with me, you haven’t.” He pulled her toward him and dipped her so suddenly that she shrieked. Before she had time to recover, he was spinning her around the muddy forest.

  They danced among the lightning bugs and rain until Camille was dizzy with laughter. Nate hollered into the storm, coaxing her to do the same.

  “No, I feel silly.”

  “It is silly, but it makes you feel better. Come on, Cami. Show me what you’re made of.”

  She yelled, but the rain gobbled up the sound.

  “You can do better that that,” Nate teased.

  Camille screamed again. This time she filled it with her anger at her parents.

  “That’s it! Let it out!”

  She screamed again, for the cancer she hated and all the things it stole from her. She screamed until her voice was cracked and raw and her screams turned into sobs. Nate pulled her to him again, holding her tight, while she shook. He bent closer, brushing her wet hair from her cheeks as he kissed her tears away.

  Soon he was kissing her lips and she pulled him closer, never wanting to stop. Being with Nate made everything else fade away. The warmth of him seared her soul. She could see steam rising from their drenched clothes. And suddenly she couldn’t get enough of him. Nate was air and her lungs were starving. She ran her hands under his shirt. He was all lean muscles and tension. Camille gave the wet fabric clinging to him the slightest tug and Nate did the rest, pulling his shirt over his head.

  His body in the moonlight was dizzying. She’d never seen such perfection up close. She couldn’t think, and for once, that was a blessing. She let her body take control, kissing Nate like he was her salvation. He lifted her up like she weighed nothing. Camille wrapped her legs around his waist while Nate kissed her throat. She let out a moan of pleasure and Nate whispered her name like a prayer.

  “Camille . . .”

  Her hands were in his hair, pulling his face to look up at her. His eyes were ablaze and she couldn’t remember ever wanting anything more. “Nate,” she whispered. “I want you.”

  It was all the encouragement he needed. Nate quickly carried her back to the car. They stripped off the rest of their soaked clothes in the back seat steaming up the windows as their passion escalated.

  Camille’s hands explored Nate’s body like it was a map to freedom. Their bodies molded together desperately—swells and hollows, muscles and softness. Nate’s mouth roamed over hers, his tongue running teasingly along the seam of her lips. He ran his hands down her chilled skin and over her hips, drawing her firmly against him. Nate made a hungry wanting sound low in his throat, and anguish washed over Camille. Her body responded to his like they’d been made for each other.

  Nate crushed her against him as if they could fit into each other’s emptiness. “Cami.” He panted her name between kisses, letting frantic words spill from his lips. “You make me feel alive . . . for once . . . I’m living . . . and I can stop running.”

  Her heart swelled. She wanted to say, you make me want to stay alive. But she couldn’t. So she drew him closer still until there was nowhere to go but beyond. Camille shivered at the sensation of Nate pressing against her.

  “Is this okay?” he whispered.

  “Yes. Don’t stop.”

  “Cami, we don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to, Nate. I want it to be you.”

  He stilled, his eyes like molten amber. “Is this your first time?”

  She swallowed hard but nodded.

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded again. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  Nate

  Nate held Cami tight until they both caught their breath. His body was trembling with exertion and emotion. This wasn’t his first time, but Nate had never felt anything like this before. Being with Camille was indescribable. It was as if someone had lassoed his heart and tethered it to hers. Every beat of her heart echoed in his chest. And every time she touched him, she left a ghost of sensation behind.

  Camille’s cheek rested on his chest, her eyelashes fluttering against him. He kissed the top of her head drinking in her lavender scent. Nate twined his fingers through hers and whispered into the darkness. “You’re beautiful.”

  Camille propped herself up to look at him, a shy smile playing at her face.

  “I have to tell you something,” he whispered.

  “What?”

  “I think I’m falling for you.”

  The biggest smile he’d seen yet, traveled across her delicate features. She tried hiding by burying herself in his chest but Nate wouldn’t let her. Camille squeezed her eyes shut and bit her smiling lips.

  Nate groaned. “Oh no, none of that.”

  “What?”

  “No lip biting.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it makes me want to bite them.”

  She giggled.

  Nate kissed her nose. “Come on, it’s getting cold. Let me take you home.”

  “I don’t think I’m ready to go home.”

  “My house then?”

  “Okay.”

  Nate managed to get his boxers back on and found a blanket in the back for Camille. Once they were on the road again, he asked a question he was dreading.

  “Do your parents know where you are?”

  “No.”

  “Would you let me text your dad so he knows you’re safe?”

  Camille didn’t reply.

  “It’s not good to worry them, Cami. I know from experience.”

  “Okay, but I’ll do it.”

  Nate watched her tap out a message on her phone. Satisfied he dropped the subject. Their night had been too perfect to push things. He drove the rest of the way home while Camille fell asleep. She was still passed out when he pulled into his driveway. Rather than wake her, Nate carried her into his house. She rousted when he set her on his bed.

  “Where are we?” she asked her voice sleepy and soft.

  “My room.”

  “Can I stay with you?”

  Nate pulled her tight, still snuggled in her blanket. “Always, Cami. Always.”

  23

  Cami

  The next morning Nate drove Camille home. It was a blessing that his dad wasn’t around when they woke up, which according to Nate was a normal occurrence. Camille was pleased to see that the inside of Nate’s house wasn’t as bad as the outside. Well, his bedroom and bathroom at least. She hadn’t seen much else.

  She’d expected to feel awkward after last night, but it was just the opposite. She felt at ease with Nate. He held her hand, kissing it every few minutes as he drove her home. They hadn’t talked much, but they didn’t need to. Nate brought a calmness to Camille that she seldom had. And it seemed she had the same influence over him. His jerky motions and quick wit were left behind in the bayou, stripping him down to the boy beneath. And Camille loved that side of Nate—the shy, quiet side, where he smiled softly and glowed just for her.

  The closer she got to her house, the more she wished she could just wrap herself up in a cocoon of Nate and pretend the real world didn’t exist. Camille didn’t know how much time she had left, but one thing she knew was that she wanted to spend all of it with Nate.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come in?” he asked when they parked on her street.

  “Yeah. I think it’ll be better if you don’t. There’s probably going to be a lot of yelling.”

  Nate pulled her close and kissed her head. “Do you regret it?”

  Camille looked up at him, eyes shining. “Not a single moment.”

  “That’s my girl.” He kissed her again and she clung to him.

  “I don’t want to say goodbye,” she whispered.

  “How ‘bout hello?” Nate crooned, kissing her just below her ear.

  “Hello,” Camille whispered, giggling at how silly it was to say hello when parting.

  “Un
til our next hello.”

  “Wait!” Camille exclaimed. Nate hadn’t made a move to untangle himself from her yet, but already anxiety flooded her. “Ask me again,” she insisted.

  “Ask you what?”

  “You know!” She was bouncing on her toes.

  It took Nate a minute, but a sly smile split his face as he caught her drift. “Okay, give me a second.” Nate teasingly cleared his throat and smoothed his hair.

  “Just ask me already,” she said impatiently.

  Nate gallantly got down on one knee. “Camille LaRue, will you go to prom with me.”

  “Yes!”

  Nate stood up, wrapping his arms around her. Cami stretched to her tippy toes and kissed him on the lips before running breathlessly toward her house.

  Nate

  Nate sat on the streetcar seeing nothing of the vivid scenery that rolled by. He could think of only Camille, replaying back their night together over and over in his head until it became as familiar as a fold in a page.

  He hadn’t expected anything like that to happen between them. At least not all at once. It was overwhelming. He’d only hoped for a kiss, but he couldn’t help thinking he’d gotten himself a whole new world. Nate found it both comforting and intoxicating.

  Before he’d met Camille, he’d wanted to see the world. Now Cami was the world. He should find that thought terrifying. He was eighteen, with his whole life ahead of him. But somehow, his life finally felt whole. And it was because Camille was in it. After last night, he couldn’t imagine it any other way.

  Cami

  Camille crept up the stairs. She couldn’t believe she’d snuck in without waking her parents. It was early, but still . . . After the fight they’d had and the way she’d left, she expected them to be waiting up.

  As she moved through the quiet halls of her house, Camille had a sneaking suspicion Nate might have texted her father in order for the National Guard not to be staking out her front door right now. Camille’s text last night certainly wouldn’t have warranted this level of calm. All she’d said was, I’m somewhere safe.

  She found Poo curled up in her bed when she tiptoed into her room. She let him shower her with sloppy kisses.

  “Hi Poo! Did you miss me? I missed you, too. You’ll never believe the night I had. That’s right, I was with Nate. We love him, don’t we?”

  Poo wiggled his furry haunches in excitement and Camille laughed. She sat on the edge of her bed. She was wearing Nate’s t-shirt and sweats. They smelled like him and she wanted to bury herself in that scent. It brought images of last night flooding back to her. She couldn’t believe the difference a night could make.

  Last night she’d been at the end of her rope. Once her parents found out that she’d made her choice to stop treatment, it made everything so real and hopeless. But now—after what she’d experienced with Nate—Camille felt the unfamiliar tingle of possibility wash over her.

  She stood up and walked over to her desk. Years ago, she’d pushed it up against the corner of her Before I Die wall to hide the goals she was too scared to attempt and too sentimental to erase. Camille grabbed the edge of the desk and with staggering effort, slid it away from the wall. It revealed four words.

  Kiss. Love. Prom. Paris.

  Suddenly they didn’t seem impossible.

  24

  Nate

  Nate hadn’t seen Camille since they spent the night together. Her parents were royally pissed. They took her phone away and grounded her. The only way Nate knew this was because one of her parents had texted back after Nate’s five hundredth message. His money was on Ray, since the message wasn’t scathing. It only said, Cami’s grounded with no phone privileges. Thank you for returning her safely.

  Nate figured Ray was doing him a solid since Nate texted him after Camille fell asleep at his house. The last thing Nate wanted was for her parents to stress out thinking she was missing. He’d seen what that kind of worry did to his own parents the night Tyler didn’t come home.

  Thinking about everything his parents had gone through losing Ty made Nate extra attentive over the weekend. He called his mom and told her all about Camille. And Sunday, his dad surprised him by being home, and sober. They spent the day together working on the house. The inside was really starting to come together. And Nate enjoyed catching up with his dad. He actually asked what Nate was up to, so he took the opportunity to tell him about Camille, too.

  “Sounds pretty serious,” his dad said.

  “Yeah, I really like her, Dad. It’s sorta scaring me.”

  “Good, it should. Love’s not something for the faint of heart.”

  It struck Nate as a strange thing to say, but then again his dad was pretty jaded when it came to relationships. “We’re going to prom,” Nate added. “I’m weirdly excited.”

  “You, excited?” his dad teased. “Shocking.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “No, I get it. Believe it or not, I remember those days. All nerves and excitement.”

  “You do?”

  His dad laughed. “I’m not dead, Nate. Just old.”

  Nate was quiet for a while. He’d never seen his dad date or flirt or really show much emotion at all since the divorce. The only comfort he sought was in the bottom of a bourbon bottle. So it was strange thinking of him in Nate’s shoes, young and in love. And the more Nate thought about it, the more he realized that’s what this was with Cami—love.

  “She’s stolen my heart, Dad. I feel sick when she’s not around. I think I’m in love with her.”

  His father chuckled. “Yep, sounds like it to me.”

  “Was it like that when you met Mom?” Nate asked.

  His dad had been smoothing spackle over the seams in the drywall when Nate asked the question. He stopped, looking lost in thought for a moment before responding. “Yeah. It was.”

  “Do you miss her?”

  His dad sighed, turning to face him. “Listen to me, Nate. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but the one I regret the most is not letting the people I love know just how much they mean to me. I haven’t been a good role model to you. And for that, I’m sorry. But it’s clear your mother did a good job with you. And I’ll always love her because of it.”

  “You did a good job, too, Dad.”

  His dad waved him away and started back on the spackle.

  “No, I mean it. You taught me music, and without that . . .” Nate paused and his dad was looking at him again. “Sometimes I think I couldn’t have made it through everything without music.”

  Shadows swam in his dad’s eyes and he pulled Nate into a gruff one-armed hug. The surge of emotion threatened to overwhelm Nate. His dad wasn’t usually an affectionate man. Nate couldn’t remember the last time he hugged him.

  “I love you, son.”

  “I love you too, Dad.”

  Monday finally arrived and Nate was on cloud nine. Though he would’ve rather spent the weekend with Camille, he found he enjoyed getting to spend some time with his dad. But now that the school was in view, Nate only had thoughts of Cami. He practically sprinted up the stairs to her locker. Disappointment flooded him when she didn’t show up. He checked the time. There was no way he missed her. He’d gotten to campus extra early just to be sure.

  Nate reluctantly went to class, planning to find Camille after first period. He’d memorized her schedule weeks ago so he could walk her from class to class. But by the time lunch rolled around and Nate still hadn’t found Camille, he started to worry. He scanned the lounge, but the sea of students revealed nothing extraordinary. No vibrant colored hair or wild tights brightened the sea of plaid uniforms and blazers, and Nate’s heart sank.

  One of the Ashleys walked up to Nate. He could never tell them apart. They all had the same blonde hair and wore too much perfume. The unremarkable blonde took Camille’s usual seat next to Nate, which made him unreasonably irritated.

  “Hey there, handsome,” she crooned.

  Ugh. It was Ashley Dupree. Her fake
syrupy voice gave her away. “Hey,” he grumbled.

  “Any luck getting Camille to be your prom date?”

  “Um . . .” Nate wanted to say it was none of her f-ing business, but was searching for more polite wording.

  Ashley took the pause as a no. “You know, I could get her nominated for prom queen. Then she’d have to go. Don’t you think that’d be great?”

  Something made Nate think Cami wouldn’t think so. Prom queen seemed like the last thing a girl who hated the spotlight would want. Nate was about to tell Ashley that but the girl never stopped talking.

  “Well, I think it would be just peachy. I know everyone would be happy to do it for poor, sweet Camille. And if she’s on the court she has to go, and that means you’ll go too, right?”

  “Of course, but,” Nate said starting to stand, but Ashley grabbed his hand, her long manicured fingernails grazing his skin like talons.

  “Tell you what, Nathan. Since you’re new to NOAH I’m going to do you a favor and give you your prom ticket.” She added, “On the house,” in what he guessed Ashley thought was a seductive tone.

  “Oh. Um, thanks, Ash, but I sorta need two tickets.”

  She giggled. “Oh I’m on the prom court silly, I already have my ticket, but I’d love to go as your date.

  Nate almost choked on his soda. “No. Uh, I meant for Camille. She’s my date.”

  “Nathan, I said I’ll get her on the court. She won’t need a ticket. And I feel I should tell you, as a friend whose looking out for your best interest, girls tend to get a little too big for their britches the first time their nominated. And Camille . . . well she’s new to this whole world and she already told you no once, sweetie. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

  The balls on this girl! Nate tried to not to glare at Ashley, but she was revolting. No wonder Camille didn’t want anything to do with her crowd. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing Cami already agreed to go with me,” he said standing up. “So thanks, but I guess we don’t need any favors.”