Chapter 34 Camden
CAMDEN
I’m walking out of the weight room when Erik stops me in the hall. “Can we talk?”
I hold out my fist for some of the other players as they pass, all of us on the offensive team finished our morning workout. When the last one has moved on, I finally turn my attention to him. “Yeah. I was going to grab lunch.”
He nods and follows me as we head to the cafeteria. “Nadine came to see me last night.”
“I know,” I say, because she didn’t come home until after I was already asleep. She apparently stayed to hang out with Molly, but we didn’t have the chance to talk much this morning because I came in early for a physio session. All she told me was I should expect Erik to talk to me.
But I didn’t anticipate his doing it now. In the middle of the day.
He doesn’t say anything until after we’ve picked out our food. A grilled chicken wrap with a side of sweet potatoes and a chocolate-and-peanut-butter protein shake for me. A turkey cheeseburger, fries, salad, and Greek yogurt for him.
“It was an overreaction,” he says eventually. “I’m sorry. I never should have said what I said that day or…any other time. I was pissed off because Nan and I, we’ve always been on the same side, and it suddenly felt like we weren’t.”
“Yeah,” I agree, after wiping my mouth with a napkin. “Because you chose to switch teams.”
“Can you honestly tell me you’d be totally cool if you found out one of your teammates was sleeping with your sister?”
“First of all, I love Nadine, so you can stop talking about our relationship like she’s some random hookup.
And secondly, I hope that once Paisley is old enough…
like forty, she’ll have enough sense to make a good choice in her partner.
So I might not be totally cool with it, but I wouldn’t flip out like you did. ”
He exhales noisily, closing his eyes for a long moment, probably doing his mindful breathing thing.
When he meets my gaze again, he says, “I flipped out because you lied to me, she lied to me, I found you kissing her in the tunnel after our game, and to top it off, you’re my best friend.
You don’t think it made me feel shitty that you felt like you couldn’t come to me?
That’s why I asked you, why I asked both of you. ”
I set my elbows on the table. “Yeah, I get it. That was my decision. I asked her to keep it quiet, but only because I did want to talk to you…eventually. It’s not exactly an easy conversation to have after all the shit you’ve said.”
He nods slowly. “I know, and I’m sorry. It’s only that I’ve had to pick up the pieces from things you’ve broken so many times, I didn’t want to have to do it again. With my own sister.”
Although I know his words are coming from a place of protection for Nadine, it doesn’t make them any easier to hear. That even my best friend believes I’m going to fuck up this relationship.
“But I also know how big your heart is, and when you want to do something, you’ll do it. So I’m hoping that you’ll follow your heart and not your gut when it tells you to do dumb shit.”
I give in to a laugh. “Well, I tried to follow my gut the other night and break up with her when I saw how upset this rift between you and me was making her, and she verbally stuffed me into a locker.”
“You tried to break up with her?”
“I thought it was the right thing. She told me I was an idiot.”
He hums, squinting, like he does when he’s studying a play or film. “You would’ve given her up because of all this?”
“If it would make her happier, yes, absolutely. But I guess she likes me too much.”
A smile slowly unfurls across his face, and I relax.
He’s right. I should have had this conversation with him from the beginning, but I was too afraid I wouldn’t have been able to prove that I deserved Nadine yet.
At least now he knows, that she comes before everything.
Beyond family or football, she is number one in my life.
“I’m sorry I ever said I wouldn’t want you dating my sister. I still don’t think you’re good enough for her, because no one is—”
“You’re right about that.”
“But if she is going to be with anyone, it might as well be my best friend.”
Erik holds out his hand to me, and I clasp it in mine, both of us standing to hug.
“Love you, brother,” he says with a slap to my back.
“Love you too.”
He actually chuckles. “Guess Nan’s got you in tune with your feelings too, huh?”
“She’s got me in tune with a lot of things.”
He puts his hand up, grimacing. “None of that. Please. I’m eating my lunch.”
I grin as I sink back down to my chair. It’s good to have him back, and while we finish up, we discuss the game on Sunday.
The conference championship against Arizona.
It’ll be a tough one with a wide receiver who currently holds the record for most yards and a fast-as-fuck rookie running back.
But we’re tougher.
And we kick the shit out of them with a final score of 31-7.
It feels so damn good to win, even though Nadine stayed home with Paisley because school midterms wait for no one. Including professional football games.
I stalk back to the locker room to find a text message from Nadine that is merely all exclamation points, and I smile the entire way home, knowing she’ll be there, waiting for me.
She leaps at me as soon as I open the door. “You did it!”
I press my face to her neck, inhaling her scent, and kick the door shut behind me. “We’re going to the Bowl, baby.”
“I’m so proud of you.” She forces my head up so she can kiss me. “I love you so much.”
“You tired?” I ask since I’m so keyed up, I won’t be able to sleep until well into the night, and when she shakes her head with a big grin and sparkling eyes, I carry her to bed. “Good.”
She doesn’t wait for me to take off her clothes, dragging her long-sleeved shirt with Paisley’s school’s name over her head.
She kicks off her joggers while I toss my pants and shirt behind me, all my focus on the woman kneeling on the bed, biting into her lower lip as if she can keep her smile from growing.
But it’s the brightest thing in this room.
Even more than her words when she says, “I can’t wait to see you lift the trophy above your head. Tell them you’re going to Disney.”
I step out of my boxer briefs. “You want to go to Disney?”
She waves away the thought. “You know I hate lines. Plus, I’m going to start that long-term sub position, so I won’t have time.”
“Right.” I close the distance between us, smoothing my hands around her waist, pulling her against me, trapping the length of my hard cock between us. “Miss Rivera.”
She laughs into a kiss. “Don’t try to start that role-playing.”
I slip my hands beneath the elastic of her underwear and squeeze that juicy backside of hers. “Then what game do you want to play?”
“The one where you show me you love me.”
“That’s not a game, honey. That’s my life.
” I lower her down to the bed, sliding her underwear off.
Her bra goes next, so she’s completely naked, all lovely and bare for my taking.
Gazing up at me with such adoration in her blue eyes that I’m not sure I want to move.
I don’t want to blink and miss any of the love she’s sending my way.
“Make love to me, Camden.”
It isn’t the first time she’s directed me to make love to her, but there is something about it that feels different this time. Now that we’re not hiding anymore. Now that our families know and soon the world will too, it’s almost like it’s more real. The connection and promise of our future.
It’s really and truly making love.
Creating something new.
As always, I blurt out the first stupid thing that comes to mind. “I can’t wait to have a baby with you.”
She rolls her eyes, playfully pinching my side as I lower my weight on top of her. “I can’t wait to marry you. Have a whole life with you that we build for ourselves.”
In all of my appointments with Pearce, I’ve come to realize that in losing my parents, I’ve gained a new understanding of life. I have been fundamentally changed in how I view the world and what I want out of it. Or more accurately, how I want to leave it.
When I think of the lives my parents lived, I always thought they were small.
But aren’t we all? Arguably, my career isn’t as important as what my mom and dad did.
In fact, their work was probably of greater importance than mine will ever be.
My job just so happens to be watched by a lot more people with a lot more sponsors. But my parents kept the world spinning.
If I were to suddenly die tomorrow, the only thing anyone would have to say about me would be my athletic stats and records. Other than that, I’ve done nothing of real substance. But I want to.
I want to spread joy and do good. I want to leave the world better than I entered it, and being with Nadine inspires me every day in ways I never thought possible.
To ask how I can help instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
To speak up when something is wrong instead of assuming someone else will.
I am a better man because of the unfortunate journey I have had to undertake after burying my parents. But that ultimately led me to Nadine, so it isn’t all bad.
Their absence is still a huge hole in my life, but I am learning that I can fill those empty spaces by taking care of those around me, whether I know them or not. I’m not the selfish bastard I once was, and I don’t plan on ever going back.
I kiss my adoration into Nadine’s skin. Lick my gratitude against her pulse. Embrace the future we’ll have together with whispered words about how proud I am of her and that I look forward to the day I can call her Dr. Rivera and then Mrs. Long.
By the time I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and lift my head from between her legs, she’s agreed to everything I want, including four children and a vacation home in Iowa.
Because as small as I thought my parents lived, I need my kids to know the impact one person or place can have on someone.
I want them to know my mistakes and learn from them, to understand that it’s better to keep close to those corn-fed roots than act out some fake fantasy born of fear.
“Tell me you love me,” I say as I push inside Nadine. “Tell me, River.”
“I love you,” she whispers, lids heavy, fingers in my hair.
I roll my hips, hitting the spot that makes her whimper. “Again.”
“I love you, Camden.”
I reward her with a kiss and another stroke, filling her to the hilt. With her right leg up and wrapped around my elbow, she’s wide open and mewling with every slow thrust. I make sure she can feel every single inch.
“Yes, I love you,” she moans. “I love you. I love you.”
I like hearing it because of my ego, but more than that, I need to be reminded that she chose me. Despite my past and my reputation, she is here with me. She loves me.
“God, yes, there. There, Camden, please.”
I don’t stop, merely watch as ecstasy passes over Nadine’s face, her eyes closed, forehead wrinkled like she’s in pain, when I know it’s the purest kind of pleasure.
The same that I’m struggling desperately to hold on to, but it’s too difficult.
When she writhes like that, soft sighs escaping the back of her throat, I am completely unable to hold off the impending orgasm.
We both reach the peak together, my panting breaths against her throat, her fingers fisted in my hair, and when we both finally return into our bodies, I lean over to see her eyelids flutter open, a sluggish curl to her lips.
“I think I saw it. What the future looks like,” she murmurs, and I carefully pull out of her so I can lie by her side, though I cup my hand over the soft flesh between her legs, gently pushing the warm trickle of my come back into her.
She doesn’t mind. I’ve done it so often that she spreads her legs a few inches, providing me with more room. For as much as she teases me about it, I think she likes it. Likes that I want to breed her. Put a baby in her.
It’s going to happen after all.
“What does our future look like?”
She smiles up at me. “Beautiful.”