I rest the box in her palm and then lightly lift her chin with my fingers. I need to see her eyes; she needs to see mine. They are the windows to my soul, and I want Campbell to look through to see my sincerity.
“Cam, I’m not going anywhere,” I say softly. “This…me...us, it’s yours when you’re ready.”
She smiles and leans into me, instigating a kiss. A needy, scorching kiss that only Cam could deliver. I would forever walk through fire to be on the receiving end of her attention.
I only hope she forgets me not.
Campbell
I shoot a text to Jen and settle back into the sofa in the lounge area of the bridal shop. That girl is notoriously late; she’s lucky we love her anyways.
“What did she say?” Vivian asks as she sits next to me and rummages through her giant mom bag. “I don’t know how long they’ll hold our appointment,” she adds when she finds her lip gloss and lathers her lips in shimmer.
Standing next to a rack of fluffy bridesmaids dress, Carly pulls one off the rack and holds it up to her frame. “Why don’t we just start picking things out so she has some options when she gets her?”
Olivia pulls down a dress for herself, ripping it away from the hanger. “Ohhh, pretty, Momma,” she says, rubbing the silky fabric between her petite fingers.
“Liv, honey, look don’t touch. Let’s put it back on the hanger,” Carly patiently reminds her as she takes the bridesmaid dress from Olivia’s hands and places it back on the rack. I’m zoned into the interaction between the two when my phone vibrates in my hand, alerting me of a text message.
I casually look down, expecting Jen’s name to flash across the screen, but instead Lakin’s is there.
“Is that Jen?” Vivian asks, attempting to peer at the message. “Tell her to get her ass here pronto.”
When she looks at Carly to apologize for her foul language, I try to hide my phone as nonchalantly as possible. I can feel my face flush and I take a deep breath to compose myself. I swipe the lock screen and the text brings a smile to my face.
Lakin: Just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. Have a good day with the girls.
“Well? Is she almost here?” Carly inquires.
“Um, yeah, like fifteen minutes away,” I lie. She rolls her eyes and goes back to searching through the racks of dresses. Vivian then stands and catches up to the sales woman who is supposed to help us today.
I direct my attention back to my phone and hover my fingers over the keypad to send a message back to him, unsure of what to say. My phone buzzes again before I get anything typed.
Lakin: Dinner tonight.
Me: Shouldn’t you be working?
Lakin: Avoidance, just like that, huh?
Me: I’m proficient at only a few things, avoidance happens to be one of them.
Lakin: I’d say you scored advanced in many categories last night.
Whatever flush I had before, is now flaming red. My ears are on fire from the embarrassment his words provoke. My eyes scan the boutique, pinning the location of everyone, making sure my conversation isn’t discovered.
Lakin: Dinner, it wasn’t a question. I’ll see you at 7, Cam.
I can’t help but grin. This man has turned everything upside down. He goes against everything I tried to protect myself from, but I’ve found him to be the hardest thing to resist. Lakin has aggressively pursued a relationship and I have aggressively avoided one. But no matter how hard I struggle out of his grasp, he’s captured me and claimed my heart. My fear of him letting go of us is stronger than anything I was ever afraid of before him. I let my heart lead, and type the words it demands.
Me: See you then.
Lakin: Nabac dom gan, mo ghrá.
And there it is, the affirmation I needed…‘forget me not, my love.’ He gave me the necklace last night, but it’s tucked into a pocket in my purse. I feel it beckoning me to put it on, those words calling to me, but I’m not brave enough to wear it. Not yet.
Commotion at the store entrance pulls my attention away from my thoughts of Lakin. Jen’s voice reverberates through the establishment. She has no concept of the other people in the store. Today is her dress day and apparently, everyone at this bridal shop needs to be aware of that fact. It’s Jen’s world and we are just living in it.
“Sorry, I’m late, girls!” she shouts from across the store. Carly’s eyes widen and she ducks behind the rack next to her in mortification. Vivian bows her head and shakes it, acknowledging Jen’s antics will never change. An engagement, kids, none of it has mellowed our spunky spitfire.
“Jen, there is a store full of other people, and their day is getting messed up by your entrance,” I say, hushing her.
She looks around and scrunches her face in understanding, but then shrugs her shoulders and moves closer to us all, pulling us each in for a hug. Yup, teachable moment is over and forgotten.
“I had to drop off the kiddos with Casen and the guys so we could just have us girls today,” she says before turning to Carly and Olivia. “I thought this was an adult day?” she adds pointedly at Carly.
Carly diverts her eyes. “I didn’t have childcare. I thought it would be more important that I was here with Olivia, than not at all.”
“I call bullshit,” Jen responds quickly. “You know Casen, Brooks, hell any one of the guys would have watched her today. I’ll let it slide, chica,” she says, pointing her finger at Carly. “But you better arrange a sitter for my bachelorette party. It’s all planned…Vegas, baby,” she says, nodding her head at each one of us, grinning widely.
“No way, not happening,” Vivian interjects. “I have four children, including an infant. There is no way I can run off and leave Brooks with the kids all weekend.”
“What do you mean? Brooks is coming too. It’s a joint bachelor-bachelorette party!” Jen exclaims.
“Did you sustain some kind of brain injury on the way here? What in the world would make you think we can all just drop everything, including our children, and run off to Vegas?” Carly asks. “Besides, the wedding is several months away, why have it now?”
Jen looks to me for my opinion, and I know she’s not going to like my answer. When I stall in my delivery, her brow scrunches in disappointment.
“Please, you guys. I feel like we are all getting so wrapped up in our individual lives. Our men, our kids…” she looks to me and adds, “our careers.” She grabs my hand, her eyes pleading with me. “I just want one weekend for us, like old times. In college, we didn’t have to give a shit; we had no responsibilities. We only had to worry about ourselves and each other. I want that again for just one weekend.”
I search each of my friends’ expressions. They are all looking to me for direction on this one. “Fine,” I say, exhaling loudly. I look at both Carly and Vivian. “It’s one weekend. Fly in Friday, be home by Sunday, surely we can pull that off.”
“I’ll have to talk to Brooks, but I’m sure between Katie and our parents keeping the kids, we can go,” Vivian resigns.
Carly nervously bites her lip, unsure of what to do or how to respond to her friends. Her expression is pained. I know she doesn’t want to let anyone down, but she also doesn’t want Jack to think she’s not being a good mother either. That’s exactly what he would think of her if he found out she ran off to Vegas for the weekend, bachelorette party or not.