She nodded once and let him guide her with a hand at the small of her back toward the back door. By grace of the frigid temperatures, the porch designated for outdoor dining and smoking was empty. Norah went straight to the railing and leaned against it, lifting her face to the sky. Cam resisted the urge to move in behind her, boxing her in, and instead leaned beside her, his arm brushing hers.
“I miss simple.” She sighed and tipped her head against his arm. “I miss you.”
He hadn’t expected the admission and credited lowered inhibitions due to the Three Furies. “You don’t have to. I’ve been right here the whole time. And for all your talk, you haven’t gone anywhere, not yet.”
“But I will. Not tomorrow. Probably not next week. I don’t know when I’m leaving. But I have to start taking control of my life again. If that conversation with my father did anything, it lit a fire under me to finally start facing the long job search. I can’t keep putting it off.”
Nothing had changed. After all these weeks, all her involvement in the community, she still didn’t think she belonged here. He was losing her, back to the life she’d come here to escape. Because he was perilously close to begging, Cam kept his mouth shut, fisting both hands around the railing until the wrought iron began to creak.
She mistook the reason for his silence. “I promise you, I won’t go until Wishful is safe. And I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
He believed her. And cursed himself for wishing more danger on his town, just so she’d stay.
If he said nothing now, if he let her walk away, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.
Cam turned her to face him. “Isn’t it worth grabbing whatever happiness we can, while we can?” He could feel the pull between them, always the pull.
She leaned toward him, yearning written clearly on her face. But mixed with it was equal parts sadness and resignation. “It isn’t about happiness.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because there are bigger things at stake.”
“I get that you’ve got this mission, this purpose. I support that. Hell, I asked you to take it on. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take something for yourself. Even Wonder Woman had Steve Trevor.”
“You’re no Steve Trevor.”
Before Cam could process the insult of that, she was reaching up, cupping his jaw. “Steve Trevor didn’t recognize what was right in front of him. You actually see me.”
What he saw was a brilliant, beautiful woman with an inexplicably fast hold on his heart and a mule-headed resistance to taking it. He turned his face into her touch, needing the connection.
Her thumb traced the arch of his cheek. “Do you know how rare that is?”
Cam covered her hand with his. “Do you know how rare this is? Don’t you think it’s worth hanging on to?”
“Campbell.” She swayed toward him. “I…”
He might’ve said any number of things to try to persuade her, or he might’ve just given in and kissed her, as he’d wanted to do pretty much since the moment he’d stopped. But Fate, cruel bitch that she was, had other plans in the form of his meddling cousin, who came barreling out the door like an overgrown golden retriever.
Mitch drew up short, his mouth dropping open as he took in their embrace in a glance. “I…uh…just came to say the food’s ready. And Miranda’s here.”
“Great. I’m starved.” Norah tapped Cam’s cheek gently. “Thanks for the dance, Leonidas.” She stepped away from him with the grace that completely eluded her on the dance floor and made her way to the door with the careful deliberation of the inebriated.
“You got it okay there, sugar?”
She gave Mitch a thumbs up and the door swung shut behind her.
Cam started to follow, to make sure she got through the dancing throng safely—thumbs up be damned—, but Mitch slapped a palm against his chest. “Hold it. What was that?”
“That was none of your business.” He tried to push past, but for all his general good humor, Mitch was bigger, broader, and when he didn’t want to be moved, he couldn’t be without considerably more force than Cam was prepared to use.
“You’ve got a thing for Norah.”
“Congratulations, you have eyes in your head.”
“Eyes enough to see that was not a casual flirtation.”
“You got a problem with that, cuz?” Cam knew Mitch found Norah attractive, but he’d assumed the flirtation was the same knee-jerk reaction his cousin had to most women. He wasn’t worried about competition—Norah had made it perfectly clear where she stood—but Mitch didn’t know that.