After being jilted at the altar, Amber Gardner finds herself in a small beach town and stuck rooming with an unlikely person: her childhood nemesis Cameron, the man she is supposed to hate.
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Amber Gardner and her fiancé were together for two year...
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I SAT ON THE BEACH DURING THE SUNRISE.
A moment of solitude with crashing waves, brisk wind kissing the tip of my nose, and unordered thoughts. I wanted to put my thoughts in a time capsule and let it float in the ocean until I was ready to organize them.
I pressed my hand against my heart and closed my eyes. Lub-dub-lub-dub. I thought of what I told Tuesday earlier. It was like opening a new door into my own past—all my childhood memories in a different light.
All the times he put me in trouble because of boys I'd had a crush on, he helped me when I was stuck with a concept in math, and he saved my ass whenever I needed it. I always thought he was jealous of me for being both a nerd and having a love life. That he tutored me because Aunt Annie forced him to. Could it really be that he actually liked me? Even back then?
I snorted a laugh, shaking my head. From this perspective, I'd been an asshole to him throughout our time together. This made me his childhood nightmare.
I never saw him in that light when we were kids. In high school, he was...Cameron. A constant pain in my ass. It never crossed my mind that either of us would like the other. We were too busy fighting each other.
But—he knew my dream college, and he picked it. I always thought it was his revenge, stealing my dream. What if he wanted to share it with me? And I gave up my dream of running away from him. Shit.
I—I needed to hear these from him. If it was true. If his feelings weren't as new as mine, and if he waited out at the churchyard because he didn't want to witness my ceremony.
Suddenly filled with the urge to talk to him, without any anger or prejudice this time, I got up and ran toward the tavern. Climbing the stairs at full speed, I halted in front of our room, collecting my breath.
It was four in the morning, so Cam was probably asleep. Which meant I had to wait for him to wake up for hours.
I inserted the key into the hole but couldn't twist it. The anticipation of waiting for Cam to wake triggered my anxiety, causing me to doubt the situation altogether. Maybe I should've gone back to Tuesday's house and faced him another time.
