Page 82 of Echoes in the Storm
“Let me guess,” I tease. “White and grey?”
She rolls her eyes with a smile. “What else?”
I go to kiss her again, yet she pushes out of my arms, her eyes wide.
“You have to come see this. The moving guys left it until tomorrow, saying they didn’t want the heavy furniture to break it.” She beckons toward the house. “Come.”
Of course I go. I’d follow this woman into war unarmed.
Cam darts up the steps and into the house, dashing left into the living room. She points to the same wall the door is on, meaning I have to swing around to see what she gestures to.
For the first time in my life, I almost cry.
Framed in ornate white wood is a large print photograph. The picture itself is monochrome, yet it’s the depth of the black that strikes me. A white sailboat adrift on a stormy black sea.
“Do you like it?” Cam asks quietly.
I can see that she looks at me in my periphery, yet I can’t tear my eyes from the silver nameplate mounted on the mat board that edges the picture.
“The Duke and Duchess”
In the boat are two tiny figures, clinging to each other in the middle of the vessel, a royal insignia on the sail.
“Where did you find it?” I move closer, fearful that if I look away now I’m going to miss another important detail.
“I went down a bit of a rabbit hole while I was looking up design ideas for the new place, and somehow I ended up on this website for a guy who sells bespoke pieces.” She snorts a little laugh. “It cost almost as much to freight it as it did to buy it.”
“It’s priceless.”Because it’s us.
She edges closer to slip her hand in mine. “You asked me if I believed in fate, Duke. I think this answers that—don’t you?” Cam lifts her free hand to gesture to the image.
Fuck, it’s more than fate. It was a series of events that individually held no meaning, but that together, meant everything. It was the game board of our lives laid out for us to take. We were two pieces chasing each other along the path, yet never resting in the same square until six weeks ago when I broke down. All we had to do was the roll the dice enough times to make it to the end to be together.
“Where are we going to hang it?”
“We?” Her brow twitches as she looks up at me.
All or nothing; dive into the black, Duke.“Everything important that I own is in that car, Cam. I came here with the intention to stay.” My heart kicks up pace. “Hopefully with you.”
“You came back to live with me?” The panic is clear in her eyes, the worry that she’s misunderstood what I’ve said.
“If you’ll have me.”
“Duke ...” She tips her head to the side, giving me a “what do you think?” stare.
“So what now?” I slip my hands onto her waist, loving how she feels back in my hold. How the hell did I have the strength to walk away from this? How crazywasI?
“Now,” Cam says, pushing to her toes to place a kiss to my lips. “We go to bed and spend one last night here for old times’ sake.”
“Old times,” I chuckle. “It was only a couple of months ago, Cam.”
She smirks, tugging on my hand to lead me to her room. “It may as well have been a lifetime without you, Duke.”
Cammie
I bought that image thinking it signified the two of us trying to hold on despite the fact that the odds were against us and there was no way we could have ever made it. I thought it perfectly catalogued how we were doomed from the start. Who would have thought I would show it to the man I love and have him ask wherewewould hang it?
“Cam.” Duke tugs on my hand as I turn left into the hallway.