“True,” I said, mulling it over. “For a second, I forgot how hard it was.”
“Right? Fuck that,” Cameron said, trying to keep respectable space between u
s. “I hated school.”
“Typical jock,” I cooed. “I loved it.”
“I have no doubts. Let me guess, you graduated Magna Cum Laude at Northwestern?”
“Yep. But I wasn’t high school valedictorian.”
“Second in line?” he said, his eyes telling me he knew that to be the truth.
“Yeah, Michelle Chen. I got felt up at a party while she studied. I considered it an even trade.”
Cameron’s brow lifted.
“I never said I wasn’t popular. And I told you I got asked to prom. I skirted the line. I didn’t spend my Friday nights working on a science fair project. I studied hard and then snuck out and partied harder. You just assumed because I geek out now that I was then.”
“I don’t assume anything when it comes to you, Abbie. I know better.”
“So, this isn’t like a prom do-over for me?”
“No,” he said softly. “It’s for me. Because if we could go back, I would’ve been your date.”
I paused my steps and we stumbled a little. Cameron swept me back up in his hold and made us both look good.
“You just . . .” I shook my head. “Happy,” I whispered.
“Would it scare you if I told you I want to keep surprising you as long as you let me?”
I shook my head. “Not at all.”
“Good,” he said, gripping my hip tighter.
My eyes drifted over his shoulder again and I tensed.
“I think you have an admirer,” I said. “Three o’clock. She looks dejected.”
I subtly nodded toward the woman who was burning holes through us. She looked at Cameron like he hung the moon, and then looked at me like I’d lassoed it away.
“That’s Bianca,” he said without glancing her way. “I’ve been throwing away her baked goods for the past year. She’s under the impression I’m a widow. I don’t correct her because I wanted her to think I was still grieving. I guess the jig is up now.”
“Heartbreaker,” I said with a frown. Her anguish was visible in her posture. “She’s crushed. I feel terrible.”
“Look at me,” he commanded. “For once in your life, Miss Fix-It, you aren’t going to worry about anyone else but yourself. I never led her on, not for one single minute. The only woman I’ve been interested in since I started at this school is the one I’m looking at. We don’t have that many songs to dance to until I have to abandon you for my post, so keep those beautiful blues on me while I think about the ways I’m going to ruin your virtue when I get you home.”
“That’s quite an assumption,” I said, quirking a brow. “Being so reckless with my virtue.”
“I’m going to get so much shit for this from every single one of the boys I coach. Trust me, I’ll earn it.”
“You already have,” I said, caressing the back of his neck with my palm.
The urge to kiss him was overwhelming, but we just swayed along the floor instead. “I’m hoping this covers the ’90s rom-com portion of woo,” he said with a chuckle.
“I guess I was a little unreasonable in my demands,” I said sheepishly.
“If you think you don’t deserve this, you’re wrong,” he said as he rubbed his thumb along my waist. “Whoever had you before me didn’t know what the fuck they had.”