“Tell me while we move this stupid couch,” Cam grumbled. “My arms are gonna fall off.”
“Aw, baby, are you tired already?” Dawson joked.
“Fuck yes.”
“It was all good news,” Dawson said, changing the subject, shouldering more of the weight. “Ackerman’s lawyer came back with another deal. Even better this time. Natalia thinks they’re really panicking about the possibility of going to trial.”
“The possibility of going to trialandthe possibility of you taking the stand like a goddamn avenging angel,” Cam added. “He’s gonna plea out and plead guilty and go to jail for a long-ass time.”
“That’s the hope. Natalia feels like there’s a very good chance we can make him pay without having to call our bluff,” Dawson said. He chuckled tiredly. “I’m so fucking relieved.”
“Me too,” Cam agreed. They’d talked more than once about how committed Dawson was to seeing this through, but if he didn’t have to while getting the outcome they all wanted? That would be even better.
They’d finally made it down the hallway, and to the open doorway that they’d propped open on their new, bigger apartment.
This one had a showeranda tub, as well as a second bedroom, because both of them hoped that the next time Dawson’s parents came to visit from Iowa, they wouldn’t need to stay in a hotel. They could stay withthem.
Cam had met them briefly at the end of the season, but he was looking forward to getting to know them better. The five of them, including his dad, merging into a new familial unit.
There’d been a time when he’d been secretly terrified thatDawsonmight be terrified about this, but so much of what he’d been through and how he’d emerged from it on the other side had proven once and for all that Dawson wasn’t about to let a little residual fear scare him away.
Not when it came to what he really wanted. And Cam really believed, without a single doubt, that what Dawson wanted was Cam andthem.
They finally maneuvered the couch into the empty living room and set it down.
Dawson let out a gust of a sigh and flopped down on the comfortable surface.
“What are you doing?” Cam asked, even as he fell down next to him. “We have like . . .a whole bunch more shit to move.”
“I know,” Dawson said, shrugging. He turned and pressed his head into Cam’s shoulder. “I think I screwed up. We should have hired movers.”
Cam could only laugh. “Oh yeah?”
“For sure, rook.”
“Can you still call me that?” Cam wondered softly. “I’m not a rookie anymore.”
“Baby, you’realwaysgonna be my rookie.” Dawson tilted his head up and pressed a kiss to Cam’s mouth. It felt as good asthe first time. Maybe even better. Who had Cam been kidding? There was always going to be energy—and time—for sexy retribution.
“Oh God, we should have knocked.”
“Dude, Itoldyou to.”
The voices surprised Cam and he pulled away from Dawson, craning his head towards the apartment’s entrance.
He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised to see Nate and Wes walking in, Lane and Trevor trailing behind them.
“You guys need some help?” Wes asked innocently.
“They managed the couch and then collapsed on it,” Nate said seriously. “I think the answer isyes.”
“How’d you know?” Dawson asked.
“Shane sent us,” Trevor said. “He said you two were trying to be stupid and heroic, and you didn’t need to do that.”
Cam laughed. “Yeah, he’d say that.”
“And he’d be right,” Dawson said wryly, pulling himself upright and then holding his hand out so he could help Cam up too.
