My mom laughs and Riley grins, and the next boom of thunder is so loud it feels like the entire house shakes. I clench my trembling fists, digging my fingernails into my palms. “I’ll make them in a minute. I have to grab something upstairs.” I manage to keep my voice steady even when it wants to shake, but it takes a heroic effort, and I know if I don’t get a few minutes alone, my kids and my mom are going to have a front row seat to a full-blown panic attack. That is not at all what I want for our Sunday morning.
“Literally a minute,” Riley says. “We’re starving.”
“Promise.” I turn on my heel and head towards the stairs. I’mjust crossing the entryway when a knock on the front door stops me in my tracks. Cold sweat drips down my spine as lightning flashes, and I hope whoever the hell it is doesn’t need anything from me because whatever it is, I can’t right now.
My heart slams against my ribs, my breaths shallow and labored as I wrap my shaking hand around the handle and yank open the door.
And then I’m not breathing at all.
Because standing on my front porch, red hair hanging in wet ropes over her shoulders and green eyes watching me with concern, is Maddy. The relief that crashes through me is so sudden and so intense that my knees go weak, and I have to lean against the front door for balance so I don’t crumple straight to the floor.
She’s here.
“Cameron,” she says quietly, and then I don’t have to lean against the doorframe anymore, because I’m leaning on her. Maddy peels off her raincoat and wraps her arms around my waist in a tight hug, one hand rubbing up and down my back in a soothing rhythm as I bury my face in her hair. I exhale one shuddering breath as I pull her closer, erasing every single millimeter of distance between us.
“You’re here,” I whisper, not trusting my voice yet. “How did you know?” It’s all I can manage, but in that unique way of hers, she knows exactly what I mean.
“I know you,” is all she says, but it’s enough. Some of my panic ebbs, my heartrate slowing as I hold onto her. I didn’t realize how badly I needed this. How deeply I needed to be known.
“Fuck,” I mutter, tightening my arms around her. “I’m really fucking glad you’re here. I’ve wanted to text you a million times since this storm started.”
Maddy leans up and kisses my jaw. “Why didn’t you?”
I shake my head, my arms still around her, my brain refusingto let me let her go. I want to hold onto her for the rest of my life.
She’s here.
She’s safe.
“I didn’t want you to see me this way again,” I mumble. “When I’m…” I stop, not sure what exactly I mean to say.
Maddy pulls back and frames my face with her hands. “When you’re scared? Anxious?” She smiles, sweeping her thumbs over my cheeks. “You don’t have to hide from me, Cameron. Not anything. I like all the parts of you.”
I close my eyes, dragging in a deep breath. “Even the parts of me that turn a simple storm into a total fucking catastrophe?”
She laughs and pushes up on her toes, laying her lips on mine. “Especially those. When the storm started, I was already in my car.” She shrugs. “It just kind of drove itself over here.”
I lean down, pressing my forehead to hers, my hands gripping her hips as gratitude and relief and love for her all tangle together inside of me, eliminating my filter as words spill out of my mouth. “Thank fuck. And not just because of the storm. Because any day I don’t get to see you is a travesty, and now you’re here in my house and I get to see you and touch you, and every day I get to do those things is my favorite day. You’re my favorite person.”
“Favorite person, huh?” she says with a grin. “I think there are two other people living in this house who might have a thing or two to say about that.”
“Favorite adult,” I amend. “You are my favorite adult.”
“Sounds perfect.” Maddy tips her head back to study me. “How are you really?”
I exhale slowly, not wanting to give her anything but the unvarnished truth. “It’s been…rough this morning. Since the storm started. As long as I know where my kids and my mom are I’m usually fine, but today was different because…” I hesitate, my eyes locking with hers, begging her to understand what I’m saying because I don’t know if saying the words is too much yet or not.
Her lips tip up in a smile. “Because you didn’t know where I was.”
I nod. “I was having a fucking panic attack in my own damn living room instead of making the waffles I promised my kids because my girlfriend was out somewhere in a storm and I didn’t know where.”
“Girlfriend?” she asks with a grin.
I shrug, trying to be casual even though hearing that word from her mouth has a shot of warmth hitting me straight in the chest. It’s like the very first sunshine after a long, snowy winter when you feel like you’ve been cold forever. “I mean, yeah? I know we can’t really tell anyone about us yet, but you came here in the middle of the storm because you knew I needed you and you’re standing in the middle of my entryway with wet hair looking like everything I ever wanted even though my kids are in the house and even though there are probably a million things you need to do today that don’t involve rescuing me from myself. That feels pretty girlfriend-like to me.”
Maddy brushes the hair off my forehead before settling her hand back on my cheek, and the gesture makes me want to purr like a goddamn cat. I am all the way gone for her. “The only thing I was going to do today is lie on my couch in pajamas, eat too many M&M’s, and finish the smutty romance novel I’ve been reading this week. This is way better than that.”
I turn my head, pressing a kiss to her palm and wondering how it’s possible to feel this much for another human. I mean, I know it’s possible because I’ve felt it before, a long, long time ago. But to get to have it again feels like its own little miracle. “This is definitely better than that. Although…smutty romance novel?” I give her a salacious wink, squeezing her hips. “Tell me more.”
