Page 31 of Just Like Summer

“You kiss all the sad girls you bring to your crazy rock?” she taunted.

“Nah, just you,” he replied with a laugh, releasing her. “It’ll probably only ever be you.”

“Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. You might get tired of being my friend,” Kamilla muttered.

Cairo grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, giving her a wink. “I won’t.”

She allowed her head to find his shoulders again and watched the water hit the shore. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. You’re good here.”

Kamilla’s smile was faint. “You remind me of my dad.”

“Must’ve been a great guy,” Cairo joked, refusing to reveal the pieces of her he’d put together.

“He was the best. Everyone knew him as AyeZee. I knew him as Kamaal Palmer. He was my world.”

“I’m sure you were his too.”

twelve

From the spot Kamilla deemed the crying boulder, to the shore watching the sunset and water washing over their feet, Cairo couldn’t help but take in her beauty. Not that she wasn’t beautiful before, but there was something about some of her walls dropping that was indeed captivating.

“I got to figure out how I’m going to pay for school,” Kamille spoke with a huff.

While the natural response he wanted to give her was that he’d figure it out, he knew she didn’t need to be dependent on him. Knowing now that the two people she depended on the most were gone, he couldn’t cripple her further. Truth was as much as he could see his life on a highlight reel in her eyes, the possibility of him leaving her before they really got started was high. So, he held his commentary and chose to do the opposite of what her parents had done.

“What you good at? Besides not listening?” he questioned in a teasing tone.

Kamilla nudged him and moved from his side, further into the water just enough for the bottom of her rolled pants to get wet. “Outside of my inherited ear, I can clean the hell out of anything. My mother was a clean freak. When dad died, she started a little cleaning business. We cleaned houses for pretty much everyone I went to school with.”

“Damn,” he blew.

“Yeah. Imagine being at prom in your thrift store dress and then changing to clean the venue. Anyway, I guess I can figure out how to do that,” Kamilla muttered.

“I know I’ve bulldozed myself into your space, but in this instance, I feel like I should ask if you want my help” Cairo responded.

“And I’m also stubborn, but I would like your help,” Kamilla said with a smirk, looking up at him. “What you got?”

Cairo reached down to move a curl from her face. “I’ll let you know but for the meantime, I should probably feed you. You gon’ sleep like a champ tonight.”

Kamilla chuckled. “Yeah, like a bad ass kid after a whooping. First one to the car gets to pay for dinner though.”

Before she finished the statement she took off in the wrong direction of course. The playfulness might’ve been a rare occurrence but he wasn’t going to let it pass him by. Taking off behind her, scooping her up in his arms earned him the most soul-stirring laugh. It was infectious. The mango-drenched curls fell over his face and he gladly welcomed it.

“There you go again not even going the right way,” he replied, placing her on her feet. “How do you run in slow motion?”

“I just knew I was doing something,” Kamilla spoke through her smile.

Cairo allowed his to mirror and craned his neck. “Your sense of direction is terrible.”

“Small fish even smaller pond,” Kamilla recited KP’s lyrics.

Cairo swayed his head. “Mm, nah. Big fish dumped into a big pond but you’ll figure it out.”

His comment was punctuated by a peck to her lips. All of this out of both of their comfort zones, but they welcomed it.

“You kiss all your friends?” Kamilla asked, popping a brow.