Cami went through the motions of twisting off water mains, fixing the leaks, the faucets, the toilet seals, whatever the job required. She missed the blingy beep of her phone, alerting her to a text. She missed her ongoing conversations with Dylan, and she looked forward to seeing him after work, sharing her life with him.

But her afternoon was silent except for the labored sound of her own breathing, and the scratching of pens as citizens wrote checks to pay for her services.

She’d just finished at an apartment in the building next to Dylan’s, her arms loaded with her heavy equipment, when she burst out into the sunlight.

Squinting, she noticed two figures standing next to Penny. She automatically stopped, though her arms screamed at her to hurry up and put down this toolbox!

“Cami!” Dylan waved at her as if she couldn’t see him. He hurried toward her and took the heavy tools from her. “Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She glanced past him to find the Sheriff a few steps away. “What’s going on?”

“Wade’s in town,” Dylan said as Sheriff Bellsby arrived. “Have you seen him?”

Cami’s insides iced despite the warm afternoon. “Not today.”

“When’s the last time you saw him, ma’am?” the Sheriff asked.

“A few weeks, maybe a month, ago.” Cami swallowed as she looked from Dylan to Sheriff Bellsby. “He was leaving the build site at Rivers Merge. I hid in my van until he left.” She’d never told Dylan about her sighting of Wade. She didn’t think it necessary.

“He took the surveillance footage of the build site.” Dylan exhaled and turned away from her, wiping his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe this.”

“Do you think it was him?”

“I don’t know.” Dylan looked like a lost child, and the agony in his eyes made Cami’s heart squeeze tight. Too tight.

“But someone hooked the pumps to the power, and it wasn’t me and it wasn’t you.”

Pieces clicked around in Cami’s head. He was trying to make it right. Figure out who had sabotaged those three houses. Clear her name.

A swelling of love filled her, and her throat turned thick.

“I’ll find him,” Sheriff Bellsby said. In the next moment, he had his radio off his hip and was speaking police codes into it at a rapid clip.

“Dylan,” she started.

“Later, Cami.” He gave her a half-daggered look and followed the Sheriff back to his truck. “Well, c’mon!” he called back to her.

“I have Penny.”

Dylan practically stomped back to her. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, not even for a ten-minute drive back to the police station. Penny can stay here. She likes it here.” He grabbed her hand and towed her after him.

“Dylan.” She shook her hand out of his but kept going. “I’m fine.”

“Your abusive ex-boyfriend is in town, and he lied to the Sheriff so he could get that tape.” Dylan’s brilliant blue eyes shone like glass. “Please, Cami. Don’t make me beg you. Just get in the truck and stay by me, okay?”

She wanted to apologize. Wanted to tell him she loved him for what he’d done and what he was doing. Wanted to stretch up and kiss him, transfer some of her fear onto him. He’d take it, she knew. And he’d take it gladly.

Instead, she slipped past him and climbed into the truck, sandwiching herself between Dylan and the Sheriff for the ride back to the police station.

She called her remaining two appointments for the day and explained something had come up and she wouldn’t be able to make it. Dylan didn’t get out of the truck at the police station, but simply dropped off the Sheriff.

“Where are we going?” Cami asked.

“My apartment.” He worried his lip between his teeth, something she’d never seen him do. In fact, this was the very first time Dylan had ever been anything less than cool and calm and collected.

And that scared her more than anything. This was real.

“Gerald isn’t going to fire you or replace you,” he said as he drove. It seemed like his mouth needed something to do to calm his nerves. “He still wants you to finish the build. Said to come get your specs.”

Her blood started to boil, and Cami folded her arms to try to contain her annoyance.

“He knows—everyone knows—it wasn’t your fault those houses flooded. I didn’t realize they were blaming you, Cami. I swear I didn’t. When I found out, I did the only thing I could think of—I went to the police and asked if there was any way that area had been recorded.”

Her emotion welled inside her, causing her chin to shake and her eyes to sting with unshed tears.

“And Sheriff Bellsby said it would take a couple of hours to pull the tape, so I went to the diner. And Thomas was there—and that guy’s creepy. He’s got something going on with him, but I don’t know what.” He sighed as he turned into the parking lot at his building. “Anyway, when I got back to the station, the Sheriff said Wade had taken the tape. Claimed to be working with me and took the tape.”

He parked a little roughly and got out of the truck without a pause. She followed him, glad when he waited for her. He didn’t reach for her hand, though, and the loss of his touch tortured her. She walked a few steps behind him, hung out at the back of the elevator, and stepped off to suffocating silence.

He unlocked his door and went inside, locking them back behind the solid wood. “Did you eat lunch?”

She hadn’t, but she couldn’t stand to have him cook for her. Honestly, he wouldn’t cook, but she didn’t want him to go to any extra trouble because of her. He’d already done so much.

Her eyes landed on his Christmas tree. “You have a tree up?” At only three feet, it hardly counted as a tree, but still. She wandered over to it.

“Just trying to keep busy,” he said. “That tree inspired me to call the Sheriff, so you best be nice to it.”

Cami smiled at his cowboy drawl. Though he didn’t wear his hat at the moment, he was a Southern boy through and through. Her Southern boy.

She touched a red ball on the tree limb, and her gaze drifted to a ring box sitting on the table under the tree. She reached for it at the same time Dylan lunged toward her. “Don’t touch that.” He sounded panicked, and she jerked her hand back like the ring box would electrocute her. He was an electrician, after all.

“What is it?”

He almost leapt over the couch and swiped the ring box away. “It’s a gift.”

“For who?” Cami eyed the box as he hid it behind his back.

He stared at her, sheer determination in his eyes. In a single breath, his demeanor changed and he brought the box out from behind him. “For you.”

Cami’s entire body lit up. He’d bought her a ring? What kind of ring? And how should she react when he gave it to her?

He set it back on the table under the tree. “It’s for later.”

“Later?” Not the answer she wanted, and her curiosity carved a hot path through her bloodstream. She collapsed on the couch. “Dylan, I’m really sorry about this morning.”

He sat tentatively beside her. “You believe me when I say I didn’t know how the homes had flooded, right?”

She looked at him, right at him. “Of course.” She sighed and dropped her eyes to his carpet. “You know I have a bad temper, right?”

His arm broke the physical barrier between them, sliding across her back and settling over her shoulders. “I like your fire, Cami.”

“Fire burns.”

“I’m used to dealing with electricity. I can handle you.”

“I’m water; you’re electricity. We don’t go together.”

He put his hand under her chin and gently pushed it up, forcing her to face him. “We absolutely belong together.”

Those pesky tears burned her eyes now. “I really am sorry.”

“I know you are.” He gave her that swift, sexy, perfectly in control smile she loved so much. “We’re going to figure out what happened at Rivers Merge.”

“Thanks for that,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder. “You sure I can’t see the ring right now?”

“How do you even know it’s a ring?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve seen ring boxes before.”

He chuckled and ran his lips along her browline. “It’s a Christmas gift,” he said. “You’ll have to be patient.”

His phone sounded, the crack of a baseball bat echoing through the apartment, and he reached for it. “It’s Sheriff Bellsby.” He stood, his eyes shining as he read. “He found Wade.” He was already moving toward the door. He had it open before he realized she wasn’t with him. “You’re not coming?”

“I haven’t seen Wade in four years,” she said, a slight tremor in her chest that matched the one in her voice.

“You don’t have to be afraid of him.”

“I’m not afraid of him.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid of myself. Of what I’ll do to him.”

“You won’t do anything,” Dylan said. “You’re not that kind of person.” He reached for her hand, and she stepped over to him to slip her fingers through his. She went with him, down the elevator, into the truck, his words tumbling around inside her head.

She wasn’t a malicious person. She hadn’t gone after Wadsworth Plumbing after she’d been forced to quit. And she’d had cause. No, she simply wanted to move on with her life, find somewhere to belong.

And she had. Not only did she belong in Three Rivers, she belonged to Dylan Walker.

He pulled into the police station and started to get out, but she put her hand on his arm. “Wait.”

He turned back to her, an expectant look on his face. “Yeah?”

“Before we go in there, I need you to know something.”

“All right.”

She twined her fingers through his again, looking at their joined hands. Warmth filled her, and sweet peace, and freeing forgiveness. “I love you, Dylan.” Feeling brave and empowered, she looked up into his face.

He blinked once, twice. “I’m sorry. It sounded like you said you loved me.”

She smiled and swatted his chest. “Come on.”

He leaned close, closer, his eyes crinkling with a smile. “I love you too, Camila.” His eyes drifted closed, and Cami dropped her gaze to his lips. Then she kissed him, pressing right into him and taking her time to explore his mouth.

He ducked his head and chuckled. “Okay, so that’s out of the way. Let’s go see who sabotaged those houses.”