Kate

Now if I were in a Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy of some sort, I’d be able to rush to Cam in a cab with a kindhearted driver who believed in love and would put the pedal to the metal for me so I could get to my man in a matter of minutes. This, however, wasn’t the case in arguably one of the most romantic cities in the world. Getting to the hospital to be with Cam wound up being quite an ordeal.

I had found the gondolier that the hotel had recommended, and he was willing to take the route that I requested instead of his usual scenic path around the city. He, however, didn’t speak English well and somehow had gathered that I wanted him to sing to me along the route–a route, mind you, that we moved painfully slow along.

“Sir, could you possibly go a little faster?” I urged him along with hand motions. “Uh…più velove?” I said, trying a phrase that I had Googled on my phone, just begging him to move this along. My accent was horrible, though, and I ultimately had to slog through his showcase of love songs for the masses. He just smiled happily and continued on his snail’s pace to the boat slip at the hospital.

Once we finally arrived, I ungracefully ambled out of the treacherous little boat, handing the kind man a wad of cash that I’m fairly certain was far more than we had agreed to, but I just desperately wanted to be back on land. While the insanely long ride had given me an abundance of time to think about what I wanted to say to Cam, I still didn’t have a clue by the time we pulled up to the dock outside of the hospital.

I walked tentatively up an awning-covered walkway with a steady stream of traffic walking hurriedly in either direction. The walkway eventually let me out into a surprisingly bright lobby area with huge skylights overhead and an unexpectedly modern design aesthetic for such a classic old-world city. I walked with uncertainty to the information desk, stumbling through rudimentary Italian but mostly English, to be directed to a large waiting area in another part of the hospital.

I was just headed to yet another reception area when I spotted Tony pacing a bit as he perused his cell phone by the hallway entrance that presumably led to the exam rooms. As I approached, he looked up initially with concern, but a warm smile blossomed on his face when he realized it was me.

“Hey,” was all I could get out as my nerves began to get the better of me.

Reading the apprehension on my face, Tony wrapped an arm around me and began to usher me down the hallway. “I’ll take you to him.”

It wasn’t until we rounded the corner that I spotted Cam sitting in a hallway, presumably nearby Lizzy’s room. I could see that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders as he leaned over his knees, his fingers steepled in thought as he stared aimlessly at the floor beneath him. Directly across the hall from him sat Matt Castell, looking the worst for wear as he leaned up against the wall, also staring off into space. The body language between the two of them told me immediately that Matt was most definitely in the doghouse where Cam was concerned. The tense mood in the hallway made me approach perhaps a bit slower than was necessary.

Tony suddenly abandoned me to return to his post in the outer hallway and I immediately felt the loss of companionship. I was most definitely on my own here and still wasn’t sure what to say to Cam. How was I going to make things right between us again? I nearly turned to regroup when Cam looked up the hallway, finding me instantly, our eyes locking in abject uncertainty. I was glued to the spot for just a minute, but he stood, almost challenging me to come that extra bit farther, so I quickly covered the distance between us, gathering my nerve with each step. We just stared at each other for a minute; it was then that I could see all of the hurt and exhaustion in his eyes and wanted so desperately to ease it.

Cam sighed. “Look, Kate, if you’re here to…”

I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I didn’t want any more words to get in our way, so I did the only thing that I could think to do and just launched myself at him, grabbing his face in my hands and taking his lips for my own. My heart raced as my lips pressed urgently into his, and for a few agonizing seconds, I had been in it alone. After what seemed like an eternity, Cam’s lips softened and answered me back, tentatively at first, but in seconds I could feel Cam’s arms wrap low around my waist, arching me into him as he took over the kiss. I could feel his need as he pulled my body flush with his and my heart leapt to be this close to him again, to not have been pushed away as I knew I had deserved. When our lips finally parted, I held Cam’s forehead to mine as we both caught our breath.

“I’m so sorry, Cam.” It was all I could think to say because it was all I felt at that moment—just horrible regret for how I had treated him, for being afraid to trust him, and most of all for not having been there with him sooner.

“Promise me you’ll stay this time, love.”

I smiled. “I think you said that to me on the very first day that we met,” I said, now remembering the farcical beginnings of our relationship in the foyer of his home more than a month ago.

Cam grinned. “Did I?”

I nodded, my smile growing by the second as I finally met his gaze. He stroked my hair with visible adoration, easing any further nerves that I had in my body. I leaned into the contact and kissed his wrist.

“You know I would never hurt you, don’t you?” Cam said.

I nodded my head, a bit ashamed. “I know, and I knew that then, I just…I got scared. This has all happened so fast, Cam.”

“It has, but I think it happened that way because we belong together. It’s just that simple–at least it is for me.”

“It is for me too, Cam,” I said as I stroked the beautiful face that was now indelibly etched into my soul. “It’s you and me now, Cam and I’d be a fool to not want to shout that from the freaking rooftops,” I said, leaning in to give him a gentle kiss. Cam, however, wasn’t having any of that and took my face in his hands and laid a kiss on me that made me weak in the knees. Within seconds, my feet left the ground as he lifted me into his arms, his body begging mine to wrap around him tightly. I started to laugh, knowing that we were making a ridiculous scene in the hallway of a hospital.

“So, this is wildly inappropriate,” I said as Cam continued to hold me in his arms with my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms encircling his neck. I looked around at the grinning nurses and doctors surrounding us.

“I really don’t give a fuck,” Cam said, looking up at my face with nothing but love in his eyes.

I stroked his sweet face. “I love you, Cam,” I whispered as I hugged him tightly to me and he hugged me right back, like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. After such a long time passed, I came back to reality and noticed Matt still sitting across from us. I refocused my attention to Cam.

“I think you can put me down now, love.”

He just grinned up at me. “I don’t really want to,” he said. “I don’t want to let you get away from me again.”

I was about to tell him that I didn’t plan on going anywhere without him for the foreseeable future when a doctor approached us.

“Mr. Atwood?” she said in a thick Italian accent. “Your sister is awake. You can see her now if you wish. Just family though.”

Cam didn’t miss a beat. “That’s us,” he said, finally returning me to the ground and taking my hand in his.

The doctor turned to lead us down the hallway and just as I thought he was going to walk right past a tortured-looking Matt Castell, Cam turned to him and sighed. “Let’s go, jag-off,” he said a bit humorlessly but the fact that he was inviting Matt along to see Lizzy made me suspect that he would forgive him for whatever had happened last night—eventually.

When we reached Lizzy’s room, my heart lurched a bit to see Lizzy looking so frail and exhausted. Matt dropped to her side immediately. A few tears of relief made his eyes glisten.

“I’m so glad you’re awake,” he whispered hoarsely.

Lizzy smiled weakly as she stroked his head to comfort him, which looked like it took a bit of effort on her part. Cam crowded in on Lizzy and kissed her on the forehead, holding his lips to her a bit longer, giving away the worry that had gripped him for the last several hours.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked the doctor as I took Lizzy’s hand and squeezed it.

“She’s suffered a severe concussion from her fall, so I’d like to run a few more tests, but her vital signs look very good. I have every hope that she’ll make a full recovery and be able to go home in a day or two.”

There was a collective sigh of relief in the room as the doctor excused herself to order a CT scan for Lizzy while we visited with her. I could feel the tension release in both men when the doctor left the room. I interlaced my fingers with Cam’s, hoping to ease his presumably now-frayed nerves. Lizzy smiled as she regarded us.

“Are you two back together, then?” she said with all the hope in the world in her voice.

I laughed. “We are, but I’m way more worried about you! What on Earth happened last night?”

Lizzy looked a bit contrite as she eyed Matt. “I’m so embarrassed. I’m afraid it’s not very interesting. I just drank way more than I should have, I suppose, and then, of course, there was that giant bowl of gummy bears at the party—which I’ve just been informed were apparently laced with marijuana,” she sighed remorsefully. “You know me and the gummy candies. I can’t stop. I was completely off my rocker by the end of the night and took a not-so-elegant spill,” she sighed again.

“Oh, Lizzy,” I said trying desperately to stifle a chuckle.

Cam’s face, however, was still stern. “Perhaps it would have been nice if someone who cared about you had at least asked you to stop drinking before you ended up in this state?” Cam said, eyeing Matt, who already looked like he’d been beating himself up all night.

“Cam…” I said with disapproval.

“I’m a grown woman, Cam. I’m to blame for my own poor decisions last night. Besides which, I’m assuming Matt was the one who fished me out of the canal after I tripped and hit my head on the dock in those ridiculous shoes Evander gave me.”

“Oh, so I need to be angry at Evander, as well?” Cam said getting fired up once again.

“No, but you should probably thank Matthew,” Lizzy said.

Cam turned to Matt, still tense with disappointment and sighed. “Thank you—I don’t know what I would have done if…” I squeezed Cam’s hand as his voice caught. “…Just…thank you.”

Matt nodded, still a bit shell-shocked by everything that had transpired in the last twenty-four hours.

“Can we get you anything, Lizzy?” I asked.

“Yes! I’m starving. My stomach feels toxic. I need like a giant cheeseburger or something wonderfully greasy.”

We all laughed, so grateful to have our Lizzy back.

“We’ll go and talk to the doctor and see what we can do about that,” Cam said, unable to stop grinning at his little sister. “In the meantime, Kate, I think you and I should probably call Evelyn, no?”

I sighed uncomfortably. “About that…”

“What?” Cam said, looking legitimately worried now.

“I think you’re going to have to fire her today, and I guess that means me, as well.”

“I’m not tracking,” he said with a furrowed brow.

“Evelyn was the one who leaked those photos of us.”

“I fucking hate publicists,” Matt said, turning everyone’s heads to him. “Not you, of course, Katie. Sorry, I’ll shut up now.”

Cam returned his attention to me cocking his head. “How do you know that?”

“She admitted it.”

“So, you’ve spoken with her this morning, then?”

“She’s actually here in Venice, which is what tipped me off. The timing of her arrival here to rush in and save the day for you seemed to imply that she knew ahead of time that there would be a leak this morning, so I asked her about it and she copped to it.”

“Why the fuck would she do that to me?” Cam said, now getting a bit fired up.

“She just signed Evan Cosgrove recently, and he’s paying her a little extra to help him get the Bond role, which unfortunately means making sure you don’t get it.

“Great, well, I’ll add calling my attorney to the list of things to do today.”

“Cam, I think the best thing for us to do is all walk away before this gets ugly. As of right now, the tabloid sentiment is actually weirdly supportive of you and me for the most part.”

“Yeah, I have to admit that the TMZ story wasn’t nearly as salacious as it could have been,” Cam said.

“I don’t think Evelyn took into consideration the fact that I have a great relationship with most of the tabloid reporters, which I think helped to soften the blow, and this wound up not being as scandalous as she had hoped. Plus, there’s this whole thing with NDAs which is a long story.”

Cam just shook his head, apparently too exhausted to dig further into the minutiae of the situation at the moment. “You really want to let her get away with this?”

“No, but I also don’t want to waste any more time on her. She’s losing her best client and a pretty solid employee over this. Let’s just you and I ride off into the sunset and be happy, Cam,” I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist and gave him my most pleading eyes. “Please?”

Cam just stared into my eyes and stroked my hair. “Like I’m going to say no to those pretty green eyes,” he said softly as we both allowed ourselves to get lost in one another for a moment. He bent down and dropped a kiss on my forehead.

“I’m so happy for you both,” Lizzy said with the biggest grin on her face as Matt lay down and rested his head in Lizzy’s lap as she stroked his tired head.

We were all a little worse for the wear at this point but had come out of this crazy experience with one unbelievable souvenir—each other.