You need to have a talk with him. He can’t keep stomping around here, muttering to himself and glaring at Everett every time they’re in the same room,” I tell my mom with a frustrated sigh.

She laughs, pushing her toe against the floor of the porch and gently rocking the porch swing we’re seated on that hangs in front of the main house.

“Baby girl, he’s your father. And he saw his daughter half dressed, walking out of a room with a man not wearing a shirt. Give him some time to not have that image burned in his brain.”

Okay, so walking out of the tack room in the stables last week and coming face-to-face with my dad wasn’t my finest moment. Wearing my second dress from the previous night that was ripped to shreds all the way down the back just like the first one, and Everett standing behind me shirtless, because I’d been wearing his white dress shirt at the time to cover myself as best as possible, on top of my hair being a tangled mess and my makeup smudged under my eyes, it was more than obvious what the two of us had been doing in that room the night before. And the following morning.

But I’m thirty years old. Too old for my dad to be looking at Everett like he wants to kill him all the time.

Regardless of that, I can’t stop the smile that takes over my face as I look out over the grounds and think about the last week with Everett.

I was irritated when he first showed back up in my life because he fit so perfectly in it. And now we fit so perfectly together, it’s hard to believe it’s only been a week.

“It’s good to see you happy again and to have you prove me wrong about Everett. He’s a good man and he cares about you a great deal,” my mom says softly. “Your dad is going to see it for himself soon enough, don’t worry,” she reassures me.

“I’m not worried. Is that weird? I mean, Everett and I crossed a huge line. We went from being best friends all of our lives, to not speaking for four years, to sort-of-friends, to this. It all happened so fast that my head should be spinning, but it’s not,” I tell her.

“I think thirty years of knowing someone is the exact opposite of going fast,” she laughs. “You took the long way to get here, but it was the right way. You had to experience all of it—the longing, the pain, the heartbreak, the confusion, and the anger to appreciate what you have now. I don’t think the two of you would be where you are now if either one of you had admitted your feelings sooner. You had to experience being apart to realize you’re better together.”

I let her words sink in, knowing everything she says is true, even though I can’t stop wondering what would have happened if we hadn’t been so afraid to say something about how we felt to each other sooner. Everett might not have stayed away for four years, repeatedly signing back up for Doctors Without Borders just to stay away from me and what he thought was happening between Aiden and me, and beat himself up with guilt about not being here when Aiden died. We might not have wasted so many years apart, when we could have been spending them together, where we fit so perfectly.

I hear the crunch of tires and look up to see a cloud of dust surrounding Everett’s truck as he pulls down the driveway and parks in the turnaround in front of the house. My mom pushes herself off the swing, leans down, and gives me a kiss on the cheek before pulling back to stare down at me.

“I can see the wheels turning. Stop running all the what-ifs through that pretty head of yours. You can’t change the past, baby girl. You can only move forward and make different choices.”

I watch her turn and walk toward the front door, greeting Everett with a smile and a wave as he pounds up the front steps. My eyes lock on to his and my heart flutters in my chest when he stalks across the porch and, without hesitation, grabs my face in his hands and bends down, pressing his lips to mine.

“You can’t change the past…You can only move forward and make different choices.”

My mom’s words play on a loop in my head as Everett kisses me softly, his tongue sliding past my lips and swirling with mine.

I don’t know if I’ll ever stop being sad about the choices we made in the past, but I can’t help being deliriously happy about the ones we’ve made now that have gotten us to this point.

Everett ends the kiss, pulling his head back from mine to smile down at me.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” I reply, returning his smile as he sits down next to me on the swing and throws his arm over the back of it behind my shoulders. “How was lunch with your friend?”

Everett continues to go to weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and he got a phone call earlier from of the same guy who needed his help the night before the charity dinner. Everett took off immediately to meet him in person and convince him again not to take a drink to deal with his problems.

He spends all of his free time here at camp, either just being with me, or helping out wherever he’s needed, and I know going to his meetings and hanging out with the friends he’s made there gives him something to do and a sense of purpose, but it can’t possibly be fulfilling enough for a man who traveled around the world, saving people’s lives. I’ve mentioned to him a few times that he should apply for a position at the hospital downtown, and he’ll smile and nod and tell me it’s a good idea, but he’s never done anything about it. I don’t want him to get bored. I don’t want him to regret coming home and leaving his work behind.

“Stressful. Exhausting. He was in a good place when I left him, but it took a while to get him there. I just want to take a shower and pass out facedown in bed.”

Wrapping my arms around his waist, I curl up into his side, resting my cheek on his shoulder.

“Poor baby. I was going to suggest I hop in the shower with you, but if you’re too tired…” I trail off.

I almost topple over on the swing when Everett jumps up, grabbing my hands and pulling me up with him.

“Did I say exhausted? I meant exhilarated. Hurry up, let’s go before your dad realizes I’m here and silently threatens to kill me,” Everett jokes.

He laughs, but the smile on his face doesn’t quite reach his eyes. I know my dad’s behavior has been bothering him, and it pisses me off. Everett has been a part of this family since he was three years old. If anything, my dad should be happy that I’m with someone I’ve been around all my life instead of someone I just met that he doesn’t know. My mom accepted the idea of the two of us together in the blink of an eye once she started getting to know Everett again, and I don’t understand why my dad isn’t given him the same chance.

I open my mouth to give him reassurance that I’m going to have a talk with my dad, when a car pulls up the drive and stops right in front of the house, turning my attention away from Everett to watch a woman exit the vehicle, grabbing a box out of the backseat before heading in our direction.

“Oh, my God,” I mutter, butterflies flapping around in my stomach when I see who it is, happy to see her again, but knowing immediately she doesn’t feel the same going by the scowl on her face, aimed right at me as she stops at the base of the stairs.

Everett immediately moves closer to me, wrapping his arm around my waist in a protective manner.

“Michelle,” I whisper. “It’s so good to see you. Everett, this is Michelle. Aiden’s fiancée.”

The tight hold Everett has on me slowly eases as he leans forward and holds out his hand to her.

Michelle ignores it, her angry eyes never leaving mine.

“I’m not here for a social visit. I just stopped by to give you your things. I found them at Aiden’s place when I was cleaning it out.”

She thrusts the box roughly into my chest, and I quickly wrap my arms around it when she lets go and takes a step back, crossing her own arms in front of her as I glance down and see one of my old sweatshirts, a coat, a pair of flip-flops, and a few other random things I’d left behind at Aiden’s whenever we hung out.

“Why don’t you come inside. We can have some iced tea and talk. I’ve missed you, and Abby,” I tell her, thinking about her ten-year-old daughter, whom I fell in love with when she started attending camp a few years ago, and haven’t seen at all since Aiden’s funeral.

“Oh, save it, Cameron. Like you ever gave a shit about either one of us,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “I don’t even know why you introduced me to Aiden when you just wanted him for yourself.”

It’s the same thing she accused me of after Aiden’s funeral, and the reason we haven’t talked since then, but her words are still like a knife to the heart. She was my friend. There was no one happier than me when I got to watch her and my best friend fall in love, and it broke my heart that Michelle finally found happiness after her husband was killed overseas, only to have it ripped away from her again.

“Michelle, you know that’s not true. Aiden was my friend. I never wanted anything but for you guys to be happy. I’m so sorry you and Abby lost him.”

Everett doesn’t say anything, but his hand slides up my spine and cups the back of my neck, massaging it gently, silently giving me his comfort and support.

“Aiden was my second chance. I was finally able to be happy again after I lost my husband and you couldn’t even let me have that. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to always come in second in your own fiancé’s life, even when he was dying? I gave him everything, and it was never enough because I wasn’t you. Perfect little Cameron, with her perfect little life. He worshiped you and you just ate it up. He followed you around like a puppy, even more so after you started getting those stupid letters. Canceling plans with me and Abby just to make sure nothing happened to pathetic little Cameron,” she sneers, venom filling her voice.

“What letters?” Everett finally asks.

Michelle looks away from me to smile unkindly at Everett.

“Oh, didn’t you know? Poor Cameron was being threatened. My fiancé gave up time with me and my daughter for her. Because she always came first. Her safety was all that mattered. Even in the end, he didn’t want me by his bedside, he wanted her,” she states through clenched teeth, turning her murderous look in my direction. “You didn’t even try to help. You didn’t even care that it should have been me holding his hand when he died, telling him I loved him and giving him comfort.”

Setting the box on the porch railing next to me, I take a step away from Everett toward Michelle, tears clouding my vision as I move down the stairs, wanting to wrap her in my arms and make her believe that none of what she’s saying is true. I tried explaining to her several times why Aiden didn’t want her there at the end, but she never believed me. She never understood that Aiden didn’t want her last memories to be of the frail, weak patient he’d become, and not the strong, handsome man she fell in love with. It was one of the only arguments Aiden and I ever had when he was sick. Michelle deserved to be there, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Just like he didn’t want Everett to see him like that.

I pause halfway down the steps when she holds up her hands to stop me.

“Dry your tears, sweetheart. I don’t need them, and I don’t need any of your bullshit explanations. I just wanted to give you your stuff and tell you to stop trying to contact me. I don’t want your phone calls, I don’t want your texts, and I don’t want you anywhere near me or my daughter.”

With that, she turns and walks away, gets into her car, and peels down the driveway.

“Jesus, and I thought I was the jealous one,” Everett mutters, making me smile through my tears like he always does.

“I thought she was my friend. I thought if I just kept trying to reach out to her, she’d be able to push aside her anger and grief enough to listen to me,” I tell him.

He moves down a few steps to stand behind me, resting his hands on my shoulders and kissing the top of my head. He doesn’t even need to say anything; just having him here is comfort enough.

Everett and I stand quietly on the porch, watching her drive away, until Amelia interrupts the moment, jogging across the front lawn and stopping at the base of the steps. She looks back over her shoulder at Michelle’s car as it disappears down the driveway.

“Was that Michelle? Is she finally ready to talk to you?” Amelia asks, turning back around to face me and noticing the tears in my eyes. “I take it that’s a no. I’m sorry, honey. She just needs more time.”

I nod, swiping the tears off my cheeks, knowing that no amount of time will ever heal the pain and anger in Michelle’s heart.

“Sorry to ruin your day even more, but another piece of fan mail came today,” Amelia tells me sarcastically. “I was going to just put it in the file with the rest, but I wasn’t sure if you wanted to look at it first.”

With a sigh, I take the envelope she’s holding in her outstretched hand, ripping it open and pulling the folded piece of paper out of it.

“What the fuck?” Everett mutters, leaning against my side to read over my shoulder.

You will regret ruining my life.

“It’s nothing,” I tell him, refolding the paper and shoving it back in the envelope before handing it back to Amelia. “Go ahead and file it with the others.”

Amelia starts to take the envelop, but Everett quickly snatches it away.

“This isn’t nothing, Cameron. This is serious. Is this what Michelle was talking about?”

The light, teasing voice and bright, shining eyes from just moments ago when he was joking about us showering together are long gone, as well as the silent comfort he gave me during Michelle’s visit. Everett is clutching the envelope so hard in his fist that his knuckles are turning white.

“Everett, it’s fine. We get letters like this all the time,” I tell him, deciding to keep it to myself that we’ve never received ones quite this threatening before, considering how pissed off he is right now.

“What the hell do you mean you get letters like this all the time? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” he growls through clenched teeth.

My need to keep him calm vanishes in a flash, I forget all about my hurt and sadness over Michelle’s accusations, and I cross my arms angrily in front of me as I stare him down.

“Maybe because I knew you’d react just like this,” I fire back, annoyed that he’s making such a big deal about nothing.

“How the fuck do you expect me to react when I’m just now finding out that you’ve been getting threatened?!” he shouts.

“Aaaaand that’s my cue to leave,” Amelia mutters, slowly backing away from us. “Jason and I have dinner plans, so you two kids try and manage not to kill each other while I’m gone.”

I don’t even say good-bye to her, I’m too busy staring Everett down. And I’m too angry even to acknowledge the fact that Jason finally grew some balls and asked Amelia out. They’ve been joined at the hip since the day after the charity dinner, when Amelia gave him hell after helping him put his drunk date in a cab and sending her home.

I’ll have plenty of time to be happy for my friend after I give Everett a piece of my mind.

“I need to go to the police with these. Make some calls and see what the fuck is going on. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this,” he mutters, shaking his head and looking down at the letter still clutched tightly in his fist.

“Stop acting like a Neanderthal and like I don’t know what I’m doing,” I argue. “I didn’t tell you about this because it’s not that big of a deal. My parents had been getting letters like this long before I took over the camp. And in case you didn’t notice, things have been a little crazy around here lately and it wasn’t exactly at the top of my list of things we should discuss.”

“Clearly you don’t know what you’re doing since the letters haven’t stopped coming!” he shouts.

Before I say something I might regret, I turn and walk away from him, stomping down the steps as I go.

“Cameron!” Everett yells after me.

“Screw you!” I shout back as I keep walking.

It was bad enough that Aiden got overly protective of me when the notes became increasingly threatening, making Michelle hate me and think he loved me more. I can’t change the past, but I can damn sure make different choices going forward. Like not letting Everett turn all alpha male and think I can’t take care of myself.