“Noticed you’ve been sittin’ out here for a while now. Thought you might need a drink.”

Camden looked up from the hole he’d been staring into the ground beyond Sutton’s front porch. He’d been so busy running over the speech he’d made in his head that he hadn’t heard Mrs. Whittaker approach until just then.

The kindly old woman held a glass of iced tea in one hand and balanced carefully on her cane with the other.

Standing quickly, he divested her of the glass and helped her up the steps before she hurt herself. When she gingerly sat on the stair he’d just vacated, he followed her lead and resumed the position he’d held for the past two hours. That was how long he’d been waiting for his girl to get home.

He didn’t have the first clue where she was, or how long she’d be gone, but no way in hell was he leaving.

This had gone on long enough.

Unable to handle not seeing her or hearing that beautiful voice of hers for another second, Camden had climbed into his car earlier that morning and made the drive to Sutton’s house.

His heart sank when he saw her car missing from the drive, but he was determined to wait her out. He’d sleep on the goddamn porch all night if that was how long it took her to come back. He knew from his stakeouts that she’d finally gone back home the other night, and he wasn’t missing his chance. He needed her back. Without her, he couldn’t breathe.

“How have you been, Mrs. Whittaker?” he asked after taking a refreshing drink of the tea she’d given him.

“Oh, I’ve been good, dear, just like always. But I didn’t waddle my way across that patch of grass for chitchat, boy. I came over to give you some advice.”

He couldn’t help but smile for the first time in days. Sutton’s neighbor was a trip. “Hit me with it. Believe me, I’m desperate.”

The woman gave him a look, quirking one of her eyebrows higher than the other. “Two hours spent sitting on a front porch all alone, I’d say so.”

He let out a light laugh and took another drink. The temp had gotten up there today, so the tea was a welcome relief. “What do you have for me?”

“Don’t take no for an answer.”

Camden choked into the glass and sputtered as he tried to catch his breath. “Sorry?”

“You love her?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then you don’t take no for an answer. That girl’s her own worst enemy. Has been for as long as I’ve known her. Sabotages her own happiness out of fear, the poor thing. So you don’t let that happen.”

Mrs. Whittaker turned fiercely determined eyes on him and declared, “Don’t know what you did to tear her in two, but I know true love when it’s starin’ me right in the eyes, and that’s what you two been doin’ now for weeks. So you fight. You fight her, you fight anything or anyone standin’ in your way. You hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered softly, giving her a meaningful nod. “Loud and clear. And you’ve got my word.”

Her papery cheeks wrinkled as a huge grin spread across her lips. “Then I guess my work here is done. I’ll just be on my way. Gotta get back to my soaps. You have sweet Sutton bring that glass back over later.”

Camden put the iced tea down on the porch and stood up. “Let me help you back across.”

“No time, son,” she called over her shoulder as she started down the walk and across the grass. “Looks like you’re up to bat.”

Just then, Sutton’s car came turning into the driveway, and Camden’s heart leapt into his throat. He could see the confusion in her expression through the windshield as she looked back and forth between him and Mrs. Whittaker before finally cutting the engine and climbing from the car.

“Afternoon, darlin’,” Mrs. Whittaker called as she continued her trek across the small scrap of yard between the two houses.

“Uh… afternoon,” Sutton returned. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s peachy, my dear. Just havin’ a chat with your fella over there.”

A deep V formed between her brows. “Oh… okay.”

Mrs. Whittaker stopped then, looking back at Sutton with the same stern expression she’d looked at Camden with only a minute before. “You remember what I told you those weeks ago?”

Camden’s curiosity piqued when Sutton nodded. “I remember.”

“You hear him out. You trust your gut. The heart is a beautiful thing, but it tends to lead us astray when it’s hurting. Your gut never steers wrong. So look and listen, precious girl.”

With that bit of sage wisdom, Mrs. Whittaker made it to her house and disappeared inside as the two of them watched.

When he finally turned back, Sutton’s gorgeous hazel eyes were firmly on his face. “What was that all about?”

“She came over to give me some advice.”

Camden watched as she took a few hesitant steps closer, and for the first time in days, he felt a ray of hope. “Oh? And what advice was that?”

His eyes tracked her feet with every step she took, and that hope bloomed wider with each one. “She told me not to give up, and not to take no for an answer. That she can see how much we love each other clear as day.”

Sutton suddenly stopped and pulled that plump bottom lip between her teeth while her face grew red.

“But is that true?” she asked, so quietly it was a struggle to hear.

He couldn’t stand the distance for another goddamn second. Shooting down the steps, he closed the space she’d left between them, meeting her on the front walk and taking her face in his hands. “Is what true, baby?”

“That you love me?”

“Yes,” he grunted, the question causing a physical pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He was such a goddamn asshole. If he’d just told her the truth that night in the limo, returned her words when she said them to him, she wouldn’t have had any doubts. “Christ, Sutton. You’re the love of my goddamn life. I got nothin’ without you, baby. Can’t you see that?”

She closed her eyes against the tears shining in them, then lowered her head until it hit his chest.

When she spoke again, her words were muffled by the cotton of his T-shirt, but that did nothing to soften the impact of them. “Brina and I went to see our dad today.”

“Fuck, baby. Are you okay?”

She lifted her head and looked back up at him, and when her face was soft and warm, he pulled in his first full breath in a week. “I wasn’t sure I would be, but… yeah. It wasn’t this huge, groundbreaking conversation where we ended up holding each other as we cried, but it was a start. I don’t know what’ll happen now, but I’m okay with that. Did you really threaten to cut his dick off and shove it down his throat?”

“He told you that?” Camden couldn’t hold back his wince, and the second she caught it, Sutton burst into laughter. It was the most beautiful sound in the whole goddamn world, a sound he wasn’t sure he’d ever hear again, so hearing it now was a gift from above.

It took her a while to get control of her giggles, and he took full advantage of that time, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her close to him. He hadn’t realized just how empty he’d been until he had her in his arms. Now, with her pressed against him, he was finally whole, and he’d do everything in his power to never lose this feeling.

“I love you, Sutton. I’m in love with you. And I’m so goddamn sorry I hurt you. But if you’ll give me another chance, I swear to you, I’ll never hurt you again. I know I broke that promise once already, but I’m a man who learns from his mistakes. I know what it feels like to lose you, and I never want to feel this way again. Please, baby. I’m beggin’ you. Please forgive me.”

Her eyelids drooped as she gazed up at him. “Wow. Never thought I’d see the day where you begged me for something.”

His arms spasmed, and he pulled her even closer. “I’ll do anything. You want me to get on my hands and knees and beg, I’ll do it. I’ll give up my career for you, just say the word. Anything you want, Sutton. Anything, just… don’t make me lose you for good.”

Sutton’s hands came up and grabbed the fabric of his shirt, twisting it tightly in her fingers. “Is this you not taking no for an answer?”

One corner of his mouth quirked in a smirk at her teasing tone. “I got a sleeping bag and a week’s worth of food in the car. I came prepared to camp out on your front porch if that’s what it took.”

She returned his grin, but only for a second before her face went serious again. “No more secrets, Camden. If this is gonna work, we have to be totally honest with each other.”

It took everything not to lean back and shout his thanks to the heavens. “No secrets, I swear.”

Lifting up on her toes, Sutton pressed her lips to Camden’s in a soft kiss that he took control of an instant later. By the time they broke apart, both of them were breathing heavily.

“I love you, Camden Knight. Never thought it was possible, seeing as you annoyed the hell out of me for two whole years, but there it is. I’m so in love with you.”

Lowering his forehead to hers, he closed his eyes and gave her brutal honesty. “I love you too, Sutton Briar. I think I have since the very first moment I laid eyes on you. It just took a while for me to realize what I had standing in front of me all along.”

“About time you two pulled your heads out!”

At the sound of Mrs. Whittaker’s voice, they both jerked around to find the old lady standing on her front porch, staring in their direction. “Now take your behinds inside. It’s inappropriate to give your neighbors a show like this in the middle of the day.”

Not having to be told twice, Camden bent and threw Sutton over his shoulder, lumbering up the steps two at a time as her loud laughter rang out. Then he took her inside and prepared to give her a show all of her own.