Never Say Never by Rachael Sommers (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

“You should leave,” she told Camila, and Emily snorted.

“No, stay,” she told Camila.

Cassie scoffed. “Are you serious, Em? After all the tears you cried over her the past few months? How many times has she made you feel like shit? Worthless? And she shows up here with flowers and suddenly you forget about that?”

“I haven’t forgotten anything,” Emily said quietly. She glanced at Camila, who looked like she was going to bolt without saying what she had come to say.

“Cassie.” Maia tugged again at Cassie’s arm. “Maybe we should give them a chance to talk.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Cassie brushed her off, setting her jaw. “You’re going to break my sister’s heart again, and I’m staying here to pick up the pieces. Talk if you want to, but I’m going to be right here.”

She stalked into Emily’s bedroom and slammed the door. Emily put her hand over her face—this was not the evening she had planned.

“Do you want me to talk to her?” Maia asked. She hovered inside the doorway, looking like she’d rather be somewhere else.

“No.” Camila spoke for the first time, her voice calm. “I’ll go.”

“Camila, you don’t have to—” Emily touched her arm but Camila shrugged her off.

“Yes, I do,” and she followed Cassie into Emily’s bedroom.

“You got a broom, Em?” Maia asked, reminding Emily that there was food all over the floor. Emily grabbed the broom and dustpan and concentrated on cleaning up instead of what might be happening in the other room.

“Do you think they’ll be all right?”

“Well, I haven’t heard any screaming,” Maia joked. “You wanna fill me in on what happened here?”

“You know as much as I do,” Emily said with a shrug. “I got home from Camila’s place and she was waiting outside my door holding those”—she nodded at the roses—“said she wanted to talk. And then you and Cassie walked in two seconds later.”

“Oh. What do you think she wants to talk about?”

“I’ve barely seen her.” She turned when she heard the bedroom door opening. Cassie walked out, Camila following.

Emily and Maia studied them warily, looking for signs of damage, but there was no visible blood.

“Maia and I are gonna go, give you two a chance to talk,” Cassie said. “You call me if you need me, okay?”

“I will,” Emily promised. Cassie looked at Camila one last time as if to warn her, then headed out the door with Maia, leaving Camila and Emily alone.

Camila dropped wearily onto Emily’s couch. “What did you say to her?” Emily asked, sitting next to her but leaving space between them.

“She asked me to explain myself, so I did,” Camila said, as if that clarified everything. “And I…I owe you an explanation too.” Camila took a deep breath, steeling herself. “I’ve never…I’ve never been very good at falling in love.”

Emily held her breath.

“I don’t know how to be vulnerable, don’t know how to let someone in. I have a bit of a prickly exterior”—Camila smiled wryly—“but you never let it bother you for a second.” Camila turned to meet Emily’s gaze. “You took me completely by surprise. You won Jaime over in two seconds flat, didn’t back away when I challenged you. You found your way into my heart so quietly, I didn’t even notice you had snuck in until it was too late.”

“But in London…” Emily trailed off, not wanting to relive it yet again.

Camila winced. “Like I said, I’m not very good at letting someone in. When I kissed you, it… I don’t know if I’ve ever felt like that before, and honestly, it terrified me. You could destroy me, Emily, if you wanted to.”

Emily stifled the urge to laugh because, if anything, the opposite was true. But Camila looked at her earnestly, and she knew it wasn’t a lie.

“I’m not…an easy person. You’re young and selfless and wonderful, and I…I didn’t want to ruin that, so I decided it would be better to push you away.”

Emily knew Camila well enough to understand why she might think she would ruin yet another relationship.

“That didn’t work out well.” Camila looked down. “I shouldn’t have pushed you away, and I’m sorry that I hurt you.”

“You could have told me this at the time, you know,” Emily said. “Or after that night in the bar.”

“I know.” Camila bit her bottom lip. “Believe it or not, communication isn’t my strong point.”

“With your job?”

“That’s work,” Camila said. “In relationships I’m not…I’m not good at it.”

“Why…why are you telling me this now? You told me in London that you didn’t want a relationship. What changed?”

“Everything.” Camila turned to look at her then, looking at her with something in her eyes Emily had never seen before, and it took her breath away. “You quit, and I was faced with the thought of never seeing you again, of losing you for good and I… It was unimaginable. If I threw away this chance at happiness, I…I could never forgive myself.” Camila reached out and took Emily’s hand, and it was like a jolt of electricity. “I know this is a lot, and it must seem like it’s out of the blue, but I had to… I couldn’t let you go without telling you how I felt. And I’ll leave, if you want me to, if you need time to think—”

Emily reached behind Camila’s head to pull her close and kissed her.

The kiss was no more than their lips meeting, but it set her heart racing, and her fingertips trembled.

“I don’t need to think about how I feel, even though the past few weeks haven’t been great.” Camila opened her mouth to speak, but Emily kissed her again. “And it might take me some time to get over that, but I…I still want this, want you. That never stopped. But talk to me, Camila. If we do this, we have to be honest with each other, always.”

“I will,” Camila promised, “God, Emily, I would do anything to make you mine.”

“Anything?” Emily breathed, and Camila shifted closer, sliding one leg over Emily’s lap