Caught on Camera (Love Through a Lens, #1)

by Chelsea Curto

“Careful with the pies, Mags,” Shawn says. “Don’t let Lacey drop them.” “You and these damn pies,” I answer. “I’m going to smash one in your face if you’re not careful, and they’re not even that good. They have way too much nutmeg.” “Smash away, Lace. If I want something, I tend to get it. And I want those damn pies.” “Yeah?” I run my finger across the whipped cream on top of the smaller dessert, and I hold out my hand. “Prove it.”

“Doesn’t matter. Fake. Real. I don’t give a shit. I take care of what’s mine, and right now, you are mine.”

“We can keep pretending we’re just fuck buddies, Lacey, but you’re wearing my shirt with nothing underneath it. What about this feels fake to you?”

“Well.” He runs his knuckles down my jaw and hums. “For starters, I could sleep over. I could spend every night with you, then wake up next to you in the morning. I’d cook you breakfast; scrambled eggs, just the way you like them.” “You want to cook me breakfast?” I whisper, incapable of any other words except for his own mirrored back to him. “I do. I could give you a key to my apartment and let you have free rein. I could stop by when I got back in town from games and not have to go home alone. Bring you with me on the team plane and sneak you into the bathroom so I could kiss you senseless without anyone teasing us. And I would tell you I love you. Very much and very often, because I do. I do love you, Lacey. I don’t want to let you go just yet. Can I keep you a little while longer?”

“I think about you when I’m away. I miss you when I’m gone. I count down the seconds until I can see you again,” Shawn says. He wipes a tear from my cheek then kisses his thumb, as if he’s collecting the drops to save for later. “I can’t—I don’t want to go through life without you by my side.”

“I missed you so much. I saw you yesterday, and I still missed you. There’s a hole in my heart when you aren’t around, Lacey. Do you know I hear you in the crowd? I hear you scream my name and I hear your laugh. I listen for you. I don’t care about the other seventy thousand people. I only care about you.”

“Lacey. I know our relationship didn’t start out on the most truthful of terms,” he says. He reaches for my hand and threads his fingers through mine. “We couldn’t admit we were attracted to each other. It was fake. Purely physical. Something we joked about but never believed in until that night on the roof at my parents’ house. You looked at me, and I thought I was struck by fucking lightning. I wanted to learn everything about you. I wanted to meet your family and give you whatever resources I had to help you accomplish your goals and dreams. That was the moment I realized you would never be just a friend to me ever again. That was the moment I knew I was falling in love with you. But it wasn’t falling. It was jumping in head first, because loving you has been the easiest thing of my life. It’s been the most fun I’ve ever had, and God only knows how much fun we’ve yet to have.”