Page 3 of I Loved You First

Fiona rushed off the cushion as she instantly grew sick. “That’s not true.”

Sympathy filled Mom’s eyes now. “I’m afraid it is⁠—”

“No,” Fiona said as she shook her head more adamantly. “I don’t believe you.”

Mom stood, capturing her hands again. “Sweetie, I saw Ellie at the council meeting this morning. We had a chance to talk. All of this has come as a huge shock to everyone. She told me Cam moved out of his apartment—that he’s back home. Ally’s been feeling quite poorly, so she’s had a hard time working at the salon… They’ll both be staying with Ellie and Danny while they try to figure things out.”

Fiona shook her head again as she tried to take it all in—as she fought to comprehend that the girl who’d hated her throughout high school would be living in Cam’s family home. That Cam and Ally were going to be parents. Together. “No.”

Mom nodded. “Ellie mentioned that Cam and some friends are helping Ally move this afternoon⁠—”

“No,” Fiona repeated as she rushed to the entryway, grabbing her phone and the car keys off the table before she ran out the door.

Mom hurried after her, stopping in the doorway. “Fiona, come back.”

She didn’t listen as she got behind the wheel and quickly backed out. “It’s just a mistake,” she assured herself, unable to believe anything else as her hands trembled on the steering wheel.

“We love each other,” she told herself next as she paused more than stopped at the occasional stop sign, driving closer to Ally’s above-the-garage apartment in the same older neighborhood Fiona had lived in nearly all her life.

She slowed halfway up the next block, stopping when she spotted the familiar pickup truck.

Getting out, she left the Camry to idle in the middle of the street, listening to the Top 40 music echoing from a window as she walked closer to the well-maintained colonial, still trying to convince herself that there was another explanation—that other people besides Cam drove a black Dodge Ram.

But her breath backed up in her chest as she read Bennet & Sons Home Builders on the side of the work truck. And then she froze when Cam and Cam’s best friend hefted a chest of drawers through the open garage door. Ally soon followed in short shorts and a tank shirt, looking stunning and no worse for the wear while she carried a small U-Haul box in her arms.

“This isn’t happening,” Fiona whispered, still in disbelief, until Cam turned his head and their gazes locked. She saw it then—the surprise and apology in his gorgeous green eyes.

Instantly, her heart knew what her head had been unwilling to accept. Everything about her life as she knew it crumbled into a million pieces.

Tears coursed down her cheeks as she fought to breathe—as she turned away and hurried toward the car.

“Fi, wait!”

She picked up her pace, full-out running, as she heard Cam’s footsteps quickly approaching.

“Fiona, stop!”

But she didn’t stop. Instead, she got behind the wheel, flipped a U-ey, and burned rubber as she slammed her foot on the gas.

Five blocks quickly passed in a blur of tears and grief. The sobs came when she spotted the sweet two-story house she and Mom had fixed up together. Home.

But she felt none of the familiar comfort in being there as she pulled into the driveway and ran up the porch steps, yanking open the door. “Mom!”

Mom rushed from the kitchen. “Fi⁠—”

“I need to go,” she said as she hurried upstairs to the bedroom, crouching to shut the suitcase she’d barely unpacked, zipping it and grabbing her purse. She yanked up the heavy luggage, dragging it beside her down the steps. “I need to leave. I have to go right now.”

Mom stopped her with a gentle tug on her arm as Fiona reached to open the screen door. “Take some deep breaths, honey.”

Fiona adamantly shook her head. “I can’t. Please take me to the bus station.”

“But—”

“Please, Mom. I know Cam will come, and I can’t be here when he does.”

Mom nodded, following Fiona outside, getting behind the wheel as Fiona fought to get the suitcase into the trunk.

Getting in the passenger side, she heard her cell phone ringing on the floor. Ignoring it, she buckled her safety belt while Mom backed up.