Fic: A Long Time Ago (1/1)
Title: A Long Time Ago
Author: Melyanna
Summary: Amazingly, Ainsley didn't actually think of what a bad idea this was until there was a smoking hole in the neighbor's house.
Notes: Inspired by one of auralan's less scary links. Written to stave off a vicious plot bunny that I do not have time for. It may or may not have worked.
Amazingly, Ainsley didn't actually think of what a bad idea this was until there was a smoking hole in the neighbor's house.
The day had started out innocently enough. Her brother Dean and his roommate Cameron had arrived the night before for the weekend. Cam's twenty-first birthday had been a few days before he and Dean had gone back to school, so Mom had had a cake ready for dessert. Then the two of them had proceeded to eat practically everything in the house. Mom said it was normal for guys, but it was incredibly irritating to Ainsley, who was starting to be hungry all the time. In fact, late that night she'd had to make a batch of cookies because she was starving. By morning, they were all gone.
In the morning, while Dean helped Dad mow the back yard, Cameron walked with Ainsley down to a convenience store a mile or so away. They got slushies and sat on swings in the nearby park while they drank them. She knew it probably looked a little strange to passers-by; after all, she was only fourteen and everyone in town knew that Cam wasn't a relative. But he never treated her like a little girl. He never blew her off, and when she talked he listened. She hadn't really had a relationship with an adult where she was treated like a peer before.
They got back to the house just in time to help out in the kitchen. At noon, Ainsley's very recent boyfriend was coming over for lunch. Michael was a nice guy and her parents seemed to like him. She'd told enough stories about her brother that Michael wanted to meet Dean, which of course meant meeting Cameron. He arrived just as Ainsley was warning Dean to be nice.
She hadn't really thought that it was Cameron she should have talked to. He was sitting across from Michael at lunch and kept asking probing questions in this innocent voice. She wasn't an idiot, though. She'd had a couple boyfriends before this and she knew what "let me tell you what happens if you hurt her" sounded like. Cam was screwing with her just for fun. She wasn't sure who was more embarrassed, though.
Finally, while they were finishing up peach cobbler, Ainsley had had enough. "Dad," she said a little loudly, just as Cameron was opening his mouth again. "Did you tell Dean about the cannon?"
"Cannon?" Dean repeated.
Cameron was sufficiently distracted. "There's a cannon?"
So once the dishes were washed, Mom went to the store and everyone else marched out to the back yard where there was a tarp over an amorphous thing. This, Dad explained to the boys, was a replica of a cannon used in some battle during the Civil War. Ainsley had heard the explanation enough times by now that she was no longer listening to it and was actively trying to forget it. She knew Dad had plans to use it at the next reenactment he dragged them to. She just hoped Cameron didn't tag along for that, because Dad always insisted that they all go in costume, and she really didn't want him to see her dressed up like some obsessed Gone With the Wind fan.
Admittedly, Cam would probably look really good in that extra Union uniform they had in the attic.
"You know, Mr. Hayes," Cameron said, "we use one of these in ROTC at football games."
"We?" Dean repeated. "They don't let us anywhere near the cannon."
"They should this year. We're juniors!"
"Dude, if there's one thing I know it's that you should never be allowed near weapons."
In the midst of that, Michael reached over and squeezed Ainsley's hand. She looked at him and smiled. But the next time she looked at Cam, he was giving them that look, like he couldn't decide between moving to step between them and mocking them mercilessly. Ainsley sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Something wrong, honey?" her dad asked.
"No, I'm fine."
"You sure? Usually you've got more to say."
"Yeah, usually we can't get you to shut up," Dean said.
Ainsley made a face at him and pulled away from Michael. That morning she'd put some bobby pins in her pocket and forgotten about them as Mom needed her help in the kitchen. Now she began to pin her long hair up as Dad walked Dean and Cameron through how to fire the cannon.
Michael was looking distinctly nervous about all this, she noted. Later she'd have to ask him if he thought this was some twisted version of a father cleaning his shotgun in front of his daughter's boyfriend. It really wasn't - Dad wasn't that type of dad - but she could see how this would put him on edge. If she was lucky, it wouldn't scare him off.
The boys had finished loading the cannon when Ainsley suddenly had the feeling that something was about to go wrong. She looked around swiftly and realized what they were aiming at. "Dad, the roses!" she yelled.
Mom had planted those rose bushes before Ainsley could remember. They were a good hundred yards back from the house, too, well beyond the swimming pool, and if they didn't have that thing aimed high enough the cannonball was going to go straight through them.
"The roses? The roses!" Dad repeated. "Quick, turn it."
Cam and Dean managed to rotate the cannon about forty-five degrees before Dad said it was okay. Then, as Cam was taking the honor of firing it, Dean said, "Hey, isn't there a house behind those trees?"
It was too late. As soon as the smoke cleared from the firing, the five of them ran down the line of evergreens they'd just blasted through. On the other side, they could see the neighbor's kitchen, because the cannonball had gone through the wall and landed in what had once been a beautiful porcelain sink. From its remains, a pipe was now spewing water.
As one of the neighbors came running into the kitchen from another room, Dad just said, "Aww, crap."
That evening, Ainsley was sitting on the steps of the back porch alone, looking at the stars and contemplating the day. Michael had been genuinely spooked by the whole cannon thing. She couldn't quite blame him, but she suspected that this was going to lead to him starting off a conversation with "I think you're a great person" pretty soon.
She sighed. This was not her first boyfriend to be scared off by Dad's crazy Civil War collection. Clearly, she needed to find a boy who was interested in that too.
The back door creaked open and she looked over her shoulder. When she saw Cameron, she rolled her eyes and turned back. "What do you want?" she asked.
"We're having ice cream," he replied. "Your mom sent me out with a bowl."
Ainsley looked again as he held the bowl out to her. It was vanilla with chocolate and caramel sauce liberally drizzled on it, and sprinkles on top of that, her favorite way to eat ice cream. She took the bowl and looked up at him. "Thanks."
He was looking down at her more kindly than he had all day. Leaning back against the post holding up the porch roof, he asked, "Did the cannon scare him off?"
"He remembered that he had to walk the dog."
"Well, that's valid."
"He doesn't have a dog."
"Jerk."
Ainsley just stuck a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and stared up at him again. He pushed himself away from the post and looked like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. "Dean and I are heading to the store," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Do you want anything?"
"No, I'm fine," she replied. "Though if you want an act of penance, you could always surprise me."
"Penance?"
"For scaring off my boyfriend!"
"Hey, you were the one who brought up the cannon."
He ducked back inside before she could respond. Annoyed, she turned her attention back to her ice cream and tried not to think that it had been really nice of him to bring it out, even if her mom had told him to.
When she was done, she went back into the house, taking her bowl into the kitchen to rinse it out. Mom came in just after she finished and said, "Sorry, sweetie, but you missed ice cream. I don't think there's any left."
Ainsley frowned. "Cameron brought me some while I was out on the porch. He said you sent him to give it to me."
Mom got a perplexed smile on her face. "Not that I remember."
Mom left, but Ainsley stayed in the kitchen for a while, munching on celery sticks and wondering if Cameron had already tried to do his penance.
An undisclosed number of years later
Ainsley's new house was quite a bit smaller than her old one, but she didn't mind. The house she and Seth had bought here had been ridiculous. They had needed the space to entertain, but four bedrooms for two people was far too much. This house was just a charming brick house with plenty of room for her and Lila. And Cameron, when he came to visit.
He was here now, in fact. Since Lila's birth, nearly every time he had forty-eight hours of leave together he'd hopped on the next military transport and come to see them. This time, though, had been different. She had mentioned that her lawyer had warned her that her divorce would likely be finalized within the week, and Cameron had secured a week's leave time and come out to see her. She really could get used to this with him, even though he never gave her enough warning to get the house cleaned to her satisfaction.
But deep in her heart she liked that too. She liked the fact that at the slightest sign of need from her or Lila, he would come as fast as he could. She hadn't wanted to admit it, but this time she really did need him. As much as she wanted the divorce, it was painful to know that a marriage she had once worked hard at sustaining was completely dissolved now.
Twilight was fading, and Ainsley sat on the steps of the back porch. Lila, who was now six months old, was in a little bouncing seat that Ainsley had brought outside. As the baby pushed herself up and giggled, Ainsley held back a sigh. It was okay that Lila wasn't hurting. It was good, even. That was why she had kept Seth away. She hadn't wanted her daughter hurt by him too.
The back door opened, and she turned to see Cameron come outside with two bowls of ice cream. He handed her one as he sat down beside her and she smiled. It was vanilla with chocolate and caramel and sprinkles. "You remembered."
"Of course," he replied as though it were obvious. "It's been a while, though."
The two of them got to work on their ice cream and Ainsley tried to think of the last time she'd had ice cream with him like this. As she remembered, she chuckled. "Remember when you and Dean and Dad fired the cannon into the neighbor's house?"
"How could I forget?" he asked. "It's a miracle I didn't end up with a police record. I don't know how your dad managed to get the neighbor not to press charges."
"I do," Ainsley replied. "He paid for all the damage. The neighbors were pretty creative in finding more things that got damaged. They got a full kitchen remodel out of it. I think what annoyed Dad was that they still never came to the Christmas party we threw every year." She took another spoonful of ice cream and added, "Mom was so mad that she got a whole new kitchen too."
He laughed. "I miss your house, Ains."
She smiled at him, then turned to see that Lila was still entertaining herself. "You were a jerk to me that day," she said. "I seem to remember you interrogating my boyfriend just for your own amusement."
"Well, it was fun to watch you steam." He elbowed her playfully. "Still is occasionally."
She rolled her eyes. "You know, I found out you were lying."
"About what?"
She held up her ice cream. "You told me Mom made you bring me ice cream. She denied it."
Cameron smiled sheepishly. "Maybe."
Ainsley sighed. "Cameron Mitchell, you were such a mess back then."
He sat up abruptly, looking down at himself. "And now I'm literally a mess."
Ainsley looked to see that he had in fact dripped ice cream and caramel on his black shirt. Quickly she grabbed the burp cloth she'd brought out with Lila and began to clean it up. "I really thought it would have been the baby I'd be cleaning up," she teased. "But you always were a messy eater."
"It's part of my charm," Cameron replied, and she tried to ignore the way she could feel his voice in his chest as she wiped up his shirt.
Once most of the ice cream was out of his clothes, she set the cloth aside. "All done."
"Thanks." She just nodded, poking her spoon at her ice cream. Cameron was still watching her, she knew. "Ains," he said, very gently.
She looked up at him, and something in the way he was looking at her told her that things were about to change forever. After all these years of deep and lasting friendship, even with distance separating them for nearly all of it, after one kiss they really should have resisted, things were finally different. He was single. She was single. Even the thought of Lila didn't make her stop him. She knew that Cam loved Lila as though she were his own daughter.
So when he leaned in, she closed the distance and their lips met softly. It wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first perfect one. There was no guilt to linger afterward, just a desire to kiss him again. And they did kiss again, over and over until Lila made a particularly loud sound of glee.
"Tinkerbell," he muttered when Ainsley broke away to check on the baby.
"She's fine," she replied. "Her hands are cold, though. We should get inside."
Cameron gathered up the bowls while Ainsley got Lila out of her seat. He grabbed the chair too and followed them into the house. "I wonder if your mom still has that cannon," he said.
"Oh, she does," Ainsley told him. "She has all the costumes too."
"Really? Even the-"
"Yes. She still has the dress I wore that time you tagged along." She gave him an appraising look as she set Lila in her high chair. "Still has that Union soldier uniform you wore, but I bet you wouldn't fit in it anymore."
"Hey," he said, grabbing her by the waist and making her face him. "It's not like I've gotten fat."
Ainsley ran her hands up his well-toned arms. "No, honey, you've bulked up."
"Good save," Cam teased as he leaned down and kissed her. As soon as their lips met, Lila started squealing again, and Cameron got a dark look on his face. "Is this because we're not paying attention to her, or does she just not want me kissing you?"
"Well, it's not like she seems unhappy about it."
"I'd be very upset if she was," he replied, brushing her hair away from her face. "'Cause I plan on kissing you a lot."
"Making plans already?" she asked lightly.
To her surprise, Cameron turned serious. "I think I want to."
Despite the flushed feeling she got, that kind of remark still made her nervous. "Cam."
"I know," he said gently. "You just got out of something I can't imagine. I don't want to push you."
Ainsley sighed and leaned forward, resting her head against his shoulder. His arms went around her and held her tightly. He meant so much to her, and part of her wanted to rush into things heedlessly. On the other hand, she suspected that taking things slow with Cameron would never, ever be boring, or less than worthwhile.
"Hey," he said, prompting her to look up. "I think you owe me another kiss."
"Interesting," she replied.
"Fascinating, even." He kissed her slowly then, his hands running up and down her back with equal deliberateness. Ainsley wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let herself stay in this moment, not thinking of anything but the way he made her feel.
"Cameron," she breathed when he finally drew away. His thumb traced her cheekbone, and her knees felt weak for a second. "We should have done this a long time ago."
"Maybe," he said, to her confusion. He let go of her then and picked up Lila, who had dozed off in her chair. With her against his chest, he held out his hand to Ainsley. "But now's a good time too."
She smiled and took his hand. He kissed her fingers, and together they left the kitchen and put Lila to bed.
When Lila was soundly asleep, they settled on the couch in the living room to watch a movie, only this time Ainsley could cuddle up to him and he put his arm around her. Perhaps he was right, she thought. Maybe now was even better than a long time ago.
Author: Melyanna
Summary: Amazingly, Ainsley didn't actually think of what a bad idea this was until there was a smoking hole in the neighbor's house.
Notes: Inspired by one of auralan's less scary links. Written to stave off a vicious plot bunny that I do not have time for. It may or may not have worked.
Amazingly, Ainsley didn't actually think of what a bad idea this was until there was a smoking hole in the neighbor's house.
The day had started out innocently enough. Her brother Dean and his roommate Cameron had arrived the night before for the weekend. Cam's twenty-first birthday had been a few days before he and Dean had gone back to school, so Mom had had a cake ready for dessert. Then the two of them had proceeded to eat practically everything in the house. Mom said it was normal for guys, but it was incredibly irritating to Ainsley, who was starting to be hungry all the time. In fact, late that night she'd had to make a batch of cookies because she was starving. By morning, they were all gone.
In the morning, while Dean helped Dad mow the back yard, Cameron walked with Ainsley down to a convenience store a mile or so away. They got slushies and sat on swings in the nearby park while they drank them. She knew it probably looked a little strange to passers-by; after all, she was only fourteen and everyone in town knew that Cam wasn't a relative. But he never treated her like a little girl. He never blew her off, and when she talked he listened. She hadn't really had a relationship with an adult where she was treated like a peer before.
They got back to the house just in time to help out in the kitchen. At noon, Ainsley's very recent boyfriend was coming over for lunch. Michael was a nice guy and her parents seemed to like him. She'd told enough stories about her brother that Michael wanted to meet Dean, which of course meant meeting Cameron. He arrived just as Ainsley was warning Dean to be nice.
She hadn't really thought that it was Cameron she should have talked to. He was sitting across from Michael at lunch and kept asking probing questions in this innocent voice. She wasn't an idiot, though. She'd had a couple boyfriends before this and she knew what "let me tell you what happens if you hurt her" sounded like. Cam was screwing with her just for fun. She wasn't sure who was more embarrassed, though.
Finally, while they were finishing up peach cobbler, Ainsley had had enough. "Dad," she said a little loudly, just as Cameron was opening his mouth again. "Did you tell Dean about the cannon?"
"Cannon?" Dean repeated.
Cameron was sufficiently distracted. "There's a cannon?"
So once the dishes were washed, Mom went to the store and everyone else marched out to the back yard where there was a tarp over an amorphous thing. This, Dad explained to the boys, was a replica of a cannon used in some battle during the Civil War. Ainsley had heard the explanation enough times by now that she was no longer listening to it and was actively trying to forget it. She knew Dad had plans to use it at the next reenactment he dragged them to. She just hoped Cameron didn't tag along for that, because Dad always insisted that they all go in costume, and she really didn't want him to see her dressed up like some obsessed Gone With the Wind fan.
Admittedly, Cam would probably look really good in that extra Union uniform they had in the attic.
"You know, Mr. Hayes," Cameron said, "we use one of these in ROTC at football games."
"We?" Dean repeated. "They don't let us anywhere near the cannon."
"They should this year. We're juniors!"
"Dude, if there's one thing I know it's that you should never be allowed near weapons."
In the midst of that, Michael reached over and squeezed Ainsley's hand. She looked at him and smiled. But the next time she looked at Cam, he was giving them that look, like he couldn't decide between moving to step between them and mocking them mercilessly. Ainsley sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Something wrong, honey?" her dad asked.
"No, I'm fine."
"You sure? Usually you've got more to say."
"Yeah, usually we can't get you to shut up," Dean said.
Ainsley made a face at him and pulled away from Michael. That morning she'd put some bobby pins in her pocket and forgotten about them as Mom needed her help in the kitchen. Now she began to pin her long hair up as Dad walked Dean and Cameron through how to fire the cannon.
Michael was looking distinctly nervous about all this, she noted. Later she'd have to ask him if he thought this was some twisted version of a father cleaning his shotgun in front of his daughter's boyfriend. It really wasn't - Dad wasn't that type of dad - but she could see how this would put him on edge. If she was lucky, it wouldn't scare him off.
The boys had finished loading the cannon when Ainsley suddenly had the feeling that something was about to go wrong. She looked around swiftly and realized what they were aiming at. "Dad, the roses!" she yelled.
Mom had planted those rose bushes before Ainsley could remember. They were a good hundred yards back from the house, too, well beyond the swimming pool, and if they didn't have that thing aimed high enough the cannonball was going to go straight through them.
"The roses? The roses!" Dad repeated. "Quick, turn it."
Cam and Dean managed to rotate the cannon about forty-five degrees before Dad said it was okay. Then, as Cam was taking the honor of firing it, Dean said, "Hey, isn't there a house behind those trees?"
It was too late. As soon as the smoke cleared from the firing, the five of them ran down the line of evergreens they'd just blasted through. On the other side, they could see the neighbor's kitchen, because the cannonball had gone through the wall and landed in what had once been a beautiful porcelain sink. From its remains, a pipe was now spewing water.
As one of the neighbors came running into the kitchen from another room, Dad just said, "Aww, crap."
That evening, Ainsley was sitting on the steps of the back porch alone, looking at the stars and contemplating the day. Michael had been genuinely spooked by the whole cannon thing. She couldn't quite blame him, but she suspected that this was going to lead to him starting off a conversation with "I think you're a great person" pretty soon.
She sighed. This was not her first boyfriend to be scared off by Dad's crazy Civil War collection. Clearly, she needed to find a boy who was interested in that too.
The back door creaked open and she looked over her shoulder. When she saw Cameron, she rolled her eyes and turned back. "What do you want?" she asked.
"We're having ice cream," he replied. "Your mom sent me out with a bowl."
Ainsley looked again as he held the bowl out to her. It was vanilla with chocolate and caramel sauce liberally drizzled on it, and sprinkles on top of that, her favorite way to eat ice cream. She took the bowl and looked up at him. "Thanks."
He was looking down at her more kindly than he had all day. Leaning back against the post holding up the porch roof, he asked, "Did the cannon scare him off?"
"He remembered that he had to walk the dog."
"Well, that's valid."
"He doesn't have a dog."
"Jerk."
Ainsley just stuck a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and stared up at him again. He pushed himself away from the post and looked like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. "Dean and I are heading to the store," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Do you want anything?"
"No, I'm fine," she replied. "Though if you want an act of penance, you could always surprise me."
"Penance?"
"For scaring off my boyfriend!"
"Hey, you were the one who brought up the cannon."
He ducked back inside before she could respond. Annoyed, she turned her attention back to her ice cream and tried not to think that it had been really nice of him to bring it out, even if her mom had told him to.
When she was done, she went back into the house, taking her bowl into the kitchen to rinse it out. Mom came in just after she finished and said, "Sorry, sweetie, but you missed ice cream. I don't think there's any left."
Ainsley frowned. "Cameron brought me some while I was out on the porch. He said you sent him to give it to me."
Mom got a perplexed smile on her face. "Not that I remember."
Mom left, but Ainsley stayed in the kitchen for a while, munching on celery sticks and wondering if Cameron had already tried to do his penance.
An undisclosed number of years later
Ainsley's new house was quite a bit smaller than her old one, but she didn't mind. The house she and Seth had bought here had been ridiculous. They had needed the space to entertain, but four bedrooms for two people was far too much. This house was just a charming brick house with plenty of room for her and Lila. And Cameron, when he came to visit.
He was here now, in fact. Since Lila's birth, nearly every time he had forty-eight hours of leave together he'd hopped on the next military transport and come to see them. This time, though, had been different. She had mentioned that her lawyer had warned her that her divorce would likely be finalized within the week, and Cameron had secured a week's leave time and come out to see her. She really could get used to this with him, even though he never gave her enough warning to get the house cleaned to her satisfaction.
But deep in her heart she liked that too. She liked the fact that at the slightest sign of need from her or Lila, he would come as fast as he could. She hadn't wanted to admit it, but this time she really did need him. As much as she wanted the divorce, it was painful to know that a marriage she had once worked hard at sustaining was completely dissolved now.
Twilight was fading, and Ainsley sat on the steps of the back porch. Lila, who was now six months old, was in a little bouncing seat that Ainsley had brought outside. As the baby pushed herself up and giggled, Ainsley held back a sigh. It was okay that Lila wasn't hurting. It was good, even. That was why she had kept Seth away. She hadn't wanted her daughter hurt by him too.
The back door opened, and she turned to see Cameron come outside with two bowls of ice cream. He handed her one as he sat down beside her and she smiled. It was vanilla with chocolate and caramel and sprinkles. "You remembered."
"Of course," he replied as though it were obvious. "It's been a while, though."
The two of them got to work on their ice cream and Ainsley tried to think of the last time she'd had ice cream with him like this. As she remembered, she chuckled. "Remember when you and Dean and Dad fired the cannon into the neighbor's house?"
"How could I forget?" he asked. "It's a miracle I didn't end up with a police record. I don't know how your dad managed to get the neighbor not to press charges."
"I do," Ainsley replied. "He paid for all the damage. The neighbors were pretty creative in finding more things that got damaged. They got a full kitchen remodel out of it. I think what annoyed Dad was that they still never came to the Christmas party we threw every year." She took another spoonful of ice cream and added, "Mom was so mad that she got a whole new kitchen too."
He laughed. "I miss your house, Ains."
She smiled at him, then turned to see that Lila was still entertaining herself. "You were a jerk to me that day," she said. "I seem to remember you interrogating my boyfriend just for your own amusement."
"Well, it was fun to watch you steam." He elbowed her playfully. "Still is occasionally."
She rolled her eyes. "You know, I found out you were lying."
"About what?"
She held up her ice cream. "You told me Mom made you bring me ice cream. She denied it."
Cameron smiled sheepishly. "Maybe."
Ainsley sighed. "Cameron Mitchell, you were such a mess back then."
He sat up abruptly, looking down at himself. "And now I'm literally a mess."
Ainsley looked to see that he had in fact dripped ice cream and caramel on his black shirt. Quickly she grabbed the burp cloth she'd brought out with Lila and began to clean it up. "I really thought it would have been the baby I'd be cleaning up," she teased. "But you always were a messy eater."
"It's part of my charm," Cameron replied, and she tried to ignore the way she could feel his voice in his chest as she wiped up his shirt.
Once most of the ice cream was out of his clothes, she set the cloth aside. "All done."
"Thanks." She just nodded, poking her spoon at her ice cream. Cameron was still watching her, she knew. "Ains," he said, very gently.
She looked up at him, and something in the way he was looking at her told her that things were about to change forever. After all these years of deep and lasting friendship, even with distance separating them for nearly all of it, after one kiss they really should have resisted, things were finally different. He was single. She was single. Even the thought of Lila didn't make her stop him. She knew that Cam loved Lila as though she were his own daughter.
So when he leaned in, she closed the distance and their lips met softly. It wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first perfect one. There was no guilt to linger afterward, just a desire to kiss him again. And they did kiss again, over and over until Lila made a particularly loud sound of glee.
"Tinkerbell," he muttered when Ainsley broke away to check on the baby.
"She's fine," she replied. "Her hands are cold, though. We should get inside."
Cameron gathered up the bowls while Ainsley got Lila out of her seat. He grabbed the chair too and followed them into the house. "I wonder if your mom still has that cannon," he said.
"Oh, she does," Ainsley told him. "She has all the costumes too."
"Really? Even the-"
"Yes. She still has the dress I wore that time you tagged along." She gave him an appraising look as she set Lila in her high chair. "Still has that Union soldier uniform you wore, but I bet you wouldn't fit in it anymore."
"Hey," he said, grabbing her by the waist and making her face him. "It's not like I've gotten fat."
Ainsley ran her hands up his well-toned arms. "No, honey, you've bulked up."
"Good save," Cam teased as he leaned down and kissed her. As soon as their lips met, Lila started squealing again, and Cameron got a dark look on his face. "Is this because we're not paying attention to her, or does she just not want me kissing you?"
"Well, it's not like she seems unhappy about it."
"I'd be very upset if she was," he replied, brushing her hair away from her face. "'Cause I plan on kissing you a lot."
"Making plans already?" she asked lightly.
To her surprise, Cameron turned serious. "I think I want to."
Despite the flushed feeling she got, that kind of remark still made her nervous. "Cam."
"I know," he said gently. "You just got out of something I can't imagine. I don't want to push you."
Ainsley sighed and leaned forward, resting her head against his shoulder. His arms went around her and held her tightly. He meant so much to her, and part of her wanted to rush into things heedlessly. On the other hand, she suspected that taking things slow with Cameron would never, ever be boring, or less than worthwhile.
"Hey," he said, prompting her to look up. "I think you owe me another kiss."
"Interesting," she replied.
"Fascinating, even." He kissed her slowly then, his hands running up and down her back with equal deliberateness. Ainsley wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let herself stay in this moment, not thinking of anything but the way he made her feel.
"Cameron," she breathed when he finally drew away. His thumb traced her cheekbone, and her knees felt weak for a second. "We should have done this a long time ago."
"Maybe," he said, to her confusion. He let go of her then and picked up Lila, who had dozed off in her chair. With her against his chest, he held out his hand to Ainsley. "But now's a good time too."
She smiled and took his hand. He kissed her fingers, and together they left the kitchen and put Lila to bed.
When Lila was soundly asleep, they settled on the couch in the living room to watch a movie, only this time Ainsley could cuddle up to him and he put his arm around her. Perhaps he was right, she thought. Maybe now was even better than a long time ago.