Serendipity // Camren

Chapter 54

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This one is for LauraHartwell, hope it cheers you up dude. If not, I have more photos of my dog😉

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"H, I'm beat. You ready to call it a night?" Leroy called out imperiously as he approached the table where Hiram and Camila were still sitting. He arched a brow at his husband and glanced quickly over his shoulder at Lauren, who was staring at the bottle of wine and glasses in her hands.

Understanding dawned on Hiram's face and he nodded as he made a production of yawning and stretching his arms out above his head. "Yeah. Me too."

Camila frowned and looked at her fathers. "Seriously? It's like... ten-thirty, your time."

"Exactly," Leroy said with a nod. "We're old, baby girl."

"Well, you're old," Hiram muttered, smiling at his husband as he got to his feet. "You two have a good night, we'll see you in the morning," he said to Camila as he leaned in and brushed a quick kiss across her forehead. He smiled at Lauren and pulled her into a light hug. "Good luck, sweetheart."

Lauren chuckled softly and nodded. "Thank you."

Camila watched her dads' exchange with Lauren with a skeptical eye, her sixth sense pinging hard that her fathers both knew something that she didn't. She chewed her lip thoughtfully as she watched Lauren set the glasses and the bottle of wine that she'd been carrying onto the table, seemingly taking extra care to make sure that everything was secure as her fathers disappeared into the house for the night. Something was definitely up. She knew for a fact that her dads never went to bed before midnight.

As the door to the house slammed shut, Lauren licked her lips and risked a quick glance at Camila as she surreptitiously felt for the ring that was still hidden in her pocket. Camila was obviously aware of the fact that something was going on and she smiled at the speculative look the brunette was giving her. "What?" she asked, as she reached for the corkscrew that basically lived on the deck table and flipped open the knife to cut through the foil over the top of the bottle.

"Is everything okay?" Camila asked softly. "You've seemed... off, since I got back from talking to Ally."

"I'm fine," Lauren murmured. She pulled open the corkscrew attachment and began twisting it into the cork. It came free with a satisfying pop and she smiled as she worked it off the screw. So far, so good. And the shaking of her hands wasn't even really visible. Even better.

"Sorry, babe, but I'm not really buying that," Camila said, crossing her arms over her chest. She sighed softly as she watched Lauren pour some wine into each of the glasses and dropped her arms back to her lap. She didn't want to be combative or defensive about what she was feeling, she just wanted Lauren to tell her what was bothering her. She wanted to know why Lauren would go to her fathers about whatever it was, because she just knew that they knew what was going on, instead of just talking to her. "There was something bothering you earlier."

"There was," Lauren agreed. She handed Camila a glass and leaned in to brush a soft, quick kiss across the brunette's frowning lips. "But I'm better now. Leroy helped me sort everything out. Santé." She lifted her glass and held it out to the brunette in a toast before she lifted it to her lips and took a sip. The wine was smooth on her palate, full of the rich flavor of dark berries and chocolate, and she hummed appreciatively as she swallowed. Camila hadn't moved to even taste the wine but was instead just staring at her, and Lauren smiled at the brunette's confused expression. "I'll explain later if you really want to know. I promise. Right now, I would just like to have a glass of wine with my beautiful girlfriend and watch the sunset. Okay?" Please say yes, I need a few minutes to work up the guts to actually go through with this, she added silently.