The Real(26)

“No way.” I shook my head. “Take me anywhere.”

He lifted a brow. “You sure about that?”

“Positive.”

He took my hand and led us toward the unknown.





Cameron slid his thumb over the top of my hand before he squeezed it.

“Are you ready?”

“Hell no. No.” I shook my head adamantly. “I’ll just wait back here for you.”

“Nope, we’re doing it,” he said. My whole body trembling with fear, he took the first step onto the glass.

“Oh, shit,” I squeaked out as the line behind us laughed at my outburst. We stepped out onto the glass deck, 1,353 feet in the air, while I kept my eyes tightly shut.

“We’re out,” he said. “Open your eyes, Abbie.”

I cracked one open and took a hesitant peek.

“Okay, that’s good enough, right?” I said, anxious to retreat into the building.

“Nope,” he said as he moved us further out onto the Skydeck, and I reluctantly followed.

We were at the top of the Willis Tower, which everyone still referred to as the Sears Tower. My erratic pulse only intensified as Cameron leaned forward, placing his forehead on the glass to hold all his weight.

“Oh, you’re crazy,” I said as I took a step back. He tugged me forward by our clasped hands.

“If you’re going to do it, might as well do it all the way.”

“I feel sick,” I said, swallowing.

“Come on, witchy woman,” he retorted, cruelly amused.

I braved another glance at the glass between my feet and saw the moving cars beneath us had been reduced to the size of ants from our bird’s eye view.

Snickering ensued from behind us, and I glanced over at the two women who were practically swooning over Cameron and had been the whole time we waited for the elevator to bring us up. I couldn’t blame them. He was beautiful. But at that moment, all I felt was the adrenaline rush of being encased in the glass that sat on the side of the famous skyscraper.

“You’re really going to make me do this?”

“Yep,” he said mercilessly.

I let out a little shriek as I placed my forehead against the glass and let my weight sink behind it. “If I faint,” I said in warning, “it’s on you. This building is moving, I swear it is.”

“It is,” he said without a trace of fear in his voice.

“Jesus.”

“I can’t believe you’ve lived in Chicago this long and never did this,” he said as he smirked at the ground far, far beneath us.

“I avoided it, and for good reason,” I bit out through chattering teeth.

“To be honest, I hadn’t done it, either. My mother brought me up here the first time I came.”

“Brave woman. Did she make you stand like this?”

“No,” he said with a chuckle. “She did a handstand.”

“She what?!” I said with wide eyes as I shook, scared shitless as I observed the sea of skyscrapers dwarfed below us.

“Yeah, I have a picture of it,” he said, glancing over at me. “I was pretty freaked out my first time up here too.” He looked down and let out a breath. “She brought me up here to tell me she was dying.”

Heart sinking, I looked over at him. That time, I squeezed his hand.

“I thought it cruel at the time, but if you think about it, it’s a pretty cool way to tell your kid you’re dying, right? Suspended in a place where you are terrified so the gravity of it doesn’t hit you as hard.” He paused, swallowing evident pain, and I waited. “She said she wanted me to know what it was like.”

“What being sick was like?” I asked softly, my heart breaking for him.

“No, what it was like to leave her son in a world she wasn’t sure was safe. She said she wasn’t afraid of dying. She was just afraid for me, to leave me. And this is what it felt like.”

“Cameron, I’m so sorry.”

He nodded, his beautiful eyes cast down, a shadow covering his features. “She taught yoga six days a week well into her sixties. She treated her body like a temple and it turned on her. I live with it every day, Abbie. Wondering if I could have done more for her. Different doctors or treatments. I didn’t get involved because I was sure she and my dad had it covered. I was selfish with my pain. I was only thinking of me, of how much I needed her, that I couldn’t see past my own fear to make sure we did everything.” He swallowed again, then stopped talking.

“I’m sure they did everything they could.”

We stayed silent for a moment, holding hands and looking at the world beneath us. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up. I’ve been missing her a lot lately.”

“Hey,” I said as he glanced over at me. “I’m glad you told me.”

He gave me a wink. “I’m glad I came back up here with you.”

“Me too.”

Cameron pulled out his cell phone and aimed it at the two of us from underneath. It was the worst angle imaginable.

“Don’t you dare take that picture,” I warned, forcing a smile anyway.

“Look down,” he said as he aimed it at us. “Done.”

He pushed away from the glass, and I followed suit, mildly distracted by his story but brought into the present as I took in the view of the city and the expanse of Lake Michigan.