Harlequin Desire June 2020 - Box Set 1 of 2

by Maureen Child

  Today she was so much more. Hell, he hadn’t been able to think about anything but her for days. Her smile. Her scent. The taste of her. The way her eyes snapped with indignation when her temper was up. He’d missed her. In spite of his marriage to Julie, he’d never forgotten Beth.

  The guilt of that had nibbled on him for years. And now thinking about Beth the way he was had that same guilt growing and snapping at him with razor-sharp teeth.

  He’d known coming home to Royal wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but damned if he’d figured that Beth would once again tangle him up in knots.

  * * *

  Naturally, the Royal Diner was crowded, and that was fine with Cam. He noticed people watching him, heard the whispers as he passed, and he paid them all no attention. Cam could put up with the staring and whispering. For a while.

  Tony Alvarez was sitting at a booth overlooking Main Street, and Cam slid onto the bench seat opposite him. Tony’s black hair was cut short, his brown eyes were sharp and his quick grin was the best welcome home Cam had had so far.

  Sticking his right hand out, Tony said, “Damn, it’s good to see you.”

  “You, too.” Cam shook hands with his old friend, then eased back into the booth. “Been too long.”

  “Well, that’s what happens when you move to California and get rich and famous.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Cam said, laughing. His old friend had played Major League Baseball and had made a hell of a name for himself before retiring.

  Tony waved that off. “I played a game and got paid for it. You got on TV for knowing how to build things.”

  “I wasn’t really famous,” he said. His and Julie’s show had done well for two years, but it was one of a dozen remodel shows. Then Julie had gotten sick, and everything ended.

  “Rich though.” Tony grinned again.

  Cam laughed because Tony had always been the guy who said exactly what he was thinking. Even back in high school, you always knew just where you stood with him. It was a trait Cam admired and he was glad his old friend hadn’t changed.

  And, yes, he’d gotten richer than he’d ever thought possible. When he was a kid, he’d figured that making his own fortune would solve all of his problems. Yet now that he had more money than he could spend in two lifetimes, he knew money didn’t solve anything. Made things easier, for damn sure, but the problems you had, you would still have. You’d just drive a better car and live in a bigger house.

  Amanda Battles stepped up to the booth just then. “Hi, Tony.” Her gaze shifted. “Cam. It’s good to see you home.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled and meant it. “I appreciate it.”

  “Nate tells me you’re doing a lot of work on the old Circle K.”

  “I am,” Cam said, sliding a glance at his friend.

  “Good.” She nodded. “That tells me you’re here to stay.” Pulling an old-fashioned order pad out of her pocket, she poised her pen over it and asked, “What can we get you two?”

  Once they’d both ordered, Amanda left them alone and Tony asked, “So what did you want to talk about?”

  Cam sat back and laid his right arm along the top of the red vinyl booth bench. In high school, Tony and Cam had been best friends. They’d played on the championship baseball team and both had dreamed of making the bigs. The only difference between them was that Tony had actually made it. He’d played eight seasons for Houston before blowing out a knee, which had ended his career.

  But Tony being Tony, that hadn’t stopped him from finding success somewhere else.

  “Are you still running that baseball camp of yours?”

  “Oh, hell yes,” Tony said with a smile. “Thanks, Pam,” he murmured when Amanda’s sister brought them both cups of coffee. Then back to Cam, he said, “It’s bigger than ever. We’ve got forty kids lined up for this coming winter. Twenty in the first camp and twenty more in the second. I’m still renting the land we operate on. Soon though, I’m going to have to look for more land. Build a permanent site. Maybe hold camps all winter and up to spring training.”

  He held the coffee mug cupped in his palms. “I’m thinking about doing a dream team thing for adults, too. Get the older guys who used to fantasize about playing big-league ball out to meet some players and have some fun.”

  Cam nodded, thinking. Tony’s baseball camp had started out small about five years ago. Cam might not have been living in Royal, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t kept up with what his friends were doing. And in the last five years, Tony’s business had really grown. Not only did he have the reputation on his own, but every year his old teammates showed up to impress the kids and to help them work on their games.

  “That sounds great,” Cam said. “Maybe I’ll sign up, too.”

  Tony looked surprised. “Shoulder good enough?”

  He rolled his right shoulder and smiled. “I can’t throw the hundred-mile-an-hour fastball anymore, but I can hold my own.”

  “Good to know. So why are you asking about the camp?”

  Cam shrugged, then grinned. “You said you’re looking for a more permanent camp?”

  “Yeah.”

  “As it happens, I’ve got twenty acres at my place that’s available.”

  Tony paused with the coffee cup halfway to his mouth. “Are you serious?”

  “Why not?” Cam leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the laminate table. “I’m looking at building a sort of ‘dude ranch’ at my place.”

  Tony stared at him for a second or two, then laughed. “No way. Why the hell would you want to do that? Cater to tourists and wannabe cowboys?”

  In spite of his friend’s words, Camden laughed. “Why not? I’ll be running herds on the ranch—had some Longhorns arrive just yesterday…”

  “Now that’s cool.”

  “It is,” he agreed. “But the thing is, when I was living in California, that place was so crowded, so jammed with people, some days it felt like you couldn’t draw a breath.

  “And every time someone found out I was from Texas, inevitably, their reaction was, Oh, I’ve always dreamed of living on a ranch. Being under the stars. And every other cliché you can think of.”

  “Yeah.” Tony smiled up at Pam as she delivered his slice of apple pie. “They never think about all the work that goes into ranching.”

  “Exactly!” Cam glanced at their server and thanked her for his blackberry cobbler. When Pam was gone, he started talking again. “So the idea is to give city people the chance to live like country people, a week at a time. We can do riding lessons. Have bonfires at night, chuck wagon food…”

  Tony took a bite of pie, chewed and swallowed. “And how does my baseball camp for kids fit into that?”

  “Easy.” Cam waved his fork at his buddy as he warmed to his subject. “We could be a big help to each other. Your baseball players might see the ranch and decide to come back. My tourists might like baseball.”

  Tony snorted a laugh. “Well, who doesn’t like baseball?”

  “Exactly.” Cam grinned again and took a forkful of the cobbler. Meanwhile, he could see Tony thinking this through, and he was pretty sure his old friend was going to go for it.

  Wouldn’t hurt to sweeten the pie, though. “You know, with twenty acres, you could build a regulation diamond, a couple batting cages, pitching areas…and some bunkhouses for your campers to stay in.”

  “Hmm. That would be good.”

  “Think about it,” Cam urged. “Where do the campers stay now?”

  “At the inn outside of Royal,” Tony admitted. “It would make it easier to have them all on-site…”

  “Damn right it would.” Cam had him and he knew it. Hell, he didn’t need Tony’s camp to be on the ranchland, but it’d be fun. And that in itself was a good enough reason.

  “Hell, you could build yourself a house on the land and provide housing
for all of your employees, too.”

  His friend’s eyebrows arched at the suggestion and Cam could practically see the wheels in his mind turning.

  Tony cut off another bite of pie and said, “You knew I’d say yes, didn’t you?”

  Cam shrugged. “You haven’t said yes yet.”

  Laughing, Tony said, “Hell, of course it’s yes.”

  “Great.” They shook hands on it, then Cam said, “Why don’t you come out to the ranch right now? We can plot out your twenty acres, then call Olivia Turner to tell her she’s got another job to do.”

  * * *

  Beth and Gracie had their list of potential donors to the silent auction to be held at the TCC masquerade ball in October. They’d already gotten promises from several of the business owners in town, but there were many more to contact.

  After her visit with Burt, Beth didn’t really feel up to the task of talking to a lot of people. But this was her job and she was going to do it well. She wouldn’t let Cam affect the life she’d built. Besides, once this task was finished, she’d be talking to him about all of this and she’d have her answers then.

  “Do you want to split the list right down the middle?” Gracie asked. “I’ll take the bottom half, you take the top?”

  “That would probably be the best way to do it,” Beth admitted. Then she looked at Gracie and smiled. “But it’s more fun when we go together.”

  “True.” Gracie laughed and reached for her cell phone when it rang. She glanced at the screen, then slid the phone back into her purse.

  Beth sent her a questioning look. “You don’t have to take it?”

  “No, it’s just my mom,” Gracie said. “She’s probably calling to tell me she and my brother have made it to Galveston safely.”

  Beth sighed. “A week at the beach. Sounds like heaven right now.” Especially because it would get her out of Royal and away from Cam so she could do some serious thinking.

  “I know. Mom loves the ocean so much I hate that she can’t be there more often.” Then Gracie gave a sharp nod. “When I win the PowerBall lottery, the first thing I’m going to do is buy Mom a huge house on the beach in Florida. She’d be near her sister, and that would make her happy, too.”

  Smiling, Beth said, “Big plans.”

  “Dreams,” Gracie corrected wryly. “But dreams are wonderful, aren’t they?”

  Hers used to be, Beth admitted silently. When she was a girl, she’d dreamed of a life with Cam. Of owning their own ranch and raising kids and horses. Eventually she had woken up and her dreams had dissolved under a good coating of reality. Still, this wasn’t about her own shattered illusions.

  “You bet. So, when you buy your mom that big house in Florida, are you going to move with her?”

  Gracie flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder and shook her head. “No. Royal is home. I’d miss the people. My job. And—” She broke off as if worried she’d said too much. Then she added, “I wouldn’t want to leave…”

  There was something she wasn’t saying and Beth studied her friend for a long moment or two before it dawned on her. “You’ve got a man and you haven’t told me anything about him!”

  “What?” Gracie looked at her, wide-eyed, shaking her head. “Who said anything about a man? I’m talking about my job. You. Royal.”

  “And a man.” Beth laughed a little and drew the younger woman to a stop on the sidewalk. “Don’t even try to deny it. Your eyes went all gooey for a second.”

  “I do not get gooey.”

  “Sadly, we all do at some point,” Beth argued. “So spill. Who is this mystery man?”

  Gracie sighed and looked around before fixing her gaze on Beth’s again. “Nobody. At least, not for me. He doesn’t know I’m alive.”

  Insulted on Gracie’s behalf, Beth started talking. “Impossible. You’re gorgeous. And smart. And amazing.”

  “Said my friend, being completely objective.”

  “Fine.” Beth smiled at her. “So if you like this guy so much, why don’t you tell him?”

  Gracie shook her head firmly. “No, I can’t do that.”

  “Oh, Gracie…”

  “Beth, I know you mean well.” Gracie winced and looked uncomfortable. “But can we not? I don’t want to talk about him. Much less think about him.”

  “Sure. Case closed,” Beth said. “Mostly because I know exactly how you feel.”

  She knew what it was like to be drawn to someone in spite of knowing it was futile. After all, she hadn’t been able to smother her feelings for Cam even though she knew she should. So she really wasn’t in any position to give relationship advice.

  “So for the rest of the day,” she said, hooking her arm through Gracie’s, “men are off the conversational table.”

  “But just today, right?” Gracie smiled at her.

  “Absolutely,” Beth replied. “Come tomorrow, I make no promises.”

  “Good to know. Hey.” Gracie pointed. “There’s one of Lauren Roberts’s food trucks. Didn’t you say you wanted to talk to her about a donation?”

  “Yes, I did.” Beth looked at the side of the truck and grinned. Gracie Diaz was really good to spend time with. Even though Beth’s heart was aching and her mind spinning with way too many thoughts and unanswered questions, she was able to enjoy herself. “Besides, tacos for lunch sounds good, doesn’t it?”

  Lauren was a fabulous chef and her food trucks were making a real impact on Royal. Luckily, Lauren herself was working the taco truck. When Beth got to the front of the line to order, she grinned up at the woman.

  Lauren’s shoulder-length dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a pale blue T-shirt and jeans, and the two women working with her looked pretty much the same.

  “Hi, Lauren. Can we get two taco plates and a couple bottles of water?”

  She smiled. “Sure. How’s it going, Beth? Gracie.”

  “Fine,” Gracie answered. “We’re out gathering donations for the TCC masquerade ball in October.”

  Lauren slid a suspicious glance at Beth as she made change from the twenty Beth had handed her. “And?”

  “And…” Beth went on to say. “I was thinking you might want to donate one of your food trucks for a night. Say someone has a party and you could cater it…”

  Lauren worked while she thought about that, and the scents wafting from the truck were making Beth even hungrier. The fact that there were two other women working the stove and the prep area was something else Beth liked about Lauren’s business. She hired women to work for her, paid a great wage and gave them experience they could take anywhere.

  “It would be great advertising for you,” Gracie put in. “Plus it’s for a good cause. The children’s wing of the hospital.”

  “Oh, I know…” Lauren looked over Beth’s head at the line gathering up behind her. “But to be honest, giving away catering for a party could get out of hand quickly. I don’t know if I can afford to donate enough food for a party of sixty or something.”

  “She’s got a good point,” Gracie said, and lifted one shoulder in a shrug, as she looked to Beth.

  “Okay, what if we put a limit on what people can get?” Beth could see this being a really sought after prize, so she would just have to make Lauren see how brilliant it was. “What if we say you will donate catering for a party of ten? Can you do that?”

  Lauren took the two taco plates from the woman working beside her and handed them down to Beth and Gracie. Then she got the water and passed it over, as well. “Ten?” She thought about it for a second, then nodded. “I can do that. They can even have their choice of food for the party.”

  “Excellent! Thank you so much, Lauren.”

  “You’re welcome. Enjoy your lunch.”

  “We will.” Beth nodded at Gracie and they moved aside to let the line surge forward. Finding a
n empty bench on the shady side of the bank building, they sat and toasted each other with icy water, tacos and Spanish rice.

  Deliberately Beth kept her thoughts from straying to Camden Guthrie. Her confrontation with him would come soon enough.

  SIX

  At Cam’s ranch, he and Tony were checking out the land he was going to lease his old friend. He could have just given him the land or even sold it to him outright. But this way was better—taxwise, for Tony’s growing business.

  “It’s been a long time since I was on a horse,” Tony admitted ruefully. “I’ll be lucky to walk tomorrow.”

  Cam laughed. Tugging his Stetson down lower over his eyes, he braced his hands on the pommel of his saddle and stared out at the property. “Horseback is the best way to see the land,” he said with satisfaction. Then he shot a quick grin at his pal. “Besides, you’re a Texan man, have some pride.”

  “Oh, I’ve got plenty of pride,” Tony assured him. “just not on the back of a horse.” He winced as he shifted position in the saddle. “Not anymore, at least.” He tipped his head to one side. “Looks like you kept riding even when you were in California.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He and Julie had lived in Orange County, not exactly a horse-friendly place. Too much asphalt. Too many houses, cars and people. Since he’d missed the feel of being out in the open, just him and his mount, Cam had found a stable in Irvine Ranch that allowed him to board a horse and explore what had once been the largest privately held ranch in California.

  Of course, the Irvine family had sold off huge sections of their holdings over the years, but there were still hills and valleys that were unspoiled and just right for what he’d needed.

  But being back in Texas fed Cam’s soul in a way he hadn’t known he needed. With the afternoon sun blasting down on them from a clear blue sky, it was a picture-perfect Texas day, even if the heat would soon be murderous in the middle of summer.

  Turning to look at Tony again, he asked, “What do you think of the property?”

  The other man’s gaze swept the meadow that was surrounded by oaks before shifting his gaze to Cam. “Honestly, it’s perfect. Are you sure you want to do this?”