by Marie Force
“You bet I’m coming with you. I’ve got to check this guy out before I let him take you away from me.”
“No one could ever truly take me away from you. You know that, right?”
“Sure I do.”
“And I’d never leave you stranded in the business either. We’ll figure something out that works for both of us. I promise.”
“So this is really happening, huh?” Lucy asked, wiping her tears.
In talking to Lucy, everything had clicked into focus, and Cameron had no remaining doubts about what she needed to do. “It looks that way.”
• • •
Before she could leave New York to go back to Vermont, Cameron knew she had to see her dad and tell him her news. Despite the anxiety it caused her to imagine letting him know that she hoped to move to Vermont, she called his assistant and scheduled some time with him on the last day before she and Lucy were due to fly to Burlington.
It had already been a brutally long week during which she’d had to live without the nightly phone calls with Will that had become a lifeline during their separation. He was off on the annual Abbott spring camping-fishing-hunting trip with his dad, grandfather and brothers. They were due home later that night, and Cameron was counting the minutes until she heard from him. And then tomorrow, she’d get to see him . . . Her heart literally skipped a beat every time she thought of what it would be like to see him again after thinking of him every minute of every day for weeks.
Since her appointment with her dad was for dinner, she was astounded when he turned up at her office a half hour before she was due to meet him. At fifty-eight, he was still handsome as sin, with dark blond hair, blue eyes and a smile that kept him in an endless array of female companions. He wasn’t smiling tonight, however. Rather he was studying her with a pained expression that put her immediately on guard. What did he know?
“What’re you doing here? I thought we were meeting at the restaurant.”
He came into the office and took a seat in front of her desk. “Since I couldn’t recall the last time you’d requested an audience with me, I figured something big must be up and whatever it is, I didn’t want to talk about it in public.”
“I regularly request an audience with you, Your Highness.”
“Maggie said something about how this felt different,” he said, referring to his faithful assistant. “What’s going on, Cam?”
She blew out a deep breath and met the steely gaze that had been such a big part of her life. “I think it’s possible I might be moving to Vermont.”
Whatever he’d been expecting, that was clearly not it. “No way,” he said scoffing. “You’d hate it there!”
“Um, no, I don’t think I would. In fact, I quite loved it there.”
“But you live here. Your business is here. Your life is here. I’m here. What the hell is there for you?”
“Will Abbott.” As she said his name, a calm sense of serenity came over her. She had no doubt whatsoever that taking an enormous chance on him was the right thing to do.
“Lincoln’s son?”
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
“I love him.”
“You love him. You’ve known him a month!”
“Actually, I’ve known him six weeks, and I knew in less than a week that I was going to love him. This feels like the right thing for me to do, Dad, and I want you to support me.”
“You can’t leave me, Cam.”
She stared at him, astounded. “Leave you? I never see you!”
“You see me,” he said almost petulantly. “And I like knowing you’re here, even if I don’t see you as much as I should.”
Cameron got up and went around the desk to sit next to him. “I’m always here for you, no matter where I am.”
“You can’t move to Siberia. I’ll truly never see you if you’re there.”
“You can visit anytime you want, and I’ll visit you, too. It’ll be fine.”
“You really love him? Enough to pack up your whole life for him?”
Cameron leaned her head on her dad’s shoulder. “Yeah, I really love him that much.”
“I know I haven’t always been the best dad in the world, but I’ve always loved you. You know that, right?”
Cameron smiled and closed her eyes against the rush of emotion. “I’ve always known that. You’ll visit, right?”
“Yeah,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “I’ll visit.”
• • •
Cameron and Lucy flew to Burlington the next morning, armed with the best first cut on a website either of them had ever done. Everyone in the office agreed that Cameron had produced the finest work of her career, and she couldn’t wait to share it with the Abbotts. She couldn’t wait to see Will either. He hadn’t called the night before as planned, which had given her plenty of anxiety as she lay awake thinking about whether he might’ve changed his mind about them while he was away on the camping trip. As the hours passed, she’d had far too much time to dream about what she wanted with him and whether or not they could really make it work.
Cameron had gone over and over what she wanted to say to him and how she wanted to say it and had obsessed about when she would say it. Before he left on his trip, he’d offered to pick them up at the airport, but she was intent on getting the presentation out of the way before they talked about what might be next for them. So she’d thanked him for offering and said they’d get a rental car and meet him in the office.
Now that they were on the road to Butler, Cameron was undone by the knowledge that she would see him soon, would talk to him and, she hoped, figure out a way to be together. But what did it mean that he hadn’t called her last night? Her stomach ached at the possibility that he might’ve changed his mind during the long week since they last spoke.
Returning to Vermont stirred all the feelings she’d tried desperately to suppress since she left so she’d be able to function. But now there was no need to keep those barriers in place any longer. At some point today she’d finally get to look into his gorgeous golden eyes and tell him she loved him with all her heart and wanted to be with him, no matter what it took. She was ninety-nine percent certain he’d be receptive to what she had to say, but niggling doubts remained. What if they saw each other again and everything was different? What if theirs had been a short-lived relationship that didn’t have the legs to go the distance?
“I can hear you thinking,” Lucy said from the driver’s seat. She’d insisted on driving after hearing of Cameron’s adventures with Fred.
“Lot to think about.” She hadn’t mentioned to Lucy that she hadn’t heard from Will as planned the night before. The last thing she wanted was to plant doubts about him in her friend’s mind.
“It’s all going to be fine, Cam.” Now that Lucy had had some time to get her head around the upcoming changes, she was fully on board with helping Cameron get her happily ever after. It didn’t hurt that Cameron had recruited an aggressive former competitor to handle new business acquisitions for them or that Cameron had offered to work remotely for Lucy anytime she needed an extra set of hands.
“I hope you’re right.” The knot of anxiety she’d woken with this morning grew larger the closer they got to Butler and to Will. Excitement and nerves and elation battled it out in her belly as she directed Lucy to the town that had become her home away from home.
She was filled with yearning and anticipation as they passed the turn to Will’s house.
“That’s where Will lives, and that’s where I first met Fred the moose,” Cameron said, pointing as it occurred to her there ought to be a plaque or something to mark a place that changed a life so profoundly.
“This is it?” Lucy asked when they drove into town a few minutes later. “This is the town?”
“This is it,” Cameron said, feeling strangely defensive. “You have to settle in a bit and get to know the place before you pass judgment.”
“I wasn’t passing any judgment
. Just simply asking if this was all of it.”
“This is the town, but there are houses all over the place and then there’s the mountain.”
Lucy scrunched down in her seat to take a look at the mountain. “They really have their own mountain?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Have you been up there?”
“Once.” Cameron remembered the day Will had tried to teach her to ski and smiled at the memory.
“I wouldn’t mind going up there, just to say I did it.”
“We can probably arrange that.” Suddenly Cameron couldn’t wait another minute to lay eyes on the man she loved. “Let’s get in there so we’re ready for the meeting.”
“I’m with you, boss.”
Cameron grabbed the laptop bag while Lucy hauled the LCD projector. The first thing the Abbotts needed was their own projector. She’d see about getting them one if they went for her plan. Easy, she thought. One step at a time. Don’t get ahead of yourself. To keep her mind off the emotional minefield that awaited her, she showed Lucy the garage that had fixed her car, while wondering if Nolan had made any headway in convincing Hannah to go out with him. Cameron hoped so. He seemed like such a nice guy, and he was obviously nuts about Hannah.
“That’s the inn where you’ll be staying—and where I’ll be staying with you if Will has had a change of heart.”
“He hasn’t. He’s called you every night for a month.”
Trying not to think of the call she hadn’t received the night before, Cameron clung to those words like a lifeline as she led Lucy into the store. The women working the counter came to hug her and welcome her back. Dottie produced cider donuts and coffee for Cameron and Lucy.
Cameron managed to introduce Lucy to Cletus—without tripping over his name—and Percy, who actually looked up from their game to say hello to the newcomer and to welcome Cameron back.
Lucy stood in the middle of the store, near the potbelly stove, and did a complete three-sixty, taking in the entire place in one slow rotation. “You did a brilliant beyond brilliant job of capturing this place, Cam. Seriously. Brilliant.”
“You think so? Really? I want them to love it so badly.”
“They’re going to love it. As much as they love you.”
Cameron wanted their love as much as she wanted them to love the website, not that she’d admitted as much to anyone—even herself—until this very moment when she stood in their store, poised to deliver the website she’d promised them, and poised to offer her heart to Will. No sitcom writer ever could’ve created a family quite like the Abbotts, and being a part of them, even a peripheral part, for fifteen days had been like living a dream—a dream she hoped to never wake up from.
“Let’s do this.” Cameron led Lucy up the back stairs to the offices. In the reception area, Mary greeted her with a squeal of excitement and a hug.
“It’s so good to see you again, Cameron! Welcome back!”
“Thanks, Mary. This is my business partner, Lucy Mulvaney. Lucy, this is Mary. She runs the place.”
Mary laughed as she shook hands with Lucy. “I don’t know about that.”
“I brought you something from the city,” Cameron said, handing Mary a bag from Neiman Marcus.
“You did not!” Mary peered inside the bag and then at Cameron, her eyes bugging. “Is that cashmere?”
“Sure is. Just like mine.”
“Oh my God. You did not!”
“What didn’t she do?” Charley asked as she came up the stairs into reception.
Cameron introduced her to Lucy.
“She brought me a cashmere dress from Neiman Marcus in New York City because I admired hers.”
“Damn,” Charley said. “I loved that dress, too.”
They all laughed, but Cameron’s laughter died on her lips when Will walked in and stopped short when he saw her, his eyes gold with warmth and pleasure and desire and love. She definitely saw love, which sent relief coursing through her. He was going to keep his promise to never let her go if she fell in love with him. It was all going to be okay.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re here.”
“I’m here.”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t call you last night.” He looked exhausted and elated at the same time. “My grandfather sprained his ankle on the hike out of the woods, and by the time we left the ER it was too late to call. And then you were on the plane . . .”
Relief flooded through her.
“Oh for Christ’s sakes, Cameron,” Charley said. “Will you please put us all out of our misery and hug him?”
Since there was nothing in the entire world she’d rather do, Cameron moved toward him and stepped into his embrace. The instant his familiar scent filled her senses and strong arms came around her she knew with one hundred percent certainty that she’d found her home.
“So, so glad to see you,” he whispered against her ear, raising goose bumps on her arm.
“Me, too. Could I have some time after the meeting?”
“You can have all the time you want.”
“All right,” Charley said. “That’s enough. Save it for later. This is a place of business.”
Lucy snorted behind her hand.
“Will, this is my best friend and business partner, Lucy Mulvaney. Lucy, this is Will Abbott.”
Sizing each other up, they shook hands.
“Okay, I can sorta see why she digs you,” Lucy said with pretend aloofness.
“I’m going to need a little more time to figure out why she digs you.”
Lucy’s eyes went wide with surprise, and then she busted up laughing. “Yeah, he’ll do. He’ll do very nicely.”
The laughter eased the tension as they headed into the conference room. Will didn’t join them right away, which gave Cameron a second to whisper with Lucy. “Well?”
“Do you really need me to confirm for you that he’s incredibly gorgeous, funny and charming?”
“No, not really.”
“He’s all those things, and I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks, Luce. I’m so happy to see him again I feel all giddy and silly and ridiculous.”
“You’re in love. Enjoy every minute of it. You waited long enough.”
Cameron hugged her friend. “You’re going to get your turn, too. I know it.”
A throat cleared in the doorway. “Um, excuse me,” Hunter said. “Am I interrupting something?”
Cameron released Lucy. “Not at all. We’re just getting ready for the meeting. Lucy, this is Hunter Abbott, the company’s CFO and HR director.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“You, too. And good to see you again, Cameron.”
“Likewise. Could I borrow you for a minute after the meeting?”
“Not if you’re going to bug me about whether I’ve asked out Megan yet.”
“Have you?”
“Not open for discussion.”
“You started it,” Cameron retorted, falling right back into her groove with Hunter like she’d never left. “I actually need to talk to you about something business related.”
“Sure. I’ll be in my office after the meeting.”
As the top of the hour approached, Ella came in and gave Cameron a hug, as did Lincoln, who arrived with George and Ringo in tow.
“Good to have you back in town, gal,” he said.
“Good to be here.”
He gave her a wink and a grin. “Hope you’ll be sticking around for a while.”
Cameron smiled and introduced him and the dogs to Lucy.
Wade came in next and nodded to Cameron as he took his seat. She wondered if she’d ever crack the impenetrable wall that seemed to keep him removed from the others.
Wow, Lucy mouthed to Cameron as one handsome Abbott after another entered the room. Even Colton had come down off his mountain to see the demo and lifted Cameron into a hug that had Will growling at him to put her down when he entered the conference room with his mother, Hannah and Elmer on crutches.
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Molly and Elmer hugged her and then took seats at the table where everyone crammed together to make room for the extra people. Molly found a footstool to prop her father’s injured foot on and rested his crutches against the back wall of the conference room.
“Don’t start without us,” Landon hollered as he came into the room with Lucas, both of them in firefighter garb. “We just got off duty and ran to get here in time.”
“Holy hell,” Lucy muttered. “It’s a DNA wonderland.”
“Told ya,” Cameron said, chuckling at her friend’s reaction to the sexy Abbott men. They were talking so loudly that Cameron and Lucy could get away with their side conversation without being overheard.
“I want to move here, too.”
“Shush. Don’t give away my secrets.”
“He hasn’t stopped looking at you since he came into the room.”
“Stop it, Lucy. I’ve got to get through this with a modicum of professionalism.”
“Then you can go jump his bones.”
Cameron dissolved into laughter. “Don’t look at me while I’m talking, do you hear me?”
“I’ve got much better things to look at in this room than you.”
Amused by Lucy’s reaction to the Abbotts, Cameron flipped on the projector and opened the PowerPoint presentation she’d created from the initial design of the site. She’d done far more than she normally did at this point in the process, but she’d had such a strong vision for the site that she’d run with it, knowing it could all be for naught if the Abbotts had something else in mind.
She took a deep breath and faced the table full of familiar faces. Although, unlike the last time she’d stood up here, this time she was presenting to friends rather than strangers.
“It’s so good to see all of you again,” Cameron said when she had their attention. Though she felt his gaze on her, she made an effort not to focus solely on Will, which took a tremendous amount of willpower. Willpower. She almost laughed at the play on words.
“When Lincoln first asked me to come up and meet with you about the site, I had no idea what to expect. Because you currently have no online presence, I wasn’t able to do as much research as I like to do before a pitch to a potential client. However, once I spent time in the store and with all of you, it didn’t take long to realize that this is a very special place and a very special family. I hope I’ve done justice to both with this design.”