by Rita Sawyer
“I couldn’t help it.” Joey didn’t feel bad at all, instead, his reaction gave her a boost of confidence.
“You look nice. Taking the day off?” Joey shook her head, and Sam stared at her for a few seconds before pouring a cup of coffee for her and her husband.
“Are you meeting with Cameron?” Joey looked over at Trent and nodded. “Can I come?”
“Why?” Joey and Sam both asked.
“Because I want to see the look on his face.” He smiled and winked at Sam, who groaned.
“Sometimes my husband thinks he’s funny.” Sam blew him a kiss to take the sting out of her words.
“You two play nice.” Joey headed for the door at a quick pace, hoping to avoid running into any of her other sisters.
She made it to her car and almost out of the driveway. Frankie moved Hal’s truck over to give her enough room to pass but stopped and unrolled her window. Joey pulled up beside her and rolled her window down.
“You’re getting home awfully late,” Joey teased, hoping to keep this meeting brief.
“Did you hear from Cam last night?” Frankie asked with a little protective sisterly anger.
“No, and that’s fine.” Joey’s tone came out harsher than she meant, so she explained in a little softer tone. “We don’t inform each other of our daily plans. Hell, we haven’t reached the point in our relationship where we check in every day.”
“Honey, I didn’t mean to make you mad.” Frankie really did sound sorry she brought it up. “I was just curious.”
Joey knew all her sisters were wondering where he’d been just as much as she was. “I’ll fill you all in later.”
“All right, but if you need someone to talk to, I’ll be home all day.” Joey nodded, and Frankie wiggled her fingers in a wave as she drove off.
Joey pulled out of the driveway and head toward town. One of her favorite songs came on the radio, and she started to sing along. It wasn’t long before she was turning onto the lane that led to Cameron’s house. The first thing she noticed when she pulled into the driveway was that Cameron’s truck still wasn’t there. The temptation to just turn around and go about the rest of her day felt strong, but she made a commitment, and as always, she dealt with her responsibilities.
She got out of the car and reached inside to grab her bag. Without him here, she wouldn’t need to spend the whole hour answering his questions or listening to his stories. She’d probably get twice the work done since he wouldn’t be trying to distract her. Joey expected Mrs. Whiskers to come running when she opened the door, but she didn’t. Concerned she rushed over to the corner of the living room where the cat’s box and her babies were.
The kittens were inside walking around instead of just wiggling. They’d come a long way since Cameron had found them. Mrs. Whiskers never left them for long, so she had to be somewhere close by. Joey would make sure she put plenty of food fresh food and water down for her before she left. She walked into the kitchen and froze. Cameron was sitting at the table with Mrs. Whiskers lying in his lap. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open.
Joey couldn’t tell if the light rumbling noise she heard came from him or the cat. Probably both. She lowered her bags to the floor and moved into the room as quietly as she could. The table was set for two and between the plates there sat a huge platter of fruit. Some of it was diced, some sliced, and there were grapes and strawberries all over the place. She pulled out the empty chair and found a bouquet of roses. The blooms were a variety of colors with long stems, and they were tied together with a thick red ribbon.
A quick glance told her Cameron was still dozing. She knew he was probably just doing all this because he thought he was in trouble, which he was. But damn it, how the hell was she supposed to be mad now? He had some kind of plan in motion here, and if she let him spring it on her then he wasn’t going to learn anything.
Joey and Georgie had only been thirteen years old when their mom died, but Joey remembered her telling them once when she was mad at their dad to never let a man off easy, especially if he admits he was wrong. Of course, a few hours later she’d walked in on her parents dancing around the kitchen. The wink and smile her mother had cast her way was a bittersweet memory, but it was one of the strongest she had of her. So Joey was going to follow her mother’s advice in her own way.
Joey slid the chair back under the table and as quietly as she could she backed out of the room. She stopped just long enough to snatch up the straps of her bags and practically ran for the door on her toes so her heels wouldn’t click on the floor. Once outside she walked down the steps over to her car. She opened the door and slammed it shut so hard the car actually shook. And just in case that hadn’t woken him up, she stomped up the stairs. She opened the door and swung it shut behind her. Not quite a slam, but louder than she needed to. As she turned toward the kitchen, Mrs. Whiskers came running out followed by Cameron, who still looked a little sleepy.
“Oh, you’re home,” she said, and Cameron blinked his eyes a few times. She thought maybe he saw through her already.
“Yeah, I was waiting for you.” He came over took her bags and put them on the couch.
“Umm…shouldn’t you be putting those in the office?”
“Not just yet. I thought we’d have breakfast, and I could explain about yesterday.” He reached out and took her hand and led her into the kitchen.
“Yesterday?” Playing dumb was harder than she thought it would be.
“We’ll talk about it, but first I wanted to do this.” He stopped in front of the table.
“Wow. I’m glad I skipped breakfast. This looks great.” She hoped she sounded impressed by the elaborate spread.
Cameron didn’t say anything, but his smile did. He slid out the chair and motioned for her to come around to where he was standing. She knew what was there and decided to throw him the first curveball she had to mess up whatever his plan was.
“I’d rather sit on this side.” Before he could try to change her mind, she pulled out the chair and sat down.
She had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at the way his bottom lip jutted out in a pout. He stood there and stared at her for a few seconds, so she reached forward and picked up a strawberry. She put the tip of it in her mouth closing her lips over it. As she bit into the red berry, she sucked the juice. She looked up at Cameron, pleased to see him staring at her.
“Are you going to eat?”
He slid the other chair out and lifted the roses. “I, well, I thought you’d like these.”
“Oh, they’re beautiful. Why don’t you put them on the counter for now?” She could see the slight tremble in his hand as he turned toward the counter.
Joey knew she should feel bad for doing this, and she did, but she consoled herself by telling her he deserved it.
He laid the flowers on the counter and turned back to her. Instead of coming back to the table he leaned back across the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. The move pulled the T-shirt tight across the top of his shoulders and around his biceps. Joey almost choked on the chunk of watermelon she’d just bitten into. It wasn’t just the sexy image he made standing there that seized her ability to function. The look on his face would have caused it to happen on its own.
The way his eyebrows pulled down and the muscles she saw tighten in his jaw gave his intense stare a rough edge. He was angry, and that she was able to draw the emotion out of him gave her a little thrill. For a second she hoped he might have realized what she was doing. There was only one way to find out for sure.
“Are you going to join me?” Joey asked reaching for chunk of pineapple.
Cameron pushed off the counter and with his long legs he was at the table in two strides. He grabbed the chair, spun it around, and straddled it. Joey forced herself not to squirm under his gaze. She slipped the last of the pineapple she’d been nibbling on into her mouth and licked the juice from her fingers. He just watched her, not saying anything. She reached for the p
latter between them and picked up a raspberry and held it out to him. His eyes never left hers as he shook his head. She popped it into her mouth, which gave her an excuse not to say anything. Cameron lifted the pitcher of orange juice and poured some into each of the goblet-style glasses.
“Thanks.” She lifted the glass and took a sip watching over the brim. “So are we celebrating something?”
“No.” She waited giving him a chance to say more, but he didn’t.
“Okay.” She gave a shrug of her shoulders. “Well, I got a lot of work done yesterday, but there are still a few big holes in your records.”
“Maybe I could have filled those in if I’d been here.”
“I doubt it. If the documents were there, I would have found them,” Joey said with a shrug as she reached for another piece of fruit.
“Still, if I’d been here yesterday we could have discussed what’s missing.”
Joey could tell he was trying to get her to ask where he’d been. “It’s okay. I made you a list so you can get on top of finding them.”
“I’ll get on it as soon as I get back.”
His comment had the facade she created slipping a little. “Get back? Are you going somewhere?”
“Actually, I’m hoping we are.”
“We, as in you and me?” She put the piece of watermelon her fingers were digging into on her plate.
Cameron nodded. “I planned on talking to you about this yesterday.”
“But you weren’t here, so why don’t you tell me now.” She picked up her napkin and wiped the juice and bits of fruit from her fingers.
“I need to go down to Boston for a few days. I have a meeting with my publisher, and there are a couple of publicity events I need to attend.”
“And you want me to go with you?”
“Yeah, I want you to come with me.”
“Why?” She managed to squeak the word out past her shock.
“Why?” She nodded, and he grunted then said, “Because if I come without you, my mother will disown me.”
“Cameron, I can’t just up and leave for a few days. I have other clients, and my sisters and I are about to start a huge project up at the lodge.”
“Can’t you reschedule your appointments? Would your sisters really give you a hard time? I mean, when was the last time you took a few days off?”
“I take every Saturday and Sunday off.”
“No, you don’t. You may not see clients, but you spend time going over accounts and other paperwork.”
Joey hated that he was right. She hadn’t taken any kind of a vacation in years. Her sisters wouldn’t mind her going since her absence wouldn’t delay their plans. As for her clients, that would be a little trickier. If they left on a Thursday and were back by Monday she could probably work something out. Still she couldn’t just up and leave town without giving her sisters and clients plenty of warning. Cameron may as well learn now that once you settled down, you didn’t go running off at the drop of a hat anymore.
“Cameron, it’s just not responsible to disappear without any warning.” The second she said it she wished she could get the words back.
* * * *
“So, you are mad I was gone and didn’t call.” Thank God, he thought she hadn’t even noticed.
“Huh?” she said and though it was a valiant attempt to pretend she had no idea what he was talking about, he didn’t believe it.
He gave her a look that he hoped said he didn’t buy her act. “Me. Not here and not calling.”
“Oh, that. I figured if you wanted me to know where you were you would have told me.” She did her best to keep her tone free of any emotions.
“I would have. In fact, I tried to, but my phone died and so did Alec’s.”
Now it was her turn to give him the look of disbelief. “Wasn’t that convenient?”
“Actually, no it wasn’t. Not only couldn’t I call you, but Alec couldn’t call his cousins, either.”
“I’m sure they weren’t happy about that.”
“They were damn pissed, but so were we. I hadn’t planned on the meeting running so long. And we definitely didn’t plan on the moose making me drive into a ditch. Or the fact that my truck wasn’t just stuck, it ended up with a broken axle. If our phones had been working, we could have called someone for help. Instead, we walked for three hours until some old lady that smelled like onions picked us up. We were willing to deal with it when we thought she was our saving grace, but then we realized we could probably walk faster than she drove.”
Joey laughed. Cameron was glad one of them found it funny. Fuck, he still had a cramp in his foot from walking so far. Still, at least she was smiling.
“You want to know the worst part?” he asked, and she nodded. “It was thinking you didn’t care whether or not if I wasn’t here.” She looked away, and he knew he’d hit a nerve.
“Of course, I cared.” She stared at her glass as she ran her finger around the rim.
“But not enough to let it show.” He inwardly cringed at the sissy sounding whine he heard in his voice.
Her head snapped up, and her gaze locked on his. “How would you have reacted?”
“I don’t know. I probably would have demanded to know where the fuck you’d been.”
“Really?” She took the little smile she flashed him as a good sign.
“Yeah, I figure we’re deep enough in this relationship that the common courtesy of checking in every now and then is not only nice, but kind of expected.”
“Yet you didn’t even think to leave me a friggin’ note.” There was an edge to her voice that he’d never heard before, not even when he’d made her mad enough that she threatened to quit.
“I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Good. Now about this trip”
“I can’t go.” She cut him off before he could even get into the details, “Truthfully, I just don’t think it would be a good idea.”
“If it was one of your sisters asking, would you go?” He had no idea where the question came from.
“That’s different.”
“No, it’s not. Damn it, you’re my girlfriend, and I want to spend time with you, but if that isn’t a good enough reason to go we can leave a day early and go find copies of all the missing documents you need.”
“Cameron”
“Screw it! I’m not going to beg you to come away with me.” He didn’t want to hear her turn him down again. He shoved off the table and got to his feet. “Where’s the list of stuff you need?”
Cameron made to the doorway of the office when he felt her grab onto his arm. He came to stop, and she bumped into him. She looked up at him and the smile on her face had him confused.
“If you’ll let me finish, I was about to tell you I would consider it.” She let go of his arm but didn’t move away.
“Well, can you consider it quickly?”He knew he was pushing his luck, but he didn’t have a choice.
“I suppose. Why?”Her smile faltered, not enough to disappear altogether, but enough that he noticed.
“Because I want to leave Thursday afternoon.”
“Cameron!” Her voice squeaked as she said him name. “That’s only two days away.”
“I know.”
“That’s not much time. I’d have to talk to my sisters. I may not even be able to reach my clients to cancel and reschedule their appointments.”
Cameron listened to her rattle on about short notice. Normally, he wouldn’t have sprung it on her, but since it had been sprung on him he didn’t have any other choice. He knew from growing up with sisters that—even though she hadn’t mentioned it—somewhere in her mind she was thinking about what to pack. It took his sisters weeks to decide which outfits to bring on trips. There was nothing he could do but sit there and let her talk her way through everything until she came to a decision.
There was one other detail that may sway her decision, but maybe not in
his favor. Still, it would be better to get it out in the open. Alec’s mocking laughter echoed in his head. Cameron hoped like hell she’d find it funny, too, because he didn’t.
“Joey.” She just kept talking so he reached across the grabbed her hand and gave it a shake.
“What?” She turned to face him.
“I have another little issue that may factor in on your decision.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.” Her teasing smile allayed his fears a smidge.
“Well, the garage in town only has four rental cars. Total. And only one,” he held up his index finger, “of them is available for the next two weeks. I don’t plan on needing it for that long. The minute I get back, I’m going to get a new truck.”
“Cameron, stop babbling and tell me what the problem is.”
“The jerk at the garage gave me a beat-up shoe box. So we’ll be in for a pretty uncomfortable ride. I hope you’ll still consider coming with me.” Joey wasn’t a materialistic person, so he hoped like hell that she didn’t let this sway her.
“Oh, no, we won’t.” She got to her feet and started clearing the table.
Fuck! Alec had been right. There was no way she’d want to drive eight and half hours down to Boston in an ancient shoebox. Hell, Cameron didn’t want to either. He sat there watching her put the fruit in plastic storage bowls and slam covers on them before sticking them in the fridge. If there was anything he could say to change her mind, it had to be really good.
Cameron walked over and laid his hands on her shoulders. “Joey, I know it won’t be the most fun road trip, but would it change anything if I let you choose where we stop to eat. Heck, I’ll even let you control the radio.”
“No, it wouldn’t, because we’re taking my car and that’s all there is to it. Now, you should go take a nap while I go talk to my sisters.” She shoved him toward the living room and he started to go then stopped.
He turned around and said, “I’d sleep better with you beside me.”
“That’ll have to wait.” Joey picked up her bags and tugged the strap over her shoulder.
“I won’t push my luck.” Cameron knew he was already on the winning end of this deal.