Green Mountain Collection 1

by Marie Force

  “Right back atcha.”

  They got up and went upstairs, chatting like they’d known each other forever. After talking to Hannah, Cameron felt lighter and less burdened by her worries about what was happening with Will. She was determined to let down her guard and see what might be possible. And if she crashed and burned at the bottom of the hill, well, she’d deal with that when it happened.

  CHAPTER 13

  I feel finer than a frog’s hair split four ways and sanded twice.

  —The gospel according to Elmer Stillman

  He brought her flowers. As a modern woman who answered to no one and managed her own life and business, she probably should’ve been ashamed of the fact that she practically swooned at the arrangement of red roses he handed her when she answered Hannah’s front door. She wasn’t at all ashamed, however. She was positively charmed that he’d obviously gone to some trouble on her behalf.

  “They’re beautiful,” Cameron said, breathing in the rich scent of roses. She couldn’t recall the last time a man had given her flowers.

  “You are beautiful,” he said, surprising her when he put his arm around her and drew her in close for a kiss. The flowers ended up between them, and Cameron knew the scent of roses would forever remind her of that moment.

  “Same to you.” She took in his freshly shaven face, the hint of cologne, the pressed white dress shirt that he’d worn with khaki pants and the black coat she hadn’t seen before.

  When they heard Hannah’s footsteps on the stairs, they stepped back from each other. Hannah was fastening an earring as she came downstairs.

  “You’re coming with us?” Will asked, seeming surprised but pleased.

  “Cameron talked me into it,” Hannah said with a smile for Cameron. “She needs moral support as the girl who hit poor Fred.”

  His approval was apparent in the smile he bestowed upon her, the smile that made Cameron feel powerless and needy in his presence. He returned his attention to his sister. “I’m so glad you’re coming, Han. Everyone will be.”

  “Don’t make a big thing of it,” Hannah shot over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen.

  “It is a big thing,” Will said softly so only Cameron would hear him. “She hasn’t been to a dance since Caleb died, so thanks for whatever you said to convince her to go.”

  “We had a good time together this afternoon. She’s a lot of fun.”

  “I’m glad you guys hit it off. It’s nice to see her smiling again.”

  Cameron took the roses into the kitchen to put them in water.

  “There’re vases in that cabinet,” Hannah said, pointing.

  “You look really nice, Hannah,” Will said.

  She’d worn a maroon sweater with jeans and boots. Her dark hair was long and shiny. To Cameron, she looked much younger than her thirty-five years.

  “Thanks. You clean up pretty good, too.”

  “It took some effort,” Will said, making them both laugh.

  Right in that moment, Cameron realized she felt more at home with these people she’d known only a few days than she ever had with anyone she was actually related to. The discovery left her feeling sad for what she didn’t have and hopeful for what she could have. If she was willing to take the biggest risk of her life on a man she’d known only three days …

  His hand on her lower back roused her out of her musings. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” She looked up at him. “Just thinking.”

  “About anything in particular?”

  “About a lot of things.”

  He let out a ragged deep breath. “This is going to be a really long evening.”

  Cameron rolled her lips together so she wouldn’t laugh at his comical distress.

  He ushered them into his truck a few minutes later, insisting that Cameron take the front seat when she tried to yield to his sister. “No way. This is a date. She can ride in back.”

  “Such respect for your elders, William,” Hannah quipped as she got into the backseat.

  Cameron adored their sibling banter and looked forward to spending more time with the Abbotts this evening. That she was falling for Will’s family as quickly as she was falling for him wasn’t lost on her. What was not to love about a big, funny, loving family that stood by each other in good times and in bad? She hadn’t known what to expect when she came here to meet with a family that ran a country store. To say she hadn’t expected the Abbotts was putting it mildly.

  From the outside, the Grange Hall was nothing much to look at, but the inside had been transformed by strings of white lights and pots of spring flowers, yellow tablecloths and balloons. The overhead lights were off, so the strung lights cast a warm glow over the big room. At the far end, a DJ in a tuxedo shirt stood watch over the music, which was still turned down low as people continued to arrive.

  Everyone brought a dish of some sort and added it to the tables of food that lined the far side of the room.

  “I should’ve brought something,” Cameron said.

  “Don’t sweat it,” Hannah replied. “There’ll be enough food to feed ten armies.”

  “Next time,” Will said with a warm smile that sparked a note of sadness in Cameron.

  Would there be a next time? A week ago she might’ve made fun of a night out at the Grange Hall. A week ago tonight, in fact, she’d gone with Lucy, Emma and Troy and some of their other friends to check out a hot new nightclub in Midtown. Recalling the loud dance music and techno lighting, she realized she much preferred the strings of Christmas lights in the Grange Hall in Butler, Vermont. She much preferred the sense of community here to the sea of anonymity in the city.

  People of all ages greeted each other with hugs, and it seemed everyone knew everyone. What would that be like? To live in a place where everyone knew you? Will introduced her to scores of people, and all of them teased her about Fred. Since the teasing was good-natured, she rolled with it.

  Across the room, someone was trying to get Will’s attention. Cameron mentioned it to Will.

  “Oh, that’s my mom.” He took her hand. “Come and meet her.”

  Cameron’s stomach did a flip-flop as she let him lead her across the room to where his mother sat alone at a big table. Even with the silvery hair that spilled past her shoulders, Cameron thought she seemed far too youthful to have ten grown children.

  “Hey, Mom,” Will said, bending to kiss her cheek. “This is Cameron Murphy. Cam, my mom, Molly Abbott.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Abbott.”

  She stood and held out her arms to Cameron, enveloping her in a warm hug. “Please, call me Molly, and it’s so nice to meet you, too.” Keeping her hands on Cameron’s arms, she said, “You’re every bit as pretty as everyone said you are.”

  Molly’s warm welcome had taken Cameron completely by surprise. “Thank you. I’m a little bruised and battered thanks to Fred.”

  “You’re lovely. Come and sit. I have a million questions about you and the website and your dad and everything.”

  “Mom, don’t overwhelm her.”

  “Am I overwhelming you, Cameron?”

  “Not at all,” Cameron said with a smile, charmed by yet another Abbott.

  “Make yourself useful, and go get us some wine, William,” Molly said.

  “Don’t scare her off, Mom. I mean it.”

  “Scram.”

  “I’ll be right back,” he said to Cameron before he headed for the bar.

  “Honestly, what does he think I’m going to do?” Molly took hold of Cameron’s hand. “Tell me everything. I want to know all about your company and the website and you. The last time I saw you, you were a tiny little thing hiding behind your daddy’s leg. Look at you now, all grown up and so pretty. He must be very proud.”

  Cameron was surprised to realize she’d met Molly before. “I suppose he is.”

  “With Patrick, you probably never really know for sure.”

  “Something like that,” Cameron said with a smile. �
�I want to thank you for your support of the website. I promise you’ll be very pleased with the end result.”

  “I have no doubt. Lincoln told me all about your plans. I love the idea of telling our story beyond the borders of Vermont.”

  “Your family is amazing. Everyone has been so nice, even those who aren’t thrilled about the site.”

  “They’d better be nice, or they’ll hear from me. Let me know if any of them step out of line. I know the secret to setting them straight again.”

  Cameron laughed out loud at that. “I’ll bet you have a few secrets.”

  “Honey, you have no idea.” Molly’s eyes went wide and then misty. “Oh, is that my Hannah?”

  Cameron looked over toward the door where they’d come in. Hannah was talking to two young women. “Sure is. I talked her into coming to keep me safe from the gawkers who want to see the girl who hit Fred.”

  “Thank you so much for convincing her to come. We’ve been trying to reengage her for such a long time, but nothing seems to work. Whatever you said or did, I’m deeply grateful.”

  “She said a few things I needed to hear, too.”

  “About William,” Molly said knowingly. “He’s got his eye on you.” She nodded to the bar where Will stood in line with a group of guys. He was talking and laughing with them, but his mother was right. He was watching her every move.

  Her entire body heated when she thought about his gruffly worded invitation to spend the night with him.

  “Hmm … Looks like he’s not the only one with a bad case of something.”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Cameron put her hands on her face, hoping to cool her heated cheeks. “I’m sorry. It’s just that he’s …”

  “Amazing?”

  “Yes,” Cameron said, laughing.

  “Adorable?”

  “That, too, although it might not be a good enough word.”

  “He’s also kind and thoughtful and he feels things deeply. Sometimes too much so.” She glanced at the bar. “He’s coming back. Before he does … You’ll be kind to him, right?”

  “Always.” The thought of being anything other than kind to Will was unimaginable.

  “That’s all I could ever ask. Now let’s pretend like we’ve been talking about the website all this time.”

  Cameron was still laughing when Will joined them with two glasses of wine and a beer tucked under his arm.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, glancing from his mother to Cameron.

  “Cameron was telling me about her encounter with Fred and how you came to her rescue.”

  “I was telling your mom about the mud and my poor suede boots,” Cameron said, earning a wink from Molly. “Will rescued them and took them to the dry cleaner. Fingers crossed.”

  “Mrs. Jefferson can get anything clean,” Molly assured her. “They’ll be good as new when she’s done with them.”

  Around them, the music drew people to the dance floor as Molly’s table filled in with other members of the family. Cameron met Landon’s twin, Lucas, who was every bit as handsome as Landon. When she said as much to Landon, he scoffed and questioned her eyesight.

  Ella and Charlotte dragged Hannah onto the dance floor, and she grabbed Cameron on the way. The four of them danced like fools to the B-52’s “Love Shack,” singing at the top of their lungs about the rusty tin roof. Cameron was delighted to see Hannah having so much fun.

  After five fast songs, Cameron was starting to feel overheated and was going to take a breather when Will suddenly appeared as the music slid into a slower song.

  “Dance with me,” he said in the gruff, sexy tone she was growing to love.

  “I’m all sweaty.”

  “You’re beautiful.”

  His arms came around her and she melted into his embrace, letting him lead her anywhere he wished to go. “I love the way you feel,” he whispered in her ear.

  Goose bumps erupted on her arms and her nipples tightened under the black cashmere turtleneck sweater she’d worn with jeans and black leather boots.

  “This song is kind of fitting, huh?”

  Cameron snapped out of the erotic fog she’d slipped into the minute his arms wrapped around her. The DJ was playing “You and I Collide.” She smiled up at Will. “Very fitting indeed.”

  “We should change the title to ‘You and Fred Collide.’”

  “I’m glad you were the one who came to my rescue.”

  As he looked down at her, she could tell he wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted him to. “So am I. You have no idea how glad I am I worked late that night.”

  He held her just right, close enough that she could feel his warmth but not close enough that people would talk.

  She wanted to burrow her nose into the curve of his neck so she could breathe in the rich, woodsy fragrance of his cologne. It was a scent she’d never encountered before, and it would forever remind her of him.

  “What’s the verdict on later?”

  The moment of truth had arrived. If she went with him, spent the night with him, made love with him, she had not a single doubt she’d fall completely in love with him.

  Over his shoulder, she noticed Megan, the waitress from the diner, staring daggers at her.

  “Why did you just get all tense?” he asked. “We don’t have to do anything. I want to be with you. That’s all.”

  “I didn’t get tense because of that.”

  “Then why?”

  “Megan is staring at us.”

  “Ignore her.”

  “It’s hard to when she’s plotting a thousand ways to have me killed.”

  “I can’t help that, and I don’t want to talk about her. I want to talk about us. I want to talk about you.”

  Cameron rested her cheek against his chest and listened to the strong beat of his heart.

  As Will turned them, she noticed Hunter, standing behind his mother’s chair. Per usual, he was solemn and serious—and laser focused on something across the room. Cameron followed the track of his gaze directly to Megan. Very interesting.

  “Will?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Does Hunter like Megan?”

  “What? Hunter and Megan? Not that I know of. Why?”

  “No reason. I just wondered.”

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  Cameron took a deep breath of Will-scented air, and decided the crash and burn at the bottom of the hill would be worth the thrill of the ride, no matter how bumpy it might get. “I’ll come with you.”

  “Thank you,” he whispered, his lips brushing her ear. “How much longer until we can leave?”

  “Stop it. We just got here.”

  “That doesn’t mean we’re stuck here. It’s a free country. We can leave anytime we want.”

  “I’m not ready to leave yet. I’m having fun.”

  He released a sound that was part growl, part groan, but he followed her back to his family’s table where they spent the next two hours laughing and talking with his parents and siblings.

  Cameron couldn’t recall an evening she’d enjoyed more. All of Will’s brothers, with the exception of Hunter, flirted shamelessly with her. She suspected they were more interested in baiting Will than they were in her, but she played along anyway because baiting Will was turning out to be a lot of fun.

  “Dance,” Landon said, dragging Cameron by the hand to the dance floor.

  Will started to protest, but held his tongue when he realized all eyes were on him.

  Lucas, Colton and Wade joined them, dancing circles around Cameron, who laughed so hard at their antics her sides ached.

  Watching Cameron dance with his brothers filled Will with an unusual and disquieting emotion—jealousy. Before now, before her, he would’ve said he didn’t have a jealous streak. Now he knew better. Even during the height of his relationship with Lisa, he’d never felt threatened by her close friendships with other guys. But this … This was tortu
re.

  “Relax, William,” Molly said as she gripped his arm with both hands. “They’re just messing around. Don’t let them get to you.”

  “They’re not. I’m fine.”

  “Sure you are,” she said with a low chuckle. “You’re crazy about her, and it’s making you nuts to see her surrounded by other guys, even if they’re your own brothers and even if they’re doing it to piss you off.”

  “I feel like I’m losing my mind,” he said, furious with himself before the words were even out of his mouth.

  She squeezed his arm. “I think you’re losing something much more important.”

  “How can I be this gone over her when I didn’t even know her a week ago? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “These things often don’t make sense.”

  “I keep telling myself to back off, that this is a recipe for disaster. She’s here for a short time, and then she’s going back to her real life, and where will that leave me? But the more I tell myself to back off, the closer I want to get. It’s madness.”

  “It’s love.”

  “Mom, really … Who said anything about love?”

  “You just did.”

  “When?”

  “Think about what you said.”

  Cameron tossed her head back and laughed as Lucas and Landon tugged at her arms, like she was the rope in a tug-of-war.

  Enough, Will thought, as he walked toward her with single-minded determination. “Let her go,” he ordered his younger brothers, who complied immediately. Such compliance was wildly out of character for them, which led Will to wonder how menacing he must look. He took Cameron’s hand and headed for the dark hallway that housed the restrooms.

  “Where are we going?” Cameron asked, stunned by his expression and his apparent anger. “What’re you doing? I was having fun! Will!”

  Will opened the door between the restrooms and nudged her in ahead of him. The room smelled of ammonia and bleach.

  “What is this place?”

  “The janitor’s closet,” he whispered, drawing her into his arms. “It’s where all the good stuff happens at the Grange.”

  “Is that so?” she asked, amused and aroused. “It sounds to me like maybe you’ve been in here before during a dance.”