by Gina Wilkins
“Shane will probably be back in a minute.”
He looked toward the door. “Very likely.”
She stood and turned to face him, cupping his face between her hands. “Before he gets back—” Leaning closer, she spoke with her lips just brushing his. “I’ll miss you, Sam Wallace.”
“I’ll miss being Sam Wallace,” he confessed. “He’s a pretty happy guy. I’m not so sure about Cameron North.”
Because she didn’t know how to respond to that, she covered his lips with hers. She didn’t know about Cameron North, either, but she suspected she could love him just as easily as she had fallen for Sam Wallace—had things been different for them, of course.
It was hot. Arkansas in August hot. And Serena was miserable. But then, she’d been in that condition for more than a month, and her mood had little to do with the weather. She’d been depressed since Sam—Cameron, she corrected herself irritably—had gone to Dallas with his friend Shane.
He’d called a few times during the first couple of weeks after he left, keeping her updated about his progress in regaining his memory. Time and therapy had been productive; he’d recovered a great deal, though there were still gaps that the doctors said might never be completely filled. Cameron hadn’t seemed as concerned about that as Serena might have expected him to be. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t seemed particularly emotional about anything—being home, being reunited with his friends, receiving praise for his part in uncovering a political scandal.
She’d been disturbed by the detached, impassive tone he’d used over the telephone. Maybe that was the way Cameron North always spoke. It wasn’t the way she remembered Sam Wallace.
It had been almost three weeks since he’d last called. She assumed he’d been too busy reclaiming his life. He didn’t owe her any more calls, of course. They’d made no promises, no plans for the future. What they’d shared had been very special, but they’d known all along it was temporary. She’d been a port in the storm for him, and he’d given her a chance to be reckless and irresponsible for once in her neatly programmed life. Each of them had performed their role well; she couldn’t say now that she’d ever expected more.
But, damn, she missed him.
She pushed her limp hair off her face, scowling as she thought again about how hot it was. She sat in the editor’s office of the Evening Star, a daunting pile of paperwork in front of her. The central air-conditioning unit was old and unreliable. It needed to be replaced, but she wasn’t sure the dwindling budget could justify that this year. And she couldn’t guarantee that the paper would still be in operation next summer—not unless she found someone who could rectify the poor business decisions Marvin had made during the past couple of years. Someone who knew the publishing business, understood small-town politics and was willing to work long hours for a rather meager salary.
She’d been searching in vain for a managing editor since she’d finally given in to the inevitable and fired Marvin two weeks earlier. He’d gone more easily than she’d expected, having already realized that he could no longer perform his job. To everyone’s relief, he’d decided to get some help with his drinking and then move to Florida to live closer to his only brother. Until a replacement could be found, Riley and Lindsey were trying to help Serena keep things afloat, but there were times when it felt as if they were fighting a losing battle.
Rubbing her temples, she glanced at that day’s edition, which was spread on one corner of the desk. The lead story had to do with a breakthrough in the recent rash of break-ins, such as the ones in which Cameron had been implicated. Dan had finally found evidence that Delbert Farley was, indeed, involved in the crimes, along with an accomplice from a neighboring town. Delbert’s girlfriend, Rita Hinson, was being charged as an accessory to the burglaries. Young Zach was in the custody of child welfare services. Serena hoped the boy would end up in a better environment than he’d endured thus far in his short life.
The image of an unhappy boy brought her thoughts back to Cameron. Everything seemed to bring him to her mind. She closed her eyes and rested her elbows on the desk, wondering if she would ever stop thinking about him.
Was this why Kara had been willing to leave her whole life behind to follow Pierce to Nashville? Because she would rather risk heartbreak with him than to live with the emptiness without him?
For the first time, Serena was beginning to understand her sister’s actions. She still couldn’t see herself walking away from all the responsibilities she’d taken on—well, most of the time, anyway—but she no longer criticized Kara for following her heart. Serena wanted her sister to be happy. And there were times—mostly in the middle of sleepless nights—when she wondered what it would be like to follow her sister’s example.
“I understand you’re looking for a managing editor.”
The familiar male voice brought Serena’s head up with such a jerk that she nearly fell out of her chair. Her eyes wide, she stared at the doorway. “Sam?”
His golden hair trimmed and brushed, his face free of bruises, his elegantly slender body clad in an expensive-looking gray suit, he leaned against the door-jamb wearing an enigmatic smile that didn’t quite reach his piercing blue eyes. “You can call me that if you like. I also answer to Cam or Cameron.”
She couldn’t quite seem to find the strength to stand up. “What are you doing here?”
“May I come in?”
“Of course. What are you doing here?”
He closed the office door behind him. “You know, if I’d ever visited you at this office while I was in town, I might have recovered a few memories more quickly. There’s just something about a newspaper office, no matter what the size of the operation—”
“S— Cam, you’re driving me crazy. Are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“I’m here to apply for the managing editor position.” He tossed something on the desk in front of her. “That’s my résumé. I think you’ll find that I’m qualified.”
He was joking—he had to be. She refused to allow herself to believe he was serious. “If you’re here to pay whatever debt you think you owe me or my mother, forget it. We both told you that you don’t owe us anything.”
“That’s not exactly true, but it’s not why I’m here. I’m completely serious, Serena. I want the job.”
“But—”
He took the seat across the desk from her, sitting straight and still, looking uncharacteristically formal. “I realize that you don’t really know Cameron North, so I understand if you want to conduct an interview before you make your decision. Ask me anything you like. Or would you rather I just start talking?”
Her brain seemed to have temporarily forgotten how to function. “I don’t—”
“Okay, I’ll do the talking.” He drew a deep breath. “I’m thirty-five, single and currently unemployed, since I quit my job with the newspaper in Dallas. I’m in generally good health, though I’ve got some large, fuzzy gaps in my memories that may or may not clear up with passing time. I’ve spent the past few years working too hard, drinking too much and sulking about my dysfunctional family. I’ve let my bitterness hurt people—nice women who wanted more from me than I was willing or able to give them, good friends who have worried about my self-destructive habits.”
“You, uh, might want to work on your interview skills,” Serena advised shakily. “You’re supposed to be convincing me to hire you, not discouraging me from doing so.”
“I thought I should give you the negatives first, just so there’d be no worry that I tried to deceive you.”
She cleared her throat, feeling strength flood her limbs again, along with a surge of exhilaration. “And the positives?”
“I’m a hard worker. I know the newspaper business. I’m ready for new challenges. You won’t have to worry about me leaving for greener pastures. I’ve been around enough to know there aren’t any.”
“I find it rather hard to believe you’ve always dreamed of running a small-town newspaper
,” she whispered, her eyes locked on his face.
“No. I always dreamed of finding a place to call home,” he answered quietly. “I just didn’t know where to look before.”
“There’s not a lot to do around here. How do I know you won’t get bored?”
The faintest smile quirked the corner of his mouth. “I wouldn’t say it gets boring around here. There’s dancing at Gaylord’s. Wrestling on big-screen TV at the pizza parlor. Thirty-six flavors of snow cones. And I never got a chance to go parking down by the lake on a Saturday night.”
“Those things are enough to keep you here permanently?”
“No.” He stood and walked slowly around the corner of the desk. Leaning over her chair, he tipped her chin back and lowered his mouth to within an inch of hers. “But you are.”
She lifted to meet him, trying to express in her kiss exactly how much she had missed him while he’d been gone. Judging from the enthusiastic way he gathered her into his arms, pulling her out of her chair and onto her tiptoes, he had missed her, too.
Locking her arms around his neck, she pressed herself so tightly against him that there was no separation left between them. Exactly the way she wanted it.
He released her mouth to give them both a chance to breathe, resting his forehead against hers. “I’ve missed you. So much I ached with it—worse than I ever ached from any physical injuries.”
“I missed you, too,” she whispered. “Every time I looked at the guest house, every time I sat in the rose garden, every time I ate in the diner, all I could think about was how empty it seemed without you there. It seemed hard to believe you’d only been here three weeks. Everywhere I looked, you were there.”
“With every memory I recovered in Dallas, I was only more convinced that I’d never been happier than I was during those three weeks here,” he answered unsteadily. “I kept telling myself you didn’t really know me, that you couldn’t possibly feel the way about me that I did about you, that you deserved someone better—but I couldn’t stay away.”
“You don’t know how many times I thought about coming to Dallas to find you. Maybe to drag you back here—or maybe I would have stayed with you. I don’t know. I guess I’m more like my sister than I’ve wanted to admit.”
“I want to meet your sister—and her singing beau.”
“I want you to meet them. And I want to meet anyone who’s important to you.”
“We’ll invite them all to the wedding. Hell, we’ll even invite my parents, if they aren’t too busy with their own pursuits to spare the time. I want you to know everything about me—good and bad. I want you to know me the way no one else ever has—not even Shane, who’s been my best friend since we were teenagers.”
She traced a finger along his jaw. His face was so dearly familiar to her, whatever name he used. “We’ve known each other such a short time, and already you’re talking about a wedding. There are people who will say we’re crazy.”
He laughed. “They won’t be calling me anything I haven’t called myself this summer. But take if from someone who knows—crazy isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
Her smile felt big enough to split her face. “Let’s be crazy together, Cameron North.”
He kissed her lingeringly, then lifted his head with a grin. “Does this mean I got the job?”
“You’re hired. Now can we get out of here?”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We could always go park by the lake,” he suggested as they moved together toward the door.
“I have a better idea,” she said, taking his hand. “Let’s go find a bed.”
“You’re right. That is a better idea.” He reached eagerly for the doorknob.
Epilogue
“I never thought I would live to see this day,” Shane commented, amusement and approval evident in his deep voice.
“Hey, you’re the one who’s been nagging me for years to settle down and get married,” Cameron reminded him.
“Yeah. But since when did you ever take my advice?”
Cameron chuckled and glanced across the room where his new bride accepted hugs and kisses from a seemingly endless stream of local well-wishers. With all her friends in Edstown and his from Dallas, there had been quite a large audience to witness the exchange of vows. The reception hall was crowded, just as tiny Edstown Baptist Church had been filled almost to the rafters for the ceremony. Shane said that was a good sign—lots of witnesses to make sure Cameron kept his word.
Cameron knew he wouldn’t have changed his mind had no one showed up but him and Serena and the preacher.
“Kelly approves of your choice, by the way,” Shane remarked. “She’s already quite fond of Serena. As much as I regret having you move so far away from Dallas, I have a feeling we’ll be getting together often.”
“Every chance we get,” Cameron promised.
He was glad that Shane’s wife and their other friends liked Serena. It touched him that they’d all made an effort to be with him today—Scott and Lydia Pearson coming all the way from Florida and more than a dozen others from the Dallas area. His friends had stood up with him—Shane the best man, of course, Scott Pearson and Michael Chang his grooms-men. Shane’s father, Jared, had come, along with his wife, Cassie, and young Molly. Shane’s cousin Brynn and her husband, Dr. Joe D’Alessandro, were there, as well, along with a few of Shane’s other numerous relatives. They’d all been so much a part of his past; he was glad they were there to watch him take a giant step toward an even better future.
Cameron’s parents had attended the ceremony, looking more like strangers who just happened to be seated beside each other than proud and happy parents, but they hadn’t stayed for the reception. They’d claimed other obligations. Cameron knew they had no interest in attending this gathering of people they considered their social inferiors. Their attitude no longer had the power to hurt him. He had Serena by his side now—and they had agreed that their own children, if any, would never have any reason to doubt that their parents loved them—and each other.
“I can see why you like it here,” Shane said, looking around the room at the chattering cluster of wedding guests. “It seems like a nice, friendly place.”
Cameron nodded, his gaze on his radiant-looking bride. The residents of Edstown were quite nice, but it was Serena who made him want to stay here. He had a feeling he’d like any place she called home.
It turned out he was the one who had something in common with her sister, Kara, who had served as Serena’s maid of honor. Both Cameron and Kara had been willing to walk away from the lives they’d known to be with the ones they loved. In a private conversation a couple of hours before the wedding ceremony, they’d agreed that neither of them had any regrets.
“Congratulations, Sam—I mean, Cam. You got yourself a fine woman there.” Bill Pollard thumped Cameron heartily on the shoulder as he spoke. The locals had accepted his amnesia more readily than he could have expected, but they were still having a little trouble getting used to his new name.
Maybe Cameron was developing a callus or something on that shoulder. He no longer flinched when Bill exchanged his usual hearty greeting. “Thanks, Bill.”
“And the paper’s looking real good since you took over,” the older man added. “’Course, I do miss you over at the diner. Your coffee was even better than Justine’s.”
“Don’t let her hear you say that. She’ll snatch you bald-headed.”
Chuckling, Bill thumped him again, then headed off, saying over his shoulder, “You got that right. See you around, S— Cam.”
Shane laughed. “Yeah. I can tell you’re going to fit in around here just fine.”
Cameron’s attention had already strayed. Serena was making her way across the room to him, extending her hand when she reached him. He took it tightly in his own.
“It’s a lovely reception, isn’t it?” she asked as Shane moved discreetly away.
“Lovely. Can we leave now? I want to make love to my wife,” Cameron
informed her, lifting her hand to his lips.
“You’ll have to be patient a little while longer. Mother’s going to insist that I throw the bouquet. Molly wants to catch it, but Shane’s vowed to body check her if he has to. He doesn’t want to even think about her getting married for another ten years or so.”
Cameron sighed. “I’ll give you another half hour. Then we’re out of here.”
She smiled brightly at him. “Sounds good to me.”
“I love you, Serena.”
“I love you, too.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “How did we ever get along without each other?”
He grinned. “I couldn’t say. I seem to have forgotten everything that happened to me before I met you.”
She sighed in response to the bad joke, then lifted her face for his kiss.
Cameron could have told her that he hadn’t been entirely joking. As far as he was concerned, the most important part of his life had begun the day he’d opened his eyes and had first seen Serena’s face.
It wasn’t Edstown that was his Brigadoon, he realized. It was Serena, herself. Her love had entrapped him—and he never wanted to leave.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4390-3
THE STRANGER IN ROOM 205
Copyright © 2001 by Gina Wilkins
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.