Dean’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel but he remained silent. They passed the long driveway that lead to Bobby and Leeann’s house and continued for a few minutes before taking a turn beneath a wooden arch emblazoned with the camp’s name. Dean drove past a parking lot, following a winding road that led deeper into the forest. Soon, they came to a clearing with a view of a beautiful lake and numerous log buildings scattered among the trees.
He pulled to a stop next to one of the buildings and shut off his truck. “And when your plans changed, you didn’t switch out your wardrobe before you hit the road?” he asked.
“The only thing I was thinking about hitting at the time was my ex-boyfriend, squarely on the jaw.” Shocked at her own words, Priscilla released the latch on her seat belt, wanting nothing more than to be out of this truck.
This was a bad idea. She should’ve just gone back down to the parking lot and told Dean she couldn’t do the tour. But they were here, so she might as well get it over with. She grabbed her tote and reached for the door handle.
“Wait a minute,” Dean called out. “You wanted to take a swing at your boyfriend? Why?”
“My ex-boyfriend,” Priscilla emphasized, “when I found him getting all hot and heavy with my sister!”
“Your sister?” Dean’s voice was incredulous, but then it switched to concern. “Hey, watch out. Those pine needles can be a bit—”
The moment she jerked free of the truck and her feet hit the ground, they disappeared out from under her. Seconds later, Priscilla found herself flat on her back on a cushion of pine needles and grass. Stunned but not hurt, she blinked, staring up at the towering trees and the bright blue sky. Closing her eyes, she covered them with one hand, willing back the tears that threatened to escape.
She didn’t cry. Ever. Not since her mother’s funeral all those years ago. Not after her father told her that tears were a sign of weakness and Lennox women were never weak. Not even when she’d found her sister with...
As the first drop freed itself from the corner of her eye, warm fingers touched her shoulder, then moved up to whisk away the offending moisture. When she opened her eyes, she found Dean kneeling beside her. And the look on his face was the last thing she wanted to see: pity. Oodles of it. Directed right at her.
Chapter Six
“Are you okay?” Dean gazed down at her, glad to see her blue eyes clear and focused as she stared back at him. And free from more tears. Other than the one clinging to his fingertips. “Does anything— Does it hurt anywhere?”
She closed her eyes again. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Yeah, with news like she’d spouted a minute ago, he wasn’t surprised. News that had brought her to tears.
“I meant physically,” he said. “Does any part—your back, your legs—hurt?”
She pulled in a deep breath and released it, shaking her head. “The only thing bruised right now is my pride.”
“These pine needles can be slick, even in the best of shoes.” He looked her over with a professional eye, making sure she wasn’t injured. “Which those things on your feet definitely aren’t.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that fact.” Priscilla’s eyes snapped open and she started to sit up. “Painfully aware.”
Unlike the first time down at the river, Dean didn’t ask if she needed help. He just took one of her hands in his and, wrapping his arm around her back, rose with her when she got to her feet.
So far, so good. She didn’t seem to mind his assistance, then or now. “You sure you’re okay?”
Priscilla kept her gaze to the ground, brushing pine needles and dirt from her clothes, righting the neckline of her silky top, which had slipped off one shoulder. “I’m fine. Where’s my purse?”
Dean spotted the bag lying nearby, but before he could move, Priscilla saw it. She leaned down, grabbing for the straps, and her feet once again fought for purchase on the needle-strewn ground. Before he could help her, she stuck out one hip and found her balance. “Dammit, I’m normally not such a klutz!”
She whipped around, eyes wide, fingers pressed hard against her mouth.
“What?” Dean instinctively reached for her again. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry.” Dropping her hand, she squared her shoulders and pulled in a deep breath. She tucked her bag up on her shoulder, releasing a whispery sigh as she did. “Please forgive my swearing. It’s something I rarely do.”
Dean grinned. “Don’t worry about it. I swear all the time. Usually in my head and in Italian, but a few choice phrases have slipped free now and then. You’re only human, right?”
Priscilla nodded and offered a faint smile. He noticed she still had a few pine needles in her hair. He took a step closer and pulled them free, ignoring the startled expression on her face. “You missed some.”
“Oh, I must look a mess.” She took a step back, her fingers running through the long lengths.
“You look fine.” Better than fine. A bit messy and sexy, but he managed to keep that observation to himself. He lifted his sunglasses from the top of his head and put them back in place over his eyes. “A little overdressed for a kids’ camp, but—”
“What about you?” She cut him off. “Do you always come out here in pressed khakis and a button-down shirt?”
Dean looked down. Yeah, he’d forgotten he was still in his Sunday best. “You’re right, but I can easily fix that.” He released the top three buttons on his shirt and then started pulling the bottom edge from the waistband of his pants.
“Wait!” Priscilla cried out. “What are you doing?”
“Getting more comfortable. Just give me a second.” He reached back between his shoulder blades and, with one tug, pulled his shirt easily over his head. He wore a simple white T-shirt underneath, and seeing as how the day was already warm, he did feel more relaxed. Tossing his dress shirt inside the truck, he turned to Priscilla. “Much better. Ready to tackle the chow hall?”
She stared at him, mouth agape, then snapped it closed and nodded instead.
Dean found he liked the idea of rendering her speechless. “Just take it slow and steady, okay?”
“Are you worried I might not make it there in one piece?”
He stepped to one side and directed her to walk ahead of him. “I’ll walk a few paces behind to catch you if you fall, princess.”
Her chin now held that familiar upward tilt as she walked past. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary. And the name is Priscilla.”
Despite what he’d just said, Dean walked next to her, pointing at the largest of the log buildings ahead as they moved into the bright sunshine. The camp was quiet, except for the noisy chatter filtering from the open windows of the dining hall. “I know what your name is.”
“Surely if I can pronounce Zippenella, you can handle my name. Or would Ms. Lennox be easier for you?”
And the hoity-toity princess was back. Not surprising. The comment she’d made about her finding her sister doing the nasty with her ex still hung in the air. Most people probably wouldn’t let something that juicy go without asking for more details, and even though he was curious, Dean had seen the shock on her face—and the tears—when she let that news slip out. She probably expected him to ask her about it. He figured it had to be a recent event, since she’d admitted her travel plans had changed so suddenly.
Plans that hadn’t included her spending any length of time here in cowboy country. He’d let that little jab at his adopted hometown slide, only because he could tell from the moment she returned from changing her clothes something had been bothering her.
Boy, was it ever. The thing of it was, Dean could appreciate what she was going through.
Being the second oldest of six kids, he knew quite a bit about the good, the bad and the ugly of sibling relationships. Hell, just a few years before
he’d moved to Destiny, Dean had come across his brother making out in the family’s backyard gazebo with a girl Dean had brought to the house for a family dinner. Granted, they’d only been dating a few weeks, and according to a few not-so-subtle hints from his siblings, the girl had been all wrong for him. Still, the betrayal had caused a rift that started with Dean’s right hook to Frankie’s jaw and lasted for a few weeks until his brother found out the girl had been using both him and Dean to make an old boyfriend jealous.
Of course, Frankie had tried to tell Dean his tastes hadn’t improved when he’d started dating Kate shortly after that, but Dean hadn’t listened then, either. Thankfully, he didn’t have to witness her betrayal firsthand, but after being together for almost a year, it’d been a blow all the same to find out about her trying to use his old man’s position as police chief to her advantage to make a few—quite a few—parking tickets in their beach community go away. Learning about her engagement to another man via a front-page article in the style section of the New York Times a week later had been the icing on a very bitter cake.
Yeah, Katherine Bartlett Barrington had never intended to get serious with him. She’d been slumming far from her ritzy Manhattan neighborhood when they’d met. Bored and looking for something—or someone—to take the shine off her high-society world for a while, she’d gone fishing and he’d taken the bait.
Something Ms. Lennox and his ex-girlfriend had in common, maybe?
“Ms. Lennox might be easier, but not as much fun,” Dean finally answered as they walked up the wide steps. He yanked open the screen door and allowed Priscilla to enter the center hallway of the building ahead of him. “On the left are the camp offices and farther down is the store where campers and staff can get everything from T-shirts to toothpaste. On the right is the dining hall, and as you can probably tell from the noise level, lunch has been served.”
Priscilla stopped outside the closest set of double doors, her eyes wide as she took in the controlled chaos through the clear plastic windows. “How many children are in there?”
“About fifty or so, and the staff.” Dean pocketed his sunglasses and then grabbed the door handle. “Come on, let’s eat.”
He led her into the melee, a bit surprised when she inched closer to him. He put his hand at the small of her back, giving a quick tour of the place, pointing out the busy kitchen area off to one side and the rows of tables and benches filled with campers and staff that stretched out in front of them.
“All of the meals are served family-style and the campers pull mess-hall duties—dishing out the food, cleaning up afterward—during their stay. Of course, besides the daily menu, the kids can go à la carte if they want.” Dean led her to a corner nook separated from the main dining space by a long counter that held the drink machines, trays and silverware. He waved a hand at the expansive salad-bar area, complete with plenty of fresh fruit, pasta and potato salads, and two different soups. “Because as you know, not everyone likes burgers. See anything that interests you?”
Priscilla turned to look at him and he’d swear that her gaze shifted to his mouth. And it stayed there. A hunger to lean in and cover those soft, shiny pink lips with his own crashed into him with a force he hadn’t felt in a long time. If ever. Dean could readily admit he’d been attracted to Priscilla from the moment they’d met, even if it was clear she was out of his league. But that realization didn’t quench the desire to pull her into his arms and kiss her, right here in front of everyone.
Did she feel the same way? A light flush danced over her cheeks, and this time when she lifted her chin, her gaze moved to his and he read the answering desire in those blue depths. She wanted this as much as he did. Was she as surprised as he was?
Just then the crash of dropped dishes from the other side of the room brought forth shrieks, laughter and loud applause, breaking the moment and bringing both of them back to reality.
Priscilla looked away first. “Uh, no, thank you. There’s nothing here...I’m interested in.”
Dean reached out, snagging a cherry-red miniature tomato and popping it into his suddenly dry mouth. “Why, Ms. Lennox, I think you just told a great big fib.”
* * *
“And of course I apologized profusely, but I have to admit it was hard to do so with a straight face.”
Priscilla sat on a stone bench in a small garden nestled between the white clapboard church and the attached hall, enjoying the light breeze on a still-warm summer evening. It’d been a week ago tonight that her world turned upside down, but she now felt so far removed from her old life in Beverly Hills that despite that unfortunate phone call with her sister, it seemed as if everything that happened last Wednesday had happened to someone else.
Priscilla had received an email from her best friend begging for an update on her adventures in Destiny and had decided to call back despite only having a few minutes to talk. She was here at the town’s weekly bingo night to meet up with Leeann and Bobby and to share the news about the auction. She’d already told Lisa about the awful phone call with her sister, the beautiful inn she was staying at and how she’d agreed to organize the fund-raiser she’d come up with off the top of her head.
“Oh, Lisa, the sight of him soaking wet from the knees down and the squish-squish-squish coming from his shoes with every step was too funny.”
“Well, at least you didn’t completely capsize the canoe when you tried for your less-than-graceful exit,” Lisa said.
“His first clue that we were going to have trouble should’ve been the fact I kept losing the paddle in the water. I tried to tell him I’d never been in a canoe before, but he insisted that I go.”
“And he paid the price for it.” Lisa’s rich laughter filled the air. “But I like the part about how you almost knocked him down earlier in the tour thanks to the creepy crawler in the girls’ shower room.”
“Hey, that spider was big and brown and hairy and yuck!” Priscilla shuddered at the memory of poking her head inside one of the individual shower stalls and coming nose to nose with the offensive creature. “I just wanted to get away from the thing. Dean happened to be standing between me and the only exit.”
“Boy, you and this Zipperman seem to spend all your time falling for each other.”
“I am not falling for Dean Zippenella, even if I do seem to end up on my backside more often than not when he’s around.” Something she’d managed to avoid for the remainder of the camp tour, the spider incident notwithstanding.
“It also sounds like you’ve really taken to the camp,” Lisa said. “Considering English riding is the closest thing you’ve ever done connected with the great outdoors.”
Lisa was right. The grounds had been impressive: the outdoor sports area had open fields for baseball and soccer as well as a basketball court and an archery range. The challenge course, with the ropes and cables and platforms some twenty or so feet off the ground, looked a bit intimidating, but Dean assured her proper safety measures were in place for both the campers and the staff. All the swimming and boating activities were held at the lake, and the campfire circle sported plenty of seating around a large fire pit.
The health center housed an infirmary and sleeping quarters for the full-time nurse and for any ill campers that needed to stay there, while the cabins and bathhouses for the girls and boys, separated by a dense patch of trees, were bright and airy. Similarly, the arts-and-crafts building had plenty of light and lots of room for budding artists of all kinds.
“And we never even made it down to the stables that first day.” Priscilla crossed her legs and eyed her high heels. They felt a bit strange on her feet, as this was the first time she’d wore them this week. “But I have been back at the camp every afternoon—with Snake in tow, of course—and the horses they have for the kids are great.”
“I hope you’ve done some shoe shopping while you’ve been there. Your L
ouboutins must be taking a beating with all that grass and dirt.”
“Would you be surprised to find out I’ve been wearing nothing but jeans, T-shirts and the cutest pair of outdoor hiking boots for the last three days?”
“What?” Shock filled Lisa’s voice. “This from the girl who has nothing made of denim in her entire closet? Oh, you must send me a picture.”
Priscilla looked down at her lap. “Well, at the moment I’m back to wearing a dress and heels. I’m about to formally announce the auction.”
“At what? A town meeting?”
“Actually, it’s the weekly bingo night at the local church hall.” Priscilla looked at the crowd filing into the building. She hadn’t seen Leeann arrive yet. Or Dean. In fact, she hadn’t see Dean since Sunday when he’d dropped her off back at the inn. Though Leeann had shared with her earlier today that they’d secured some bachelors for the event, Priscilla wasn’t sure if Dean had anything to do with that or not.
Just then her gaze caught on the tall figure walking across the parking lot. Dressed casually in jeans and T-shirt, Dean headed toward a red convertible pulling into a parking space a few feet from hers. While she loved her new Mercedes with a passion, the other convertible was obviously a vintage model and a very beautiful one at that. Bobby and Leeann got out of the car and joined Dean, heading for the hall.
It only took a moment before they passed her car. As they did, Dean slowed and reached out, his fingertips seeming to gently caress the trunk. A shiver raced through Priscilla as if the man had just touched her skin.
“So tell me more about this bachelor auction. Which is a simply yummy idea!” Her friend’s voice broke into her thoughts. “Sugar, I am so tempted to fly out there and bid on a cowboy for myself. Or a firefighter. Unless I’d be stepping on someone’s toes?”
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