“The football player?” Grant asked.
“Ah, Camden—” Levi began, but Camden didn’t let him finish.
“Yes, the football player. You saw that video from the lighting ceremony. We, ah, reconnected when I came back to town, didn’t we...” Camden couldn’t think of a proper endearment for Levi. Darling was too shiny, sweetheart made her think of all the times Grant had called her that, and honey was what her grandmother called her. Maybe the two of them didn’t need pet names for each other. Did anyone in a fake, would-only-last-a-few-minutes relationship need pet names? “Didn’t we, Levi?” she said, gazing up at him. When he didn’t say anything, she squeezed his hand as hard as she could.
“I’d say it was more of a dunking than a reconnection. But, sure,” he said after a long moment.
Grant eyed the two of them, taking in Levi’s short-sleeved T-shirt, jeans and work boots, and Camden’s flannel, jeans and rain boots. Probably thinking that the two of them had been shopping at Goodwill or something. Camden didn’t care as long as his assumptions drove him straight out of Slippery Rock.
“I have a six-figure salary and you have a serious shoe addiction, Camden—you said it yourself,” Grant said after a long moment. He held out his hand. “Come on, let’s go back to Kansas City. We can announce our reconciliation in time for Christmas.”
“I’m not reconciling with you. I’m with Levi now,” Camden said and pasted what she hoped was a sappy, head-over-heels expression on her face. Levi raised his eyebrows and smirked at her, but at least he didn’t contradict her.
“No, you’re just mad at me about Heather and lashing out,” Grant said, and the placating tone was back.
Camden clenched her jaw. “I don’t sleep with one man just to get back at another, Grant. Levi and I—” she smiled up at the man who was currently gaping at her “—we’re in love.” And Camden raised up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against Levi’s.
The room around them seemed to vibrate with energy, and a rumbling of surprise pulsed through the bar from table to table. She wanted to open her eyes but was afraid of what she might see in Levi’s gaze, so she kept her lids squeezed closed and concentrated on selling the kiss to Grant.
Levi’s lips tasted like beer, and his mouth was hard against hers for a moment. Then it softened. His tongue pressed against the seam of her mouth, and Camden opened for him. His hand gripped hers, holding it between their chests, and her other arm snaked around his neck.
A wave of heat washed over the room, and the rumbles of the other customers seemed to fade, Grant seemed to fade, everything faded except the man before her. He was real and strong and the heat from him seemed to scorch straight through her.
Camden slipped her tongue into his mouth, deepening the kiss, not for the audience, but just for her. Just because this was Levi, and she’d wanted to kiss him since she was a kid. Had dreamed about the one kiss they’d shared for the last few days. And she wanted to experience his mouth just one more time before she became a celibate dog trainer.
The heat between them in this bar on that first night had been an inconvenience, and when he’d kissed her outside the barn, it had startled her.
This kiss could burn out of control, leaving her shivering and alone in a heartbeat. The thought should petrify Camden. Should send her running from Levi’s arms, but she couldn’t find the strength to disengage from the kiss. She wanted to stay here, like this, for another year or maybe two. Tasting him, feeling his heart—or was it her own?—pound beneath their joined hands, taking in the rich, outdoorsy scent of him. She could stay like this forever.
“We can talk about this more when I call you tomorrow,” Grant said, and the words washed over her like a bucket of cold water. He turned on his heel and left the bar, leaving Camden to face her surprised grandparents, a shocked Levi and a too-interested bar filled with people she barely knew.
Levi released her hand. “We’re in love?”
Camden shrugged, hoping the move was more nonchalant than it felt, because in that moment she felt anything but casual. She felt as if her body was on fire. She wanted to wrap her arms around Levi’s neck again. Arms, hell, she wanted to wrap her body around Levi and forget the last six months with Grant had ever happened.
But they had happened. She’d gotten engaged to a man she didn’t love because he was a good catch, his father was her stepfather’s boss and her mother thought Grant was the type of man who was perfect for her.
The truth was, Camden didn’t know what she wanted, and until she did, it didn’t matter that Levi Walters made her feel more than she’d felt in a long time.
“He needed a reason to let me go.”
“And you walking out on him wasn’t enough?”
“You don’t know Grant.”
“I know his type.”
Something in Levi’s voice caught her attention. “What do you know about his type?”
Levi grinned. “I know his type leaves your type cold and lonely.”
“And what is my type?”
He considered her for a long moment. “Trouble,” he said, and Camden grinned at him.
She’d never been called trouble before, not even in her wild childhood days of following Levi around in the woods between their properties. She realized most of the bar patrons were still staring at them. So were her grandparents. Since Grant had left, Camden held out her hand. “Thanks for the assist.”
“I’m not sure it was an assist. I was on my way to the bar for another round.”
And she’d hijacked him. He hadn’t been coming to her rescue. Not that she needed him to come to her rescue, but the thought that he might have been had been nice. “Oh. I’ll, ah, let you get to it,” she said.
Levi watched her for a long moment and then turned on his heel to return to the dart game.
Juanita delivered their food and drinks, and when she left, Grandmom said, “You and Levi?”
Camden shook her head. “He’s just a friend.”
“That didn’t look like a friend kiss to me,” her grandfather offered.
Camden speared a buffalo wing with her fork and tasted it. The spice burned her tongue the way Levi’s hand at the small of her back a few moments before had sizzled through her clothes. She watched him with his friends for a few seconds.
He hadn’t gone to the bar for that next round, she realized. And he hadn’t just let her kiss him—he’d kissed back.
“This is good chicken,” she said, hoping her grandparents wouldn’t press the issue. She needed to figure out how she felt about kissing Levi—tonight and at the barn—and what that meant moving forward.
No, Camden Harris had never been trouble for anyone, and the idea that she could be was intriguing.
* * *
LEVI WANTED TO pound his head against the paneled walls of the Slippery Slope. He hadn’t intended to get in the middle of whatever was going on between Camden and Khaki Pants. Didn’t care what was going on between the two of them. All he’d wanted was another beer, but the Slope was so slammed tonight, Juanita was running in fifteen different directions. He should have gone straight to the bar for the pitcher Merle put out for their table, but no, he’d taken the long route, weaving between tables. And gotten sucked right in to Camden’s drama for his trouble.
Everyone at their corner booth was watching him as he closed the gap between Camden’s table and their own. Everyone would have questions. And he still didn’t have the beer. Damn it. Before he could turn on his heel to go grab it, though, Juanita buzzed past him, carrying two pitchers.
“Anything else y’all need?” she asked, and when no one put in a request, she turned to Levi. “So you and the Harris girl, eh? Wouldn’t have seen that one comin’.”
Levi didn’t know what to say. He and Camden weren’t a thing. He and Camden barely knew each other,
aside from the two scorching-hot kisses they’d exchanged since her return to town. She obviously wanted people to believe they were, though, and it wasn’t exactly a hardship kissing her. Still, he should set the record straight.
Instead, he grabbed one of the pitchers and his glass and poured. “Who’s up next?” he asked the group.
Juanita clucked her tongue but didn’t ask anything more about the kiss or Camden before heading to her next table.
“When did this happen?” Savannah asked when it was just the nine of them again. When had their four-or five-man dart game morphed into nine people? And why did all nine pairs of eyes have to home in on him so intently?
“Nothing’s happening,” he said, hoping they’d all back off. Julia, the newest of their little group, was the only one to stop with the staring. Collin chuckled, James exchanged a glance with Mara and Adam folded his arms over his chest.
“If that kiss was a nothing, I’d like to see a kiss you consider something,” he said after a long moment. Jenny smacked his upper arm. “Ow! What? You said the same thing ten seconds ago.”
“I said it’s about time some girl makes Levi think about something other than football and dairy cattle.”
“And?”
“And that isn’t the same thing at all,” she retorted.
Levi picked up a dart, considered throwing it at the board and ignoring the pointed looks and conversation surrounding them. Instead, he looked over his shoulder to the table in the middle of the room. Camden and the Harrises were chatting as if nothing had happened. That was annoying. If he had to face some kind of inquisition from people who weren’t even related to him—well, aside from Savannah—Camden could damn well face the same line of questioning.
It was only fair, to Levi’s way of thinking.
But he wasn’t about to cross the room for a second time that evening; that would only lead to more speculation. More questions he didn’t have answers for.
Just what had that been about? Obviously, she wanted to get the ex out of the picture, but what did that have to do with Levi? He didn’t know Khaki Pants, and Khaki Pants didn’t know him.
Were they supposed to duel for her hand?
Was the mere sight of Levi supposed to send the other man running?
Or was the sight of Levi supposed to make Khaki Pants throw Camden over his shoulder Neanderthal-style and carry her back to Kansas City?
Levi tossed the dart at the board. It landed on a twenty spot. Aiden grabbed another dart and took aim while everyone else chatted at the tables. Probably about him. Levi tuned them out the way he’d trained his mind to tune out the noise of a football stadium on game day. Aiden’s dart landed on a twenty, too.
The thought of Khaki Pants hauling Camden around like a caveman made him frown. He aimed and threw the dart. It missed the target and embedded in the paneling. Aiden pulled it from the wall and whistled low.
“You don’t embed a dart all the way to the barrel in a wall without something being wrong,” he said, handing the dart to Levi.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He aimed again, and this time the throw was true. The dart landed in the bull’s-eye. He crooked his head. All the way to the barrel. So maybe the thought of Khaki Pants and Camden was a little annoying. That didn’t mean anything.
Aiden threw and hit another twenty position. “Whatever is going on, it’s upped your dart game to post–knee injury levels. At least, according to what Adam told me about those duels to the death the four of you would play when you were first came back.”
“It’s just a dart game.” Levi threw his final dart and hit the edge of the board. No score.
“Sure, and whatever that thing was over there wasn’t a kiss.” Aiden aimed, threw and hit just outside the bull’s-eye. He won the round. “It was nothing, right?”
From the corner of his eye, Levi saw Camden and the Harrises leave the bar. As if nothing had happened.
Nothing had happened. Kissing Camden, wanting to kiss Camden, didn’t mean anything.
Levi Walters wasn’t looking for the distraction of a relationship. Not now. Maybe not ever. He liked the company of women, but a long-term relationship had never been something he needed. Being back in Slippery Rock didn’t mean he needed that now.
He watched James and Mara, Savannah and Collin, Adam and Jenny, and Aiden and Julia for a long moment. Each couple part of the group, but each also an entity unto itself. Savannah was saying something to Collin that made him grin and nod. Mara had laid her head on James’s shoulder. Adam twirled a lock of Jenny’s curly hair around his finger, and Aiden slid into the booth next to Julia and put his arm around her shoulder.
Levi swallowed hard and turned back to the dartboard. He pulled the darts from the board and put them back in the holders.
He didn’t need a relationship. Before Camden had returned to Slippery Rock, hadn’t thought about a relationship at all. He’d considered that run to the coast, hitting a few clubs and scratching the sexual itch, but a relationship? Not something on his mind.
Grabbing his jacket from the bench seat, Levi turned to go. Letting a single kiss—correction, two kisses—change his frame of mind where relationships were concerned. He had nothing against love, but he’d never gone looking for it. Somehow, he didn’t think being Camden Harris’s rebound guy would lead to the type of relationship his friends had found.
“Where are you going?” It was Savannah. She scooted off the booth seat she shared with Collin.
“Home.”
She looked at him for a long moment and then said, “Wow.”
Collin, James and Mara continued their conversation at one table; Aiden, Julia and Adam talked quietly at the other. No one paid attention to him talking to Savannah. Why that relieved him, Levi wasn’t sure.
“Wow, what?” he asked, already knowing he wouldn’t like her answer but unable to resist asking just the same.
“One kiss and a few questions from your family and you’re running off into the sunset?”
Levi hooked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing toward the one small window that kind of overlooked the street and the marina. If a three-by-three square of the kind of block glass that was usually used in showers could be called a window. It did let in light, though. “Sunset was about three hours ago. And I have an early morning.”
“You know what I mean. Finish the game—”
“No one else seems interested in playing. And we already played through one tournament.”
“Or just have another drink.”
“Maybe another time,” he said, and because Savannah looked as if she might have one more suggestion, Levi reached out and tugged a couple of the small braids that covered her head. She hated it when it pulled on her hair, had hated it from the day their parents brought her home from the foster care agency. Levi needed her distracted and off this line of questioning, though, and annoying her about something else was the quickest way to reroute her train of thought.
She wrinkled her brow and brushed her hair behind her shoulders impatiently. “We always have drinks after town meetings.”
“You never attended town meetings until you came back last summer.”
“I wasn’t interested,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “Also, they didn’t used to have town meetings at the drop of a hat, not before the tornado tore through. And, anyway, you didn’t answer my question.”
“Sure I did. You asked where I was going. I said I was going home.”
“Not that one, the other one.”
“You didn’t ask another question.”
“You know what I mean. Are you running after her?”
“Her who?”
Savannah squinted at him. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, you know.” He reached for her hair again, but she brushed his hand away. “It won’t wor
k. You’re not going to distract me by treating me like I’m seven. I didn’t know Camden back then and I don’t know her now, but I do know chemistry. And I haven’t seen you have chemistry with a woman since I’ve been back. That can’t be, ah, healthy. You know, for a strong, healthy, apparently virile man.”
“I’m not talking to my baby sister about my sex life.”
“That’s because you don’t have one.”
“Hear, hear,” said either James, Collin, Aiden or Adam. Levi had been so focused on Savannah, he couldn’t be certain which of his friends was turning traitor at this moment. All four of them seemed engrossed in their conversations. Adam reached down absently to scratch Sheba behind her ears.
“I’m fine, Van. I don’t need your help to get...a date or...anything.”
“That’s why you should stay,” she said earnestly. “We could come up with a plan for you to woo Camden Harris’s socks off.”
“I think you mean bra, Van,” Collin said, a stupid grin on his face.
“And panties,” James chimed in.
“Pull her hair out of that ponytail,” Mara added, a devilish glint in her eyes.
“Point of fact—Camden doesn’t wear bras,” Julia said. All eyes turned to her. “What? You learn things about the girls you pageant with. She jokes that she’s a lowercase A cup, so why bother? Some of us wish we had that problem,” she added ruefully, looking at her own full chest.
“Some of us like the quadruple-D cup you—” Aiden began, and Julia slapped lightly at his hand.
“They’re a C cup, and I didn’t say I didn’t like them, but it would be nice every now and then not to deal with underwires. But we’re talking about Levi’s girl problem, not my issues with my girls. So, you want the scoop on Cam?”
No, he didn’t want the scoop on the woman. He didn’t want her at all. He wanted...to kiss her again, damn it, and that was wrong. Camden Harris was the granddaughter of two people he respected and thought well of. On top of that, she’d shown up in town wearing her wedding dress, and now her ex was in town and obviously wanted a reunion.
Christmas in a Small Town Page 11
