by Palmer Jones
It could wait. In the meantime, he had some more resumes he needed to send out to California.
23
The front door of Cameron’s house opened. That was Addie’s cue. It was time to leave to go back to Florida and to court. The message from Miss Alice still showed on her laptop screen.
You’re one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, Hollywood. If I can’t have you in White Rabbit, I want you for the other company I run. It is an above-board internet security company. We’re hired to see if we can gain access into their system. We identify deficiencies and fix them. Pay isn’t quite as high, but still nice. Interested?
Her response typed out, sat in the text box. She hadn’t hit Enter yet. It was a lot to assume Cameron still wanted her here. He hadn’t mentioned it since before the incident.
She wanted to be with him.
Cameron came to the door and leaned against the frame. “Ready?”
She smiled, unable to help herself. There wasn’t another person she needed in her life. “Yes.”
They’d have to get through the meeting first. With the affidavit from Brian, the judge wanted to see her privately to discuss the matter. Her lawyer waited for her at the courthouse.
She and Cameron held hands through the ride there. The decision on what to do after the trial sat like a wide elephant between them. So strange, the difference two weeks made in her life since the last time she’d been in Florida.
“Was Dexter’s grandmother really upset?” Addie studied his profile, wishing she could read his mind about their future.
“Yes. Angry more than anything else. We found most of the items in his room. It might be a small-town thing, but Ms. Ruth brought it all down to the station. We allowed each victim to come in and, based on what they’d reported stolen, let them look over the items. It seemed to work out.”
After the long drive, he pulled into the courthouse parking lot. Her lawyer stood off to the side. He waved in greeting.
She took a deep breath as Cameron kissed the back of her hand, still linked with his.
“It will be fine. This meeting is just a formality.” He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, his voice softening. “You look pretty.”
“Thanks.” With a quick kiss, Addie left the sanctuary of his truck. She could handle this. It should come as a relief. And it would. But it also meant she had to face Cameron and lay her heart on the line. She was in love with him, and it was time he knew it.
If he refused her, she’d return to California and figure out her life from there. A different life. She’d never try to hide as Hollywood again.
Cameron leaned against the large stone pillar outside the courthouse. He’d never been to this particular courthouse before, but they all felt the same. His phone chimed with a new email message.
He smiled at the request for an interview for the position out in California. Finally, some solid news to lean on when he spoke with Addie. Her suitcase sat in the back of his truck. She’d reluctantly booked an airline ticket out to Los Angeles, where her brother had stored her belongings.
He blew out a deep breath. This was the riskiest move he’d ever made personally.
Giving up his dream to be Sheriff of his hometown had been hard. For anyone else, it was unfathomable. But not for Addie. He’d give up everything for Addie.
The door to the courthouse opened. Addie stepped out, speaking low with her attorney before shaking hands with him. Her eyes fell on Cameron, and she headed down the short flight of stairs to where he stood.
“That’s that. My record is cleared.” She shifted her purse strap. “I’d hoped we could talk for a second before you drive me to the airport.”
“Me, too.” He reached for her hand. “I have some news I hope you’ll like.” Hope was such an understatement. He needed her to like it. If Addie walked out if his life…that just wasn’t a possibility.
“Really?” She slipped on her sunglasses. “And what news is that?”
Now or never, boy. “I was offered an interview with a police department outside of Los Angeles.”
She stumbled down the last two steps. Cameron grabbed hold of her waist.
Now that he had her in his arms, he refused to let go. He turned her to face him, hating she had on sunglasses, and he couldn’t see what she was thinking. He pushed them up and into her hair the way she sometimes wore them. Better.
“You”—she licked her lips—“you applied for a job in California?”
“Yes.”
“You’d give up Statem for…”
She’d trailed off, and a cute flush started at the base of her throat.
He trailed a finger down the side of her face and tipped her chin up. “You.”
Her lips parted. He leaned in for a kiss, but she blurted out, “I changed jobs.”
The shock pushed him back a step. “You what?”
“I changed jobs. I contacted my boss and asked for something less on the not quite legal side and more on the certainly legal side.” A small laugh escaped. “I was hoping you’d reconsider letting me live with you.”
“In Statem? I didn’t think you liked it there.”
“It will take some getting used to, I’m sure, but I’ve never been happier or felt more myself than these past two weeks. I don’t want to give that up.”
He took a steadying breath. There was no way this was happening. “But you live in California.”
“There’s nothing for me in L.A., Cameron.” She shook her head, her eyes never straying from his. “Everything in the world I need is here with you. I love you.”
Dragging her back to him, he covered her lips with his own. He wouldn’t give her a chance to back out. She’d given him back his dream and made it better. Now, that dream of his future in Statem included her.
He rested his forehead against hers. “You won’t regret it. I love you, too.”
Addie kissed him again. She’d spoil him this way. And he’d take it.
“Is the offer to live with you still on the table, or is that moving too fast?”
He cupped her sweet face in his hands. “I love you. I want you there.”
Her lips twisted to the side. “Can I redecorate?”
Cameron linked their hands together and tugged her with him as he walked to his truck. “Any way, you’d like.”
“And I think we should take turns doing dishes.”
“Sounds good.” He didn’t care. He’d try to convince her to make this a permanent arrangement as soon as possible.
He opened her truck door, but she paused, giving him a sweet, long kiss before climbing in. “Oh.” She held open the door a second longer. “It’s your turn for the dishes.”
Epilogue
She felt like a thief. Addie shoved another set of sheets into the trash bag. They weren’t really deemed a “set” of sheets. They didn’t match. Green and blue plaid didn’t go with a faded yellow sheet. Nothing Cameron owned matched. But he’d given her permission to redecorate. No one had to tell her twice.
“Nash will be here soon.” Cameron stepped into the room. “That means you have fifteen minutes to finish doing whatever it is you’re doing.” He scanned the area, his eyebrows pulling down low. He set his hands on his hips. “What are you doing?”
Addie smiled.
Cameron scowled. “It’s never good when you look like that.”
“Happy?”
“Guilty.”
She rose from the pile of sheets, passed by two more bags of random things for the thrift store she’d already accumulated, and stopped in front of him. “You told me to make myself at home.”
“I did.”
“And it’s hard to live in a house where nothing matches. As a single man, living alone, it’s cute. As a couple, living together, it’s strange.” She waited for him to process her statement. She had the money to redecorate the entire house. New sheets. New furniture. New dishes. But Cameron would hate that. And she didn’t want to eliminate his past from the house. Just the ra
tty sheets with the elastic that didn’t have a prayer left of staying on the mattress. And the towels that were so threadbare, she could see the light through the fabric when she held them up.
And maybe one set of ugly orange and green dishes that looked like an abstract pumpkin.
“Okay.” He reached down and picked up a trash bag closest to him. The plates inside rattled. She’d set the dishes in an empty box in that bag, hoping to keep them from sliding around. “Do you want me to haul them to the donation site?”
He hated giving away things that were still useful, but he’d do it for her. She stretched up on her toes and kissed him. “Not right now.” Maybe, one day, she’d get over how cute her boyfriend was. How he could stand there, holding a damn trash bag, and turn her on in an instant.
He snagged her around her waist, holding her tight. His chest rose and fell with a deep breath. The intensity in his green eyes nearly took her breath away. “When you kiss me like that, it makes me want to drop everything I have and toss you back into bed.”
“I haven’t stopped you yet.”
His other hand scooped her up into his arms.
As the dishes crashed beside them.
He grimaced and closed his eyes. “What did I just break?”
“Ugly plates.” She kissed him along his neck. And even though he’d taken a shower, she still caught the smell of fresh cut grass. “You said we had fifteen minutes.”
“Unless he’s early.” Cameron dumped her on the bed. He glanced around his room. “What happened to the bedspread?”
She pointed at another trash bag. “It’s going to a better home.”
“I guess that’s where the sheets are, too?”
“Yes.” She pulled her shirt off and then her bra. “Do you want to talk about this any longer?”
His mouth quirked. His tee shirt joined hers on the floor. “Not if I only have fifteen minutes.”
Nash Holloway honked the horn of his truck a second time. They had a three-hour ride up to Atlanta to watch the Braves play. It was a long drive, but worth it once a year. Even when he lived in Jacksonville, he made a point to come back and go to the game. In the past, he would go to the game with his dad. Since he was nine, they’d drive up to Atlanta early in the morning, go to the Varsity for lunch, and then go to the stadium and cheer on his favorite team.
Cameron had offered to go with him the first year after his dad died.
At least Lacy, Cameron’s dog, acknowledged his arrival. The truck horn sent her into a frenzy of barks as she ran laps around his truck. They had time before the baseball game started, so he settled back to wait.
Even though Cameron and Addie weren’t married, not even engaged yet, moving in together officially started the “honeymoon phase” of their relationship. He knew what that entailed. He’d been there once.
Married. Even the word made his stomach drop. All around, it’d sucked. After the first, happy year of marriage until the last parting shot, he and his ex-wife fought. Yelled. Slept in separate beds. But he’d been determined to stick it out.
She’d been the one to finally pull the plug.
The door opened. Lacy bounded inside. A moment later, Addie emerged, smiling and giving him a quick wave.
Cameron locked his door and turned. When he met Nash’s eyes, Nash shook his head.
Cameron grinned.
Nash had never seen Cameron happier. That was a man meant for marriage, and he’d found a gem with Addie. Anyone that could put up with Cameron’s moody ass and put a smile like that on his face was a rarity.
He was happy for his good friend. He sure as hell hoped their relationship had the strength to go all the way.
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Falling for Her Client, Book 2 in A Southern Kind of Love Series.
CHAPTER ONE
Great. Another man couldn’t keep it in his pants, so now they all had to take additional training. Nothing but a two-hour reminder that at their architecture firm, personal and professional relationships didn’t mix. Ever. True love be damned.
Lexi Caden jogged down the hallway, grabbing onto the wall as she skidded around the corner. Her short brown curls brushed against her neck with each step as her calves burned from balancing in her high heels. Thanks to Lionel Busby and his uncontrollable urges to screw his client, she’d wasted her morning listening to her boss’s repeated warnings of what would happen. Instant firing.
All the employees at their firm lived in Atlanta. Why did Lionel pick his client knowing the consequences when there were literally thousands of single women in the city?
Didn’t matter. It was his problem to find another job without a reference. Her focus shifted from the idiot back to her tight schedule. She had ten minutes until her client arrived. Five minutes until the bidding ended. She could do it.
Running into her office, she sat down in her leather desk chair and spun around to face her computer. Shoot. She looked at her watch and then at the countdown clock on the screen beside a picture of an old, dilapidated farmhouse.
She was down to three minutes before her sixty-five thousand dollar bid won the house. This time she wouldn’t chicken out. The past two houses that she’d bid on had slipped away in the final few moments because of her hesitation.
It wasn’t the money that had kept her from bidding higher. Her job as a commercial architect paid rather nicely, but despite her confidence in her career, she lacked the guts to go for her dream.
Renovating an old farmhouse from the ground up didn’t sound like a typical dream for a thirty-four-year-old living in the city. Some women wanted a husband and kids. Others wanted a Hermès purse. Her mom had dreamed of her marrying well. The typical thing, doctor or lawyer. That was how her mom operated in life. None of those things were important. This house was her dream.
Drumming her fingers on the table, she held her breath as the timer clicked down to one minute.
No one had outbid her. Yet.
“Ms. Caden,” Sarah said from the doorway.
Lexi jumped up from her seat. “Yes?”
“Mr. Holloway is here.”
With a quick glance at the screen, thirty seconds left, she nodded. “Okay. You can show him back to the conference room.” Give her time to focus and hopefully win the house.
Sarah’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you sure? I told him that you usually go over your vision in here before showing a client your sketches.”
Twenty seconds.
“Fine, Sarah.” She looked up at her receptionist and gave her an apologetic smile for the sharp tone. “Thanks for reminding me.”
Ten seconds.
“Good.” She clasped her hands together before making a motion like a Price Is Right model. “Because he’s right here.”
Sarah disappeared, and Nash Holloway filled up her doorway.
She didn’t know what to expect of a cotton farmer based upon their email exchange, but he wasn’t it. Broad shoulders. A deep tan. Blue eyes that she swore matched the bluest sky she’d ever seen.
What happened to overalls and flannel? And old men? Weren’t all farmers old men? It shouldn’t matter. The way their eyes locked together and caused a barely contained shiver to race down her spine could have happened with anyone.
Although it’d never happened before.
She swallowed before she drooled. Whatever he did for a living, none of the men she’d dated before filled out a suit that well.
He slid his hands into his suit pockets. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
The bid. She sat down. Big red letters spelled “FINAL” and covered the picture of her dream.
She checked the bid history. Someone had sniped the bid away from her in the last ten seconds.
Last.
Ten.
Seconds.
She dropped her head onto the desk. Maybe her mom had been right. She should focus on her job, quit wa
sting her energy trying to make her dream a reality.
“I can come back later…”
Lexi let out a slow breath. She’d hoped that’d been the house. It would’ve made commuting into Atlanta for work a longer drive, close to an hour and a half, but it would be worth it. No matter what her mom thought. And her boss? Well, as long as his employees followed his rules and got the job done, he wouldn’t have cared.
“Ms. Caden?” She’d almost forgotten he stood at her door. Nash stepped into her office, both hands propped on the back of the chair across from her. “You look as though someone just ran over your cat,” he said with a smooth, Southern accent.
“I don’t have a cat,” she mumbled.
He half laughed. “Kicked your dog, maybe?”
She mentally kicked herself. The client deserved all of her attention, her professional attention. It wasn’t like she was eight again and didn’t get the Barbie Dream House from Santa.
“I’m sorry. It was nothing.” She stood and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Holloway.”
His smile scrambled her thoughts. “Call me, Nash.” In two long steps, he took her hand, rough callouses reminding her that he shouldn’t look this good in a suit. Overalls. Picture him in overalls.
She took a deep breath, his cologne a woodsy scent. With a long, slow exhale, she belatedly realized that she should have included a shirt in that mental image of overalls.
He leaned closer, concern evident. “You looked a little out of sorts.”
“I’ll be fine.” Until her knees gave way if he held her hand much longer. Ridiculous. She could meet an attractive man and keep it platonic.
“I might be able to help if you let me know what’s wrong. I can’t find a solution if I don’t know the problem.”
Why did men always try to fix the situation? She could fix it herself. She dropped his hand. “I’m afraid there’s no solution you can offer.” She shifted around him and headed out of her office that had suddenly grown overly warm with those blue eyes watching her. She’d start this meeting in the conference room and give them a little more space. “Really, it’s not that important. Let’s go to the conference room. I have some pictures set up.”
