Changing the Rules

by Erin Kern

  He hadn’t been expecting that, but he glanced down anyway as she stuck her little foot out. Her white-and-pink sneakers were dirty with the pink sparkly shoelaces loose and untied. Holding back a grin, Cameron tied them as tight as he could, then patted her knee.

  “All set,” he told her.

  “Can I go sit in your swing?” she questioned as she pointed to the wooden swing on the back porch.

  “Sure,” he told her. Then she was gone, snatching up Jellybean and bounding up the porch steps.

  Cameron stood, then paused when he spotted Audrey, standing next to the trailer watching him.

  He approached her, taking in her tight skinny jeans, knee-high boots, and flannel shirt. The sleeves were rolled to her elbows, revealing pale, delicate forearms. And why was he even looking at her forearms?

  “How long have you been standing there?” he asked.

  Audrey shrugged, sending her high ponytail swishing along her back. “Long enough to know what a sucker you are.”

  That’s really what she thought of him?

  Audrey took another box out of the trailer. “But seriously, that was a really sweet thing you did. She’ll remember that for a long time.”

  Cameron just shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  “That’s right, because you don’t even like her.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “I never said that.”

  Audrey hefted the box higher in her arms. “But you don’t want her here.”

  Cameron took the box from her, ignoring the exasperation that swam in her eyes. “I never said that either,” he told her as he climbed the steps and entered the guesthouse. The place wasn’t that big, just two small bedrooms, with one bathroom, and an L-shaped kitchen with a love seat. There wasn’t even a place for a table, so Cam had stuck a couple of stools under the bar top so his guests would have a place to eat.

  “Okay, so I’m the one you don’t want here,” Audrey remarked as Cam stuck the box on the couch.

  He straightened and considered her. “I didn’t say that either.”

  “But you haven’t exactly been very welcoming.”

  Okay, that was true. “Cut me some slack here. You show up on my doorstep with a niece I’ve never met and expect me to know exactly what to do.”

  Audrey crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to think about that. “Okay, I’ll give you that. But technically I didn’t show up on your doorstep.”

  He tucked his hands in his pockets and scanned his gaze over the freckles lining her nose. “Are you always such a stickler for details?”

  She offered a coy smile, which was like a punch to his gut. “Always.”

  He nodded. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  She regarded him for a moment, as though she didn’t know what else to say. Cameron understood her confusion, because he didn’t know what to say around her either. Something about her muddled his brain as though she were a mesh of contradictions that he hadn’t figured out yet. As he took a step closer, Cameron reveled in his aha moment when her pupils dilated. Yes, she had a weakness, another side she kept hidden from the world, him included.

  She wanted him. And she didn’t want to want him. She probably hated herself for wanting him.

  The control she prized so much wasn’t able to stop the quickening of her breath when his attention zeroed in on her mouth. It was a kissable mouth, with full lips that were bare, perfect for capturing and moistening with his tongue. They’d probably swell when kissed hard enough, and they’d be unbelievably responsive, just like the rest of her. Cameron liked a woman who was responsive and owned her body.

  She cleared her throat, abruptly ending the moment. “So, this is a cute place,” she commented.

  Maybe they should chat about the weather too. “It was here when I bought the house,” he replied, without taking his attention off her. “It came furnished too.” No one had ever actually stayed here. He’d christened one of the bedrooms with an old girlfriend, but he wasn’t about to tell Audrey that.

  A red flush bloomed up her neck. “Do you use it a lot?” she asked, as though sensing his thoughts.

  “You’re the first,” he replied. “It needs some repairs, but it should be sufficient for the two of you.”

  Audrey nodded and bit her lip.

  Nervous much?

  Cameron embraced the swell of gratification at the knowledge that he made her fidgety. “Do you need some help getting the rest of your stuff unloaded?”

  “No, I’ve got it. And why are you here in the middle of the day? I figured you’d be at the school.”

  She was right. Normally he worked through lunch, but today he’d decided to come home. Yeah, right. You just rushed over to see if she was here. “I came home to grab some quick lunch.”

  Just then Piper ran through the door, dragging Jellybean behind her. “Audrey, I have to go potty.”

  Cameron glanced at the kid, taking in the rosy cheeks and messy hair. He pointed down the hall. “The bathroom is across from the first bedroom.”

  Audrey clasped Piper’s hand in hers. “I have to take her. She’s terrified of toilets.”

  “She won’t go to the bathroom by herself?”

  “Nope.”

  He didn’t get it. “What’s so scary about a toilet?”

  Audrey leaned closer, giving him a hint of lemons. Made him think of lemonade. Which made him think of hot summer days. Which made him think of sex in the sun. “Probably because she used to watch her mother throw up from chemo treatments.”

  Ah, shit. Wasn’t he the big asshole?

  He peered down at the girl, noting the way she clung to Audrey’s leg like she was about to be dragged off for surgery. But instead of prying Piper away, Audrey embraced her, cupping one hand over the girl’s head and the other running in circles over her back. They were good together, the two of them. Cameron suspected they needed each other, possibly filling a void that nothing else could reach.

  “The football team’s having a pancake breakfast on Saturday,” he blurted out. First he hadn’t wanted Piper in his life, and now he was inviting them to team functions? “It’s a fund-raiser,” he added.

  Cameron waited for a reply, kicking himself for tossing it out so casually. Then Audrey smirked, and he got the impression she was laughing at him. “Are you asking if we’d like to come?”

  Yeah, Cameron, are you?

  “It would be a good way for Piper to see what I do,” he answered, because that sounded way more reasonable, as though the initial invitation had more to do with helping Piper’s transition. Which was strange, because he still wasn’t sure he wanted the girl here.

  Audrey looked down at Piper. “What d’you think? Want to go have some pancakes on Saturday?”

  Piper looked up at Audrey, then switched her gaze to Cameron. “Can they make them into a Mickey Mouse shape?”

  Cameron held back a grin, thinking about the reaction he’d get by asking tough seventeen-year-olds to put Mickey Mouse ears on pancakes. “I’m sure we can make that happen.”

  Piper offered a shy smile, cutting through the brash exterior he’d been throwing out since meeting them. How could one girl make him question his own solitary existence? And how had his life changed so much in twenty-four hours?

  “I don’t want these anymore.”

  Audrey paused in the act of dialing a number on her cell phone and glanced at Piper. For lunch she’d asked for chicken nuggets, so Audrey had hastily thrown a handful on a plate while she’d been on the phone with the elementary school. Piper was supposed to start kindergarten this year, and school had been in session for almost a month already. Instinctively she knew inquiring about school was something Cameron would overlook, so she’d taken the initiative.

  Audrey set the cell phone on the kitchen counter. “But that’s what you asked for.”

  Piper glanced at the plate and spun back and forth on the barstool. “I don’t like them anymore.”

  Audrey bit back a groan and reminded hers
elf that Piper was a fickle six-year-old who constantly changed her mind. But ever since Dianna passed away, Piper’s indecisiveness had worsened, especially when it came to food. She’d ask for a corn dog, take one bite, then ask for something else. It had been a learning process for Audrey, one that was rife with frustration and lots of designer label counting.

  “So what would you like?” she asked the girl.

  Piper thought for a moment. “Popsicles,” she announced.

  In the two days they’d been there, Audrey had unpacked everything and run to the store for necessities. Unfortunately, Popsicles weren’t a necessity.

  “We don’t have any Popsicles,” she told the girl.

  Piper dragged Jellybean off the bar top and hugged it close. “Do we have any ice cream?”

  They did, but she wasn’t about to tell her that. “You can’t have ice cream for lunch.”

  “What can I have?” Piper asked with a blink of her big green eyes.

  Audrey pointed to the plate of food. “You can have the nuggets you asked for.”

  Piper stuck out her bottom lip and pushed the nuggets around the plate.

  “You just had nuggets a few nights ago,” Audrey reminded her. “What happened?”

  “I just don’t like ’em anymore.”

  Audrey picked up her cell again and rounded the bar top. She dropped a kiss on Piper’s clean, blond hair. “Well, that’s what we have so if you’re hungry enough you’ll eat them.”

  Piper bounced in her seat. “Jellybean’s gonna eat them instead.”

  Whatever. Usually what Jellybean ate, Piper ended up eating too, so Audrey wasn’t going to argue. She left the girl to her food and walked toward the front door. When she’d gotten up that morning, she’d propped the door open to let in the early-morning cool breeze. The brisk wind had felt good on her face, reminding her of how much she loved Colorado. The sky was clear and the mountain peaks soared around them. She’d reveled in the quiet of the day with a cup of coffee in her hand and the birds chirping around her. With Piper still asleep, she’d taken advantage and sat on the porch steps, making sure to avoid the bottom one since it had a broken board.

  But when she’d sat, she’d noticed a yellow piece of paper stuck to the wood, flapping in the breeze. Audrey had set her mug down and glanced at the Post-it note.

  Fixed the porch step this morning. C.

  Just looking at Cameron’s handwriting had brought all sorts of tingles along her spine. Even now, hours after finding his note, Audrey stole a glance at his house. She knew he wasn’t home, but that didn’t stop her from taking in every detail of his property. The craftstman-syle log home was beautiful with a manicured lawn full of trees and flowers. The guesthouse sat behind the home, giving her a perfect view of the back porch, kitchen window, and sliding glass door. She and Piper hadn’t seen that much of Cameron since they’d arrived two days ago. He’d been gone all day yesterday and hadn’t arrived home until almost seven. Then he’d been up and out the door by the time she’d gotten out of bed.

  But not before fixing the broken step.

  It was such a minor thing, repairing a piece of wood, but Audrey felt a tiny flutter in her belly. He could have left the step the way it was. After all, he didn’t intend for Piper to stay, right? So why go to the trouble for them?

  Underneath the grunts and steely glares was a man with values and honor. Of course, she hadn’t really known him long enough to make such an assessment, but she trusted her instincts, and her instincts said that Cameron wouldn’t turn Piper away.

  She also suspected underneath was a body made for Under Armour commercials and loincloths. He probably had ridges in places most men didn’t. Ridges that were perfect for a woman to run her tongue over.

  Audrey smiled while simultaneously telling herself to put a halt to her fantasies. Cameron was bad news all around, and if she was going to keep her wits about her, she needed to stop imagining the stuff underneath those sweatshirts he wore.

  Audrey tossed a glance at Piper over her shoulder. She was still feeding nuggets to Jellybean, holding the food to the cat’s mouth, then setting it back on the plate. She then dialed her business partner’s number.

  She and Stevie had started their home staging business five years ago, contracting out to real estate agents who needed to quickly spruce up a house before putting it on the market. When Audrey had graduated from college, she’d planned on being an interior designer. She’d stumbled on the staging business by default when she’d done a favor for a Realtor friend by redecorating a living room. A few months later, she and her friend Stevie, whom she’d met in college, had poured every bit of blood, sweat, and tears into starting their business. It had been tireless, thankless work, and they hadn’t broken even until two years later. Things had picked up and they’d finally turned a profit this year. Stevie hadn’t been happy when she found out how long Audrey planned on being gone.

  Her friend answered on the third ring. “How’s it going?” she asked, knowing the uphill battle Audrey had ahead of her.

  “As expected,” she answered with a sigh. “Difficult.”

  “How’s the little one?” Stevie asked, referring to Piper.

  Audrey smiled because, as capricious as Piper could be, she always warmed Audrey’s heart. She’d lost her mother, but her strength and resilience astounded her, especially since Audrey knew how it felt to lose a mother. “Coping.” Audrey paused. “Actually, she’s doing pretty well considering. I got everything unpacked yesterday and made a call about enrolling her in school this morning.”

  “You unpacked all your stuff in the hotel?” Stevie questioned.

  Shit. Audrey hadn’t even realized her slip of the tongue. Now her friend would ask all kinds of questions, and Audrey didn’t want to talk about Cameron. “Yeah,” she answered slowly. “Piper’s uncle has a guesthouse.”

  Stevie was silent a moment before answering. “This guy offered up his guesthouse after you just met him?”

  “You should have seen his reaction when we first got here. He wanted me to take Piper and go back to Boulder.”

  “You’re kidding!” Stevie exclaimed. “What an ass. So what made him change his mind?”

  “I’m not sure he has,” Audrey admitted.

  “You think he’d send his own niece away?”

  Audrey watched as a squirrel dragged an acorn across the grass. “I don’t think he would. But he’s not pleased we’re here. He keeps saying he doesn’t know what to do with a kid.”

  Stevie snorted. “Most bachelors don’t.” There was a beat of silence. “He is a bachelor, isn’t he?”

  Audrey opened her mouth to answer a confident no, but now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure. She knew there was no wife, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about a girlfriend, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one. Or a string of women panting after him. The thought of leaving Piper with a man who had a revolving door of women made Audrey uncomfortable. She’d have to clear that up with him later. He had to understand that Piper’s needs and welfare had to come first.

  “I think so,” she finally answered.

  “You’re not sure?” Stevie asked with a disbelieving laugh. “What do you know about this guy?”

  Not much. “Midthirties, coaches high school football.”

  “Yeah? Is he hot?” Stevie wanted to know.

  An automatic fire leaped into her face, spreading back to her hairline and blooming across her chest. In Cameron’s case, hot was an understatement. The man was in a category that hadn’t even been invented yet. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Stevie was silent a moment, as though trying to read too much into Audrey’s response. “I’d say everything, judging by your tone. Now give me the lowdown on this guy.”

  Audrey picked at the splintered wood of the step, unable to control the heat still filling her cheeks. “I already told you about him.”

  “You gave me his stats,” Stevie complained. “Now give me the goods.
What’s he look like? How tall is he?”

  “I don’t know. Six-two maybe.” Tall enough to make her feel all fragile and feminine. Towering over her like some…big man. Good one, Audrey.

  “And is he in good shape? Or is he kind of dumpy?”

  Audrey’s grin widened. What was she, some teenager crushing on her lab partner? “There isn’t anything dumpy about him.”

  “Yeah, baby,” Stevie responded, with a smile lighting up her voice. “Now we’re getting somewhere. So who’s he look like?”

  Audrey’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “Compare him to someone.”

  “Like, someone we know?” Stevie would be hard pressed to get a decent answer. Cameron wasn’t like anyone Audrey knew.

  “No, like a celebrity. I’m trying to get a picture of this guy in my head.”

  Audrey blew out a breath and racked her brain. “I don’t know. He kind of reminds of Taylor Kitsch a little bit. But with less shaggy hair. And maybe not as broody.” Even though Cameron could brood with the best of them.

  Stevie whistled. “Damn. No wonder you ran to his guesthouse.”

  “That’s not why.” Except it totally was.

  “Okay, then,” Stevie answered with a snort.

  “So how’re things up there?” Audrey asked, desperately needing to change the subject.

  “Crazy busy,” her friend automatically answered. “Do you know how much longer you’ll be? Because I can only handle all this work for so long.”

  “I can’t leave until I’m sure Piper is completely settled.”

  “That could be months,” Stevie complained.

  Audrey guessed technically it could. And maybe a subconscious part of her wanted to drag it out because the thought of saying goodbye to Piper gutted her.

  “I don’t think it’ll take that long,” she assured her friend.

  “But it could,” Stevie argued.

  She guessed it could, but she knew, realistically, she couldn’t be gone from her business that long.