Changing the Rules

by Erin Kern

  “Your brother has a different dad,” he guessed again.

  Audrey nodded. “Yeah, he’s eleven years older than me. He’s my mom’s son from a previous marriage. But after my mom went missing, his relationship with my dad completely unraveled. He told every news station and reporter within a fifty-mile radius that my dad murdered our mom and buried her body in the mountains somewhere. And when I didn’t take his side, our relationship fell apart.”

  Damn, and he’d thought his childhood had been messed up.

  Audrey’s gaze lowered to the wine bottle. She lifted it to her lips, but Cameron couldn’t help but notice how the bottle trembled in her hand. She chugged deeply, closing her eyes as though trying to get some relief or maybe rid herself of nasty childhood memories that had put shadows in her eyes.

  Cameron reached out and took the bottle from her. “Easy. You’ll make yourself sick.”

  Her tongue swiped across her lower lip and damn if he didn’t want to wipe it clean himself. But how much of an asshole would that make him?

  “I’m sorry for making you talk about it,” he confessed.

  She moved her shoulders, but they only rubbed against him again. “It’s okay. I mean it’s not okay okay. It is what it is.” A nervous laugh popped out. “What I’m trying to say is, it’s not your fault. Most people are careful never to mention it.”

  Yeah, Cameron got that. “What was your mom like?”

  For the first time since he’d stepped outside, she smiled. “My mom was the most amazing woman. She was tall with long blond hair, but she was the most dedicated mom. She spent all her free time either volunteering at school or with me and my brother. She loved family vacations, and we always had family movie nights every Sunday. She’d make us a bowl of popcorn; then we’d share a blanket and watch whatever my brother and I wanted to watch.”

  Something inside Cameron’s chest grew tight when Audrey talked about her mom. Her voice was soft and wistful, but absent of grief. She was speaking like a child who had an unadulterated and pure love for someone who’d been taken too soon.

  “You’re right,” he said. “Doesn’t sound like she would have left you.”

  They were both silent a moment, finishing off the bottle of wine and watching the changing shadows over the yard as the moon slowly moved higher in the sky.

  “Piper likes you,” Audrey said in a quiet voice.

  Cameron glanced at her, trying to read between the lines, determine whether she might be setting him up to stumble over his own words. Was she fishing for something? “She’s a good kid.”

  Audrey nodded her agreement. “Dianna did a wonderful job with her.”

  Okay, now she was definitely fishing. If she wanted to know about his relationship with his sister, why didn’t she just ask?

  “Don’t break her heart,” Audrey warned.

  What kind of asshole did she think he was? Okay, so he hadn’t made the best first impression. Telling her to take Piper back to Boulder probably hadn’t gone very far to instill much confidence.

  “Do you always assume the worst in people?” he countered instead of responding to her warning.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of my default nature,” she admitted. “Sorry,” she added. “I didn’t mean to imply you’d mistreat her or anything. It’s just that she’s been through a lot, and she can’t take any more letdowns.”

  “And you think I’ll let her down?” While he understood her reasons for being cautious and protective of Piper, Cameron still couldn’t help but feel…annoyed? Which was strange, because Audrey’s opinion of him shouldn’t matter.

  “I think you like your life the way it is,” she pointed out. “And I think you’ve made plans that may or may not include her.”

  What the hell was she talking about? Cameron shook his head. “Audrey, you’re going to have to be a little clearer. I don’t understand subtlety.”

  She watched him carefully, and Cameron just knew she had more on her mind than she was saying. For some reason she held herself back.

  “All right, look,” he went on. “I’m doing the best I can here. You’re going to have to understand that this whole thing is new to me. But I’m trying.”

  “I understand that,” she replied after a moment.

  “Do you?” he questioned.

  She drew back as though he’d insulted her. “Of course. I just…” She twisted her hands around and blew out a breath. “I want her to feel like she’s number one.”

  “She will,” he assured her. “But it might take me a while to get there.”

  “Even if you end up moving?”

  Huh? “What’re you talking about?”

  She did that careful watching again, as though waiting for him to confess something. Had she found something out about his offer to coach in Denver? But she couldn’t have. Not unless Blake or Brandon had opened their big mouths.

  “So you don’t plan on going anywhere?” Audrey pressed.

  He couldn’t help but laugh. “Not right now.”

  “I’m being serious.”

  He blew out an exhausted sigh. “Audrey, if there’s something you want to know, why don’t you ask me?”

  “I don’t want Piper uprooted again,” she said in a rush.

  “I understand that would be a concern to you, but that’s not really your call anymore.”

  She gripped his forearm with a fierceness that had his brows rising. “She can’t handle any more change.”

  Cameron glanced down at her fingers and tried not to focus on the gold-painted nails. “I don’t think you give Piper enough credit. She’ll adjust no matter what.”

  The grip on his arm tightened. “Promise me you won’t move her again.”

  “Audrey—”

  “Promise me,” she urged.

  He stared back at her, noting the plea in her eyes that not only spoke of her love for Piper but also felt like a hand squeezing his heart. Despite that, he wasn’t sure how to respond to her request.

  Demand is more like it.

  “I can’t,” he finally said.

  Her brows twitched as though she were trying to keep from crumbling. He knew that wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but what did she expect him to say?

  She averted her face, turning it up toward the moon. He thought he heard her release a shuddering breath, but it was so minimal that he couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t crying, was she?

  “Audrey,” he said. He tried craning to see her face, but she kept her attention on something far away.

  “Giorgio Armani, Gloria Vanderbilt,” she recited.

  Shit, she was doing that thing again. Piper had told him she said people’s names when she was upset. How was he supposed to get her to stop? Would she sit there and keep talking to herself if he left her alone?

  He touched her bare arm. “Audrey?”

  “Hattie Carnegie,” she whispered.

  Maybe he was making it worse.

  He gripped her chin between his thumb and index finger and slowly turned her face to his. “Audrey,” he whispered. “I’m going to need you to stop doing that. Because it’s kind of freaking me out.”

  Her eyes dropped closed. “Hedi Slimane.”

  Before she could utter another clothing designer, even though he’d only heard of one of them, Cameron leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

  And yeah, that did the trick. Not only did it shut her up, which had been his only intention, but it also solidified what he’d suspected the whole time. Her lips were soft and yielding and warm enough to set off sparks. The sparks may have only been in his head, but damn. The split-second decision to kiss her, and yeah, okay, probably not his smartest move, had been only to calm her down, to take her mind off the weird conversation they’d been having and the fact that he’d somehow managed to upset her.

  But then she softened and sighed against him, and suddenly his original purpose had gone up in smoke. Now it was about the contact, the warmth suffused by the touch of her lips and the hand curling
around his shoulder. She was even more responsive than he expected her to be, leaning into him and probing his mouth with a searching touch of her tongue.

  He answered back, because it was too good and hot, and her grip on him tightened. And yeah, she didn’t want him to pull back either. She leaned closer to him and moved her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck. Cameron couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think a woman had ever dove her fingers into his hair like that. Usually they were trying to unbutton his shirt or shove their hands down his pants.

  He liked that she kissed with everything she had and the little noise she made. He liked how her breath caught when his hand found a sliver of flesh beneath her shirt, as though the contact was new and unexpected. The woman was a breath of fresh air, even if she did drive him crazy sometimes.

  Then she yanked herself away and pressed a hand to her mouth.

  “Jesus, Joseph, and Isaac Mizrahi.”

  Yeah, ditto to whoever that last guy was. “You’re supposed to stop doing that.”

  She refocused her dilated gaze on his. “Was that why you kissed me? To calm me down?”

  The lady didn’t miss much, did she? “At first,” he admitted.

  Her tongue darted out and swiped across her lower lip, which was still swollen and moist. Damn if he didn’t want to kiss her again. “And then?” she prompted.

  “And then…” He blew out a breath and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I don’t know.”

  “Well,” she sighed, and rubbed her hands down her thighs. “I guess I should thank you.”

  He cast a glance at her over his shoulder. “No need to thank me.”

  She stood from the step and looked down at him. “Isn’t there, though? You sensed I was on the verge of losing it, so you found the perfect solution.”

  Slowly, he pushed to his feet so she had to tilt her face up to his. Yeah, he liked that better than her looking down on him. “I think we both know there was more to the kiss than that.”

  “Really?” she countered with half a smile. “And what else was there?”

  Shit, did she want him to compose a sonnet? He was a guy, and guys usually didn’t put that much thought into kissing a woman. Their thoughts usually went from “This is hot as shit” to “What do I need to do to get her clothes off?”

  When he didn’t answer right away, Audrey lowered her gaze and pursed her lips.

  “Good night, Cameron.” She opened the door to the guesthouse, the screen door creaking in the quiet night and sounding like a cannon firing his execution. “By the way, the wine was yours.”

  And just like that, he’d gone from his libido firing off like a rocket to wondering what he’d epically screwed up.

  Nine

  Audrey woke from a dreamless sleep with a startling jerk, immediately sensing something was off with her surroundings. The early Sunday morning sunshine poured through the open drapes that she’d forgotten to close last night. But it wasn’t the shocking brightness that threw her off.

  The place was too quiet.

  The bedside clock read nine fifteen and Audrey’s first thought besides why the hell she hadn’t closed the drapes last night was Piper. The kid was always out of bed by seven thirty or eight, with the boundless energy of kids, ready to tackle the day. She’d slide out of bed, then curl up onto the couch to watch whatever cartoons she could find, while she waited for Audrey to get up and make some breakfast.

  But Piper wasn’t in the guesthouse. Even as Audrey tossed the covers back and jerkily pulled on a pair of flannel pants, she knew the kid was gone. There were no sounds indicating she was anywhere. No singsong sounds of cartoons filling the small space. No sounds of rummaging in the fridge because she was too hungry to wait for Audrey to get up. Not even the noise of her talking to herself as she played some make-believe game in her room across the hall.

  No, no, no. A layer of sweat coated Audrey’s hands as she frantically searched her mind for where the kid could have gone. Without bothering with shoes or her hair, she darted from Piper’s bedroom to the small living space, calling the girl’s name.

  Nothing.

  Not even a giggle.

  Her heart pounded erratically in her throat, threatening to choke the life out of her as Audrey imagined every ungodly, horrifying scenario. What if someone had come in here in the middle of the night and snatched Piper right out of her bed? What if Piper had decided to go exploring and wandered off somewhere? Gotten lost? Maybe she was roaming the neighborhood right now, lost, confused, crying?

  Even as Audrey knew she was being a tad irrational with her runaway imagination, she’d still never forgive herself if something happened to Dianna’s little girl, especially after Audrey had promised to love and take care of Piper as if the child were her own.

  And she had. Until this morning.

  Until you lost her!

  Audrey’s bare feet scuffed over the worn carpet in the living room. The front door was open, leaving the screen door to reveal the bright early morning.

  There!

  She’d gone outside.

  Audrey exhaled a shaky breath as she damn near kicked open the screen door and yelled the child’s name.

  “Piper!”

  She was only greeted with silence and the occasional neighborhood sound. A car driving by. A lawn mower in the distance. A couple of dogs barking in unison.

  But no six-year-old.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Cameron’s dark, shaggy head through the window as he moved around the kitchen. Maybe he’d seen her or heard something. Of course, if he had seen Piper wandering around this morning and hadn’t said anything to her, Audrey would kick his cement-hard ass into the next century.

  Without thinking about manners or even announcing herself, Audrey opened the sliding glass door with too much force. She barreled into the house, bare feet and all.

  “Piper!” she yelled.

  Cameron spun around, obviously startled at her appearance. “Whoa, what’s with the yelling?”

  Audrey didn’t have time for his stupid questions. “Have you seen Piper? I can’t find her anywhere.” And she could only imagine the sight that she made, with her wide eyes, ratty old white tank top, and too big flannel pants.

  Cameron stepped aside and revealed the kid perched on the kitchen counter. “Yeah, she’s right here.”

  The breath whooshed out of her lungs at the same time that tears stung the back of her eyes. Dammit, she was way too emotional over this girl. The split-second realization that something really bad could have happened to Piper had Audrey ready to do some serious bodily harm to someone. Including Cameron.

  Audrey practically ran into the kitchen.

  “We’re makin’ French toast,” Piper announced as her legs swung back and forth.

  Audrey would never forgive herself if anything were to happen to Piper. She gripped the girl’s arms. “Do you know how freaked out I was when I woke up and you were gone?”

  Piper’s smile fell as she sensed Audrey’s displeasure. “Sorry,” she muttered, even though Audrey knew she didn’t fully understand.

  “The next time you leave the guesthouse, you have to let me know,” Audrey added.

  Piper’s eyes grew wide. “I was hungry, and you were still asleep.”

  “So then wake me up.”

  Piper stared at her, then nodded. “’Kay.”

  Audrey yanked the girl into a crushing hug, telling herself Piper really was fine and in one piece, but her heart was still hammering in her chest.

  “Okay,” Cameron said in a soothing voice. “You’re crushing the kid.”

  Audrey allowed Cameron to draw her back, drawing on the strength of his warm palms curled over her shoulders. But the tears that had been threatening for the past ten minutes, which now felt like an hour, broke through the surface. She spun around, only to save face, and tried to pull herself together.

  “Hey.” Cameron’s rough palm wrapped around her upper arm.

  Audrey swiped
at her eyes. “I thought she was gone.” And how embarrassing was this? She lost sight of Piper for all of ten minutes, and she was reduced to a sputtering mess.

  “But she’s not,” Cameron reassured her. “She was with me, and she’s fine.”

  Audrey shook her head. “You don’t understand. I promised Dianna.”

  Cameron turned her around and looked in her eyes. “You’re being too hard on yourself. Look at her.” He turned her toward Piper to see the kid dipping her index finger in the egg mixture. “She’s fine. She’s a normal six-year-old who’s contaminating my egg mixture with her dirty hands.”

  Despite the situation, a laugh popped out of her. Then she sobered and shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like to have someone just disappear from your life.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Audrey realized she was talking as much about her mom as she was Piper. She also realized her mistake when Cameron’s unusually soft expression hardened. “Okay, yeah, you do. Dumb thing to say.”

  One of his brows lifted. “You’re forgiven.” His hands rubbed up and down her arms in a hypnotic rhythm that had her heart finally slowing down. “You okay now?”

  Audrey gave a small nod, silently battling with the lingering effects of fear, mingling with mild embarrassment for her mini freak-out.

  Okay, not so mini. She’d all but barged in here with her crazy morning hair and bloodshot eyes from being up too late.

  At the thought of her late night, Audrey slowly took notice of the man in front of her. After all, he’d been the reason for her late-night escapade. Since she refused think about, like an all-out memory block, the kiss that had curled her toes, Audrey was left with him, in the flesh.

  Literally.

  As in low-slung sweatpants, and the smooth, bronzed skin and taut muscle of his bare chest. Audrey secretly congratulated herself for being dead-on accurate about Cameron Shaw. As though any man had a right to have such carved lines and a freakin’ eight-pack that could put an Olympic athlete to shame. And God, he smelled good. Like freshly showered man.

  Seriously unfair.

  One side of his mouth quirked, as though to say, Yeah, I see you lookin’, honey.