* * *
Cam blasted through the door of the hospital in Benson where his mother had been taken. Billie had called him right after she’d called emergency services, but he’d been out on Chaser at the edge of his land examining what was left of the spring runoff. He’d had to ride Chaser all the way home before he could jump into his truck and get to Benson.
He spotted Billie in the emergency room waiting area and rushed over to her. She jumped up and walked right into his arms.
“She’s going to be okay,” Billie said before he could even ask. “She sprained her wrist and bumped her head. They’re x-raying her right now to see if she has a mild concussion. If she does, they want to keep her here overnight for observation.”
“Of course. How did this happen?”
Billie took him over to sit down. All the tension between them was gone and they held hands as she told him about the accident.
Cam wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “You know, being her son can be nerve-wracking.”
“I was just thinking last night that her guardian angel has his hands full.”
“You think she’s only got one?” he asked. “I was thinking she must have a regiment assigned to her.”
As it turned out, she did have a mild concussion and would need to stay in the hospital at least overnight. Once she was settled into a room, they went in to see her.
Her wrist was bandaged as was her head and she looked at them, groggy from the pain medicine she’d been given.
“Oh, there you are,” she said softly, smiling at her son, and then at Billie.
Cam took off his cowboy hat and tossed it down on the bed table, then pulled up chairs for Billie and himself. His face full of concern, he sat down to hold Doreen’s hand. “Mom, you’re going to be okay, but you just about gave me heart failure.”
“I’m sorry to worry you, sweetheart. I should have watched where I was going.” Her voice drifted off and her eyes closed.
“Uh huh,” he answered dryly.
Doreen’s lashes fluttered open after a few seconds. “I was so excited.”
“About what, Mom?”
“Why your engagement to Billie, of course.”
CHAPTER TEN
Cam and Billie couldn’t have been more surprised if Doreen had announced she was flying to the moon. They stared at her, then each other, and then her again.
“En . . . engaged?” he asked. His voice hit a high note and cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Engaged?”
“Yes, Cam. I’m very happy.” She smiled in a goofy way he’d never seen before in his life. Obviously the pain medicine was working. She could barely stay awake.
Billie cast him a surreptitious glance. “Did you . . . ?”
“No.” He shook his head.
“Doreen?” Billie asked. “Where did you hear that Cam and I are engaged?”
“From Jess, of course.”
“Of course,” they sighed in unison.
“Is he going to be your best man, son?”
“If he can still walk when I’m finished with him,” Cam assured her, patting her hand. He wasn’t a man given to violence, but in Jess’s case, he was willing to make an exception.
“He said he could tell by the way you two looked at each other that you were so much in love. I guess I wasn’t very observant. I had hopes, but I didn’t know how serious you two were until he pointed it out.”
“I had no idea Jess had so many romantic notions,” Cam said. “Or you, either, Mom.”
Doreen turned her face toward them. He was shocked at how pale she was, but her smile was warm and loving. “Oh, yes. I want you to be as happy as your dad and I were. Be sure to get my mother’s engagement ring from the safe deposit box. It will be perfect for Billie – a big diamond surrounded by sapphires, exactly the same color as her eyes.” With a happy sigh, she drifted off to sleep.
Cam stared at her for a few seconds more, leaning forward to monitor her deep, even breathing. Then he turned to speak to Billie, though he didn’t have a clue what he was going to say.
Looking as stunned as he felt, she stood and motioned for him to follow her. They tiptoed from the room and into the hallway.
They both started talking at once.
“I don’t know why she would have believed Jess,” Billie began.
“That concussion might be worse than we thought,” Cam said.
They stopped and looked at each other, unable to think what to say.
“Are you all right?” someone asked.
Cam turned to see a nurse standing beside them. She glanced from the two of them into his mother’s room, and then back.
“You’re here to see Mrs. Van Peter? You look worried. She’ll be fine, but the doctor says she’s got to be kept quiet, no upsets.”
“Oh, of course.” When the nurse had walked away, he looked at Billie again. “So apparently, it’s okay for my mother to drop a bombshell on us and then go quietly off to sleep, but we can’t upset her.”
“That means we can’t tell her the truth yet,” Billie answered. She bit her lip and looked toward Doreen’s room, her eyes full of worry.
“Or anyone else because it might get back to her. In the meantime, Jess is out scattering the news like raindrops.” He paused. “I should fire him.”
“That might upset your mom, too. And besides, it doesn’t sound like either of them ever meant to deceive anyone. They simply saw something that . . . that wasn’t there, right?”
“So, we’re stuck then,” Cam said. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
“At least until she feels better.”
He looked at Billie, whose eyes were full of dismay. “I’m sorry. I know you’re anxious to finish this job and move on to the next one, get back to Phoenix. This only makes matters more complicated.”
In spite of that, his mind entertained the crazy notion of making it a real engagement, marching straight to the bank and grabbing that ring, placing it on her finger before she could leave him. But the alarm on her face told him that was definitely a bad idea. She was appalled at the notion of being engaged to him.
“No, no, it’s okay. We’ll tell her the truth as soon as she can handle it.” She looked around, obviously eager to escape. “Now that you’re here, I’ll get back to work. People will want to know how she is.”
“Tell them she needs rest, not to visit until she’s been back home for a few days.”
Billie sent him a grateful look. “That’s a good idea. That way, she can’t be telling people that we’re getting . . . married.”
She could barely bring herself to say the word, Cam thought. “Sure. We’ll keep her isolated. You realize, though, that Jess has probably told everyone in town?”
“I know.” She turned to leave. “I’ll see you later, then. And when Doreen wakes up, tell her I’ll see her at home.”
She turned and hurried away, all but running from the hospital. Heartsick, Cam re-entered his mother’s room, sat down, and stared blankly at the floor. How did things keep getting more complicated and crazy? This was going to add to Billie’s readiness to get away from Lucky Break. From him. And he couldn’t say that he blamed her – but it was hard to accept it.
* * *
Billie hurried from the hospital, jumped into her car, and quickly got on the highway back to Lucky Break. Her emotions bounced from relief that Doreen was going to be all right, to elation that the older woman thought Billie would make a good wife for her son, to sorrow that Cam was so horrified by the idea. It wasn’t his idea, of course. Jess, of all people, had created this fiasco out of some fanciful notion he’d come up with.
Billie strained to think back to the evening before, trying to figure out what had given Jess such an idea. She didn’t recall that she and Cam had acted very differently than usual. There was almost always some kind of tension between them. But it was probably different than it had been.
As soon as she had realized she was in love with Cam,
she had become even more aware of him than she’d been before. She didn’t think she sat around with a sappy grin on her face, though. What had they done that had given Jess the idea they were engaged? And why had he spread the news without checking with her and Cam first?
Because it was Jess, she thought in despair. And he wasn’t very good at thinking things through before he did them. He’d stood on dry hay bales to weld a beam, for goodness’ sake. It’s not as though he ever considered the consequences of his actions.
But that’s not what had her so upset, ready to pull off the road and bawl her eyes out. It had been the horrified look on Cam’s face at the thought of being engaged to her. That look was what she wanted to get away from. It had certainly killed any romantic notions she’d been harboring that he loved her, would ask her to stay.
She was going to go straight back to town and back to work. She would zip through the last few shots she needed to take, get them approved by the city council, ship them to the printer, collect her check and get out of Lucky Break and back to Phoenix, back to a life that made sense to her and didn’t include falling in love with stubborn cowboys.
This plan succeeded beautifully for all of about eighteen hours. She and Kyndra worked as well as they could through the many interruptions of people stopping by to ask about Doreen, offer their best wishes on Billie’s marriage to Cam, and generally get in the way. In spite of that, she completed several sittings and was happy with the results. Whenever Kyndra tried to ask about what was going on, Billie reminded her of how much work they had to do. She felt terrible for not discussing it, but Kyndra was so starry-eyed over the idea of a wedding, Billie couldn’t dash those dreams, and she couldn’t tell all the facts yet.
At home that night, Cam said that Doreen was awake and talking, eager to make wedding plans though she promised not to try and take over any decisions from Billie or Billie’s mother. Cam said he let her talk because he couldn’t burst her bubble.
Jess had wisely made himself scarce, which was good because it gave Cam time to simmer down.
The real trouble started when she arrived at work the next morning at nine o’clock. The Fina brothers were waiting for her in front of city hall.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling at them because they were always so cheerful and good-natured.
“Hey, Billie,” Bruiser said, grinning at her.
She couldn’t decide which was brighter, his smile, or the morning sunlight glinting off his shaved head. She noticed that he carried a stack of magazines under one arm. Bison held what looked like scrap books, and Bull held . . . fabric swatches? And what looked like a sketch pad.
“You planning to upholster something?” she asked
They laughed and Bruiser slapped her on the back, nearly sending her to her knees. He quickly grabbed her arm to keep her on her feet.
“Let’s go inside, okay?” Bison asked. “You’re going to love what we’ve got.”
“I’m sure I will,” she said politely, though she wasn’t at all sure. She went down the hall to her little studio and the Finas trooped along behind. Billie felt as if she’d joined the circus and was leading the elephant parade.
Once inside, they pulled up chairs and invited her to sit down. Cautiously, she did so, and then stared in amazement when they spread out what they’d brought.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Bruiser said in a businesslike tone. “And this is the perfect opportunity. We want to launch a business as wedding planners.”
Billie gulped and stared, dumbfounded at the array of bridal magazines he was spreading across the table. Bison opened up the scrap books to display samples of wedding invitations and thank you notes, photographs of cakes and flower arrangements, menus and seating charts. Bull flipped through the swatches, displaying wonderful samples of silk, satin, and lace.
“I had no idea you were interested in this,” she said in a voice that sounded squeaky even to her own ears.
Bruiser shrugged. “We figure we’ll be getting married one of these days, and guys need to know this stuff, too. It usually happens that the bride and her mother do all the work. That’s not fair. Marriage is supposed to be equal partners and weddings should be, too.”
“You’ve got a point there.” She wasn’t going to tell them that most women and their mothers wanted to be in charge of all the details.
“I was thinking of this fabric for you,” Bull said, indicating a piece of pure white silk shot with a hint of silver thread.
“It’s stunning,” she whispered. “But . . . .”
“And Zoe Franklin really wants to make your dress if you don’t already have someone in mind. She’s a great seamstress, you know.”
“I know, but . . . .”
“Don’t worry about the cost, Billie,” Bison said. “You’re our first clients, but we’re not going to charge you. Cam saved our lives and we want to do this for him, for both of you. As far as a photographer is concerned, we thought your aunt would probably want to do those if she’s feeling better. And, for the music, we’ll play our violins if you like.”
The three of them sat and smiled at her with the sweetest, most hopeful expressions she’d ever seen. She simply couldn’t crush them.
Her eyes swimming with tears, Billie looked up at them. “I . . . I don’t know what to say. I never expected anything like this, and I’m . . . I’m sure Cam didn’t either.”
Boy was he not expecting this, she thought half-hysterically.
“We wanted to surprise you.”
“You’ve certainly succeeded.” She was beginning to regain her composure a little bit. Smiling shakily, she let them talk, falling into their fantasy world, discussing fabrics and colors.
“Periwinkle might be a good choice for the bridesmaid’s dresses,” Bull said. “It compliments most people’s complexions and depending on the fabric, the gowns can be ruffly or tailored.”
“I like classic, tailored styles,” she said.
Bull whipped open the sketch pad and grabbed a pencil from his pocket. With a few strokes, he drew a gown that was very close to what she would have picked – if all of this was real, which it wasn’t.
They were discussing adjustments to the style when Kyndra walked in. She stopped dead in her tracks and her hands flew to her cheeks. “It’s true, then?” she asked, then rushed over to give Billie a hug. Her young face flushed red as she asked, “Oh, please, I know you’ve probably got lots of friends to ask, but can I be a bridesmaid?”
Before her stunned mind could form an answer, Cam walked in. With one swift glance, he took in the wedding paraphernalia and the deer-in-headlights expression on Billie’s face.
The Finas jumped to their feet and thundered across the floor to alternately shake his hand and thump him on the back, all talking at once as they congratulated him.
When he could get a word in, he glanced across at Billie and said, “Looks like you’ve got the plans started.”
She gave him a helpless shrug. “They’re starting a new business. Wedding planning. And Kyndra would love to be a bridesmaid.”
Kyndra and the three men beamed at Cam, who smiled weakly back at them. “You boys never stop amazing me.”
“It’s a great idea, isn’t it? This town definitely needs some wedding planners.”
“I hadn’t noticed all that many weddings going on,” Cam said.
“Of course not,” Bruiser answered. “No wedding planners.”
“Ah, of course.” He looked across at Billie whose eyes silently begged him for understanding.
Bruiser looked from one to the other of them. “Hey boys, I think these two would like to be alone. We’ve given them a lot to think about. They need to talk. Let’s take Kyndra out and buy her some breakfast. Billie, we’ll leave all this with you for now and you two can think about what you’d like to do. Ever think about a theme wedding? Getting married on horseback might be nice.”
They trundled out, taking Kyndra with them. And closed the door
.
Cam turned and held his hands out to his sides. “What in the world is all this?”
“This wasn’t my idea, Cam. They met me at the door and had all of this with them.” She looked at him helplessly. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Except go along with it. This is bad enough without you making it worse.”
She clapped a hand to her chest. “Me? I didn’t do anything. It was your hired-hand that got this whole thing started. Have you talked to him, by the way? Why did he do this?”
“Yes, that’s what I came to tell you,” Cam answered testily. “He said he could tell by our faces we were in love and were dying to make an announcement.”
“So he did it for us.” The unfairness of the entire situation was beginning to make her angry. “And now your friends have decided to plan our wedding for us.”
“Well, I didn’t tell them to. I don’t know why they can’t mind their own business.”
She threw her hands in the air. “It’s Lucky Break. Nobody minds their own business.”
They stood staring at each other angrily.
Billie looked away from his furious face and pressed her lips together. “All this will blow over once I’m gone and . . . and you can get back to life as usual.”
Cam crossed the room in two strides and turned her to look at him. “I’ll never get back to life as usual,” he said before he pulled her into his arms and closed his mouth over hers.
Her arms flew up to encircle his neck as she returned his kiss. Her heart filled with love for him and she couldn’t keep herself from saying it out loud. “I love you, Cam.”
He went very still, then he dipped his head so that his lips were close to her ear. “I love you too, Billie,” he said, thrilling her, then plunging her into despair when he went on, “But this will never work.”
Pulling away, she searched his face, noting the storminess in his eyes. “Why not?”
Here To Stay (Welcome to Lucky Break, Arizona!) Page 15
