by Marie Force
“A site of this magnitude will involve significant customization and programming that will require a tremendous commitment of work-force hours. When it’s done, you’ll have something you can be proud of. I promise you that. I’ll also promise you’ll earn back your investment within three months of going live if you build in an e-commerce component to sell merchandise from the store via the website. I don’t usually like to give return-on-investment estimates to prospective clients, but I feel very comfortable offering you assurances on that based on what I’ve seen of the store so far.” Cameron swallowed her anxiety and forced herself to finish. “We’d require a deposit of fifty thousand to begin work.”
“We need to talk it over,” Charlotte said as the others nodded in agreement.
“Thanks so much for coming in and walking us through the process,” Lincoln said. “It was very interesting.”
“My pleasure. I’ve never been to Vermont before, and it’s incredibly beautiful. I’m glad I had the chance to come up and meet you all.”
“Give your dad my regards,” Lincoln said.
“I certainly will.”
“I’ll bring your projector to the inn later,” Will said.
“That’d be great. Thanks.” Feeling like an unwanted circus animal in the center ring, Cameron moved as quickly as she could to unhook her laptop and gather her belongings. “Thanks again, everyone.”
Back in Will’s office, Cameron put on her coat and grabbed her purse, slinging the computer bag over her shoulder to head down the stairs to the store. As she walked from the back of the store to the front, she saw a host of things she’d missed the first time through. Herbal remedies for everything from gout to athlete’s foot, a facial massager and wrinkle cream.
She stopped to view a collection of antique typewriters and thought about how they could use them in the site design.
“What’s the point?” she whispered as she wandered toward the front door. They weren’t going to get the job, and this whole thing had been a huge waste of time she couldn’t afford to lose with payroll looming and no influx of cash forthcoming.
She absolutely could not go running to her dad for money. She’d prided herself on her independence and had never relied on her dad’s mega resources to pave the way for her. Something would work out. It always did. Or it always had . . .
Taking a last look around the eclectically wonderful Green Mountain Country Store, she thought about how fun it would’ve been to bring the store to life online. Just as well, she decided, stepping into the cool, crisp air. It would’ve taken weeks of research to do it right, and that would’ve been way, way too much time in the oh-so-tempting company of Will Abbott.
• • •
Will shut the door behind Cameron and returned to his seat at the conference table. A jumble of thoughts crowded his mind after her enlightening presentation. First and foremost, he’d been impressed by her response to the store and her innate understanding of what they were about as a family and a business. If she could infuse that much insight after half an hour in the store, what would she produce after a couple of weeks?
Her intuitiveness had caught him off guard. He’d expected to hate her ideas for modernization, which were in direct conflict with his desire to keep everything exactly the way it had always been. After hearing her presentation, he was officially torn.
“Well, that’s that, I guess,” Hunter said.
“Yeah,” Charlotte added. “Six figures for a website?”
“Think about it, Charley,” Will said. “Imagine the challenge of trying to capture this place in a way that makes sense. Besides, she said we’ll earn it back in three months.”
“If we add more staff to fulfill orders, which will also cost money,” Wade said.
“Yes, that would be an added expense, but think about the added exposure, too,” Will said.
“You’ve certainly done a one-eighty since last night,” Hunter said, frowning at Will.
“I tried to keep an open mind and listen to what she had to say. A lot of it made sense to me. We all know Vermont is a special place with so much to offer. But outside our borders, how many other people know that?”
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Will,” Lincoln said. “Those are my thoughts exactly. We’ve been lucky to escape the economic downturn somewhat unscathed, but we may not always be so fortunate. I know you all are angry with me for bringing Cameron here without talking to you about it first, but my sole focus is on ensuring this business continues to grow and thrive so it will be there for you for as long as you need it to be. I don’t think we can count on business as usual for the long haul. We have to innovate if we’re to remain relevant.”
“We’re as relevant as we need to be,” Hunter said. “We’re a country store, not a multinational corporation.”
“I’m not suggesting we become a multinational anything,” Lincoln said as he scratched George behind the ears. “I’m suggesting we spread our wings a bit and open our doors to the world outside Vermont to generate more business.”
“What happens when hordes of tourists want to come here and see what we’re all about?” Wade asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know, too,” Ella said.
“You heard what Cameron said about not being able to walk into our store without seeing something you can’t live without,” Lincoln said. “If those hordes come here to see what we’ve got, our business grows.”
“What does that do to our sweet little town?” Charlotte asked. “How will Mrs. Hendricks feel when there are buses pulling up outside her inn?”
“I’d imagine she’ll approve of anything that puts bodies in beds,” Lincoln replied.
“Let me ask this,” Hunter said. “What happens after the site is built? Who maintains and operates it?”
“I spoke to Cameron about this when I called her,” Lincoln said. “We’d have two choices. We can retain her company to maintain it for us, which they’d be glad to do, or we can hire someone here to work in-house.”
“Either way,” Hunter said, “we’re looking at much more than the initial six-figure investment.”
“Over time, yes,” Lincoln said. “However, you heard what Cameron said about the revenue generated by the site more than covering the costs of running it—and then some.”
“I’m opposed,” Wade said. “I think it’s the wrong move for us right now.”
“I agree,” Hunter said.
“Me, too,” Ella said.
“Me, four,” Charlotte said. “Sorry, Dad, but it’s too much. We don’t need it or the changes that’ll go along with it.”
“I understand,” Lincoln said, “and you know I respect your opinions—all of them, even if I don’t agree with them.”
Will felt the heat of everyone looking at him for the deciding vote, with fifty percent in favor and forty percent opposed. If he voted for the site, it would go forward. If he voted against, his mother would be brought in to cast the tiebreaker.
“What do you say, Will?” Hunter asked.
Will tried to balance his concern for the store against his interest in Cameron. And to deny that she interested him would be disingenuous. Yes, she might be a city girl, but it had taken half an hour in the store with her earlier for him to see that she was nothing like Lisa, who’d never shown an ounce of interest in his family or his family’s business.
Cameron’s interest had been sincere and not in any way tied to her desire to land the account.
Will was forced to admit he wanted to keep her around for a while so he might get to know her better, which presented an ethical challenge of sorts.
“What’re you thinking, son?”
Will glanced at his dad, whose grandiose ideas often made Will as crazy as they made his siblings. But in this case, he had to admit his dad made some good points about sustaining the business in the future. “I found the presentation interesting,” Will said after a long moment of silence. “I liked what she said about telling our family’s sto
ry through the website and incorporating all our interests. I like the idea of people outside of Vermont learning more about what makes us special here.”
“So you’re for it now?” Hunter asked, seeming stunned by Will’s change of heart.
“I’m not sure yet. I’d like to talk to her a little more about how it would work before I decide anything.”
“That’s fair enough,” Lincoln said.
“I’ll tell you what,” Wade said. “If we go forward with this, it’s all yours, Will. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Neither do I,” Hunter added.
Will’s sisters nodded in agreement.
“If we go forward with it,” Will said, “we’d all have to participate when it came to our own areas of the business.”
“Tell me this,” Hunter said. “If she wasn’t young and pretty and you weren’t bowled over by her, would you want to ‘talk to her some more’ or would you feel the same way the rest of us do?”
“Screw you, Hunter. It’s got nothing to do with that.”
“Ah,” Wade said with a knowing grin that made Will want to punch his younger brother the way he would’ve back in the day. “Anyone else notice he doesn’t deny that she’s young and pretty and he’s bowled over by her?”
“Screw you, too, and the rest of you before you can chime in.”
That set off the others into laughter that made Will’s face heat with embarrassment. He got up and walked out of the conference room, letting the door slam behind him. Storming into his office, he slammed that door, too, and quickly discovered Cameron had left her alluring scent here as well.
His brothers made him so freaking mad! Although, he couldn’t deny he poked at them every bit as much as they poked at him. He must’ve been pretty damned transparent if his interest in Cameron came through so obviously to them. Or perhaps it was his flip-flop on the website that had been his downfall. Either way, he had to face up to the fact that he was curious.
On multiple fronts.
CHAPTER 4
When life gives you scraps, make a quilt.
—The gospel according to Elmer Stillman
Cameron dropped her laptop on the desk in her room and sat on the bed, feeling dejected after her meeting with the Abbotts. Her car was a wreck, her face was a disaster and her presentation had gone over like a fart in church. All in all, it had been a fantastic twelve hours in Vermont.
She pulled her phone out of her purse and turned it on, hoping to find a signal so she could call Lucy and report in. No service.
How was it that there’d been service earlier in her room but none now?
With her frustration mounting, Cameron left her room and headed downstairs to the lobby where there was still no reception, so she went back up to get her coat and clomped down the stairs, infuriated with this entire day.
Outside, the sun was deceptively bright and the air unexpectedly cold—cold enough that her breath came out in little clouds. March in New York City was a time of reawakening, budding blooms and warmer days. Apparently, the spring memo hadn’t made it to Vermont, as it still felt very much like winter here.
She walked along the sidewalk, face in the screen, hoping to see some sign that her phone was receiving a signal. How was she supposed to run a business from here if she couldn’t make a freaking phone call?
Farther down the sidewalk, she walked past the café that doubled as an art gallery and then Nolan’s garage where her car was still up on the lift thing. She couldn’t bear to look at its pretty little face all crushed in, so she kept going.
“Help you with something?” a male voice asked.
Cameron looked over to find a guy sitting on a tree stump working on a carving of some sort. He wore a flannel shirt rolled up over his forearms, and Cameron’s first thought was he had to be freezing without a coat on. “Aren’t you cold?”
“Heck, no. It’s beautiful today.”
“It’s freezing.”
When he laughed, something about him looked familiar to her, although she was certain she’d never seen him before. Behind him, barn doors were wide open and the scent of sawdust hung in the air around them. “This isn’t freezing. This is positively balmy.”
“If you say so.”
“Are you looking for something?”
“Only a signal so I can use my cell phone. One minute it works, the next it doesn’t.”
“Ahh, welcome to the mountains.”
“It’s annoying.”
He shrugged. “You adapt.”
“I’d never adapt to life without a good cell signal.” The very thought of it was unimaginable.
“So how does the other guy look today?”
At first she didn’t know what he meant, but then she remembered her battered face. “I hear Fred is just fine.”
“Oh! You’re the girl who hit Fred!”
“That’d be me,” she said, resigned now to her fate.
“Heard about you at the diner this morning. So then you’d also be the girl trying to sell my family on a website for the store.”
“That’s why you look familiar. You resemble Will a little bit.” He was a younger, blonder version of his older brother, but the family resemblance was unmistakable.
“Ew. That’s disgusting.” He stood up and brushed the dust off his hands and came over to her. “Landon Abbott, and I do not look like Will.”
She shook his outstretched hand. “Cameron Murphy, and you do, too.”
“Do not.”
“Do, too.”
“And here I thought we might be friends.”
She couldn’t help but laugh, even as she noticed he was holding her hand longer than necessary.
“You’re one of the twins.”
He leaned in and whispered, “I’m the good-looking one.”
“I thought Will said you’re identical.”
“We are, but Lucas is totally ugly. Trust me on that.”
“Let her go, Landon,” a deep voice behind her said.
Cameron jolted and pulled her hand free as Will joined them. Judging by the stormy expression on his face, he was annoyed that she was talking to his brother. What was that about?
“I was just being friendly, bro.” Landon winked at Cameron, who laughed at the face he made at his brother.
“I was looking for you at the inn,” Will said, ignoring Landon.
That’s when Cameron noticed he was carrying her projector case along with a brown bag from the store. “I can take that.”
“I’ve got it.”
Cameron returned her attention to Landon. “I’d love to come back and see your work sometime.”
“Anytime,” he said with a charming smile and the waggle of his brows. “I’m here every day unless you hear the fire bell ring. Then I’m out heroically battling fires and saving lives.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, amused by him. “See you later.”
“Bye, Cameron Murphy. William, you have a nice day.”
Will scowled at Landon, who laughed as they walked away.
“You weren’t very nice to him,” Cameron said.
“I don’t have to be. He’s my brother.”
“That’s all the more reason to be nice to him. I’d love to have a brother. Or a sister. Or both. Both would be nice.”
“You say that now, but when you actually have them, they can be far more trouble than they’re worth.”
Cameron stopped and stared at him.
“What?”
“Do you have any idea how lucky you are? Any idea at all? I was raised by nannies. My family was the Huxtables, the Matthews, the Banks and the Weirs.”
“Who the heck are they?”
“The Cosby Show, Boy Meets World, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Freaks and Geeks, to name a few.”
“Still not really ringing any bells.”
Not for the first time, Cameron wondered how it was possible they were raised on the same planet, let alone in the same country. “Did you have a TV
in your house growing up?”
Nodding, he said, “We weren’t allowed to watch it very often.”
“Apparently.”
“We were encouraged to pursue other interests.”
“By the parents who monitored your every move.”
“Yeah, so . . .”
“My dad works all the time, and my mom died having me. No mom, an absent dad, no siblings. Don’t bitch at me about your pain-in-the-ass brother. Just don’t.” She walked away from him, crossing the street to the inn, no longer concerned about the phone signal she couldn’t find. Mostly, she was concerned about getting away from him before she did something stupid like break down in front of him over things that shouldn’t still bother her as she approached thirty.
“Cameron, wait!”
Embarrassed now by her outburst, she walked faster, entering the inn at nearly a run and heading for the stairs.
He caught up to her as she reached her door. “Wait, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be such a jerk. Of course I love my family. I love them even when they’re bugging me, and I always know how lucky I am.”
“Good,” she said, caught off kilter by the urgency in his tone, the flush of his cheeks from chasing her and the sincere regret she felt coming from him. Combined with what she’d already learned about him, Cameron was officially bordering on Will Abbott overload.
“Thanks for bringing my projector over.” She took it from him and opened the door to her room, placing the projector on the floor inside. “It was nice meeting you. I wish you and your family the best with the store. It’s a special place.”
He leaned against he doorframe and unleashed that lethal smile. “You’re giving up awfully easy, aren’t you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? It was clear to me that you and your siblings don’t want the site. I can take a hint. I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I figure a way out of this town where I can’t even make a phone call.”
He continued to lean and smile and stare at her.
“What? I know my face is a mess. I don’t need you staring at it.”
“Even bruised and battered, your face is rather exceptional. It’s a face people remember long after they first encounter it.”
