“They aren’t rescheduling anything yet, and Cam is not some random guy.” Zoey had hoped telling her sister how helpful Cam had been would reassure her.
Not so much.
“We’ve actually met before. He owns MacNeil’s,” Zoey added, thinking it would make Cam sound more solid and responsible.
“What’s MacNeil’s?”
“It’s a craft brewery outside Austin.”
“He makes beer?” There was a huge sigh. “Oh, this just gets better and better.”
Which Zoey knew meant exactly the opposite.
“You always do this, Zoey. You always pick these losers and believe you can make them into winners.”
“Cam is different.”
“You always say that, too.”
“But he is.” Zoey realized how she sounded, but Cam was different.
Before she could figure out how to convince Kate, her sister sighed again and asked, “Where are you now?”
Like it mattered. Zoey answered her anyway because it was easier than arguing about it. “In a hallway outside the animal cargo area. With Casper.” She nudged him with her foot so he’d stop chewing on the blue elastic bands that held his coat in the little bundles.
“You’re not even in line? Zoey!”
Had Kate become more scolding, or was Zoey just now becoming aware of it? “There’s no point. It’s still snowing. It’ll be hours yet.”
“But you should be in line now! Zoey, think! The longer you wait, the more people will be ahead of you!”
“You told me not to think,” Zoey snapped, and she never snapped at Kate. She’d never felt entitled to.
Kate didn’t notice her tone. “You don’t need to think to know getting Casper on a flight is your first priority!”
Zoey had been slumped against the wall, but now she straightened and spoke calmly, quietly and firmly. “Actually, Casper’s well-being is my first priority.”
There was silence. Probably because Zoey wasn’t often the voice of reason.
“We left Ryka at five-thirty this morning,” she reminded her sister. “We’ve been stuck in Chicago for nearly eight hours now, and we’re going to be here all night. I wasn’t about to leave Casper in his crate. This isn’t a kennel, Kate. Nobody’s watching or caring for the animals except their owners. The handlers unloaded the crates in the claim area. All the flights were mixed together. By the time I got here, it was a free-for-all. I found Casper and moved him, and nobody stopped to ask me if I was his owner.”
“That’s...that’s—”
“That’s what happened. Yes, Kate, there are hordes of people here not following the rules. I expect they’ll go feral soon. But you don’t have to worry because Casper and I have barricaded ourselves in a hall cave while Cam is foraging for food. Thanks to him, we’ll survive. Others might not be so fortunate.”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic.”
“I’m not.” Zoey had been staring blankly at the end of the hall and at that moment saw Cam turn the corner. An unexpected jolt of pleasure stole her breath. Yes, she’d gone from fizzes to jolts. He was growing on her. “You’re lucky Cam is helping us because Casper is a lot better off.” She was a lot better off. “I’ve got to go. I don’t want to drain my phone’s battery. I’ll check in tomorrow morning.”
She watched Cam approach. He looked good. Really good. Some might even say hot—and she would be one of them. The closer he got, the hotter he became and the more Zoey wanted to draw him into their little love nest and stay there until all the snow melted.
She must be really hungry, she told herself to counter this totally inconvenient lust attack. Here he was, being helpful, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d make things awkward by drooling all over him. That was Casper’s job. She glanced down at the dog, who’d raised his head and thumped his tail when he’d recognized Cam.
The memory of Cam kissing her exploded into her mind, and Zoey wished she could thump her tail.
“Hey, you’re back quickly.” Zoey was mortified to hear that her voice sounded breathy and all I’ve-been-thinking-about-that-great-kiss instead of casually pleased.
“There was a mom waiting to buy bottled water to mix baby formula so I gave her a couple of bottles I had on me and took her place in line,” he explained.
“And people let you?”
“The baby was crying. That kid had a set of lungs on him.” Cam handed her the bag of food as Zoey attempted to keep from going all mushy at the thought of Cam helping a mother and child. He’d gotten a good place in line out of it. But still.
“Breakfast stuff and sports drinks,” he told her as she opened the bag. “It’s all they had.” He dug two bottles out of his pockets. “Lemon Lime Lightning and Cherry Eruption.”
Zoey made a face. “At least it’s liquid.”
“If it tastes bad, we can empty the bottles and fill them at a drinking fountain.” He held up the bottles. “Pick your poison.”
“Cherry Eruption.” She reached for it.
Casper whined, so Zoey fed him, and then they sat in the doorway so they had a view into the hall. “I’m going to have to get my luggage after we eat. That was the last of the dog food, and he isn’t allowed any people food.”
Cam peeled the paper off his breakfast burrito. “So what do you do when you’re not acting as a matchmaker for dogs?”
Zoey had anticipated the question and wasn’t looking forward to answering it. “I work in the Loring Industries customer-service call center.”
“Because...?” He bit into the burrito.
“Because I need a job while I develop a line of organic skin-care products. I call it Skin Garden.”
Cam nodded and gestured for her to continue, and she did, happy that Cam realized working at Loring was a survival job and not a career.
“Mixing my own creams and lotions is something I’ve been doing for years, actually. In college I started giving away some as gifts and people kept asking for more. That’s when I first had the idea to make a business out of it, but I got ahead of myself and spent money I shouldn’t have and...ended up in a lot of debt.”
“That happens,” Cam said. “I got a deal on fancy grain and accepted delivery before we had the right equipment. By the time I was ready for it, mold was growing in the grain.” He dropped his head. “Expensive mistake.”
“I ended up broke and homeless,” Zoey told him. “My sister and her husband let me live with them while they started their kennel. And how did I repay them? By letting the dogs escape when my sister was having the asphalt driveway put in. Imagine a pack of Caspers with tar in their fur.”
Cam grimaced as he looked over his shoulder at Casper. “Did you have to cut it out of their coats?”
Zoey shook her head. “Would have been easier but it also would have ended their show careers. We spent days—and I do mean days—getting the tar and the stains out. For years, I’ve wanted to make it up to my sister, which is why I’m taking Casper to Seattle now.”
“So you’ll be even with her after this?” Cam offered her a flat packet, which turned out to be a hash-brown potato patty.
“Only if I get him there and home again safely.” She gazed down at the patty. “I really want to get this right. I realize how I sound, but I’ve lost so many jobs because I’ve messed up that I’ve forgotten how it feels to succeed at anything.” She swallowed against the thickening in her throat. “This trip is a chance for me to remember what success feels like.”
“And you’re afraid I’ll get in the way,” Cam said.
Zoey nodded.
He smiled. “Then I’ll stay out of the way.”
And that was that. Zoey stuffed potato into her mouth to keep from begging him not to leave.
But he didn’t. He dug around in the bag and came up with an oatme
al cookie. He offered it to her.
She shook her head and he broke off a piece, picked out the raisins and ate it.
“What?” he asked when she stared at him. “I don’t like raisins.”
“I thought you were going to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because I clearly have issues. Most men would have run away by now.”
“We all have issues. I’ve got issues with the brewery. Eat your burrito and I’ll explain them to you.”
So that’s what Zoey did. After he finished telling her about how he’d started the brewery with his cousins and brothers—and Zoey’d become sidetracked when she realized there were more men as attractive as Cam running around in the world—she said, “You need more help but you don’t want to ask for it. Why?”
She hadn’t considered the question particularly profound, but Cam blinked at her before staring off into the middle distance. “I guess,” he said slowly, “I’m afraid that I want MacNeil’s to succeed more than my family does. That if I ask them for more, they’ll stop helping at all and we’ll have to close down.”
“So you’ve been trying to do everything yourself.”
“That’s about it.” He nodded.
No wonder he hadn’t had time for girlfriends. She nudged his sample box with her toe. “What’s that all about?”
“There was a guy, Richard, who lived in my freshman dorm, one of those nerdy, smart, antisocial types. He ended up becoming a dot-com gazillionaire. I read an article in the alumni magazine where Richard mentioned wanting to get into craft beer. So I emailed him and he remembered me, and now I’m headed to Seattle to find out if he’s interested in investing.” He gave her a half smile. “I’m hoping to raise enough cash to hire an office manager. I could really use one.” He sounded tired just telling her about it.
The past hour had given Zoey a fair sense of the type of life Cam led—basically, he spent every waking hour at the brewery.
“What happens if Richard says no?”
“Part two of my plan is for Gus and the others to realize how much work is involved in running the place. Things can’t continue the way they have been. If we expand, we can become profitable enough to hire help. If we don’t...” He shook his head.
Zoey felt the urge to help trying to escape. It was what she always did—abandon Skin Garden so she could run to the aid of the latest man in her life. Not this time, though. This time, she was going to help herself. So instead of volunteering to become his unpaid office clerk, she asked, “When is your meeting?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Uh...”
“Yeah. I’ve got to call Richard and reschedule.” Cam made a face, obviously not looking forward to the conversation.
Zoey gathered their trash and got to her feet. “Sounds as though this is my cue to get my suitcase. I’ll text you if anything is happening with the flights.”
“Casper and I’ll be here.”
And knowing that he’d be waiting for her made Zoey ridiculously happy.
* * *
CAM WATCHED ZOEY until she was out of sight. Before blabbing about his troubles to her, he hadn’t realized that he’d feared his family would tire of the brewery and vote to abandon it. If that happened, then all Cam’s hard work would have been for nothing. He’d be out of a job, and any money gained from the sale of the brewery would be split into dozens of shares. To prevent that scenario, he’d taken on more and more responsibilities himself.
Casper had moved up to take Zoey’s place beside him and Cam absently scratched the dog’s side as he punched in Richard’s number with his thumb.
Richard had not responded to his earlier texts and Cam had tried calling before, so he was surprised when Richard actually answered now.
After Cam explained the situation, there was silence and then Richard said, “Well, Cameron, if I’d been aware of this earlier, I could have sent my jet for you. But it’s in use for the next couple of days.”
As though Richard’s jet would have been able to land when no other plane could. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to rub it in Cam’s face that Richard had a jet. “That would have been great,” Cam said without mentioning the unanswered texts and calls.
“Yes, especially since I’m leaving for London at the end of the week and I’m not sure I can work you into my schedule before then. How soon can you get here?”
“Hard to say,” Cam had to answer. “They haven’t begun rescheduling flights yet.”
“Charter a plane.”
Richard knew Cam didn’t have that kind of money. He just wanted to hear Cam admit it. “Plane charters aren’t in the brewery’s operating budget.”
“I suppose it’s a matter of what’s important to you.” A long silence followed, during which Cam remembered that he’d never liked Richard Campbell and he was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.
“Cameron, unless you get here tomorrow, I can’t guarantee that I’ll have time for you. Under the circumstances, I question whether you should make the trip.”
He was an important, busy man. Cameron got the message. “I’m driving out to the Yakima Valley to visit hops growers anyway.” And Cam was glad he could say that. “If you find you can juggle your schedule, let me know. If not, maybe we’ll meet up some other time.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Richard finally said before abruptly ending the call.
Cameron suspected he’d never hear from Richard again.
He thought he’d be more disappointed, but he was beginning to realize that Gus had been right. Dealing with Richard and his look-how-successful-I-am attitude would have been difficult.
He could cancel with the growers and go home, except he needed to be gone longer than a day for Gus and the others truly to appreciate Cam’s absence.
Later. He’d decide later because for now, he’d been given the gift of time and a woman he wanted to spend it with.
* * *
ZOEY WADDED HER clothes into a pillow as they tried to make themselves comfortable for the night. The longer she spent with Cam, the more she wanted to kiss him again, mainly to see if it was as amazing as she remembered. They’d had some moments during the evening, the kind where their gazes had caught and held and if either of them had leaned toward the other, they would have ended up in each other’s arms. But maybe Cam was holding back because they were in a semipublic spot in an airport terminal. A major airport terminal. Where anyone could walk by. And did. Not often, but often enough to keep any kissing from getting out of control.
It had been hours since they’d retrieved their luggage. Cam had also snagged a couple of airline cots and blankets, but then he’d given one of them to a woman who’d slipped on the ice and hurt her ankle—because that’s the kind of guy he was. So they only had one cot, which Cam insisted Zoey take and when she’d refused, Casper had claimed it.
At the moment, Cam was stacking their suitcases, Casper’s crate, and the box of samples in front of the opening to the corridor while Zoey was using their clothes and the skimpy airline blankets to pad the floor next to Casper and the cot. She could have put the dog between them, but she didn’t. Now she was torn between hoping Cam wouldn’t think anything of it and hoping that he would.
“There.” She smiled at Cam, casually sat on the side farthest from the opening to the hall and retrieved her night creams from her backpack.
There was silence and when she checked, Cam was staring down at the navy blue pallet with unfocused eyes. Not a positive sign.
Scrambling for something to say or do before the situation became horribly awkward, Zoey raised her foot. “Help me take off my boots?”
“Sure.” Cam joined her on the pallet.
As it happened, after wearing the boots for hours and hours, Zoey’s feet were swollen and she really did need
help taking her boots off. By the time Zoey’s feet were free, any awkwardness had evaporated.
She and Cam lay on their backs, shoulder to shoulder, and talked about their lives. Somehow they got on to the topic of all the jobs and careers she’d attempted.
“I was in my party-planner phase when I met you at the brewery.”
“How did you lose that job?” he asked.
“I parked in the sun and melted a three-hundred dollar bridal-shower cake.”
“Somebody spent three-hundred dollars on a cake?”
“Yep. It looked like a shoe and a purse and a shopping bag.”
“Still. And what happened at the travel agency?”
“I stranded a family in Paris.”
Cam laughed. “That’s not a bad place to strand someone.”
“The wife really wanted to go to Venice, and when there was a cancellation on another tour, I booked it, but I forgot to tell them I’d changed their reservations.”
“And the camp counseling? Did you lose kids or something?”
“Uh...”
“Zoey!”
“I didn’t lose them. I just went too far on a hike. They were little and got tired and there were too many for me to carry...”
“Didn’t you have a phone with you?”
“I used up the battery identifying plants.”
Cam laughed. “I know it’s not funny...”
“Not if you were one of the parents, and certainly not if you were the counselor who went off the assigned trail.”
Cam tried to counter her mistakes with stories of his own, but ruining a few batches of beer wasn’t the same. She appreciated that he tried, though.
In fact, the more time she spent with him, the more attractive he became. It would be so easy to turn and kiss him, but she didn’t because she wanted Cam to make the first move. The original kiss didn’t count—except maybe it did. Maybe he was counting it and now he was waiting for her to initiate. Or maybe he was waiting for a signal from her. But what signal?
Taken by Storm Page 7
