Taken by Storm

by Heather MacAllister

  “Based on my extensive experience, I’d say it’ll be a disaster.”

  “I’m counting on it.” He opened his laptop.

  “Why, Mr. MacNeil, you do have a devious streak.”

  Looking devious, he reached for her and Zoey danced out of the way because she knew where that would lead and Casper had already given her the stink eye for letting him stand by the door this long.

  “I will say that this is the first time someone has hoped for a disaster,” she said.

  “Everything will be okay once they open the taps, but it should make my point,” Cam said. “I’m not discounting Gus’s contribution. He’s a fantastic salesman, which is why I want him on my side when I insist that we hire an office manager. Experiencing the horror of extended manual labor should make him very convinced.”

  He leaned back in the chair as the laptop booted up. “Joyce was right. I haven’t been following my own business plan. It’s past the point for the brewery to have a paid, full-time office manager instead of relatives coming in for a few hours whenever they have the chance. But that takes cash, and it’s got to come from somewhere.” He tilted his head. “Know anyone who’d want a job as an office manager in a small, up-and-coming brewery?”

  By the way he smiled at her, Zoey understood what he was suggesting. And she wanted to agree with him. She wanted to throw her arms around his neck and say, “I do! Then we could be together all day long and wouldn’t that be perfect?” or some such garbage. Only she didn’t because it wouldn’t.

  It would be a mistake. A huge mistake.

  Casper had whined then, thank goodness, so she’d escaped with a cheery, “No, but I’ll keep my ears open,” which she hoped hadn’t sounded as fake to Cam as it had to her.

  She felt the familiar pull to entwine herself in his life, to give up both her call-center job and her creams and lotions. It was her usual pattern as she sought that elusive connection, the one on which she and her guy could build a life.

  With Cam, she already had that deep, emotional connection. In fact, they’d connected so quickly on so many levels, it was difficult to process. Their relationship was on fast forward because they’d spent days in each others’ company under conditions that revealed a person’s true nature. She liked Cam’s true nature. A lot.

  They were even being practical, at least during the blissful moments of sated lust, discussing how they should see each other in their regular lives so they could test if what they felt was real and lasting. But they both were already sure it was.

  The question was, what were they going to do about it?

  The answer wasn’t as simple as Cam probably assumed—picking up where they left off once they both returned to Texas. Even though she had a long way to go, Zoey still wanted to achieve a modest success on her own before she merged her life with someone else’s. If she abandoned Skin Garden yet again to work with Cam, then when MacNeil’s really took off, it would be his success. Not hers.

  Zoey stopped jogging when she sensed Casper slowing. She walked him to the grassy edge of the parking lot, where he squatted and noxious fumes filled the air.

  Chinese food did not agree with Casper, and that was an understatement.

  When he was finished, Zoey took a picture with her cell phone, as instructed, and sent it to Kate and Ryan. Moments later, her phone played “Who Let the Dogs Out,” which made her laugh. Cam had programmed it as her sister’s ring tone. “Hi, Kate.”

  “Zoey, do you think you could zoom in a little?”

  Zoey closed her eyes. “Kate, I am not going to send you close-ups of your dog’s poop.”

  “Well, I’m sorry if you find it unpleasant, but if you’d been watching him the way you should have, you wouldn’t have to be taking pictures of dog poop.” Self-righteous and nasty. Vintage Kate.

  “Or maybe I shouldn’t have called you in the first place.”

  “There shouldn’t have been anything to call me about! But I knew there would be. I just knew this was a mistake.”

  The familiar yoke of guilt settled around her, but Zoey threw it off. “Then why did you ask me?” Her voice was shrill in the morning silence. Probably everyone in the motel could hear her, including Cam.

  “Because I figured even you could manage to do something this simple! Everything was all planned. And where are you? Nebraska. I do not see Nebraska on the itinerary!”

  Zoey took a deep breath and let it out. “Because I thought—”

  “I told you not to think!”

  The familiar sense of defeat flooded her. Why had she believed this time would be different? A knot, equal parts guilt and the awful motel-room coffee, formed in her stomach. She was going to be sick. How convenient that Casper had paved the way. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Zoey.” It was Ryan.

  “I’m sorry.” She apologized to him, too.

  “Are you kidding? Nobody else would have done this for us.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m apologizing.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for. But your sister does. Don’t hang up.”

  Oh, great. As though a forced apology from Kate would make her feel any better.

  “Zoey? I’m so sorry.”

  Was that tiny little voice Kate’s?

  “I didn’t mean any of those things.”

  Zoey exhaled. “You meant them. You just didn’t mean to say them out loud.”

  “No, I—it’s the hormones. They’re making me crazy. You should hear some of the awful stuff I’ve said to Ryan!”

  “No, she shouldn’t,” Ryan said in the background.

  “He’s been so sweet,” Kate cooed.

  Zoey rolled her eyes.

  “Tell her why,” she heard him say and Zoey smiled. Sweet, but not a pushover. Like Cam, in a—

  “Zoey, I’m pregnant!”

  At first, Zoey thought she was talking about one of their dogs and tried to remember a female’s name. Kate got all pissy when Zoey couldn’t remember their dogs’ names. And then the words sunk in. “You mean with a human baby?”

  “No, a puppy,” Kate said as Ryan roared with laughter in the background. “Yes, a baby!”

  “Oh, Kate! When?”

  They talked excitedly for a few moments. “So that’s why I may have sounded more hyper than normal,” Kate said.

  “You sounded just the same to me.” Zoey would let her get away with the hormone excuse for some of it, but not all. There had been plenty of other conversations when Kate hadn’t been pregnant and had raged at Zoey.

  Kate laughed but quickly noticed Zoey wasn’t laughing with her. “Oh, come on, Zoey! I’ll admit I’ve been a little snappish during our last few conversations, but now you understand why.”

  “What about all of our other conversations?”

  Silence. At least Kate didn’t deny it.

  Zoey broke the silence. “I understand why you get angry and frustrated with me, but you should get rid of most of it before you spew it all over me.”

  “Zoey.” Kate sounded hurt.

  “You’re a lot more than snappish, Kate,” she said quietly.

  There was another silence and Zoey suspected Kate had turned to Ryan. And from the soft gasp she heard next, her sister had found gentle confirmation in his face. He was that kind of man. Instinctively, she knew Cam was that kind of man, too.

  “I’m sorry, Zoey. I’ll try to be better. It’s just there’s so much happening—so much riding on this. It’s still so unbelievable that Martha chose Casper for Alexandra’s first litter. It would be an honor for him to breed with any of the Merriweather bitches, but Alexandra? It’ll make Ryka’s reputation. And Casper’s, assuming all goes well. It’s such a great opportunity, especially with the baby coming. And next week’s show is major. Without Alexandra the
re, he’s sure to win Grand Championship points!”

  The potential Grand Champion was squatting again. Zoey decided not to inform Kate.

  “There won’t be as many opportunities to go to shows once the baby gets here.” Kate was getting wound up again.

  Ryan recognized the signals, too. Zoey could hear him murmuring.

  “So tell me,” she interrupted her sister. “What’s the deal with the breeding thing? Do I have to do anything?” Oh, Lord, she hoped not. “Is there a special command?”

  That last made Kate laugh. And then she proceeded to give Zoey more details than she ever wanted to know about breeding Afghan hounds.

  * * *

  THE CALL CAME while Cam was checking the temperature at the Denver airport. He smiled, assuming it was Zoey, since she’d been outside for so long. He pressed the phone close because what he was going to say should be murmured in her ear, not surrounded by the tinny halo of the speaker setting. Fortunately, Richard’s number registered in time for a last-second adjustment.

  “Cameron MacNeil.” He hoped the other man couldn’t hear the surprise in his voice.

  “Richard Campbell here,” Richard said. “Are you in Seattle yet?”

  Cam was caught off guard. “No. Nebraska.”

  “What are you doing in Nebraska?”

  It was fortunate they weren’t video conferencing. “Business. I rearranged my schedule.” It was also fortunate that Zoey wasn’t in the room. Cam could imagine her saying, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

  He grinned. She set his pants on fire, all right.

  “Can you rearrange your schedule again to meet me at the hops farm?”

  Cam’s jaw clenched as a spurt of adrenaline shot through him. Richard was still interested. And interested enough to leave Seattle for a field trip. The development was both unexpected and encouraging. Which also made it suspicious. But Richard’s cash would enable Cam to reclaim part of his life and spend that part with Zoey.

  He had to play his hand very carefully because the stakes were now much higher. Keep it light but not too light, he told himself. “I don’t have to rearrange anything,” he said to Richard. “I’m headed for the farm next.”

  “So you’ll be keeping that appointment.”

  “And ours, too,” Cam said.

  “Please do.” Richard went into his great-man-talking-to-lesser-mortals mode. “I don’t often give second chances, but I happen to believe that friendship should count for something.”

  “Absolutely.”

  They’d never been friends and Richard knew it. Cam wasn’t about to fall into the trap of pretending they were. This was purely business, and if Richard didn’t believe he’d receive value for his money, he wouldn’t give Cam a cent or a second chance, friend or not.

  However, Cam could be friendly. “How about we get some lunch afterward?”

  “Sorry. I’m leaving for Seattle at noon. I have to catch a flight to London.”

  Of course he was. “I’ll see you Friday then.”

  Cam had just raised his hand for a celebratory fist pump when Zoey burst through the other room’s door.

  “Cam!” She and Casper came bounding through the connecting door. “I talked with Kate.... What happened?” She’d caught him with his arms in the air.

  “Richard rescheduled for Friday morning at the hops farm.”

  She looked confused. “And that’s good?”

  Yes, considering Cam hadn’t expected him to reschedule at all. Zoey didn’t know that, though. “It’s unexpected.”

  “He must be really interested or he wouldn’t go to the trouble.” She knelt and unfastened Casper’s coat.

  “That’s what I’m hoping, and that’s what most people would assume. But this is Richard. He’s well aware appearing eager will weaken his negotiating position.”

  “Why?”

  “In business, the one who cares the most is willing to concede more to keep the other party from walking away,” Cam said. “When you don’t care, when you’re willing to walk and the other side knows it, that’s when you’re strongest.”

  Zoey pulled off the coat and Casper headed for his water dish. “That’s true in relationships, too. When you don’t care anymore, when you’re actually walking out the door with your stuff, that’s when he promises to pick up his clothes and stop leaving dirty dishes all over the apartment.”

  Cam laughed. “Says the voice of experience?”

  “Actually, no.” Zoey gave him a wry smile as she stood. “He didn’t promise anything. He said, ‘Zoey don’t be like this.’ And I said, ‘I’m not. That’s why I’m leaving.’ And he said, ‘Fine. Whatever.’ So I walked.”

  And he was very glad she had. “That’s the thing. Sometimes, you gotta walk.”

  She gave him the strangest look. That was twice today and Cam wondered if he was missing something.

  “What if it’s a bad deal for the other party?” she asked. “Should you walk then?”

  “Why?” He gave a short laugh. “That would be stupid.”

  “Not if you care more for the person involved than the deal.”

  They weren’t talking about business deals anymore, Cam realized. “It’s up to the other party to decide whether a deal is bad.”

  “Yeah, well, the other party might—”

  “Zoey.” Cam stood, took Casper’s silly coat out of her hands and tossed it onto the bed. Then he drew her to him. “Zoey,” he said again and waited until she met his eyes. “What’s this about?”

  “You don’t have to go to Seattle anymore.”

  It took him a moment. “I’d always planned to rent a car and drive from Seattle. Nothing has changed.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to mess things up for you, Cam.” She was serious. He could see the worry in her eyes, those huge green eyes. The ones he wanted to dive into.

  He could kiss away the worry. They had time. The weather still had to warm up before Casper could fly anyway. Kissing away her worry was an excellent idea. He lowered his mouth and she heaved a great sigh.

  “Cam, I’m serious.”

  He kissed an eyelid. “So am I.”

  “Cam.” She pushed against his chest and, reluctantly, he let his arms fall away.

  “I am a bad deal for you,” she said earnestly. “I come with a long streak of failures.”

  “So break the streak.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to do!”

  “And I want to help you.”

  “You are. You have. But Cam, as much as I want to get this dog to Merriweather, it can’t be at the expense of your meeting.”

  “It won’t be.” He reached for her again, but she swatted his hands away.

  The anger in her expression burned through the lust haze.

  “Listen to me,” she said slowly and crisply. “This is a chance for me to prove to myself and everyone else that I can succeed at something. I’ve told you that. But if you fail because you stay with me, it doesn’t count.”

  “I understand,” Cam said. And he did. He just didn’t agree. If he failed, it was because he’d made the choice to fail. It wasn’t her call. But he wasn’t going to argue the point.

  “You’d better,” she said. “Because I want you to promise me that if we get to Denver and find out that we can’t get on the same flight, you’ll go on without me.”

  “If it makes a difference, sure.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

  “We’ve missed the morning flights. There’s one at two-thirty, and since I have to turn in the car, that would be cutting it close. The next available flights all leave between four and seven. Whether I land in Seattle at seven o’clock or ten o’clock tonight doesn’t make a difference.”

  “Promise
me anyway.”

  “Zoey, be reasonable.” As soon as he said the words, Cam knew they were a mistake.

  Her jaw set. “Promise me, or I’ll walk.”

  Cam grinned to himself. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.” She’d rent another car and drive herself just to make a point. “Fine. I promise.”

  “Okay.” She relaxed her shoulders a little. “And don’t wait for me at the airport, either. I’m not staying in Seattle. I don’t care how late it is, I’m driving to Ellensburg tonight. In fact, I’m driving all the way to Merriweather’s front gate and sleeping the rest of the night in the car if I have to.”

  “You said Ellensburg? I noticed that name.” Cam went to his laptop and brought up the state of Washington map. “Look. I’m headed to Mabton.”

  He pointed when Zoey came to stand next to him. “They’re not that far apart.” He typed in the cities and got driving directions between them. “An hour and a half drive, max.”

  Zoey stared at the map and then at him. She narrowed her eyes. “So?”

  “So Richard has to leave by noon.” He gestured to the screen. “The kennel is practically on the way back to Seattle.”

  “I’ll be busy.”

  “I thought Casper was the one who’s going to be busy. What is there for you to do?”

  She gave him a tight smile. “Oh, I’m so glad you asked.”

  By the time they’d packed and loaded the car, Cam was regarding Casper with equal parts sympathy and awe.

  “I bow to your courage,” he said to Zoey as he pulled the SUV onto the highway again.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Notice Kate didn’t mention all the details until now.”

  “A lot is at stake for them and they didn’t want to put extra pressure on you. You’d have been tense and anxious, and dogs pick up on those emotions.”

  From behind them, snores sounded as Casper slept. “He’s calm now because you’re all loose and relaxed.” Cam grinned. “I like to think I had something to do with that.”

  “A little something.” Zoey stretched and yawned. “This morning has been an emotional rollercoaster. I need a nap already.”

  “Go for it.”