by Marie Force
“Yeah?” he asked, full of masculine pride.
“Stop gloating and get us out of here.”
“Take it easy, sweetheart. You’re nowhere near death.”
There was that endearment again, setting off a tsunami inside her when it came from him. “Your view is clearly not the same as mine.”
“Stay calm. I’ve got this.” He reached for her hand, but she pushed him back.
“Two hands on the wheel this time. How did we even end up down here?”
“You distracted me, and my foot slipped off the brake.”
“I distracted you?”
“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”
The truck lurched forward, and Cameron grabbed hold of the door and the seat, as if that would do any good if the guardrail gave way. “How long can the guardrail hold the weight of this big truck?”
“We’ll be long gone before the guardrail gets tired.”
While his assurances were somewhat comforting, she wanted out of there immediately. She startled when a hulking figure appeared at the driver’s side window.
Will opened it. “What, Colton?” he asked in a testy tone.
Colton’s lazy grin unfolded slowly across his face. “Got yourself into a bit of a pickle, bro?”
“Nope.”
“Yes!” Cameron said. “We’re definitely in a pickle.”
Will scowled at the apparent affront to his manhood. “I told you I’ve got this.”
“And yet we’re still clinging to the road by a thread!”
“I heard the crunch of metal up at the house and figured I ought to investigate.”
“You can go back up,” Will said. “We’re fine.”
“Would you mind terribly if I got out until we’re actually fine?” Cameron asked, making Colton snicker.
“And here I thought you were starting to care about me,” Will said. “You’d really leave me all alone to face the elements?”
What was she supposed to say to that? He looked absolutely crushed. “I … um …”
“How about I give you a push and get you out of here?” Colton said.
“Yes,” Cameron said at the same second Will said, “No.”
They engaged in a glaring standoff.
“That’s fine.” Colton crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I’ve got all day to stand here and freeze my agates off while you two fight it out.”
“Fine,” Will said, breaking the stare-off. “Give us a push, but for the record, I could’ve gotten us out of here without your help.”
“Whatever you say, pal,” Colton muttered as he walked away.
When his brother was positioned behind the truck, Will shifted into drive and turned the wheel hard to the left.
Cameron continued to cling to anything that seemed solid as the truck began to inch forward in small increments. It was all she could do not to shriek from the sheer terror that beat through her as she imagined all sorts of unhappy outcomes from this situation.
“Take it easy,” Will said softy. “We’re almost there.”
Just as the words left his lips, the truck lunged forward and back onto the road. Will glanced in the mirror and gave his brother the finger.
Cameron expelled the deep breath she’d been holding as relief coursed through her.
“See?” he said, reaching for her hand again. “It’s fine.”
She realized her hands were trembling as she wrapped them around his much warmer one.
“Sorry to scare you.”
“It’s okay.”
“Do you think we could maybe pick up where we left off later?”
“Maybe,” she said, forcing herself to relax and breathe normally as they moved slowly down the icy hill.
“I’ll be looking forward to later all day.”
His comment put her back on the edge, teetering precariously. Every minute she spent with him sent her deeper into the ravine where all the reasons why her growing feelings for him were a bad idea waited like jagged rocks poking up from the ground.
The fact that they had nothing at all in common was a sign of impending trouble she needed to pay attention to. What good would it do her to get all caught up in him while she was working on the project only to have to go back to her real life when it was done? She rubbed at her lips, which continued to tingle from The Kiss, as it was now known.
She ought to take a big step back from what was happening between them. Over the next few months, she’d more than have her hands full with the website. That was enough of a challenge without adding romantic stress to the mix. Yes, she would take a step back out of self-preservation. That was the best course of action.
So what if everything about him appealed to her? Finding him appealing didn’t mean she had to act on it, did it? Of course not. She could maintain her professional demeanor and keep their relationship confined to business. And then when it was time to wrap up the job and go home, she would leave with no emotional baggage to drag home with her.
“I can hear you thinking over there.” When he turned his hand so it was palm-to-palm with hers, she realized she was still clutching his hand.
She withdrew her hand.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he turned the truck onto the main road to head back toward town.
“Nothing.”
“I’m really sorry about what happened back there. I can’t believe my foot slipped off the brake. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay.”
“You don’t sound okay.”
“How do I sound?”
“Sad.”
“I … I’m not sad.”
He surprised her when he pulled the truck to the side of the road, shifted into park and turned to her. “What is it?”
She shook her head.
“Did I screw up by kissing you?”
“What? No. It was … It was fine.”
He grimaced “Fine. Yikes. Not exactly a glowing review.”
“It was a really good kiss, Will. Really, really good.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“This isn’t the best idea.”
“What isn’t?”
“You. Me. Us.”
“That kiss felt like a pretty good idea,” he said with a charming, cajoling smile that had the same effect on her as his smiles always did. “Tell me what you’re thinking. I’d really like to know.”
“I like you. I wasn’t expecting to like you.”
“We have that in common.”
“You didn’t know I was coming.”
“My father had pitched you and your company to us. I’ve heard stories all my life about his friend Patrick Murphy, the classmate from Yale who’d gone on to be a self-made billionaire. Now his daughter was interested in coming up to build a website for our local-yokel country store. I had a few ideas in my mind about what Patrick Murphy’s daughter might be like.”
“I’m sure I confirmed all your preconceived notions with my auspicious arrival in town.”
“Something like that. But then I got to know you a little bit, and I quickly discovered I was totally wrong about what Patrick Murphy’s daughter might be like. She’s much, much more than I expected her to be.”
“I’m not sure how I should take that.”
“I mean it as a compliment. Yesterday morning, when we were in the store, that’s when I realized you were nothing like what I expected. You were genuinely interested in the place.”
“I am genuinely interested. In the store. And …”
“And?”
She forced herself to look at him. “And you. I’m interested in you, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to ‘indulge’ in this when I’m only here for a short time.” Looking down now at her entwined fingers, she forced herself to tell him the rest. “I have this awful habit of going off the deep end over guys, and when it ends …”
“What happens when it ends?”
“I discover I haven’t seen the deep end yet.”
; “Cam—”
“This has disaster written all over it. All I can see is the end, and the view is ugly.”
“What if it doesn’t end?”
Cameron laughed even though she knew his question was sincere. “It always ends, Will. You have a life here that you love. I have a life I love in New York. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
“Or,” he said, taking off his seat belt and leaning across the center console, “it could be a recipe for something that actually works out—for both of us.”
She shook her head, but his fingers on her chin stopped the movement.
“For the first time since Lisa left me, I want to take a chance again.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, acutely aware of his touch on her face. “I can’t.”
“Nothing is impossible.”
“This is. You’re not about to move to the city. I’m not about to move here. So what’s the point?”
“The point is I want to take a chance. That’s very big news in my world.”
“I’m happy for you. You definitely deserve to be happy.”
“Cameron,” he said, laughing softly, “I want to take a chance because I met you. Not because I suddenly woke up the other day and decided it was time to get on with my life. It’s because of you.”
“I’ll fall for you,” she said warily. “It’s what I do.”
“I’d be honored if you fell for me.”
“And what happens when I have to leave?”
“Couldn’t we cross that covered bridge when we get to it?”
“No. No, we can’t. Let me tell you how that goes.” She turned her face away from his fingers and spun around in the seat to face him. “Say I spend every spare minute of the next few weeks getting to know you. Say this whole thing goes way beyond kissing in your truck.”
“I’d be all for that.”
“Stop and listen.”
“I’m listening,” he said, but his lips curved into a smile that earned him a scowl from her.
“My business, my friends, my life is in New York. Nolan will fix my car, and I’ll cry all the way home because I have to leave you here. I’ll cry for days after I get back. I won’t be able to eat or sleep or work because I’ll be too busy crying and missing you and feeling like I’m going to die because it’s over. I’ll cry until my friends stage an intervention and force me back into my life, but I’ll still cry when they aren’t around. I’ll cry myself to sleep for months. I won’t take any joy out of anything. I’ll lose weight because I don’t feel like eating. And then … one day … it’ll occur to me that it’s really over, and the crying will start up all over again.”
His thumb brushed a tear that she didn’t even know was there from her cheek. “How many times has that happened?”
“Three times too many. So do you see why I just can’t do this? Do you see why—”
He kissed her again, ignoring her mewl of protest, probably because it quickly morphed into a moan of encouragement. “If you fall in love with me, Cameron Murphy, I’ll never let you go.”
Crying in earnest now, she shook her head. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I’m thirty-three years old. I’ve spent ten years mourning the one woman I loved who didn’t deserve my love. You crashed into my life two days ago, and it’s like those ten years never happened. Please don’t make me spend the next ten years wishing you’d given me a chance.”
“You’re not being fair.”
“If you fall in love with me, I’ll never let you go.”
“Stop saying that. You can’t possibly mean—”
Damn him and those incredible lips! He tipped his head to change the angle as his tongue teased and cajoled until she had no choice but to participate. “Yes, I do,” he whispered. “Kiss me back.”
She fisted his hair and felt her resistance drain like sand through an hourglass as he kissed her from every possible angle within the tight confines of the cab.
Minutes or maybe hours passed before he pulled back and stared at her, looking as stunned as she felt.
“You’ve only known me for two days,” she reminded him.
“And yet I want to take a chance again.” He watched her expectantly. “I want to take a chance with you. I want to find out what this is and where it could take us.”
Did he have any idea how badly she wanted to know, too? “I’m not going to fall for you.”
“Okay.”
Something about the way he said that set her nerves on edge. “I’m not.”
“Okay.”
Flashing a smug version of his sexy smile, he settled into the driver’s seat, refastened his seat belt and pulled onto the road, humming a jaunty tune as he drove.
How could he be jaunty after the conversation they’d just had? How could he be jaunty when her every nerve ending felt like it was on fire?
By the time they drove into town he was whistling, and she was fuming. He was in a grand old mood after a couple of kisses while she was in full-blown panic mode. She’d promised Lucy she wouldn’t do exactly what she was doing. Kissing him had been a huge mistake. A mistake of such epic proportions the word had not yet been invented to describe a mistake that big.
But it wasn’t as if he’d asked her first or anything. One minute they’d been sledding down the icy hill, the next he was kissing her face off. She wasn’t the one who’d changed the dynamic of their relationship or whatever this was.
“I can hear you thinking again,” he said. “Any second there’s going to be smoke coming out of your ears.”
“That ought to look great with the bruises.”
“Don’t think so hard. It’s not all that complicated.”
“Right,” she said with a disdainful snort. “It’s not complicated at all. Nothing about this has the potential to be complicated or messy or anything but sunshine and daffodils and rainbows.”
She hated that he laughed when she was serious, but more she hated how sexy the laughter was on him. Hell, she might as well admit that a mullet would be sexy on him.
After a few twists and turns, he brought the truck to a stop outside a stately Victorian home that was painted in shades of blue and gray. “What a beautiful house,” Cameron said, relieved to have something to focus on besides him and what might—or might not—be happening between them.
“Isn’t it? Hannah keeps it in tip-top shape.”
“She lives here alone?”
“She does now,” he said with a sigh. “Her husband, Caleb, was killed in Iraq almost seven years ago. His grandmother left the house to him, and he left it to her.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that he died.”
“It was a tough time for all of us.” Cameron had never seen him look so sad. “He was my very good friend—and Hunter’s. He was like an extra Abbott brother, especially after he and Hannah got married.”
“Is she … Is she doing okay?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. On the surface, she seems to be getting by, but underneath it all … No one really knows.”
“Do you want to talk to her without me? I’d be fine waiting here.”
“No, I want you to meet her. Come on.”
He joined her on the sidewalk and placed a proprietary hand on her lower back.
Cameron wanted to tell him not to do that, but she couldn’t think of a way to say it without sounding rude. And then she slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk, and his strong arms around her prevented a nasty fall.
“Thanks,” she said.
“My pleasure.”
Even though he couldn’t see her face, she rolled her eyes. He was not going to make it easy to remember that she didn’t want to fall for him.
At the front door, she stepped aside to let him take the lead.
He let the brass knocker fall once and walked right in. “Where are you?” he called.
“Back here.”
Cameron followed his lead and stepped out of her boots inside the door.
T
hey found his sister in the sunny kitchen, enjoying a cup of coffee and the morning paper.
“This is a nice surprise,” she said, raising her cheek for her brother’s kiss.
“I wanted you to meet Cameron Murphy. She’s here from New York to build the website for the store. Cameron, my sister Hannah Guthrie.”
Hannah stood to shake hands with Cameron. With her dark hair and eyes, Cameron could see her obvious resemblance to Hunter. “Nice to meet the girl who tried to take out Fred.” This was said in a teasing tone and accompanied by a warm, friendly smile.
Cameron liked her instantly. “I believe it was quite the other way around.”
“Your word against his,” Hannah quipped. “Coffee?”
“I wouldn’t say no to that,” Will said. “Cam?”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
“Not working today?” Hannah asked her brother as she fired up the Keurig.
“I’ve been up to check on Colton, and he gave Cameron the five-cent tour. After this, we’re heading back to the office.”
“How is our brother the recluse?”
“Happily reclusive as always. You know how he loves this time of year.”
“He lives for sugaring season,” Hannah said for Cameron’s benefit.
“It’s so funny how that’s such a big part of your lives up here.” Cameron accepted a steaming mug from Hannah, who placed a creamer and sugar bowl on the table with spoons. “Until I did some preliminary research for the website, I’d never given a thought to where maple syrup comes from.”
“She’d only had grocery-store crap until today,” Will said.
Hannah wrinkled her nose and joined them at the table. “That stuff is gross.”
“That’s what I always thought, too,” Cameron said, stirring cream into the rich-smelling coffee.
“So now you’re a convert?”
“Yes, she is,” Will said proudly as he sent that warm, sexy, irresistible smile her way. She really wished he’d stop doing that.
Hannah’s eyes darted back and forth between Will and Cameron, zeroing in on her brother with a brow raised in inquiry.
“So Cameron is going to be here awhile working on the site,” Will said, “and I wondered if you might have an extra bedroom she could borrow while she’s in town.”
