A Camden Family Wedding

by Victoria Pade

  She was very aware of his hand in her hair, of his other hand brushing the backs of his fingers against her cheek, and she wanted more skin-to-skin action.

  She wanted him to pull her shirt out of her waistband, to have his hands on her bare skin. On the bare skin of her back. Her side. Her breasts....

  She wanted what could be done in a backseat if only this car had a backseat....

  But after her imagination had run away with her, taking her outside of the car to the grassy knoll in front of the car, to lie on the lawn and let everything go so much further, a bit of an alarm finally sounded in her.

  They weren’t hormonal teenagers.

  And this couldn’t go any further because there was no chance of a relationship between them.

  And because he was still her client! she silently shrieked at herself.

  Her tongue retreated and his did, too, but there was still more kissing—playful, sexy, tempting kissing—before she put both hands to his hard chest and pushed ever so slightly, finally pulling away from him to shake her head.

  “We have to stop,” she said in a voice that lacked conviction. So he merely kissed her again.

  “No, really,” she said when she’d enjoyed plenty more of that kiss, too, massaging his chest before pushing him away again.

  “I know,” he agreed reluctantly, laying his forehead on the top of her head. “Why’d you have to go and be such a damn good kisser?”

  Vonni smiled at the compliment, which was also a complaint.

  “I don’t know what happens to me when I’m with you,” he said then. “I kind of go to a different place. Out of this world... Out of my head...” He laughed wryly. “Maybe out of my mind.”

  “Me, too,” Vonni whispered.

  “It’s crazy.”

  She didn’t say so out loud but she felt it, too. She just didn’t know why she kept getting so carried away with him.

  Then Dane took a deep breath and sat up straight as he exhaled, taking his hands away and letting them plunk onto the steering wheel.

  “Home, huh?” he asked as if he was just as reluctant to end the night now as he had been when they’d left the Larimer Lounge.

  “My shop,” Vonni amended. “That’s where my car is.”

  “Right,” he said as if he was working to come out of a fog. “And I’m not going to see you until Friday?” he asked in disbelief as he started the engine, put the top back up and headed for the highway.

  That did seem like a long, long time.

  But Vonni took herself to task, reminded herself of the realities and said, “Friday.”

  “When you’ll go to the rehearsal dinner with me?”

  Oh, that. That was what they’d been talking about, wasn’t it....

  But before she could say no, he said, “I’m going to drive around until you say yes. GiGi appreciates that you went to the pains you did to do her wedding in a hurry and she wants you there. And I want you there just because I want you there. But if it makes you feel better, let’s just say that I want you there out of gratitude, too.”

  There was no doubt in Vonni’s mind that she should stick to her guns and say no. Refuse point-blank, and make sure that from here on she and Dane Camden had absolutely no encounter that involved anything but business, preferably done with his family and her staff all around them.

  Of course, his family would be around them at the rehearsal dinner....

  The Camden family, who had screwed over her grandfather....

  But not even that reminder could make her do what she knew she should do, so there she was, saying yes, she would go to the rehearsal dinner. With him.

  Which made him smile at her as if he was thinking that Friday couldn’t come soon enough.

  Then they were at her shop, in the parking lot behind it and he pulled up beside her car.

  “No, just let me get out and go,” she said when he reached for his keys to turn off the ignition. She didn’t need to get herself into any more trouble tonight.

  Vonni left the car in a hurry and closed the door as he lowered the convertible top so he could see her.

  “I’ll let you know about the caterers and the brunch, and if there are any problems,” she said as she unlocked her own car door.

  “Or you could just call me for any reason....” he said with what sounded something like hope in his tone.

  “Have a good week,” was her only answer.

  “You, too,” he said as if he was conceding to something.

  But Vonni counted it as a victory when she got behind the wheel, closed and locked her door and started her own engine, all without having kissed him again.

  A huge victory....

  That felt like a defeat when what she really wanted was to be back in those arms, being kissed into oblivion all over again.

  Chapter Eight

  “We weren’t sure you were going to make it today.”

  Dane was playing golf at the country club on Friday afternoon. His grandmother and her fiancé had arrived home from Montana the night before with the eldest of the grandchildren—Dane’s cousin, Seth—and Seth’s new wife, Lacey. Seth ran the agricultural division of Camden Incorporated from the ranch in Northbridge, Montana.

  The women of the family were having massages while the men—minus Gideon Thatcher, Jani’s husband—played golf. GiGi’s seven grandsons and Jonah Morrison, the groom, were divided into two foursomes. Dane was playing with Seth, Seth’s brother Cade, and Dane’s younger brother Lang.

  “Why wouldn’t I have made it today?” Dane responded to Cade’s comment.

  “You were so interested in watching the wedding planner orchestrating the reception setup we wondered if maybe you were going to hang back and just do that instead. We thought we might have to call Gideon and see if he could take off work after all to round out our numbers.”

  Dane had been watching Vonni pretty intently, he just hadn’t realized anyone had noticed. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday without her had seemed to drag unbelievably. And not even the brief phone calls to check in had helped because they’d been primarily wedding related and over much more quickly than Dane would have liked.

  Then today had finally come and he’d been waiting at GiGi’s house for Vonni to arrive to oversee the wedding reception setup. But she’d barely had time to say hello, to be introduced to GiGi and Jonah, before she’d been torn away to work. And that was when Dane had gone upstairs to the second floor to stand at the railing in order to watch her. As unable to take his eyes off her as a starving man in line at a food counter.

  “How are things going with getting her on board for the Camdens wedding departments?” Lang asked.

  “I’ll step that up once GiGi’s wedding is under control. So far I’ve taken a subtle approach,” Dane answered. “We had to plan this in such a rush—”

  “Oh, yeah,” Cade laughed. “I forgot you got that job as your foot in the door to make amends to her family. I don’t envy you that one. All I had to do was hire Nati to texture a wall in my house, and Lang got to eat a lot of cheesecake to get to Heddy, but a wedding? Glad I didn’t get stuck with that.”

  “Yeah, I was dreading it. But Vonni made it easy,” Dane said.

  Then he saw the knowing looks his cousin and younger brother exchanged.

  “Did she...” Lang said suspiciously.

  “She’s good at her job, remember?” Dane countered without getting flustered. “That’s why this particular act of contrition is to get her to come to work for us setting up wedding departments and running them. We make up to her for buying her grandfather’s stolen formulas and in the process get the best wedding planner in town for Camdens—win-win.”

  “And for you?” Lang goaded.

  “For me?” Dane asked as he bent over to position his te
e.

  “It did look like you were moonin’ over that girl,” Seth contributed, making himself sound like the country cousin when he didn’t ordinarily.

  “She’s great,” Dane said matter-of-factly.

  “Is Never Settling Down Dane falling for somebody?” Cade suggested.

  Dane took his shot and his brother and two cousins moaned at the sight of a drive so good that it made Dane grin, too.

  Only then, calm and collected, did Dane say, “I don’t fall for anybody because no, I’m not going the marriage-and-family route the way the three of you are.”

  Cade was engaged, Seth had been married only a few months and Lang was the most recent addition to the married Camdens—he and widow Heddy Hanrahan had gotten married in a small ceremony on June 1 with only family and Lang’s three-year-old son, Carter, in attendance.

  “Good for you, no thanks for me,” Dane concluded as the four of them headed toward the fairway.

  “So gawking at her the way you were before we left GiGi’s was for business purposes?” Cade asked dubiously.

  “I like her,” Dane said without compunction. “I told you, she’s great.”

  “Great as more than a wedding planner....” Cade said, continuing to verbally poke at him.

  “That’s kind of how these missions work, isn’t it?” Dane reasoned. “We need to get to know our targets, we want them to get to know us to break through the barrier of whatever problems they have with us from the past and...” Okay, maybe he wasn’t quite as cool as he was projecting because then he admitted, “It’s tough not to get sucked in. Not to like them if they’re likable—”

  “It does seem as if they get pretty likable....” Seth said pointedly, referring to the fact that both Lang and Cade had ended up with women they’d set out to make amends to—and Jani had married Gideon Thatcher, another of the people who had been due some compensation for past Camden misdeeds.

  “Sure, be smug,” Lang said defensively. “You’re the one who found H.J.’s journals in Northbridge, and that’s what set off this whole need to right the wrongs done in the past. But so far that’s all you’ve had to do—”

  “Because when he found the journals he also found Lacey, so GiGi left him alone to concentrate on her,” Cade contributed. “You don’t know how it is when you’re doing these things, Seth—”

  “Still, liking the person we’re making amends to and ending up with them are two different things,” Dane qualified, interrupting all the finger-pointing at Seth. “It’s a pleasure doing business with Vonni, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “A hot blonde with beautiful green eyes who you were so lost in looking at that I had to nearly body slam you to get your attention?” Seth said. “Right, doesn’t sound like anything to me.”

  “I didn’t say she wasn’t hot,” Dane agreed. “Or that I don’t enjoy looking at her. It just doesn’t change my own game plan. Now, are we gonna play golf or have tea and crumpets and go on talking like little girls?”

  “The way I’m hitting this ball today, tea and crumpets might be a better idea,” Cade grumbled as he studied his shot.

  Lang and Seth started giving him advice on his golf swing and that put an end to the Vonni talk.

  Dane was glad.

  But not talking about her still didn’t stop him from thinking about her.

  And watching her at GiGi’s house before he’d left to play golf had been particularly engrossing. Because what he’d been thinking about then, and what was still on his mind now, was how much he’d missed her the three days he hadn’t seen her. And how, when it came to this woman, he was more confused than he’d been since he’d started noticing girls in the third grade.

  He’d been in three relationships that had lasted years. He’d dated other women for weeks or months. And not once had he experienced what he was experiencing with Vonni.

  Nothing kept him from thinking about her.

  It was the strangest thing.

  And on top of it, those few days without her had had him feeling completely off-kilter and he hadn’t understood that, either. He’d actually wondered if he was coming down with something.

  Then today, one look at her, being with her, and everything had gone right again. Back in balance. And he couldn’t have felt better. Especially knowing he was going to get to be with her tonight. Knowing he’d see her again tomorrow. Knowing there weren’t any Vonni voids on the immediate horizon. It left him feeling the way he had as a kid the day after Halloween with a hoard of candy.

  It was all very peculiar.

  And then there was the kissing....

  That was something else he couldn’t explain.

  Regardless of how attracted he might have been to any other women, if they were out of bounds he’d managed to have some restraint. And he’d never—ever—crossed the line with someone he worked with.

  But Vonni was doubly out of bounds and yet all it took was a little time with her, a little looking into those green eyes of hers, a little talking to her and he couldn’t stop himself.

  Why was that? he wondered as he watched Cade take a swing.

  But he didn’t know why. He just knew he needed to figure it out.

  To fix it....

  Although...

  As he stood back to watch Seth take his turn, it occurred to Dane that as the guy who got the impossible done when it came to business, he had to know when to push, when to fix something and when to just have some patience. When to leave things alone and allow them to run their course.

  And maybe this was one of those things.

  Since what was happening with Vonni had never happened with any other woman, it was likely just a fluke and it would run its course and resolve itself.

  And if it didn’t, then he could work on finding a fix—the way he did in business.

  The more he thought about it, the better he liked that idea.

  For now it was just so nice to be back in the groove of seeing Vonni again that he didn’t want to use that time to analyze anything. He just wanted to drink it in and rehydrate after the three-day drought without her.

  Plus, the whole family was together, GiGi was getting married and it was a weekend for celebrating—it seemed like he should have a few days’ free pass. Especially after being the one to plan his grandmother’s wedding. He could think of it as his reward.

  So maybe he’d give it that long a course—a few days wasn’t any big deal. And if by Monday he wasn’t back to normal then he’d try to figure things out.

  But for now he was just going to enjoy himself.

  Postwedding, postweekend, postcelebration, he’d get on with trying to convince Vonni to come to work for Camdens, he’d devote himself to business and possibly by then everything would be back to normal on its own.

  It could happen.

  And if it did, then there might not even be anything to figure out.

  Keeping in mind, of course, that in the meantime he couldn’t let things go too far because the goal was ultimately to have Vonni working for Camdens and he needed not to do anything to screw that up.

  Which he swore he wouldn’t do.

  But for now, there was just the wedding to focus on.

  With Vonni in the mix.

  And he wasn’t going to think any more about why that gave him as much of a boost as it did....

  * * *

  Vonni ended up attending the wedding rehearsal for Georgianna Camden’s wedding on Friday evening.

  During the course of the prewedding-day setup and meeting the bride and groom and the rest of the Camdens, Georgianna Camden had asked Vonni’s opinion on some elements of the ceremony itself—the bride wanted the private part to be relaxed but she also wanted it to be momentous and gracious and decorous.

  Vonni had offered a few sugg
estions and in the process she’d been asked by the matriarch of the Camden family if she would come to the rehearsal and tell them all what to do for that, too.

  The Camdens, Margaret and Louie Haliburton and the judge performing the ceremony were as amenable as Dane had been during the planning stages. They made it easy for her to tell them all what to do. So she helped stage manage that, as well.

  But as Vonni went through the rehearsal and then the dinner outside on the patio, she found it difficult not to like the Camdens. They were clearly a close-knit family. But even to the outsiders of the gathering—Vonni included—they were warm, friendly people, a modest, unassuming, humble bunch. Just like Dane. They were unlike many of Chrystal’s upper-crust friends and Vonni’s other clients, who tended to be entitled, demanding and difficult.

  But the Camdens were also descendants of people who had been so unscrupulous that they’d bought her grandfather’s stolen formulas without regard to anything but getting what they’d wanted. That was something she kept reminding herself even during the most enjoyable parts of the evening and as the Camdens’ job offer continued to float around the peripheries of her mind.

  * * *

  “Okay, this is the last trip for the baskets, the envelopes with the checks in them are right by the front door so you can take them with you when you leave and now we can relax and have our pie,” Dane said as he and Vonni brought the final two gift baskets into his condominium after the rehearsal dinner.

  He’d volunteered for the job of delivering the gift baskets that she’d assembled during the week. They were going to the hotel where the out-of-town guests would be staying and needed to be there first thing in the morning in order to be placed in the rooms before the guests arrived.

  Vonni also needed to pick up the checks she would be distributing to her vendors. Dane had forgotten to bring them to his grandmother’s house, so she’d followed him from the Camden family home to his two-story stucco condo just off Josephine Street.