The Camden Cowboy

by Victoria Pade

  Luckily he seemed to know everyone in the small town and consequently most everyone at the wedding, and there had been no shortage of people wanting to say hello, wanting to talk to him, wanting to meet her. They hadn’t actually been alone, so Lacey didn’t think it was obvious that she had been preoccupied.

  But now it was after eleven, other guests were also beginning to leave, and with the removal of the stress her father had caused her, Lacey felt herself deflate.

  Apparently it was noticeable because just then the elderly man who had come to their table to talk to Seth left, and the instant Seth turned his attention back to Lacey he laughed and said, “I was going to see if I could persuade you to dance just once, but you look worn-out all of a sudden.”

  “Just what every girl wants to hear,” Lacey countered with a laugh of her own.

  Still, she sat up straighter and pulled back her shoulders.

  She was wearing a simple navy blue sheath with a crocheted short-sleeved shrug over it. The shrug barely concealed her shoulders and was tied between her breasts to make the dress fancier, camouflaging the front of the dress in the process. But still she didn’t want it to gape open due to bad posture.

  And she didn’t want to appear as weary as she felt. Especially when Seth was still going strong and looking fabulous in the impeccably tailored gray suit, white shirt and maroon silk tie he was wearing.

  He leaned forward and said in a voice for her ears only, “You’re gorgeous. You just look tired. How about if we head home?”

  He made that sound so couple-ish. So caring. And it sent a warmth through Lacey that she had no business feeling.

  “Would you mind?” she asked him.

  “Nah. I keep farmer’s hours myself. I was just waiting for you to say the word.”

  With that, Seth stood and pulled her chair out for her, handing her the sequined clutch purse that she’d left on the table.

  “I just want to say good-night and one more congratulations to Hutch and Issa,” Lacey said.

  Seth stayed by her side for that, too, so Lacey was sure he heard it when Hutch said, “Don’t let Dad be too hard on you. You can always tell him to take that training center and shove it, you know.”

  “I know,” Lacey assured her brother with a laugh.

  Then she and Seth said their good-nights, and Seth took her back to the sports car they’d driven here.

  He held the passenger door open for her, told her to buckle up once she was in the seat, then closed the door again.

  As Lacey fastened her seat belt, she watched Seth round the front of the sports car, his height and broad shoulders dwarfing the low-riding vehicle.

  He slipped in behind the wheel and started the engine.

  “So…” he said, backing out of the parking spot on South Street. “Your dad…I know he had to be a pretty hard-hitter on the football field, but he doesn’t seem to pull any punches with you, either.”

  The Camden property was fairly far outside of Northbridge proper, so Lacey knew she was in for about a half-hour drive. She slipped off her shoes, angled herself slightly to the right in the seat and let her head fall against the headrest.

  “He’s just like that,” she told Seth. She drank in the sight of his profile, knowing that she must be overly tired when she found even his ear sexy.

  Of course this was just a simple car pool, nothing more, and so it was silly to even think such a thing…

  “My dad didn’t get where he is by being an old softy,” she added. “Surely that must be true of your family, too…”

  Seth cast her a smile. “When it came to business? Yeah. But I don’t ever remember a time when any one of us kids was spoken to the way your father spoke to you tonight. Was he that tough on you growing up, too?”

  “Oh, no. I was the little darling of the family. The baby and the girl. He was much harder on Ian and Hutch than on me. My earliest memories are of him drilling them for football, not letting up on them. But I was jealous of that,” Lacey admitted with a laugh at how that sounded.

  “You were the apple of your father’s eye, and you were jealous of how hard he was on your brothers?”

  “I guess it wasn’t that I was jealous of how hard he was on them, but of the attention they got, of how much more important they seemed to him. He didn’t just dismiss them, he took everything they were doing to heart.”

  “But he dismissed you?”

  “With me it was always just a pat on the head and telling me I was pretty as he passed by. But the boys were his chance to keep the Kincaid legend going, to relive his glory days through them when his football career ended and they were just beginning to play. He was sure they would carry on for him in his business, too. They were important. It always seemed like I was adopted as my mother’s consolation prize—a girl to keep her busy, to keep her company, to dress up and take shopping and have follow in her footsteps.”

  “You were adopted?” Seth asked with some surprise.

  “All three of us were. Adopted and paraded out as the poster kids for adoption—it’s one of my father’s favorite causes. Ian and Hutch hated it, but it was the one way that I got to be included, so I was okay with it.”

  “You weren’t included otherwise?”

  “It wasn’t as if my father ignored me, he just… Well, football, training the boys to be the next generation of football stars, building his corporation and indoctrinating them into taking that over someday, too—that was what my father was about. It always seemed as if a person only had any real value or worth or stature if they were involved in football or business pursuits with him. It’s a great big boys’ club. And I was The Girl. Just The Girl…”

  Seth glanced at her with a grin. “Well, yeah, you are a girl,” he said, approval in his voice.

  Lacey laughed and delighted in that approval but didn’t acknowledge it.

  Instead she said, “I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with the way my father believes things should be if that’s the way a woman wants it. My mother, my aunt and any number of women I know now are perfectly content and fulfilled doing what my father thinks women should do—my aunt Janine took over for my mother raising us kids and has always gone to tons of luncheons and committee meetings and charity fundraisers. She met and married one of my father’s business associates five years ago, and she’s really happy making a home for him, giving his parties, all of that.”

  “But it wasn’t for you?”

  “I was just so bored at fashion shows—”

  “You have your own clothing line,” he pointed out, finding a flaw in what she was saying.

  “Not haute couture or even dresses—my stuff is sports-related. It gives women a way to participate, to be a part of things.”

  “Ah…”

  “But when I was a kid, a teenager, sitting at fashion shows, going to etiquette classes, or luncheons or cotillions or being on dance committees—I felt like I was being forced into a straitjacket! Everything my father was encouraging and pushing and prodding and priming my brothers to do, that was what I wanted to do.”

  “You wanted to play football?” Seth asked with some amusement.

  “If I could have, I would have! But it wasn’t so much the playing as it was… I don’t know—being denied access to what I wanted, if that makes any sense. It was like what my father was doing, what my brothers were getting to do, was more interesting, it was more of what I wanted to do than what I was supposed to be doing.”

  “Plus you felt left out…”

  “As a kid, yes, I did. I was left out of a lot. But more than that, I just didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. Okay, sure, that’s where I had to stay during football games. But in every other way—in life, in the Kincaid Corporation—the sidelines were not where I wanted to be. And I certainly didn’t want to be relegated to them for
no better reason than that I wear dresses. That just didn’t make any sense to me when I had the energy, the drive, the desire to be doing so much more.”

  Drive and desire…

  There had been a hint of those things when she’d said good-night to him last night.

  But Lacey didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to start thinking about kissing him again.

  To start wanting him to kiss her and then have him not do it.

  Again.

  “So here you are,” Seth said, interrupting her detoured thoughts. “Building your father’s training center. Getting your chance to prove yourself.”

  “Finally! Yes,” she confirmed. “So if my father is gruff with me, if he’s putting the pressure on. I consider it my rite of passage.”

  “Okay,” Seth said, as if he understood. “But I have to say, I’m glad I grew up a Camden and not a Kincaid. GiGi made sure we all knew that with the name and privilege came duties and responsibilities. She wanted us to be decent human beings, to give back, to do good wherever we could. But otherwise, I think we had it a lot easier than you all did. I know no one felt any more or less included or important—or as if they had to prove themselves—because they were born male or female. And I also know that if I’d been at the wedding of one of my brothers or my sister or one of my cousins tonight, we would have been drinking and dancing and toasting, and no one would’ve been riding anyone else about work.”

  “Dad just wants to be sure that everything is perfect. I understand that,” Lacey said in her father’s defense. “And I told you, this is my chance.”

  They’d reached the Camden ranch by then and as Seth pulled around the house and into one of the slots in the garage, he said, “I guess that explains why you’re so happy to be working eighteen-hour days.”

  “Are you keeping tabs on me?” she challenged more flirtatiously than she’d meant to.

  He shrugged, and her gaze rode along on those big, broad shoulders before she glanced at the smile that said she’d caught him at something.

  “I wouldn’t say I’m keeping tabs on you, no. But I’ve noticed when you’re around or coming or going. When you’re not around…”

  Lacey never came or went or passed by a window in the guesthouse without glancing at the main house hoping for a glimpse of him. And there were innumerable times when she was home when she made a special trip to a window to look across the pool, too. Now she wondered if he was doing the same thing from his vantage point. Because it sounded like that might be the case.

  She hid the satisfaction that gave her by finding her shoes on the car floor and putting them back on as she said, “Yes, I am happy to be working eighteen-hour days. Or more if I need to. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “That’s something I’ve heard before,” he muttered to himself, as he turned off the ignition and got out.

  Lacey didn’t wait for him to come around. She let herself out and met him at the trunk of the car.

  She wasn’t sure what his muttering had meant but the way he’d said it didn’t sound altogether favorable so she opted to let it go. Instead, as they walked out of the garage together, she said, “Will I see you at the groundbreaking tomorrow?”

  “Rumor is it’ll be quite a spread,” Seth answered.

  “Dad wants the whole town to be excited about Northbridge being home to the Monarchs. The team and all the trainers and coaches and staff are coming, and with an open invitation to the town, we’re expecting quite a turnout. After the ceremony there’ll be food and drinks, and the model will be on display under its own tent where everyone can see the layout and the way it will all look. It seems only fitting that you should see the groundbreaking on the ground that used to be yours.”

  Not to mention that she really wanted him to be there just for her sake, that getting to see him in the process of doing her job somehow didn’t seem as taboo as she kept telling herself things like tonight were.

  “It’s tomorrow evening?” Seth asked.

  “Six o’clock. We wanted it to be at a time that wouldn’t interfere with anyone’s work—again, so more people would come.”

  “My day should be wrapped up by then, so yeah, I’ll probably be there.”

  Not much of a commitment. He’d said it almost as if there was a part of him that was reluctant.

  “Maybe you don’t want to see the first step of your family’s farm turned into something else,” she said.

  “No, I’m fine with that,” he said.

  She was confused as to why he might have dragged his feet. But she didn’t pursue it. He’d said he would come and that was what mattered.

  Lacey wasn’t sure why, but he’d gone with her to the guesthouse door rather than parting ways when they’d reached the pool and going to the main house himself.

  But in keeping with how the rest of the evening had seemed, it was very much as if he’d walked her to her door after a date. And it was on the tip of her tongue to invite him in…

  Which of course she wasn’t going to let herself do.

  Even though she secretly wanted to…

  What she did was unlock the door, open it and take a single step inside before she turned to face Seth.

  “Thanks for tonight,” she said. “For driving and for keeping me company through everything. It was nice having an insider to introduce everyone and fill me in on who was who.”

  “No thanks necessary. I enjoyed myself. Even if I never did get you to dance.”

  “I hated cotillions, remember?” she said.

  But the truth was that she’d avoided dancing with him despite wanting to more than he could know. She’d been too afraid all evening of finding herself in his arms. Of using that opportunity to hold on tighter to him than she should. Of resting her head on his chest. Of moving in close and pressing herself to him. Of doing any of the things that would have given away to her father that she was attracted to this man. That would have made her father think that he shouldn’t have given her the training center project because she was going to prove him right and put a man before her work.

  “You could have danced with someone else,” she told Seth. She hadn’t suggested that, though, because he actually might have taken her up on it.

  “I didn’t want to dance with anyone else,” he said then, his deep voice quiet, a small smile beaming down at her as his blue eyes peered into hers.

  “Maybe next time,” Lacey heard herself say wistfully, thinking that if only there could be a next time. Without her father around…

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, though?” she added then.

  “You will,” he confirmed.

  But that was all he did. He didn’t add a good-night. He didn’t move from where he was standing tall and handsome in that dashing gray suit, looking nothing like a small-town rancher. He merely went on gazing down at her, studying her.

  And yes, kissing was on Lacey’s mind once more. On her mind and making every ounce of her long for it.

  But she wouldn’t be the one to kiss him first. She wouldn’t. No matter how much she wanted to…

  Then Seth reached a hand to either side of the door frame to brace his weight and leaned in across the threshold to do exactly what she wanted—to kiss her.

  But too fast!

  Almost before she saw it coming, before she could respond, before she could even close her eyes, it was over…

  Fleetingly, she considered taking it from there and dealing out a second kiss herself. A longer, more lingering, better kiss that she could actually savor.

  But she didn’t do that.

  She just tipped her chin a little to let him know she wouldn’t hate it if he did it again.

  Only he didn’t.

  He just said a simple good-night, pushed off the door frame, turned and headed for the house.r />
  Lacey shut the door and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to relive that kiss, barely recalling the feel of his warm, supple lips. The scent of his cologne. His breath against her cheek…

  He’d kissed her.

  He had kissed her!

  So it wasn’t just a one-way attraction…

  She opened her eyes, and there in the darkness of the guesthouse she smiled a secret smile.

  Because while she knew this shouldn’t be happening, while she didn’t have the time or energy for it to happen, while she needed to put everything she had into the training center project and into proving herself to her father, while tonight she’d also seen for herself that Seth didn’t fit in with her family—the same disastrous way that way Dominic hadn’t—Seth had kissed her.

  And something a little giddy went off inside of her just knowing that he’d wanted to.

  That he was looking every day and night for signs of her the way she was looking for signs of him.

  That he’d given in at the end and kissed her.

  And no matter how brief that kiss had been, it had still been a kiss.

  Chapter Six

  Lacey Kincaid was a dynamo.

  That was what Seth thought repeatedly throughout the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday evening.

  The ceremony itself was held under a circus-sized white tent with a podium at one end, tables laden with food and drinks along the sides. Attendees filled the rest of the space.

  For Seth it was almost impossible to concentrate on Morgan Kincaid’s speech, on Morgan Kincaid introducing each member of the Monarchs team and staff, on the mayor’s welcome-to-Northbridge speech and the Monarchs-as-a-boon-to-Northbridge talk that the head of the City Council gave. He didn’t even spare more than a glance at the Monarchs cheerleaders when they performed.

  But he was aware of where Lacey was every moment, of her every movement.

  It was clear to him that she was orchestrating and overseeing the entire event despite the fact that after introducing her father at the start, she never took center stage again. But from the background she directed speakers on and off the podium, and made sure there was smooth transition from the speeches to the introductions to the entertainment. She also began the applause at the appropriate moments, encouraging it from the large crowd that had come out for the event, and deftly quieting it when it was time for whatever or whoever was next on the program.