by Raye Morgan
“It’s really a wonderful line of work. Flowers are so special, and used for such special occasions. We use them to celebrate a birthday, or a baby being born or two people getting married—or even the life of someone who has died. They add something to the most emotional times of our lives. And that interests and excites me.”
“And also just to decorate a room,” he reminded her, since that was what she was doing here at his house.
“Yes,” she agreed. “But usually flowers are used to represent an emotion. They’re symbols of feelings people have a hard time expressing in words.” She stopped, coloring a bit, not used to being so effusive about her line of work. For some reason, she’d felt the need to tell him, explain. Well, now she had. She turned to her car, ready to make her escape.
But he stopped her once again.
“I’m glad you have something you love so much,” he told her. “The business I’ve been running is a bit more prosaic.” He hesitated, then grimaced.
“Okay, Di,” he said, looking down at her. “I might as well get this off my chest. Here it is. The real reason I came home, the reason behind everything I’m going to be doing for the foreseeable future.”
She waited, heart beating, wondering if she really wanted to hear this. She knew instinctively that whatever it was he was about to reveal would have the effect of tying her more closely to this family—this crazy outlandish bunch of people who had once scorned her and her family. And now he was going to tell her something that would make her care about them. It didn’t seem altogether fair. But then, life wasn’t often fair, was it?
He turned from her, flexed his shoulders and then turned back.
“There won’t be any parties. There can’t be any parties. The fact is, there’s no money.”
Diana heard what he said, but she couldn’t quite digest it. Janey had said things that had let her know money was probably a consideration, even a concern, but to say there wasn’t any…That just seemed crazy. These were the Van Kirks. They had always been the richest family in town.
“What? What are you saying?”
“I’ve just been talking to Grandfather, finding out how bad it is. He already outlined the situation to me over the phone a few weeks ago. That’s why I came home. And now I know the rest of the story.” He took a deep breath and a pained expression flashed across his face. “My family is on the verge of losing everything.”
Her head came up. Despite the things his sister had said, she would never have dreamed it could come to this. “You mean bankruptcy?”
He nodded. “I came home for one reason, Di. I came home to try to save my parents from losing their home.”
“Oh, Cam, no.”
He went on, detailing where the problems lay and how long they had festered, but Diana was thinking about his mother and remembering how she’d seemed oblivious to the dangers as Janey had taunted her with them. She’d thought Cam’s sister was exaggerating, but it seemed she was wrong.
She knew without having him explain it that the issue went back years and years. Many of those old fights Cam had with his grandfather centered around the old man’s fear that Cam would end up being a drone like his father was. She’d been vaguely aware at the time that Cam’s dad had tried running the family affairs and had failed miserably, mostly through his own weaknesses. The grandfather had been trying to groom Cam to be a better manager. Even though Cam hadn’t stayed here to take his father’s place, it seemed he’d found his way in the world and made something of himself. And now it was Cam whom the grandfather had turned to in hopes of getting the family out of this mess. She wondered if he really had the experience. She knew he had the family background for it. And with his grandfather as his mentor, surely there would be hope that he could use his younger energy to turn things around.
No wonder Cam had been called back. Someone had to rescue the family, she supposed. Why he’d decided to let them pull him back, after all he’d said when he left, was another question, one she couldn’t answer.
But there was no doubt the situation was dire. Bankruptcy sounded so radical. And the Van Kirks not living in the Van Kirk mansion? Unthinkable.
Still, this couldn’t be her problem. She couldn’t let it be. The more Cam talked, the more she wanted to go to him, to throw herself into his arms, to tell him she would help in any way she could. But she couldn’t do that. She had to get out of this situation. Her baby had to be the main focus of her life, the reason for living. She couldn’t get distracted by old longings. She had to get out of here and leave temptation behind. And that meant leaving Cam behind.
“I’m sorry all this is happening,” she told him, trying to be firm. “But I really can’t be involved. Do you understand?” She gazed up at him earnestly.
He nodded slowly. “Sure. Of course. You have your baby to think of. You need a calm environment. Don’t worry about Mother. I’ll explain things to her.”
A few minutes later, she was in her car and heading for home again, only this time she wasn’t crying. Her face was set with determination. She was going to be strong if it killed her.
Diana was up a tree—quite literally—a black oak to be exact. It wasn’t something she usually did and that was probably why she seemed to be so bad at it. It was a typical well-meaning rescue mission gone awry.
She been jolted awake early that morning by small, piercing cries from outside. When she’d wrapped herself in a blanket and stepped out to find what tiny creature was in distress, she’d been led, step by step, to the big old black oak. Looking up, she saw the cutest little black kitten staring down at her with huge golden eyes.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she’d grumbled at the time, turning back toward the house. “I know very well you’ll have an easier time getting down from there than I would in going up. You can do it. You just have to try.” She glanced over her shoulder at the little one as she returned to the house. “And then I hope you’ll go back wherever you came from.”
That had been hours earlier. In the meantime she’d made herself breakfast, taken the time to do a bit of bookkeeping for her business and returned some phone calls, including one from her attorney cousin Ben Lanker in Sacramento. It seemed their uncle Luke, the last survivor from the older generation, had died a week before and left a piece of property in the mountains to the two of them, jointly, as the only remaining descendants in their family. She’d received something in the mail that she hadn’t understood, but Ben explained what was going on and suggested they get together and talk it over.
She was tempted to put him off. She already had the only piece of land she’d ever wanted and from what Ben said, the inheritance from Uncle Luke might turn out to be more trouble than it was worth.
But then she remembered that she’d been suspicious of her cousin in the past and she decided maybe she’d better look into the facts.
“One shouldn’t look an inheritance in the mouth, I suppose,” she muttered to herself.
It could just be that Ben was trying to pull a fast one. He had that slippery lawyer way about him. So she told him she would get back to him soon and find a time when they could get together and go over the situation to see what would be best.
In the meantime, the little cries had grown more pitiful with time, wearing away at her like water torture. When storm clouds began to threaten, she finally decided she had to bite the bullet and climb up or she wouldn’t be able to live with herself when the worst happened. She kept picturing the exhausted kitten losing all strength and falling to its death through the gnarled branches.
“I’m coming,” she said reassuringly as she hoisted herself up with a foothold on the first major branch, regretting that she didn’t have any ladders tall enough to do this job. “Just hold on.”
It had been a while, but she’d climbed this very tree often when she was young. The only problem was, she wasn’t all that young anymore. Muscles and instincts she’d had at that age—not to mention the fearlessness—seemed to be gone. And the tree was
a lot bigger. And she was pregnant. To her surprise, that threw her balance off in ways she hadn’t expected. But she kept climbing, reaching for the kitten. And every time her fingers almost touched it, the silly little bugger backed away and climbed higher.
“This is not going to work,” she said aloud, staring up at the infuriating cat. “I’m not going any farther. You’re going to have to come to me.”
Fat chance. The golden eyes just got bigger and the cries just got more pathetic.
“Oh, never mind,” Diana said, turning away and giving up. And then she looked down.
Somehow, she’d come further than she’d thought. The ground looked very far away. And as she clung to a space between a branch and the trunk, she began to realize she was going to have a heck of a time getting down.
And the kitten was still crying.
“You little brat,” Diana muttered to herself. “Look what you’ve done. You’ve got me up a tree. How am I going to get down?”
“Meow,” the kitten chirped.
And the rain began.
“I can’t believe this,” she moaned as drops began to spatter all around her. “Why is everything going wrong at once?”
And that was when she heard Cam’s car arrive.
“Oh, no!”
She hadn’t seen him for the last two days. She’d almost begun to think he might have taken her last words to heart and might just let her be alone, not try to pull her into his life again. But here he was, so she supposed that had been a bad guess.
She sat very still and watched as he turned off the engine and slipped out of the car. He looked around at the trees and the lake, but his gaze didn’t rise high enough to notice her and she kept quiet while he went to the front door and knocked. The rain was still light, but it was beginning to make rivulets down her neck.
“Diana?” he called. “You home?”
Now it was time to make a decision. What was she going to do—let him know she was stuck in a tree? Or just sit here and let him drive away again and try to figure out how she was going to get down on her own in a rainstorm?
It was a rather big decision. She felt like a fool sitting here. And yet, she was liable to break her neck if she tried to get down by herself. It was pretty obvious what her decision was going to have to be, but she put it off as long as possible. She couldn’t even imagine the humiliation she was going to feel when she began to call out to him, pitiful as the little animal scrabbling around on the branch above her.
Luckily she didn’t have to do that. He heard the kitten screeching and finally looked up into the tree on his own. She looked down. He looked up. He fought hard to hold back a big old grin that threatened to take over his handsome face. She tried hard not to stick her tongue out at him. They both failed.
He came over and stood right under where she was. “Good view of the valley from up there?” he asked.
“The best,” she answered, her nose in the air. “I come up here all the time.”
“Do you?” He bit back a short laugh. “I see you have your faithful feline companion with you. What’s the kitty’s name?”
“Once you name them, you own them,” she warned. For some unknown reason, she was unable to keep the annoyance from her tone. “Do you need a kitten? I’m putting this one up for adoption.” She tried to move a bit without losing her footing. “The only catch is, you have to climb up here and get her.”
“Well, I don’t need a cat,” he admitted. “At least not today. But I will help you down.”
“I don’t need any help,” she said quickly, then bit her lower lip. What was she saying?
“You can get down by yourself?” He just couldn’t hold the grin back and that was infuriating.
“Of course.”
He shrugged. “Okay then. I’ll just leave you to your own devices.” He turned as though to head for his car.
“Cam! Come back here.” She shivered. She was really getting wet. “Of course I need help getting down. Why do you think I’m sitting here like a lump of coal?”
He tried to control the chuckle that was fighting its way out. “A little humility is a wonderful thing,” he noted.
She glared at him, but followed his instructions and a moment later, she took the last leap of faith and ended up in his arms. He held her for a moment, her feet just off the ground, and looked down into her wet face.
“Why is it that every time I see you I want to smile?” he asked.
She tried to glare at him. “You’re probably laughing at me.”
“No.” He shook his head, and his eyes darkened as he looked at her lips. “That’s not it.”
She drew her breath in and pulled away, regaining her footing and turning toward her little house. “Let’s get out of this rain,” she said, and as if on cue, it began to pour. They’d barely made the porch when she remembered something.
“Oh, wait! We forgot the kitten!”
“No problem,” he said, pointing just behind her.
She whirled. There it was, looking like a drowned rat and staring up at her with those big golden eyes. Despite everything, she laughed. “You little faker! I knew you could get down if you tried.”
“I guess you could call this a mission accomplished,” Cam said as he opened the door and they all rushed into the warmth of the little house.
“I’ll get towels,” she said, reaching into her tiny bathroom. “We’d better dry off kitty first. She’s liable to catch pneumonia, poor little thing.”
Her gaze flickered over Cam as she spoke and she couldn’t help but notice the rain had plastered his shirt nicely against the spectacular muscles of his wonderful chest. Why that should give her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach she couldn’t imagine, and she looked away quickly.
“Here,” she said, handing him a towel. “You take this one.”
She caught the kitten as it tried to make a dash for the underside of her couch, toweled it down and then let it go. It quickly scampered into the next room.
“I ought to put her out so she can find her way home,” she said, shaking her head. “But how can I put her out in the rain?”
“I think you just got yourself a cat,” Cam noted, slinging the towel around his neck after rubbing his thick hair with it. “Here. You need a little drying off yourself.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he was already applying a fluffy fresh towel to her wild hair.
“I can do it,” she said, reaching for the towel.
“Hold still,” he ordered, not letting it go.
She gave in, lifting her face and closing her eyes as he carefully dabbed at the raindrops on her nose. He smiled, remembering the time he’d had to clean her up in similar fashion after a messy exploding bubble gum incident. She’d had more freckles then, but otherwise she looked very much the same.
Then she opened her eyes and the memory of Diana as a young girl faded. She was anything but a young girl now. She was a warm-blooded angel just as he’d seen her the other night. As he gazed down into her dark eyes, he had the sense that his larger vision was picking up details so sharp, so clear, that he could see everything about her—the tiny curls at her hairline, the long, full sweep of her eyelashes, the translucent shimmer of her skin, the clear outline of her beautiful lips. She was a woman—a beautiful, desirable woman, a woman he had known most of his life and loved just as long—loved as a friend, but the affection was very strong just the same.
And yet this was different. This was something more. A jolt of arousal went through him and he drew back quickly, as though he’d touched a live wire. But he didn’t turn away. He stood where he was, watching her as she reached for the fluffy towel and began to rub her hair with it.
He knew he’d had indications of this sort of response to her ever since he’d come back, but this time it was so strong, he couldn’t pretend to himself that it was anything but exactly what it was. That presented a bit of a problem, a bit of a conflict. He considered her his best friend, but the way he was feelin
g today was light years beyond friendship. Did he have a right to feel this way? Or was this a big mistake?
She dropped the towel onto the couch and looked at him, a challenge in her dark eyes, as though she had a sense of what he was feeling and wanted to warn him off. He felt clumsy and that wasn’t like him. He just wasn’t sure…
“Why did you come here today?” she asked him.
He raised one eyebrow, startled at her question. “I wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m doing fine.” She said it crisply, as though that ought to take care of the matter, and he might as well be going.
But that only put his back up and meant he was going to be staying all the longer.
“Actually I haven’t been around for the last few days,” he went on, “I was down in L.A. talking to some money people, bankers I’ve got contacts with, trying to work out some sort of deal to stay afloat, at least for now.”
The challenge faded from her gaze and a look of concern began to take its place. That reassured him. The Diana he knew was still in there somewhere.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Marginal luck.” He hesitated, then went on. “I did talk to a real estate broker about selling the house.”
“Oh.” Her hands went to her mouth and her eyes took on a look of tragedy. “That would flat out kill your mother.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t…?”
“Not yet. I’m hoping to avoid it.”
She sighed and nodded. “Have you told her there won’t be any parties yet?”
He grimaced uncomfortably and didn’t meet her gaze for a moment. “Not totally.”
“Cam!”
“It’s making her so happy to plan.” He looked back at her ruefully. “I hate to burst the bubble on her dream.”
“But she’s hiring people like Andre Degregor and the caterer from San Francisco. You’ve got to stop her.”
He knew that. He had to do something very soon. But right now all he could think about was how this new electricity he felt between the two of them was working out. Not well, he took it, from the look on her face. She was wary and guarded and wanted him to leave. He rubbed the back of his neck and frowned thoughtfully, about to ask her why. But the kitten was back, looking for attention.
