A Sweetheart For The Single Dad (The Camdens Of Colorado Book 8) (13 page)

Eventually she eased herself out of those big, strong arms she had absolutely no desire to leave at all—now or maybe ever—and sat up and away from him.

“No?” she said belatedly, though her tone was feeble, barely managing the weak joke.

He held up his palms. “Heard it. Got it,” he said as if she’d said it an hour ago and they hadn’t just done what they’d done.

He stood and grabbed his suit coat to hook over one shoulder while he reached his free hand out to her.

“Show me out,
Ms. Camden
,” he commanded.

She slipped her hand into his, accepting his help to stand, too. Then she wondered all the way to her door why holding hands with him somehow seemed inappropriately intimate. Possibly because she liked the feel of his hand around hers more than she wished she did.

He didn’t let go of it as they stopped at her front door. He hung on to it and turned to face her.

“Thanks for dinner,” she said.

“My pleasure,” he responded, gazing down into her face steadily, as if he didn’t want to take his eyes off of her. Then he said, “Thursday,” as if he’d been figuring out when they’d see each other next.

Or at least that’s what Lindie had been thinking about.

But then he said, “After tomorrow afternoon with Sam I’m flying back to Idaho.”

Why on earth did it bother her so much to think he was leaving town again?

She tried to contain it and not to show how it made her feel. “For the whole week again?”

“Just until Wednesday. I’ll be back Thursday morning, at the center Thursday afternoon. Did you get Marie’s email invitation to her Thank-the-Volunteers barbecue Thursday night?”

“I did.”

“Are you going?”

“Are you?” she asked.

“I am,” he said.

“Me, too.”

“So, Thursday,” he mused.

“Thursday,” she repeated as if it didn’t feel like it was a year away.

He tugged her nearer with the hand he was still holding and leaned over to kiss her again. A long, lingering kiss that lasted at least another ten minutes before he straightened, squeezing her hand as if he didn’t want to let it go.

But then he did that, too, and Lindie opened her door for him.

“Why do I feel like I want to say I’ll call you from Idaho?” he asked.

“You could,” she said hopefully, seizing that idea like a lifeline. “You could give me a daily accounting of the pitfalls you’re finding there so we can keep them from happening. It could be a test case for how we actually might be able to work together.”

“Or we could just talk,” he said softly.

That was all she really wanted to do.

“Or we could just talk,” she confirmed, feeling slightly traitorous.

He gave her just a bare hint of a smile then, kissed her again and said good-night without making any commitment to those phone calls.

And all Lindie could do was answer his good-night with one of her own and watch him go to his car.

Hating the fact that another four days had to pass before she could see him again.

And knowing it didn’t have a single thing to do with the real reason she was supposed to be seeing him.

Chapter Eight

S
unday was the weekly family dinner at GiGi’s house—the big Tudor on Gaylord Street where Lindie had grown up. Despite the fact that she worked with her brothers, sisters and cousins, and saw most of them at least once a day, she still loved it when they all came together on Sunday night at their grandmother’s house. That was what felt like the center of everything to her. The heart of all that was really important.

The event was getting larger and larger as the family grew but even that was nice to see. She liked that so many of them were finding their soul mates and starting families.

There was one thing different about this particular Sunday, though.

It was the first one she’d attended feeling as if she had something to hide, as if she was sneaking around behind all their backs. And it didn’t help when she went into the kitchen for a glass of water and happened upon GiGi checking on the roast in the oven, her cousin Cade opening a bottle of wine, and her brother Dylan munching on one of the housekeeper, Margaret’s, homegrown and pickled green tomatoes. Because the minute they saw her Cade said, “You’re the person we were just talking about. We were all hoping you might show up with Sawyer Huffman ready to sign a peace treaty today.”

“He’s raising a big fury in Idaho that we really need to shut down,” Dylan added.

Lindie made a face as she went to the refrigerator to fill her glass. “Sorry,” she said.

“How is it going with him?” her grandmother asked.

Lindie nearly laughed. She would have said it was going great if he wasn’t who he was, if she wasn’t who she was, and if all the circumstances were different than they were and they were just dating. But they weren’t dating.

As it was, her assignment wasn’t going anywhere, while her inappropriate feelings for him were rushing ahead at full speed.

But after filling her water glass she turned to face her inquisitors. “I can’t even say I’m getting anywhere with him.” If she didn’t count locking lips with him. Over and over again. And the nonstop thinking she was doing about him that so rarely had anything to do with business or the task she’d been assigned.

If anyone in her family knew what she was really doing with Sawyer she didn’t think they could possibly consider it anything but disloyal. That was certainly how it felt to her. But even the guilt tended to fade into the background when she was with him. Then it was all about him and her overpowering attraction to him.

Trying to set aside her conscience so she could focus, she said, “I know he’s being paid to represent our competitors because our stores hurt their business and that’s just...well,
business
. But when it comes to the mom-and-pop shops, when it comes to the things he says to get the community support to keep us out, I’m seeing firsthand that he has some really valid points.”

“Aw, Lindie,” Dylan grumbled, “you can’t go all tender-hearted on us the way you do. Not with this.”

“This
is
business,” Cade reminded her. “You have to toughen up.”

Lindie glanced at her grandmother. GiGi had said the same thing to her and the look on the elderly woman’s lined face reiterated it even before she said, “You were supposed to just concentrate on Sawyer Huffman. On making some sort of restitution.”

“And get him over to our side,” Dylan put in.

“But to do that I have to spend time with him,” Lindie attested. “He would only do that if I volunteered alongside him in Wheatley. And I can’t ignore the evidence right there in front of my face of the damage we can do.”

“File it away to be addressed later,” GiGi advised. “But for now—”

“Get this guy off our backs!” Cade said.

“In a way that makes up for what your father did to get your mother, Cade,” GiGi contributed with a subtle rebuke.

“I know, I know,” Cade muttered.

“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get him off our backs,” Lindie said. “I honestly don’t think the money he could make with us as a client matters to him. But something else has come up that could be a more meaningful way of making amends,” she added somewhat tentatively.

Then she told them about the possibility of Sawyer losing his son to Vermont.

“I think it would be a much more valuable compensation to him and to his whole family if we could direct enough patients to his ex’s husband’s dental practice to keep the man from selling it and moving,” she concluded.

She knew it wasn’t what her cousin or her brother wanted to hear. But despite the fact that Huffman Consulting gave Camden Incorporated so much grief, everyone in the family genuinely was committed to making up for what had been done in the past. She thought it was likely that that kept both of them quiet for a moment.

Reluctantly, Cade said, “The guy isn’t one of the dentists on our company plan?”

“I did some research today to figure that out. I only knew his first name but it’s unique—Harmon—and he’s the only dentist with that first name in Wheatley so it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. And, no, he isn’t on our company plan. But if we added him and put up a notice in the employee lounges announcing that he’s a new addition to the providers list and welcomes new patients, maybe that would build his practice back up and then—”

“He might not sell it, which means that he would stay put and so would Sawyer Huffman’s son,” GiGi concluded, sounding as if she liked the idea.

Dylan and Cade did some grumbling about it but conceded that it would probably mean more to Sawyer, and also to his father who was really the wronged party, than giving Sawyer the financial rewards of working directly with Camden Incorporated.

“It might not get him to stop stirring up trouble for the opening of every new store,” GiGi said, “but it might persuade him to feel a little more kindly toward us. That’s a step in the right direction.”

There was more grumbling between Cade and Dylan about how they didn’t see that improving anything much when it came to the roadblocks Huffman Consulting caused.

“I’m still working on that, too,” Lindie assured them. “I don’t think there’s much hope that he’ll actually take us on as a client but I do keep bringing it up.”

“But he isn’t going for it,” Dylan interjected.

“Not so far,” Lindie confirmed. “But I’m also seeing through his viewpoint how important it is that we do some things differently when we go into a community. If we can minimize the damage, it gives him less ammunition against us in the long run, doesn’t it?”

“If we aren’t his client he’s still going to mount a campaign to keep us out because that’s what his other clients pay him to do,” Cade pointed out.

“But it’s still important for us to go into these communities conscientiously,” Lindie maintained.

“Nobody’s going to fight you on that,” Dylan said with a resigned sigh. “But sometimes, Lindie, that Girl Scout in you is a pain in the neck.”

“I know,” Lindie acknowledged.

“So,” Cade said, “not only does it look like you aren’t going to get Huffman to back off, but now you want us to fix all the collateral damage? We already go in in advance and offer to buy out—”

“We aren’t doing enough,” Lindie said before he could go on.

Dylan sighed and looked at GiGi. “I’m thinking Lindie was not the right choice for this particular mission.”

“Or maybe,” GiGi said as she picked up an appetizer tray and headed for the door to the dining room, “she’s the perfect choice.”

Dylan only growled in reply before he snatched another green tomato off the tray and followed GiGi out of the kitchen.

That left Lindie alone with her cousin who was frowning at her. She wondered if what she’d just told him was enough to make him think she was being disloyal.

One way or another it was how she continued to feel.

Then he said in a resigned tone of voice, “I’ll put the wheels into motion first thing tomorrow morning with the dental insurance to see if we can get this guy on as a provider. Email me his name and address.”

“As soon as I get home tonight,” Lindie promised, grateful that no one seemed to be holding it against her that she hadn’t gotten them the deal they’d wanted.

“But, please, do
something
that gets this guy to cut us a little slack.”

“I’m trying,” she said because it was true.

What was also true was that she’d just done something that wasn’t altogether easy for her.

When Sawyer had told her that Sam might be moving to Vermont, a part of her had thought that that might be a small loophole in her feelings against getting involved with someone who had a child. That a child who was far away, who would only be a guest a time or two a year, might not present the same complication as a child nearby who was a constant pull.

Then she’d realized how selfish that thought was and she’d pushed it away before diving into her research to see if there were wheels she could put into motion to keep Sawyer from losing Sam to Vermont.

But if it worked, it kept Sawyer firmly on her no-fly list. And plugged up that loophole to put her right back where she’d started.

* * *

What followed was another long week.

Well, a long four days until Thursday that
felt
like a full week to Lindie. And then there was Thursday itself that almost felt like another week as time seemed to inch by until she could see Sawyer again.

She hadn’t heard from him on Sunday but he’d called on Monday night from Idaho. And Tuesday night. And Wednesday night.

Each call had begun under the guise of business. They’d talked about problems he was projecting would happen there if a Camden Superstore went in.

But that portion of each call hadn’t lasted long before he’d asked how her day was, before they’d settled into meaningless chitchat that had been more about flirting than anything.

Then Thursday dawned and still it had felt as if there was so much to get through—work, her meal preparation group at the community center, then Marie’s barbecue. All of it either nowhere around Sawyer or in near proximity with a lot of other people in the mix. Even carpooling with him from the center to Marie’s. Because there was a minimum of parking space at the house, it had meant sharing him with another volunteer who’d asked to catch a ride.

Then there was the barbecue itself before they were finally back in his SUV. This time, thankfully, they were alone since the other volunteer’s husband was picking her up.

And maybe Sawyer had felt the same frustration that Lindie had because he didn’t rush to turn the key in the ignition. Instead, once they were in the quiet of his car with the doors shutting out the rest of the world, he turned toward her, put his arm along the top of her seatback and said, “Hi,” as if he was seeing her for the first time in a very long while.

“Hi,” Lindie answered the same way.

She was wearing a red-and-white, polka-dot halter jumpsuit that buttoned in front to a high throat-hugging collar. The collar seemed more prim than the cut-in arms that bared an enticing amount of her shoulders might suggest.

It was to one of her bare shoulders that his gaze dropped before it raised to her eyes again. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I didn’t think we were ever going to get away from everybody.”

“Trudy needed a ride and it was nice of Marie to have the dinner for the volunteers,” she said as if she hadn’t been thinking the same thing.

More people came out of Marie’s house, which seemed to spur him to sit straight in his seat, start the engine and put some distance between them and the “everybody” he wanted away from.

It also seemed like Lindie’s cue to say, “I’ve done something I hope is okay.”

He took his eyes off the road to peer at her. “Sounds like you think it isn’t.”

“I mentioned it on Saturday night when you told me what was going on with Sam’s stepdad selling his dental practice, but we didn’t actually talk about it. Then I did some research and found out that Harmon wasn’t a provider on our company plan so we got the insurance company to invite him to become one,” she confessed.

Another glance. This one showed her his eyebrows were arched. But she couldn’t tell if it was in pleasant surprise or alarm.

“That was fast, Ms. Fix-it,” he said, still giving her no indication of how he was taking this news.

“Sometimes the Camden name makes people jump,” she confessed somewhat under her breath.

“And an insurance carrier with an account like Camden Incorporated is likely to do about anything you want them to do to keep your business.”

She shrugged at the truth in that.

He went back to watching the road as he headed for the community center where she’d again left her car. She didn’t get the sense that he was grateful but she felt inclined to finish what she’d begun. “He signed on with them. And we put up announcements in employee lounges at every superstore within twenty miles of here saying he was accepting new patients, and giving his address and phone number to steer people his way.”

Still no response.

“I don’t know if it will solve the problem,” Lindie went on anyway, “but I thought that if his practice starts to pick up because he gets a lot of new patients from us, he’ll forget the idea of moving and you’ll still have Sam here.”

“Or you just made the practice more appealing to buyers and gave Harm the chance to raise the price so he’ll want to sell all the more.”

Everything stood still for Lindie for a moment as that struck her. “Oh. I didn’t think of that.” The same way she hadn’t thought that opening her purse to a panhandler would turn into a mugging.

But it had.

Sawyer reverted to silence and Lindie worried that her good intentions had backfired. She pivoted in her seat to look at him, trying not to appreciate what a great profile he had or how good he looked in the pale yellow sport shirt he was wearing with khaki slacks.

“I was trying to help,” she said. “Usually men in my life want that. I know you didn’t seem to, but I didn’t think it could do any harm. I guess I should have cleared it with you first.”

He took a deep breath and sighed as if he was resigning himself to the way things stood now. “I know your intentions were good. I guess your idea is worth a shot,” he said, relieving at least some of her stress. “I suppose if anything might keep them here it’s a surge in Harm’s practice.”