Tiny Dancer [Divine Creek Ranch 13] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (25 page)

“Yes. We want to propose is what Ben is trying to say,” Quinten finally said. “That’s what we dreamed about doing. It’s the reason why I moved in with Ben and the reason we did all the home renovations. But he’s right, you’ve had a lot to process lately.”

“I have,” she agreed. “So what you’re doing right now is stating ‘your intentions’?”

Quinten’s face lit up. “Exactly!” He grabbed her up in his arms and spun her around. “So what do you think?”

“I think it’s quite a bit to think about. For now, I’ll say that I’m considering all of it.”

The look in Ben’s eyes was serious as he said, “I hope you give serious consideration to moving in with us. Remember there’s still something suspicious happening and no answers yet regarding what happened at your house and with your car. I’d feel a lot better if I knew you were safe with us.”

Quinten growled in her ear. “Plus that means you’d be with us every night.
Rowr
. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.”

Laughter bubbled up in her as the Quinten she knew and loved made his opinion known. “You just want to get laid.”

He nodded enthusiastically like a bobblehead doll and scooped her close for a hard, wet kiss. “Will you?”

“Yes.” It was a lot to be hit with all at once, but both men looked so pleased. They really wanted to back her. Any doubts that lingered seemed silly in the face of their belief in her. Ben gathered her for a passionate kiss that singed her panties and made her pussy clench. “But this huge place will require significantly more consideration.” It was a huge endeavor…a huge investment, and she wanted time to think it through. That didn’t stop a spark of hope and excitement from growing inside her, though.

They nodded in agreement. Camilla pulled her phone from her purse. “I want to take pictures. Do you mind if we take one more look around?”

Ben gestured for her to lead the way. “Take as long as you want. Ethan said that he, Jack, and Adam are taking Grace and Rose Marie to O’Reilley’s for lunch this afternoon if you’d like to talk with them about the place.”

“Yes. The place
and
the renovation needed. And I’d need to talk to you two about what it is you’re offering in the way of partnership.”

Ben replied, “Sure.”

“I’ve always wanted to be my own boss.”

Ben nodded in understanding. “You could make this place a success all on your own. We’re offering a
limited
partnership. One you can live with. We don’t want to take the choices and decisions from you. We’d stay at The Dancing Pony. You’d have your own staff here. It’s a lot to hammer out, if you think this place has possibilities.”

“Yes, it has tons of possibilities.” They took pictures of the interior and then slipped out the back doors and looked around the deserted lumberyard, which was enclosed with a fence overgrown with some sort of vine. “We’d need a huge cleanup crew. No doubt about it.”

Ben gestured at the fence. “That could be torn down and the area resurfaced for more parking.”

They went back inside, and her heart pounded as she stopped in the middle of the interior and turned in a circle.
I could do this
. The little spark in her heart ignited into a flame.

What should I name you?

* * * *

“Camilla, you already have all the financial backing you need. You don’t need the bank.”

Ben watched Camilla’s reaction to Ethan’s statement with interest. Her brows furrowed, she shifted in her seat next to him, in O’Reilley’s Steakhouse, and then she squinted at him. She’d spent the last several minutes describing her dream of owning a nightclub that combined country and western elements with a little rock and roll.

“Huh? But I’d need to get loans to cover the cost of the renovations. I have to qualify for the purchase of the building.”

Ethan grinned at her. “How did you pay for college and your trip to Europe? Did you go into debt?”

“No. I worked up front and paid my bills. I had money saved in the bank for the trip in advance. I don’t have any school loans to pay off.”

Ethan nodded as if she’d made her point. “Look at this the same way. You’ve proved yourself to us, and the people who come in The Dancing Pony. Up front. We want to help you achieve your dream, and we have a good friend who feels the same way. This person wants to see you put that degree to good use.”

“Who?”

Ben chuckled. “They want to remain anonymous for the time being.”

Ethan nodded. “Yeah, for the time being. You’ll find out eventually.”

Camilla seemed to be having a hard time coming to grips with what they were telling her. “I don’t need to meet with anyone? Get approved?”

Ben stroked her shoulders, which seemed stiff. “Sugar, you already know them. You’ve
been
approved. Have been for some time, actually, so I hear.”

Grace giggled as she gave Rose Marie a bite of her vegetables. “Camilla, that means you can get started on the renovations sooner.”

Jack nodded. “I have men waiting to be put to work. We might be able to have it ready by Christmas or New Year’s Eve.”

With dazed eyes, Camilla looked up at Ben and then at all of them like they were speaking a foreign language. Her eyes teared up, making a knot form in his chest. She couldn’t understand what it was they saw in her, why she was a good risk. Her difficulty with the happy situation made him fall even more in love with his hard little worker.

“That simple? Oh, damn,” she murmured as her tears overflowed and she blotted them with her napkin.

Ben kissed her temple. “There
is
one thing you need to do if you want to move forward with it.”

She sniffed. “What’s that?”

“Figure out a good name.”

“Oh.”

Quinten raised his hand. “I got it. The Randy Stallion.”

Ethan grimaced. “The
what
?”

Quinten snickered. “You know, The Randy Stallion and The Dancing Pony.”

They all started laughing, and Adam said, “The Rutting Rooster?”

Grace snickered and said, “The Prancing Pussy? And if you have a restaurant, you’ll need to name it too.”

“The Bucking Bronc.”

“Roped and Tasseled.”

Rose Marie picked up on the excitement as they started bandying around names, clapped her hands, and crowed, “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

Ben watched, enraptured as Camilla laughed so hard tears ran down her flushed cheeks. He wanted a lifetime of making her happy like that. Would fifty or sixty years with her even come close to filling the void he’d felt in his heart up until the moment he’d met her?

Grace looked around the dining room and whispered, “You could name the restaurant Chantilly’s Steakhouse. Give this overpriced joint a little competition.”

* * * *

On the way home from O’Reilley’s Steakhouse, Camilla turned to Ben and said, “Can I ask you about something?” She was alone with him in the vehicle, since Quinten had arrived separately in his truck and was now following them home.

“Sure.”

“You never talk about having any extended family members. I’ve shared my past with you and Quinten, and I was hoping you would tell me about yours.”

“There really isn’t much to tell.”

Camilla thought he meant there wasn’t much
good
to tell, based on the way he shuttered his emotions behind a stoic face. She scooted closer and whispered, “I can handle you, Ben. Warts and all. You know I’d understand after what happened to me.”

“I know that lots of people have dealt with much worse than what I had growing up.” He kept his eyes on the road as he spoke, his gaze focused far in the distance.

“But it shaped you. I want to know how you came to be the man you are today.”

Ben smiled down at her. “You have as much to do with that as anyone else. I want to be a better man for you.”

Not letting him off the hook, Camilla nudged him gently with her shoulder. “Nice try, handsome. We’ll get to me later.”

“My childhood was average, I guess. I didn’t understand that there were problems until I was a teenager. I thought that everyone’s dad drank until he fell asleep in his chair every night. He worked and provided a home for us. Was usually a pretty nice guy. Funny as hell when he was drunk. When I was a teenager, it got hard for him to hold down a job because he was drinking during the day, too. Mom had to get a job to supplement his income, and eventually, she became the sole breadwinner. I got angry when I saw what it did to her. She’d always seemed a little frail, but being the main support was hard on her physically and emotionally.”

He never went home for holidays, so Camilla worried what had become of them.

“One winter, she developed bronchitis and couldn’t kick it. She wound up in the hospital.”

“Oh, no.”

“Dad didn’t have a job. I came home from school, and he was asleep on the couch. There was a message on our answering machine from one of the nurses at the hospital in Ozona, where we lived. She’d collapsed at work and had been rushed to the emergency room. I didn’t have my driver’s license yet. He woke up while I was listening to the message again and was pretty upset when he heard it. I remember being so pissed off at him and felt like he didn’t have a right to suddenly be upset. I yelled at him that it was his fault she was sick. He looked at me like I’d pulled the rug out from under him and insisted he could drive us to the hospital.”

Ben paused again as though he was reliving those moments, and Camilla waited, bracing herself for whatever he’d gone through, her heart aching for him. She didn’t hear anger when he talked about his mom and dad. She heard love and loss in his voice, and she couldn’t help but respond.

“He wanted to take care of things?”

“As best as he could, I guess. Against my better judgment, I let him drive us to the hospital. I could’ve talked sense to him and stopped him, but I was so worried about Mom and needed to check on her. He cried when he got behind the wheel, like it just all came crashing down on his shoulders. He confessed to me that he was an alcoholic. It was his fault she had to work so hard, and also his fault she’d worked herself until she’d gotten sick. It wasn’t very mature, but I gave him the silent treatment, just fuming the whole way to the hospital.”

“How old were you?”

“Fifteen.”

She wasn’t holding immaturity at that age against him.

“He swore to me that he’d get himself into treatment. I sat there taking it all in, wondering how I should respond. The only dad I knew was drunk dad. I didn’t know if I could believe him.”

“Did he get into treatment?”

“No.” Ben paused briefly, let out a deep sigh, and continued in a gravelly voice. “On the way to the hospital he passed out behind the wheel, and the car slammed into a tree. I was buckled in, but he was ejected through the front windshield.”

Camilla wrapped her arm around his waist and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Ben.”

Ben kissed the top of her head and forged on as though he needed to get it over with. “I woke up in the hospital with broken ribs, and my right arm and my left leg were both in casts. I was a mess. By that point, my mom was in the intensive care unit. I went to her as soon as they let me out of that hospital bed. My grandparents came, which helped, I guess. They were with me when my mom and I found out from the doctors that Dad was dead. Killed on impact.”

Camilla stroked his arm but remained silent.

“I saw the light that remained in her go out. She was so weak, and losing Dad took all the fight out of her. He hadn’t taken good care of her, but she’d still loved him. I was fifteen, but I could see what was happening. I hung on to the fact that she still had me, still had a reason to live, but she died two days later.”

A single tear rolled down his cheek before he smiled at her and wiped it away.

“I’m sorry, Ben.”

He put his arm around her shoulders, squeezed her to him, and cleared his throat before continuing. “So I went home with my grandparents, who lived here in Divine, and they finished raising me. Remember I said I was a mess?” At her nod, he continued, “I was on crutches, and was suffering the loss of both parents. My grandparents had a neighbor who had a kid my age. He already had a truck, a beat-up old Chevy. He came over one day and introduced himself, offered to let me ride with him to school once I was well enough to start back. I was pretty withdrawn, but he didn’t mind. He was a good friend. So were his cousins.”

“Who was he?” she asked, having a feeling she knew exactly who he was talking about.

“Ethan Grant.”

Camilla smiled and chuckled. It figured. Anyone could tell that Ben and Ethan were close and went way back.

“After high school we went to college and then returned to Divine. We’d had this silly dream of owning our own saloon when we were teenagers, so we could get lots of chicks.”

A giggle slipped from Camilla, and she felt an answering rumble against her shoulder as he chuckled. “Did it work?”

“Oh, yeah. I got the best one of all.”