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“What if I don’t take the offer?” he asked, looking all smarty-smart.
“Then you just get the punishment.” Geez, this kid.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Trust me, there’s a punishment no matter what and you’re darn lucky I didn’t tell Cam the truth. Which is you don’t deserve a reward for misbehaving.”
“Uncle Cam?” Oh, he perked up at that.
“Yes. The deal is that Cam is going to be working on the sleigh and you can be his research assistant. He’s warned me it’s a lot of boring work looking at pictures and stuff, but you two would work in the garage office on the prep stuff for the sleigh.”
Her son lit up like it was Christmas for real.
“The punishment,” she continued, “is that you will come back here, straight from camp, and start cleaning the garage. And I mean, heavy-duty cleaning and degreasing. There will be chemicals, you will wear a mask, and you will be exhausted when you’re done. This will happen for the next three days or until Cam says there’s enough space for him to work on the sleigh without it getting grease, dirt, or oil on it.”
“Oh.”
Yeah.
“Two hours a day, working with me in there and then, if you want, you can go work with Cam after.”
She half expected him to try to negotiate, she could see it in his eyes. Cam was right, he’d been bitten by the woodworking bug and even a harsh punishment wasn’t going to stop him.
Obviously,she’dbe doing most of the cleaning, she knew this. But the idea he had to and the effort were what was going to count.
“Okay.” He looked up, looking remorseful. “And, Mom, I’m sorry I broke the rules. I won’t do it again.”
If only that were true. He rushed off to get his backpack and then gave her a tight hug before heading over to the rec center.
After he left, she went to Cam’s to check on how they were going to get things moving.
Sure, he was a great kisser. And yes, she liked holding his hand. And, okay, maybe she wasn’t as over him as she wished she was—wait, she’d leave that part out.
But the point was, she’d made up her mind. She wasn’t riding that emotional roller coaster again. Obviously, she hadn’t set good enough boundaries, so she’d have to do that. Clearly. So he understood she wasn’t kidding or unsure or playing hard to get.
He’d respect that.
Cam was, above all things, a respectful person.
But she couldn’t get herself to let go of the feeling he’d left her and grown-up Cam was still trying to make it right.
She was surprised to find the workshop already open, and when she didn’t hear anything dangerous sounding going on, she cut through where she spotted the lights on in his conference room.
She stutter-stepped to a stop at the doorway as a pretty, younger woman threw herself into Cam’s arms.
He wasn’t exactly pushing her away.
What the heck was this?
After a moment, she cleared her throat. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
They both turned to look at her as the girl shifted away, but Cam left his arm draped over her shoulders.
He looked… amused? The jackass.
“Oh! You must be Vivian.” Suddenly her body was being attacked by a small spitfire of energy. She just kept talking and Vivian got the idea she was supposed to be… helping?
“Um, yes.”
