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Cam put on a polite face, wishing they’d just leave already.
“Well then, that sounds good.” McPhee sat down on the stool next to Cam as the others leaned against the counter. “Heard one of the interns wasn’t a complete idiot and you took her on. And we wanted to let you and Vivian both know no matter what was said at the meeting, you don’t have to have this done by the next weekend. We stressed the value of the cultural icon over the stupidity of needing it too fast.”
Cam nodded. He appreciated that, but the urgency to get it done was one of the things he appreciated about the hot mess since it was guaranteed to get him out of town faster.
“I was thinking,” he said instead, “what about a little workshop. The kids could come in to see Santa. They could do a spiel about being busy year-round or something.”
All three men nodded.
“We’re already on it. Noah let us know about your text and that was better than any idea we’d come up with.”
“Good, good.” Cam didn’t want to be rude to his elders, but he really just wanted to get back to his brooding now.
McPhee gave him a hearty slap on the back again and they all moved down to the end of the counter where they stuck their heads together with Noah.
After a few moments, Cameron came back over and asked, “Anything else you think we should know?”
He didn't think they were asking about his personal life, so he answered, "No, sir," and really honestly hoped they’d just move along.
"Everything is working out fine with you and Vivian?"
Cam's head came up and he narrowed his eyes, wondering why the lairds would bring up Vivian.
"What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously.
"You guys are going to have to work together on the sleigh. I'm sure it's going to be a tough schedule. We want to get her part done as quickly as possible so she can get back to work. She's had a rough time getting that business of hers up and running and we want to make sure to protect that."
Cam didn’t want to be here any longer than he had to, but he also didn't want to damage Vivian's business in any way.
Maybe now was a good time to go up to Bangor and do a review at Raymond Havester’s estate. It couldn't hurt to see if they had anything on file that might help. Get him out of Starlight Harbor for a week or so.
"I'm sure we won't have any problems working together,” he said instead.
Even he could hear the bitterness on the end of that sentence. Of course they wouldn't have problems working together. It was just everything else he had problems with.
“Cam, look at me.”
He raised his eyes to finally look Cameron in the eye and saw something not unlike regret.
“Son, you do what you need to do.” He gave a tight nod, then said, “Don’t do anything rash,” and turned and walked out the front door.
And if that wasn’t even more ominous than what Cam had been dealing with, he didn’t know what was.
19
Vivian
After her talk with Skye—whichwas surprisingly good—Vi walked back to her shop, thinking about that last question. What should he have done?
Skye seemed to understand it didn’t matter what he could or couldn’t have done. It mattered that Vivian felt deserted and thrown over when really, Skye was right. What could he have done? That she was living with a mixture of still live heartbreak and a deep fear of being hurt again. Especially by Cam.
Skye had even pointed at the twin—Lyra had given only one of them a second chance—and said, “Vivian, that’s how old you were when this happened.”
She looked at the sunshiney girl, all happy and bubbly even as Lyra worked her behind the counter, and thought,My goodness, I was a baby.
“And…” Skye looked a little nervous to say the last part, bracing herself as if Vivian might attack her. “That’s how old Cam was too.”
She watched the girl flit around, flirting with a boy in a windbreaker from a different school who’d obviously come in to walk around and hang out on the square, and thoughtpoint taken.
