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She could work on rewriting her emotions about the past, but she couldn’t promise anything. And if she were being honest with herself, she thought all it might do is allow her and Cam to be back on equal footing as friends.
Which was the best she could ask for right now.
She’d been surprised when the Cameron laird had driven in and invited himself to inspect her garage, asking if she needed anything. After a few moments, he gave her an odd look of surprise.
“Well, there’s your Camden.”
Vivian watched Cam stalk back into his workshop, the waves of emotion practically radiating off him as she muttered,not mine.
He literally started whistling innocently.
Uh-huh.
“Can we just get back to this?” She headed back inside feeling overwhelmed with what was going on. And so far, all she’d done was show one of the lairds around the shop and office. He seemed pleased with what he saw, which was good if they were going to trust her to back the sleigh in here and take care of it.
They’d made promises to Noah that she had to believe were true. She couldn’t risk everything she’d built on the whim of old men though.
"Sure." He grinned like a man who knew something. Everyone thought they knew something. "Most of what I came by for was to make sure you understood we support you and whatever you need to do to make this work. Like I said, Forsyth’s nephew has been wanting to move up here for a while now, but he couldn't find a job. Most of the garages in the area don't like to hire outside their family."
Vivian snorted. "Yeah, no kidding. I’m shocked to hear it.”
He paused as he was pulling out his little planner, realizing what she said.
“No one ever considered you an outsider, Vivian.”
Really, this is when he wanted to do this? In the middle of a business negotiation.
It dawned on her the amount of power currently in her hands. They knew how she worked, that she did a lot of the older cars in town because she hadn’t updated everything to computers like the Youngs had when they’d expanded to open shops outside of town. They’d seen she could listen to an engine and hear what it was saying. And of course she had a good setup for Cam to do the work he needed right here as well.
And now was when they suddenly felt the need to make sure it was clear shewasn’t an outsider.
"Maybe not,” she finally answered. “But that might make it even worse."
Because if this is how you treated family, then she wasn’t sure she wanted to be that either.
He gave her a sad nod.
“Vivian,” he began, his entire demeanor changing. “This has been on my mind for years and I think one of the reasons they sent me to clear everything with you was because I’ve been the one sympathetic to your cause since you were a kid.”
Oh geez, he really was going to do this right now.
He noticed her stiffen and raised a preemptive hand.
“It’s always bothered me, but the others argued that we stayed out of family business.” He turned and took two steps toward the window at the back of the shop as if he couldn’t meet her gaze. “I was new to my position. My grandfather raised me and held his seat until he died. When he had just passed on, he was eighty-seven. Which I was decades younger than the others and still unsure what power I had—if any.”
She gave a nod, not surprised to hear any of that and oddly believing he felt some regret.
“Then they told me the Rosses had taken care of it, so I felt a little better. Figured you were safe as houses and let them have their way.”
He shook his head as he stared at the ground, the remorse rolling off him in a way that made her want to comfort him.
"I understand, sir. These things happen." It was something she got used to saying to a lot of people when she turned up pregnant, but she found herself meaning it this time.
He gave her a sad nod and didn't add anything, but there was something he’d said she had to understand.
"What did you mean when you said the Rosses were taking care of it?"
His head came up, apparent surprise on his face. "You mean you didn't know?”
