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“Okay. So, you’re good with small-town living?”
“I am. I love it. I don’t think I’d survive in a big city.”
“No downsides there, then, and also a known quantity for you. So, what if this great job isn’t so great?”
“I’d be doing more enjoyable work, and I don’t see how the people could possibly be any more difficult to deal with than where I am now.” Cameron raised an eyebrow, but she shook her head. “I’m not bitching about them. It’s just hard to be a woman in a man’s world.”
“And you think it’d be less of a man’s world here?”
“I don’t know. I’m guessing it can’t be all that bad, or Smoke wouldn’t have even suggested me working for him.”
“He wouldn’t. I doubt there’s a downside there.”
They both turned at the sound of voices. A family with three small children came out on to the deck of the restaurant where they were standing. Piper smiled. The little girl had a baggie full of bread. They were here to feed the ducks.
Cameron made a face at her. “Have you had breakfast yet?
“No.”
“What do you think, do you want to join me, and we’ll see if we can think of any real reasons that moving here might not be a great move for you?”
She smiled. “I’d love to have breakfast with you, but I think I’ve already decided. I’m going to talk to Smoke, and if he wants to give me a job, then I’m going to move here.”
Chapter Three
“Can I get you anything else?”
Cameron raised an eyebrow at Piper, and she shook her head. He smiled at the server. “Just the check, thanks.”
“Let me pay?” asked Piper when he’d gone. “You shouldn’t have to pay for breakfast when all you did was listen to me ponder the pros and cons of moving here.”
He smiled. “I enjoyed listening, and besides I can’t let you pay.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”
“Because I’m a gentleman.” It was true. He’d been raised a gentleman, and it was a much better answer than telling her that he never let a woman pay for breakfast. He wasn’t sure she’d like hearing that. And now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure that he liked it either. What did it say about him? He had breakfast with a lot of women—and it wasn’t usually because he’d just bumped into them on an early morning stroll.
The server came back and put the check in front of him. He gave Piper a questioning look. He didn’t want to offend her if she was adamant about paying her own way. He was relieved when she smiled. “Thank you.”
They got up from the booth where they’d been sitting and made their way through the bar on their way out. Cameron nodded at the guy who owned the place. Ben. He was a friend of Cole’s.
“Have a great day, guys,” he called.
He held the door open for Piper to go out ahead of him, and once they were back in the sunshine in front of the restaurant, it hit him that they were probably about to say goodbye—and he didn’t want to. “Are you meeting Laura this morning?”
She smiled up at him. “I don’t know. I told her not to worry about me. I’m fine, and she and Smoke haven’t seen each other all week.”
Cameron smiled. “I know. I felt bad about coming up here when they get so little time together. I told them not to worry about me, too. So, what do you say? Do you think we should tell them we have plans of our own, so they don’t feel the need to come babysit us?”
Piper chuckled. “Definitely.”
“I don’t just mean tell them we have plans. I mean make a plan.”
“What kind of plan?”
“I don’t know. I was thinking I’d go for a walk this morning. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like the same thing I was going to do.”
