AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, that’s true. You’re the client, and I’m the real estate agent.” The words tumbled out, rushing past her lips. It reminded me of someone ripping off a Band-Aid. Best to get it over with fast. “Our roles are, um...” She shredded her paper napkin and searched for a word.
“Immutable.” I supplied with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes. Immutable. We overstepped. And while we can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, we can clean up the mess before anyone notices.” Her cheeks flushed when she alluded to our morning activities.
“A mess... can’t have that.” Shit. Her words cut like the lash of a whip—fast and deep. I braced for the next strike, unsure if a mess was worse than a mistake. But both sliced in a way nothing had since Veronica.
“No, we can’t. It’s unseemly.” She looked around the pavilion, her eyes lingering on each person in turn. The familiar faces seemed to make her more uncomfortable, not less. She balled the remains of her napkin in her fist, her knuckles white.
It wasn’t my reaction she gauged; it was everyone else’s. Reaction to what? Us sitting together? Me drinking like a fish at eleven in the morning? I had no fucking clue. Damn it, she wasn’t even looking at me.
This was a mannequin-robot version of Cameron—completely rigid. The polar opposite of the pliable, sated woman I’d held in my arms a few hours ago. And nothing like the bright, sparkling version of her that performed for the TV cameras. I barely recognized her and did not know what to say to the cyborg at my table.
“Hey!” I smacked my flat palm on the table, and she jumped. “Look at me.” Her gaze snapped back in my direction. “What is going on with us?” I pointed between the two of us, my gesture frantic.
“Nothing.” She closed her eyes, and her face went slack. Someone had powered down the robot.
“This morning didn’t feel like nothing.” I wanted to shout the statement, but it came out low and gruff, pulled out like an unwilling confession. If I was lucky, she didn’t hear it over the music. And no way in hell I’d repeat it. From now on, I’d keep things purely professional.
After a long moment, she spun on the bench, giving me her back. She faced the band and the sparsely populated dance floor. Her spine was ramrod straight—almost vibrating.
I ground the heels of my hands into my eye sockets. I’d expected today to play out totally different than this shit show. The now-cold food on my plate turned my stomach. I lifted my beer; a few good gulps, and it would be time for another. Or I could leave. Get as far from Cameron as I could in a place the size of Elmer, and lick my wounds in private.
In a flurry of sudden movements, Cameron stood, her arm waving above her head. She flagged down Atley Rivers and a few of his guys from Blue Star. The men each had a plate of food and a bottle of water. They cut across the dance floor when she called out to them. Her voice was one hundred percent manufactured sunshine, just like yesterday when I confronted her about the sunburn.
Atley took the seat next to me, but I barely spared more than a nod for the ranch manager. All my attention was focused on the cowboy who hugged Cameron like I wanted to. A full-body embrace, lifting her six inches off the ground and spinning her around as she held on to him. She held the other man’s neck like she had finally found something worth holding on to. That should be me. The person she clung to. The person she woke up next to.
I wanted to be more than a client.
“Damn, Cami, I’ve not seen you in ages. How you been?” The cowboy had an arm around her shoulders.
“Can’t complain. I missed you yesterday at Blue Star.” She smiled up at him, but her eyes were still dull, not the sparkling sapphire they could be.
“Atley sent me to the stockyards with some steers to sell. I had no idea you were part of the TV thing, or I’d have fought harder to stay at the ranch for all the excitement.”
“You missed out, Jameson.” She chucked him in the chest with a playful punch. But I was the one who had the wind knocked out of my lungs.
“Ouch, now you owe me. We’re dancing. I love this song.”
They were gone, swept up into the flow of couples circling the dance floor. As I watched her step into the cowboy’s arms, I grabbed my beer. This time, when I lifted it to my mouth, I drained it and crushed the can. Why the hell had I never learned to dance?
“You fixed her sunburn up?” Atley had to elbow me in the side to get my attention.
“Yeah.” I ran my hand, cold from crushing the beer can, over the back of my hot neck.
“Good.” He said it with finality, like the matter was settled. Shit. I’d pay for him to let me in on the decision because, where I sat, it was all up in the air. But was it really? She told me there was nothing going on between us and kept calling me her client. That sounded pretty fucking definitive.
The ranch hands gathered around the table, eating and joking. My eyes didn’t stray from Cameron on the dance floor. She and the man were good, like they’d danced together before. They spun and swayed as they shuffled around the floor in a large, clockwise pattern. When her eyes met mine as they passed by our table, I looked away, feeling like a peeping Tom caught cowering in the rose bushes outside her bedroom window.
“You here to shop or eat?” I cut into the conversation flowing around me with zero tact, desperate for a distraction.
The guys grumbled about working for the man on the weekend, and Atley filled me in.
“Blue Star has a booth selling grass-fed beef, honey, and wine. We’re on lunch break. A few of the others are manning the booth until we finish eating and relieve them.”
“That’s some variety. It’s a big operation.” I pounced on the topic, my desire to learn everything I could about Blue Star reasserting itself in a blaze of glory.
“Could be bigger with a more involved owner.” Atley tossed the challenge out like a lure for a largemouth bass, and I bit.
