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The fact that she and Dane had both been on the same golf course at the same time just one day before the interview was a fluke. They could have exchanged names and changed everything. He would have known immediately that she was off-limits. But they hadn’t. Was that a fluke too? Or was it the universe granting them that one night?
The next morning, during that strange job interview, they’d both had good reasons to agree never to indulge their fantasies again. So they’d made their rules. No inappropriate touching. No longing looks. No sneaking away for a night of passion. He honestly hadn’t known he’d never experience another night like that with any other woman. Not then.
Over the subsequent years, his belief in the rules had grown only more solid. She turned his chaos into order. He relied on her good sense. She was the one who made sure he added heart to his ventures. They couldn’t risk screwing up their perfect work relationship. Romance was out of the question.
Besides, if he ever made a move, ever pushed for anything more, he would totally lose her. And he could not bear to ever lose her.
She’d dated. Of course she had. She was gorgeous, funny, smart, and men flocked to her. But he was so damned glad none of those relationships had come to anything. They were all jerks who weren’t good enough for her anyway. And that one creep who’d let her down so badly? Dane could have pummeled the guy into the ground. Truth be told, he could even have pummeled his brother Troy for asking her out. For God’s sake, she’d been his assistant for four years at that point. What had Troy been thinking? Still, Dane didn’t like to remember how he’d completely lost his cool that day, accusing his brother of harassing his employees, and a lot worse. Especially when he learned Cammie had turned Troy down.
Of course, he’d only ever wanted to protect her from jerks who’d screw her over. Sure, he had thoughts. But he never acted on them. He didn’t even want to. He liked his life just the way it was. He absolutely wasn’t one of those jerks.
But sometimes at night—not every night, mind you, maybe once a month, or once a week—with the darkness surrounding him and her room just down the hall, he remembered the softness of her hair, the scent of her skin, the sweetness of her lips.
And he regretted every damned rule they’d set up between them.
* * *
Cammie sat in the chair next to her uncle’s bed, his hand securely tucked in hers.
Sometimes it seemed as though he was in a coma, others that he was only sleeping. She put an ice chip against his lips, and he opened his mouth, taking it in. She wished he would open his eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually looked at her. She talked to him, and sometimes he would mumble an answer she couldn’t understand. She’d tell him a joke, and once in a while, he would make a noise that sounded like a laugh. Or she’d tell him she loved him, and he’d grunt as though he had so much more to say. But he never opened his eyes. Somehow that was the worst. She wanted him to see her. Even in his last few days, or even hours, she wanted to know that he’d seen her, that he knew she was here with him.
But it had been such a long time since he’d even known who she was, though somehow, having her close calmed him.
She’d felt guilty leaving him today. But God, it had been good to get out. To see Dane. And how she’d missed Rex. When he’d bounded to her across the soccer field and barreled into her lap, all she’d wanted to do was hug him close and drink in his doggy scent while he slathered kisses all over her face. She missed her work. She missed her suite of rooms in Pebble Beach. She missed Fernsby’s cooking. She even missed Dane knocking on her door in the late evening to share an idea that had suddenly come to him. The feeling was something like homesickness. For Rex, for Fernsby.
And maybe most of all for Dane.
Chapter Five
Dane lounged against Susan Spencer’s kitchen counter as Fernsby took over the space, providing both the meal and the dessert. T. Rex lay under the kitchen table in the dog bed Fernsby had brought for him. Because Fernsby and the dog went everywhere with Dane.
Especially with Cammie gone and Rex pining for her.
It had been two weeks since their defining soccer game and the roundtable at the Buena Vista Café in San Francisco. After Cal had drawn up the merger agreement, they’d all participated in the signing meeting a few days ago.
