Freed, she staggered away from him. “The details don’t matter. Not to me.”
“Then why are you still dreaming about them?”
The truth of that flickered across her face. “Fine. I didn’t tell you because this is a temp job, and I’m a temp, and-”
“Bullshit. That’s all such bullshit. You didn’t tell me because despite the fact that I’m supposed to trust you, you don’t have to trust me.”
“No,” she whispered, “that’s not it.”
“Then what? What is it? You’re the only one in the whole world who’s ever been in a life-altering situation and wondered what to do with themselves now?”
Her face closed up, and even while the apology was already forming on his tongue, she shook her head and pointed at him. “You, Cameron Wilder, you can go to hell.” She stomped back into her bindings and skied off, leaving him staring after her.
One consolation in this whole mess: She’d learned to ski like a damn pro.
That night Cam was slumped on his couch staring at the game while thinking about Katie. Katie smiling at him and making him smile back. Katie laughing with her whole face, that contagious laugh that made him let out a helpless one of his own.
Katie accepting him for who he was, and making him want to be the best man he could be.
When the knock came at his door, he figured it was Stone. Hoping like hell he’d pick a fight so Cam could cut loose of this tension, he got up and pulled open the door.
Not Stone.
It was Katie, with one of those smiles he’d just been daydreaming about, though it was a nervous one.
“You busy?” she asked
“Nope, I’m just watching a game. You know, before I go to hell.”
“Yeah.” She grimaced. “About that whole going to hell thing. Can I come in?”
“Sure.” He backed up so she could pass by him, and he all but buried his nose in her hair, that’s how desperate he was for the scent of her. She didn’t disappoint, smelling like some complicated, deliciously sexy mix of flowers and woman. “If you plan on yelling at me some more,” he said, “maybe you could wait until the commercial. The Patriots are down but at the ten-yard line.”
“I once accused you of being an ass and you apologized for it.” She turned to face him. “Today, I was the ass. Yesterday too. You didn’t mention it in so many words, but I’m still going to say I’m sorry.”
He looked into her eyes and wanted…wanted to hold her, touch her, be with her.
That terrifying.
That simple.
“You asked me earlier why I didn’t trust you,” she said softly. “The truth is, I didn’t trust me. I’m working on that. I’m working on a lot of things. But for now, between us, maybe we should just go back to doing what we do best.”
Well, he knew what he thought they did best…“You mean…”
“Yes.”
It couldn’t be that easy. Could it? “Look, I’ve been wrong, a lot, so I want to be clear. We’re talking about…sex.”
“Well, it is a documented stress reliever.”
There, he thought. There was the light coming into her gaze, the one he’d missed. “My very favorite stress reliever,” he said. “And as a bonus, it scratches all itches, solves the universe’s problems, and-”
And Nick walked right into the cabin as if he owned it. He headed past Cam and Katie and straight for the refrigerator, helping himself to a beer.
“Nick?” Cam gestured with his chin toward Katie. “A little busy here.”
“No problem, I can wait.” He plopped down on the couch, sprawled his legs out, head back, eyes closed. “Take your time.”
Cam opened his mouth to say “Get the hell out,” but then he caught a good look at Nick’s face and the utter misery on it. Hell. He turned to Katie, who shook her head worriedly. With a squeeze of his hand, she let herself out.
Double hell.
Oblivious, Nick took a pull on his beer. “She’s f**king with my head.”
“Annie?”
“The UPS guy asked her out and I think she’s going to go. She’s waiting for me to sign the damn papers.”
Cam sighed and went for his own beer, but Nick had taken the last one. Perfect.
“You Wilders are crazy. All of you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Cam sat on the coffee table facing Nick and nudged his knee with his own. “Look, you have two choices here, just two, and you know what they are.”
Nick set the beer down and nodded. “Actually, there’s only one. One choice.” He stood up and headed for the door.
“So that’s it?” Cam asked Nick’s back. “You chase the girl out of here and don’t even stay?”
Nick opened the front door. “You have two choices, Cam, and you know what they are.”
Yeah, hell if he wasn’t right. Cam followed Nick out, then turned in the opposite direction, heading in the falling darkness to Katie’s cabin. He knocked on her door and then stood there waiting, his blood pounding, his body on high alert.
“Who’s there?”
“The scratcher of your itch,” he said.
She opened the door a crack and stuck her nose out. “Was that supposed to be romantic?”
“Okay, how about this. I came bearing all the answers to the universe’s problems.”