Audrey woke from a dreamless sleep with a startling jerk, immediately sensing something was off with her surroundings. The early Sunday morning sunshine poured through the open drapes that she’d forgotten to close last night. But it wasn’t the shocking brightness that threw her off.
The place was too quiet.
The bedside clock read nine fifteen and Audrey’s first thought besides why the hell she hadn’t closed the drapes last night was Piper. The kid was always out of bed by seven thirty or eight, with the boundless energy of kids, ready to tackle the day. She’d slide out of bed, then curl up onto the couch to watch whatever cartoons she could find, while she waited for Audrey to get up and make some breakfast.
But Piper wasn’t in the guesthouse. Even as Audrey tossed the covers back and jerkily pulled on a pair of flannel pants, she knew the kid was gone. There were no sounds indicating she was anywhere. No singsong sounds of cartoons filling the small space. No sounds of rummaging in the fridge because she was too hungry to wait for Audrey to get up. Not even the noise of her talking to herself as she played some make-believe game in her room across the hall.
No, no, no. A layer of sweat coated Audrey’s hands as she frantically searched her mind for where the kid could have gone. Without bothering with shoes or her hair, she darted from Piper’s bedroom to the small living space, calling the girl’s name.
Nothing.
Not even a giggle.
Her heart pounded erratically in her throat, threatening to choke the life out of her as Audrey imagined every ungodly, horrifying scenario. What if someone had come in here in the middle of the night and snatched Piper right out of her bed? What if Piper had decided to go exploring and wandered off somewhere? Gotten lost? Maybe she was roaming the neighborhood right now, lost, confused, crying?
Even as Audrey knew she was being a tad irrational with her runaway imagination, she’d still never forgive herself if something happened to Dianna’s little girl, especially after Audrey had promised to love and take care of Piper as if the child were her own.
And she had. Until this morning.
Until you lost her!
Audrey’s bare feet scuffed over the worn carpet in the living room. The front door was open, leaving the screen door to reveal the bright early morning.
There!
She’d gone outside.
Audrey exhaled a shaky breath as she damn near kicked open the screen door and yelled the child’s name.
“Piper!”
She was only greeted with silence and the occasional neighborhood sound. A car driving by. A lawn mower in the distance. A couple of dogs barking in unison.
But no six-year-old.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Cameron’s dark, shaggy head through the window as he moved around the kitchen. Maybe he’d seen her or heard something. Of course, if he had seen Piper wandering around this morning and hadn’t said anything to her, Audrey would kick his cement-hard ass into the next century.
Without thinking about manners or even announcing herself, Audrey opened the sliding glass door with too much force. She barreled into the house, bare feet and all.
“Piper!” she yelled.
Cameron spun around, obviously startled at her appearance. “Whoa, what’s with the yelling?”
Audrey didn’t have time for his stupid questions. “Have you seen Piper? I can’t find her anywhere.” And she could only imagine the sight that she made, with her wide eyes, ratty old white tank top, and too big flannel pants.
Cameron stepped aside and revealed the kid perched on the kitchen counter. “Yeah, she’s right here.”
The breath whooshed out of her lungs at the same time that tears stung the back of her eyes. Dammit, she was way too emotional over this girl. The split-second realization that something really bad could have happened to Piper had Audrey ready to do some serious bodily harm to someone. Including Cameron.
Audrey practically ran into the kitchen.
“We’re makin’ French toast,” Piper announced as her legs swung back and forth.
Audrey would never forgive herself if anything were to happen to Piper. She gripped the girl’s arms. “Do you know how freaked out I was when I woke up and you were gone?”
Piper’s smile fell as she sensed Audrey’s displeasure. “Sorry,” she muttered, even though Audrey knew she didn’t fully understand.
“The next time you leave the guesthouse, you have to let me know,” Audrey added.
Piper’s eyes grew wide. “I was hungry, and you were still asleep.”
“So then wake me up.”
Piper stared at her, then nodded. “’Kay.”
Audrey yanked the girl into a crushing hug, telling herself Piper really was fine and in one piece, but her heart was still hammering in her chest.
“Okay,” Cameron said in a soothing voice. “You’re crushing the kid.”
Audrey allowed Cameron to draw her back, drawing on the strength of his warm palms curled over her shoulders. But the tears that had been threatening for the past ten minutes, which now felt like an hour, broke through the surface. She spun around, only to save face, and tried to pull herself together.
“Hey.” Cameron’s rough palm wrapped around her upper arm.
Audrey swiped at her eyes. “I thought she was gone.” And how embarrassing was this? She lost sight of Piper for all of ten minutes, and she was reduced to a sputtering mess.
“But she’s not,” Cameron reassured her. “She was with me, and she’s fine.”
Audrey shook her head. “You don’t understand. I promised Dianna.”
Cameron turned her around and looked in her eyes. “You’re being too hard on yourself. Look at her.” He turned her toward Piper to see the kid dipping her index finger in the egg mixture. “She’s fine. She’s a normal six-year-old who’s contaminating my egg mixture with her dirty hands.”
Despite the situation, a laugh popped out of her. Then she sobered and shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like to have someone just disappear from your life.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Audrey realized she was talking as much about her mom as she was Piper. She also realized her mistake when Cameron’s unusually soft expression hardened. “Okay, yeah, you do. Dumb thing to say.”
One of his brows lifted. “You’re forgiven.” His hands rubbed up and down her arms in a hypnotic rhythm that had her heart finally slowing down. “You okay now?”
Audrey gave a small nod, silently battling with the lingering effects of fear, mingling with mild embarrassment for her mini freak-out.
Okay, not so mini. She’d all but barged in here with her crazy morning hair and bloodshot eyes from being up too late.
At the thought of her late night, Audrey slowly took notice of the man in front of her. After all, he’d been the reason for her late-night escapade. Since she refused think about, like an all-out memory block, the kiss that had curled her toes, Audrey was left with him, in the flesh.
Literally.
As in low-slung sweatpants, and the smooth, bronzed skin and taut muscle of his bare chest. Audrey secretly congratulated herself for being dead-on accurate about Cameron Shaw. As though any man had a right to have such carved lines and a freakin’ eight-pack that could put an Olympic athlete to shame. And God, he smelled good. Like freshly showered man.
Seriously unfair.
One side of his mouth quirked, as though to say, Yeah, I see you lookin’, honey.
“You hungry?” he asked instead of acknowledging the drool coming out of her mouth.
“Um…” She crossed her arms in front of her, suddenly reprimanding herself for not bothering with a bra. So far he’d been a gentleman, keeping his eyes above her chin, which was more than she could say for herself.
Her eyes, which didn’t seem to be functioning properly, dropped down again, taking special note of his flat brown nipples.
Cameron’s finger touched her chin and nudged her face up. “How about we keep our eyes up here?”
“Easy for you to say,” she muttered. At least she had a shirt on.
“Is it?” he countered.
She gave serious thought to smacking him. But that would mean putting her hands on him again, which she was so not doing.
“Yeah, I guess I could eat.”
“Don’t do me any favors,” he chided.
Actually, breakfast smelled damn good, like the meals her mother used to make. She’d already learned that Cameron was a good cook. Audrey liked having her own way in the kitchen, and Cameron clearly did too, which had led to some disagreements about food.
Who would’ve thought two people would argue about how food was supposed to be prepared.
Piper picked up a slice of bread and dropped it in the egg mixture. “Cameron let me crack the eggs,” she announced. “But I got shells in them. And when I took them out, my hands were all sticky with egg.”
“Let me see.” Audrey studied Piper’s hands and pretended to be appalled. “Oh, these are disgusting!”
Piper giggled, making her green eyes light up. “No, they’re not! I cleaned them,” she exclaimed.
Beside her, Cameron chuckled, and the sound did something funny to her insides, like they went all mushy and soft.
Piper picked up Jellybean, who had been sitting on the counter next to her. “Jellybean wants powdered sugar on her French toast. Powdered sugar is her favorite.”
Cameron shot a quizzical look at Piper as he removed two slices of browned bread from the pan. “I thought jelly beans were her favorite.”
Piper swung her legs back and forth. “Only for lunch and dinner. For breakfast powdered sugar is her favorite.”
Yeah, okay. They both knew the stuffed cat was as particular about her food as Piper was. But Cameron didn’t argue. He snagged a bag of the white stuff from the pantry and set it on the counter next to Piper. “Powdered sugar it is.”
“But don’t stick your hand in there,” Audrey warned when Piper unzipped the bag and stuck her index finger inside.
“Just a little bit to taste.” The tip of her finger came away white, and she licked the stuff off her finger with a soft smack.
Cameron finished making breakfast and settled Piper at the counter with her plate. Audrey fixed her own while Cam dumped a pound of syrup over his.
“I didn’t mean for us to crash your Sunday morning,” she told him. “You could have sent Piper back over to me.”
“It’s fine.” Cameron flicked a glance at Piper, who’d managed to cover the front of her pajama top with white powder. “She just startled me when I heard noise in the living room.”
Audrey watched the little girl for a moment, wondering if maybe she hadn’t been paying enough attention to her. Had she been neglectful with all her thoughts preoccupied with school, her business back in Boulder, and kissing Cameron? A wave of heat flooded her cheeks. She should have been more focused on Piper, not thinking about the man next to her and how she wanted to give those loose sweatpants a good tug. He was probably commando underneath his pants. All the hottest men usually went without underwear, at least in her experience. Something about them throwing off heat like furnaces and not wanting the extra layers.
She bet his ass was nice and tight…
And there she went again, centering her thoughts on a man who had only kissed her last night to shut her up, then turned around and made Sunday morning breakfast for his niece.
“I don’t think she knew what to do with herself,” Audrey commented. “She and Dianna used to make breakfast together every Sunday.”
Cameron glanced at her with an unreadable expression. Did that make him uncomfortable? Would he have had a woman here if she and Piper hadn’t been around?
“She told me,” he finally responded.
Audrey almost choked on her French toast. “Piper talked about her mom?”
Cameron nodded and cleaned the rest of his plate with a final swipe of his fork. He set it down on the counter with a soft clatter. “She said her mom used to make pancakes look like Mickey Mouse. She’d use blueberries for the eyes and a piece of black licorice for the mouth.”
Audrey smiled at the sweet memory, grateful to finally think of something other than Dianna frail and bald from cancer. “Dianna wasn’t a very good cook. They ate a lot of mac and cheese and hot dogs. But they always cooked together; it was sort of their thing.” She slid Cameron a look, hoping he wouldn’t see the sorrow on her face. “Dianna was really hands-on with Piper.”
Cameron shifted his gaze to Piper again. “I can tell. She’s a well-balanced kid.”
“What else did she say?” Audrey asked.
“Not much.” He crossed his arms, which only emphasized the enormity of his biceps. “Just that Sundays were always her favorite with her mom.”
“I should have a talk with her,” Audrey said more to herself.
“Why?” Cameron asked.
“Just to make sure she’s okay.”
“She’s fine, Audrey. You fuss over her too much,” he added when she shot him a confused look.
“I don’t fuss,” she argued.
He watched her while leaning against the kitchen counter. “You fuss.”
Audrey picked at her French toast, even though it was too good not to inhale. “I just want to make sure she’s okay. She’s been through a lot.”
“So you’ve said. But the only way she’s going to get back to a normal routine is if people stop treating her differently.”
Audrey ran her gaze over his strong profile, taking in his straight nose, unruly dark hair, and early-morning scruff darkening his square jaw. “Sounds like you’re talking from experience.”
Again with the shoulder shrug, as though it didn’t matter to him. “I have a vague idea of what she’s going through.”
Audrey supposed he would, given how he’d lost his dad. And maybe that was why Dianna had chosen Cameron for Piper. Setting aside the family aspect, she wanted to leave her daughter with someone who could identify with her. Someone who could match his own grief with hers, someone who knew how it felt to be alone. And for the first time since she met him, her apprehension loosened. She hadn’t been sure about Cameron, because his reception of them had been lukewarm. Ever since Dianna’s death, she’d been obsessed with Piper having the best, so she didn’t have to feel another minute of grief.
“It’s okay, you know,” Cameron commented.
Audrey blinked at him.
“For her to be sad. She needs to be able to grieve without people making her feel like it’s not okay.”
The comment took her aback. She hadn’t made Piper feel like that, had she? She shook her head and placed her plate on the counter next to Cameron’s. “I’m not trying to make her feel like that. I just…” She blew out a breath. “I just want her to be happy. She deserves that after what she’s been through.”
“I know,” Cameron agreed. “And I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong. But she needs to feel like it’s okay to let it out, rather than bottling all her sadness for her mom inside.”
“Do you think that’s what she’s doing?”
Cameron watched Piper feed a bite of French toast to Jellybean. “I think she’s trying her best to be a good girl.”
“Is that what you did?”
Cameron was silent for so long that she didn’t think he was going to answer. “My mom did her best with me after my dad took off. She worked two jobs to make up for the loss of income. But she was…unusually happy. Too happy for a woman whose husband walked out on her and left her with a kid to raise. She was always asking me if I was okay and telling me to smile.” He shook his head. “Made me mad.”
“Why would that make you mad?” she asked. “She was just trying to protect you.”
“Yeah, I know what she was doing. But I wanted to grieve in my own way, and she wouldn’t let me.”
She watched Piper again, trying to make sense of Cameron’s advice. She’d been so sure she’d been doing the right thing with Piper, always making sure she was happy and adjusted, because she couldn’t stand to see the shadows in her eyes. No child should have to grieve the way Piper had. She was too special for that.
A warm hand on her arm jerked her out of her thoughts. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I know you mean well. But if she wants to be sad, let her be sad. By the way, I’m taking Piper shopping this afternoon.”
Cameron was going to shop with a six-year-old? “For what?”
“School stuff,” he responded. “She still needs supplies, right?”
“Well, yeah, but…” Actually, she had planned on taking Piper and hadn’t expected Cameron to just up and do it himself. Logically she knew he should. It was his place now to take care of these things. “I’ll get changed after breakfast and go with you.”
Cameron shook his head. “Nope. Just me and her.”
“Wait—”
“No arguments, Audrey. You want me to do this, right?”
She blinked at him, still thrown off by the conversation. “Yeah.”
“So let me do it. And also, you were right last night.”
Huh? His change of subject was so fast, she could only blink. “Right?” she repeated.
“I did kiss you to get you to shut up,” he murmured.
Had he moved closer to her? All of a sudden she could smell him. Like, smell. And she bet it was the natural smell of his clean skin and not some body wash or cologne. Did he just roll out of bed smelling like an orgasm in a bottle? Because her insides were, like, seriously dancing.
“But I’m not sorry,” he told her.
“Um, okay?” What else was she supposed to say? She was too focused on the pulse beating at the base of his strong neck. She bet he smelled really good there too.
“Most people go around apologizing for things like that,” he continued, as though she’d asked for more explanation. “But I’m not going to.” He stepped even closer and lowered his head. She readied herself for another kiss. Instead, his lips bypassed hers and went to her ear. His nose nuzzled her lobe; then he inhaled a deep breath. “Do know you why?”
Her hand curled into his bare shoulder. Yeah, his skin was as warm as it looked. “Because you’re a big tough man who apologizes to no one?”
His throaty chuckle in her ear sent a shiver zinging down her spine. “Because you liked it just as much as I did. And you tossed and turned a lot last night, didn’t you?”
Hell, yeah, she had. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.
In a hasty and sudden move, he pulled back. “By the way, my mom is coming to dinner next Sunday.”
And with that, he was gone, out of the kitchen and taking her quivering stomach with her.
And wasn’t that just great? She went from kissing him to meeting his mom.