They showered off at the beach, and Isabel insisted on just hopping next to him. Then Cameron insisted she get on his back so he could carry her down to the little lobster shack restaurant.

It wasn’t fancy, but they both ordered salads and lobsters, and he found himself relishing the feel of the ocean, the music, and the way the lobster seemed to melt in his mouth. And, to his surprise, he was really enjoying himself.

“I don’t like you paying for everything.” Isabel looked upset.

Cam frowned. “Really?” Especially since she’d told him about her past and how she wanted med school. “Billionaire, remember?”

“So you really are?”

He didn’t like to brag.

She leaned in, conspiratorially. “I don’t care. Just tell me. How?”

He grinned. “My father was good at teaching business principles and hard work. When I turned pro in football, I was smart. Instead of blowing my money like a lot of new guys, I bought a ton of businesses. Then I bought the Storm. I achieved billionaire status last year.” Unfortunately, it’d been completely meaningless to him. “Too bad none of my money can bring her back.”

Silence.

He sighed. “Sorry, I don’t want to do this all the time.”

She waved a hand. “I don’t care.” A small smile filled her face. She sputtered out a laugh. “Cam, it’ll be five years this spring since I’ve lost my son and husband, and I’m on a cruise trying to heal somehow.” She shook her head and took a sip of water. “Sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud.”

He liked this woman. He liked the fact he could talk to her. Liked the fact that she understood pain. Deep pain. It wasn’t a competition, but he’d thought his past year was worse than everyone else’s.

“I like being your friend.” Yes, that’s all they were. He shrugged. “Friendship is all I got these days.”

She paused, then nodded. “I like it, too.” She tinkered with the ice in her glass. “So if we’re friends, we can like—eat with our mouth open and not use our napkin.”

He grinned. “You don’t want to start all the ‘friend’ things I can do.”

She laughed.

And he did too. It felt amazing. “So tell me about being a doula?”

She retrieved another piece of ice out of her glass with her fork. “Want to hear about this lady who moved to Denver from Vegas and was having the baby by herself? She seriously ignored her contractions for thirty minutes so she could put on makeup before the ambulance got there, just because she wanted to make sure she would make a good impression if one of the guys was single.”

He grinned. “No way.”

That’s what they did for the rest of the afternoon, swapped stories about when she was a doula and his crazy football world. He told her about running the Storm and the idiot football players he had to deal with—especially the guys who had recently ended up in jail.

“I don’t know how you do it,” she said, as she ate another bite of lobster.

He grunted and wiped his face. Yes, he would wipe his face, no need to be disgusting because they were friends. “Mostly, the guys are good. They’ve been through a lot with me the past year. I mean, no matter how much I don’t think I’m making knee-jerk decisions based on crap I’m going through, I might be.” He shrugged, thinking this was probably the first time he could admit that, even though people had suggested it to him.

She grinned at him. “I think you’re doing good.”

He pointed at her. “You don’t watch football, do you?”

She shook her head. “Nope, but I might after this.”

Warmth filled him. She was truly pretty Cam thought, looking at the smattering of freckles across her nose that had intensified with the sun. He liked that it felt like true friendship between them. She was ripping into the lobster, and she didn’t pay any attention to how she looked other than the fact she wanted to reapply sunscreen every second, which he understood because of her complexion.

He found he wanted to know more about her. “So your mom and infamous busybody sister live on a ranch?” She’d mentioned something about them.

She nodded. “Yes. My sister and her husband live just down the road from my folks. They each have their own property but they help each other out.”

He grunted. “We really do have the same sister.”

“Sometimes it’s too close. My older sister is married with two kids and just wants me to be back in that same place, ya know? But my mom doesn’t want that. She just wants me happy. She has offered forever to have me back on the ranch, helping them. I do that a lot, but I just knew if I went back there, I would never leave. I’d just end up feeling lost out there. Not that my horse, Sheeba, isn’t the best.”

Cam grinned. “You have a horse named Sheeba.”

She grinned back. “Hey, I like her to feel like royalty.”

Cam laughed and found this woman interesting. It made him realize he hadn’t found a woman interesting for a long time. “Why? She’s a horse.”

“Horses are smart.”

“I know. I own a lot of them.”

She stopped for a minute. “Dang.” She wiped her mouth. “Right. Famous billionaire guy. Man, some people might think I was in one of those romance movies. Or”—she snapped—“a Hallmark Christmas movie.” She grinned. “A friendship movie,” she corrected.

He gave a sardonic laugh. “I’m not really one of those type of guys.”

“What type is that?”

He grunted. “Kat used to watch those all Christmas. The ones that guys like Grant Kent star in. What was his latest movie?”

Of course, she knew this. “The Christmas Girlfriend.”

Cam grinned. “Yeah, stuff like that—all happy, and it ends with kissing and a happily ever after. Not in the cards for a guy like me.”

She looked sad.

“What?” he asked.

“I hope it’s in the cards for guys like you.”

His heart raced. “Why?”

She blinked, and her hand went to her necklace. He wanted to ask what she was holding but thought it was probably something tied to her husband or son. Her eyes suddenly met his. “Because I hope it might be in the cards for someone like me.” Her voice was whispery and a bit high pitched. She sniffed and looked away. “Never mind.”

It unsettled him, and he found himself telling her exactly what he’d told his sister many times. “No. My happily ever after is getting justice for Kat. That’s all.”

Her eyes met his, and she put down her lobster, wiping her face. “That’s all you want?”

“Yep.”

“Forever.”

“Yep.”

“And what if you don’t get it?”

He let out another sardonic laugh. “My sister says I should forgive the guy.” Anger burned through him. “But I will never forgive him. I will find him and punish him. I will. No matter how long it takes.” Yes, that was the truth, and it burned through him. He would.

“I believe you,” she said with the same force.

He nodded.

She nodded back. “You will find him.”

“Dang straight.”