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“I need you.” The words were clipped. Dour.
Unsmiling, Cam lifted his scarred eyebrow. “Now?”
“Yes.”
I worked up the courage to turn my head and meet Shep’s stony gaze. My attempt at smiling was met with a flat expression.
“Alright.” Cam handed me the papers. “Would you mind placing these in the recycling?”
Unable to speak, I nodded. The men retreated into Shep’s office, and I shivered as a chill swept down my spine.
Bennett had been wrong, I thought.
Nessa was not the one who needed courting.
Twenty-Four
In the days that followed, I’d taken to blatantly ignoring the conundrum of Cam and whether or not he might still like me. Instead, I tackled the bigger problem of Shep, but made little headway in how to assure him I didn’t want his son’s money. My mother was of the mind that I should simply “kick him where the sun don’t shine,” but I headed that one off fast.
“I’m not sure assault is the right answer here, Mama,” I said into the phone Wednesday morning while I applied my makeup before work.
The speaker crackled as she opened something wrapped in cellophane. “But it’ll get the job done real quick like.”
“Come on. Can you think of any other way to deal with this?”
Mom’s tone turned contemplative. Fake contemplative. “I don’t know what he’s so worried about. It’s not like you’re actually interested in Richie Rich, right?”
I stared at my reflection as I brushed on highlighter and said nothing.
“Right, Shay?”
“I don’t need that tone,” I said. “And I don’t need you pretending like you didn’t know exactly what was happening in my teenage brain all those years ago. You’ve always been able to read my mind.”
“Yeah, baby, but you ain’t a teenager no more. You’re a grown woman with a reputation to maintain. Slippin’ into your boss’s bed ain’t no way to do that.”
“He’d have to want me for that to happen.”
Mom had the gall to laugh. “You think that boy don’t want you? Shay, darlin’, for someone so smart, you can be dumb as dirt.”
I scowled at the phone even though she couldn’t see me. “I’m serious, Mama. Other than the coffee and that weird moment Monday with him touching my cheek, there’s been no sign he’s interested.”
She let a dramatic pause pass, then said, “Well, I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.”
“You are utterly unhelpful, is what you are.”
She clicked her tongue in offense. “I gave you my advice. Don’t sleep with your boss. Never ends well, especially when his boss don’t like you. You’ll end up rode hard and put up unemployed.”
I lowered my voice to a hiss. “I don’t plan on sleeping with him.”
She laughed. “Alright then. Call me when you’re pregnant.”
“Bye, Mom,” I said pointedly.
“Love you, baby.”
Twenty-Five
On Sunday, Ivy drove us to the expo in her fancy SUV. I’d confided my plans to her yesterday, then begged for her spacious vehicle to transport the materials. My Saturday was dedicated to mixing the concoction of orange bitters, honey and almond extract, and freezing hundreds of fancy square ice cubes. All it would need was a couple of ounces of Honey and an orange twist.
