That Night in Texas

Cam nodded. “I eat with Ryder quite often and your place is one of our favorite places.”

“I was in the kitchen and I saw you.” She didn’t tell him she’d felt like she’d been hit by a two-by-four, that her baby girl had been in the restaurant that day and he’d actually laid eyes on her before. Why complicate the story? “I asked who you were and then I did some research.”

“What did you find out?”

“You’re rich. You’re successful. Along with Ryder Currin and Sterling Perry, you’re considered to be one of the most influential businesspeople in Houston.” Vivi picked at the rip in her jeans and stared out the window, idly noticing that they were just five minutes from her house. “It always worried me that Clem had no one, and if I died, she would become a ward of the state or, possibly worse, end up with my mother. I didn’t know you, but I presumed that you would be a better option if something happened to me. So I listed you as my emergency contact, gave you custody of her in my will.”

“And you didn’t think that it might a good idea to tell me that I had a kid?”

She had, occasionally. But then she’d wavered, scared of the consequences. Because, while researching Cam, she’d discovered that the man was a control freak, a lone wolf, and that he rarely, if ever, sought business advice. It was his way, colleagues and associates were often quoted as saying, or the highway.

And that didn’t work for her.

Cam pulled up to her sidewalk, parked and switched off the growly engine. Silence filled the car and Vivi slowly removed his sunglasses and carefully folded the arms.

“So why didn’t you contact me when you found out who I was?” Cam asked.

Vivi placed the sunglasses on the lid of the console and met his eyes. She decided to tell him the truth, or some of the truth. “Because I knew that your coming into our lives would change it. And I like our life, I like what I’ve done with it.”

Can rested his wrist on the steering wheel. “Change isn’t always bad, Vivi.”

Vivi opened the door, and when her feet touched the sidewalk, she looked back at him through the open car door. “No, it’s not always bad but it’s frequently hard. And messy.”

* * *

Vivi’s house was a small bungalow in a solidly middle-class area. Cam slammed his car door closed and looked up and down the empty street. It was early afternoon and the streets were deserted, with most people at work. But up and down the street, he could see signs that families lived here. A tricycle lay on the postage-stamp lawn belonging to Vivi’s neighbor, a soccer ball rested against a rock next to the front door of the house opposite. Cam followed Vivi up the path to her front door and wondered how she was going to break into her own house, seeing that her house keys were probably somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico by now.

Vivi didn’t miss a beat. She just lifted her mat, removed a brass key and inserted it into the flimsy lock on the front door. Seriously? Who did that anymore? In his previous life that would be the first place he’d look. “You have got to be kiddin’ me.”

Vivi frowned at him as she pushed open the front door and stepped inside the cool interior. “Problem?”

“I cannot believe you keep a front-door key under your mat. Have you heard about these characters called burglars? Rapists? Serial killers?” Cam demanded, shutting the door behind him and flipping the dead bolt. He saw her surprise and threw up his hands. “Please, please tell me that you lock your doors when you are here alone.”

“It’s a safe neighborhood.”

Oh, God, that meant she didn’t. Cam slapped his hands on his hips and closed his eyes, striving for calm. He knew it was a long shot, but it was worth a try, if only to get his blood pressure to drop. “You do have an alarm?”

“Nope.”

“Mace? Pepper spray? A baseball bat?”

Vivi toed off her ruined sneakers and left them next to the door. Her feet were grubby, but he could still see the pale pink shade of polish on her toes. Sexy feet, he thought. He now remembered nibbling the arch of that elegant foot, and the way she’d shivered when he scraped his teeth against her skin.