That Night in Texas

“Thank you.” Vivi placed the too-big sunglasses on her face and sighed with relief. The lenses cut the glare and her headache retreated from excruciating to simply horrible.

Heading toward the exit of the parking lot, Cam sent her a glance. “Where to?”

“Are you sure you don’t mind driving me?” Vivi asked, half turning in her seat so that she could rest her pounding head on the soft seat. “It might be a bit out of your way.”

“The address, Vivi.”

Vivi recited her address and Cam activated the on-board GPS.

At the first red light, Cam turned his head to look at her. “You up to some conversation?”

“About Clem?”

“She’s the most important part of what I want to talk about,” Cam replied, accelerating across the intersection. He shifted, picked up speed and shifted again. He drove like he made love, with complete confidence and self-assurance. Was there anything about this man she didn’t find sexy?

“I’m impatient by nature,” he said, “but if you can’t talk now, I will wait. Reluctantly.”

Vivi pulled her eyes off his hands and sat up, stretching out her legs. She stifled a groan, her muscles screaming, volubly reminding her that she’d been in an accident, that she’d narrowly escaped drowning in a car.

Cam’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Now that I know about Clem, what are you expecting from me? Child support is a given. Give me a number and I’ll set up a recurring monthly payment.”

Cam had gone from zero to sixty and she was trailing far, far behind. “But what about proof? Paternity test? Don’t you want some sort of guarantee that she’s yours?”

Cam’s brief look was arrow sharp and laser intense. “Is she mine?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then. Let’s move on.”

Vivi stared at him, shocked. How could he just take what she was saying at face value? How could he trust her? She didn’t trust anybody, especially when it came to Clem.

“Vivianne, thanks to my past, I’ve got a near infallible BS detector. I can spot a lie from fifty paces. If you want to go through the whole dog and pony show of paternity tests, we can do that, but it’s not necessary. You say she’s mine, I believe you. The end.”

What kind of past gave a person the ability to read people, to spot lies? Vivi really wanted to know. She opened her mouth to ask, saw Cam’s don’t-go-there expression and backed off. Okay, message received.

Going back to his previous statement, she said, “I don’t need anything from you.”

She didn’t. She and Clem were fine. She had a good job—the restaurant would reopen soon, any other option would not be tolerated!—and a great support system, and she was, finally, happy, dammit. She was the master of her destiny, the captain of her ship. She would not allow some rich guy, no matter how sexy and how much she wanted to kiss him, to walk into her life and rearrange it. She’d cried and fought and hustled and worked her butt off to be independent. She would never allow anyone to control her actions again.

Vivi placed her hand on her stomach and hauled in a deep breath. “We don’t need you, Camden.”

She heard his swift intake of breath and her eyes flew up to his. For a moment, for a split second, she suspected that she’d hurt him, that her words were like arrows hitting his soul. Then he turned those cool, mocking eyes on hers and sent her a cold smile. “Well, then, if that was the way you wanted to play it, then you shouldn’t have put my name as your emergency contact.” He gestured to her muddy clothing. “Because, you know, sometimes emergencies happen.”

Crap. He had her there. Folding her arms across her chest, Vivi stared straight ahead, feeling like her head was about to split open. She’d made the choice to list Cam as her emergency contact, to give him custody of Clem in case of an unfortunate event.

What she’d never expected to happen actually had. And that meant dealing with Cam, working her way through this quagmire. As much as she wanted to, she simply couldn’t wish him away. And even if she could, she doubted that she would. He was so compelling, utterly mesmerizing. His charisma hadn’t dimmed, and he was, if possible, even more attractive than he’d been years ago. He was one of those men people paid attention to, possibly because he didn’t give a damn whether you did or not.