The Price of Passion (Texas Cattleman's Club: Rags to Riches 1)

He reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a cashier’s check and handed it to her. “I stopped at the bank earlier so I could make good on my part of our deal.”

Right. Their other deal. Not about staying apart, but about getting him into the TCC. Fine. That was good. She was pleased. Really. He wasn’t here to kiss her again—he was simply here to wrap up a business deal. She unfolded the check, glanced at the amount and gasped.

Astonished, she looked up at him. “A hundred thousand dollars?”

One eyebrow arched. “Not enough?”

“No. I mean yes.” She shook her head, took a breath, and when she could speak again without babbling, she said, “It is enough. It’s more than generous. I wasn’t expecting so much.”

And didn’t know what to make of it. Was he doing this just to help? Or was he trying to impress her? Because he had.

He grinned briefly and reached for the check. “I’m happy to take it back and give you less.”

Beth whipped the check into the pocket of her cream-colored capris and shook her head. She might be confused about a lot of things at the moment, but on this, she was perfectly clear. “Oh, no, you don’t. This is great. It’s going to make a huge difference for the children’s wing. Seriously, thanks.”

“Not a problem.”

She kept her gaze locked on his and tried to read what she saw there. But he was stoic, hiding whatever was running through his mind. Was the donation his only reason for stopping in? And why did she hope it wasn’t? Had she learned nothing in the last fifteen years? He’d left and she’d stayed, building a life. And she was damn good at it.

It had taken a lot of work, but she had thrived without Cam. Was she really willing to put all of that aside in favor of the kind of passion she remembered so vividly?

Yes, she knew he was no longer the simple ranch hand she’d once loved. Knew he had money. But, really, she’d never thought about how rich he actually was now. What else had changed? She wondered what her father would make of the man he was so sure would amount to nothing more than a “ranch hand.”

“So now you’ll talk to the TCC membership board?”

She came up out of her thoughts and told herself to pay attention. “I will. That was our deal.” She’d stop by today to see Burt Wheeler, Cam’s father-in-law. Just thinking that gave her a twinge of...what? Regret? Envy? Cam had married Julie Wheeler and lived a life with her that Beth had once thought would be hers. It felt small and petty to be jealous of a dead woman, but that didn’t change what she was feeling.

At the same time, though, she had to wonder if Beth and Cam had run off together so long ago, would things have worked out the way they had? Would he be a successful entrepreneur? Would she be working for the family corporation? She’d never know. More questions with no answers.

“While I’m here, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” he said, and she noticed him turning the brim of his hat in his hands.

Was this what the big check had been about? To soften her up for whatever else was coming? He looked nervous. But that couldn’t be the case. After all, Cam had never had trouble going after exactly what he wanted. It’s one of the things she’d found so exciting about him.

“What is it?”

“You don’t have to sound so suspicious.” He smiled and shook his head. “Are you so much like your father now that you’re wary of everything?”

Another stab at her late father, but on this one she could agree. Her dad had looked at everything with a cynical eye. Including—maybe especially—Camden Guthrie. She had been the daughter of a very wealthy man, and Cam was the son of horse trainers. Trent had never trusted Cam, and once he left town, Beth had asked herself if she shouldn’t have been more like her father. Still, she couldn’t blame Cam for holding on to a grudge against the man who’d thought of him as not worthy.

But if Cam didn’t understand that her cynicism where he was concerned had more to do with what he had done to her than anything her father had done, then he was being deliberately oblivious.

“No,” she said at last. “It’s not my dad who affected my trust issues. I learned fifteen years ago to be wary of people.”

His eyes flashed, and she knew she’d scored a hit. Somehow, it didn’t give her the sense of satisfaction she’d been expecting. What good would it do her to throw proverbial stones? Holding up one hand for peace, she said, “Sorry. Never mind all that. Just tell me what you wanted to talk to me about.”

Nodding slowly, he kept his dark eyes on hers. Beth could have warmed herself with the heat in them. “All right. It’s about the other deal we made yesterday.”

“You mean keeping our distance from each other?” She laughed shortly. “Yeah, since you’re here, that one clearly isn’t working so far.”

“And it won’t, either.” He held on to his hat with one hand and tapped it idly against his left thigh. “Avoiding each other isn’t going to work. I’m home to stay, Beth, so we’re going to be seeing each other plenty. What’re we supposed to do, run and hide every time we spot each other on Main Street? Because I’m not doing that.”

Running and hiding were the furthest things from her mind right now, too. “Me, either. Okay, what’s your solution?”

“That we do the opposite,” he said bluntly. “Instead of avoiding each other, we start spending time together.”

Her stomach spun. She was having a hard enough time around Cam as it was. Spending more time with him would only make that more difficult—not easier. “And that solves...what?”

“It gets us used to each other again,” he said. “Accustomed to being together and not giving in to the attraction between us. With any luck, after some time passes, that’ll cool off.”