The Price Of Passion

Gracie had grown up on the Wingate ranch, since her parents had worked for Beth’s parents. As kids, they’d played and run wild on the ranch. In school, they hadn’t really hung out because Beth was three years older than Gracie. But at the ranch, they’d been close and supported each other through the inevitable crushes on boys. And when Gracie had graduated from college, Beth had hired her as an administrative assistant. Best move she’d ever made, since Gracie was as organized as Beth, and together they kept the many different charities Beth managed straight and growing.

Gracie studied her for a long minute, then said, “Okay, something is really going on. Tell me.”

Beth waited as Pam served her the usual. A club sandwich and a tall glass of unsweetened black ice tea. “Thanks, Pam.”

“You bet.” She turned to Gracie. “Can I get you another soda?”

“No, thanks. I’m good.” To prove it, she took a sip, then idly picked up one of the french fries that accompanied her burger.

“Okay then,” Pam said. She looked at both women and added, “Need anything, just ask.”

There was comfort, Beth thought, in the ordinary. In the routine of life in Royal. Of knowing the people in town and realizing that they knew and cared for her, too. So she’d just cling to that mental comfort while she thought about the discomfort of seeing Cam.

She took a sip of tea and blurted, “I just ran into Camden at the bank.”

Gracie, being the excellent friend she was, didn’t need more. “Oh, my God! That had to be awful. Everyone watching…”

“Exactly.” That had actually been the hardest part of the whole thing. Beth had felt the curious gazes locked on the pair of them, as if everyone at the bank had been waiting for a big scene. Heck, she’d half expected one herself. The last time she and Cam had talked, it hadn’t gone well.

“How’s he look?” Gracie asked.

“Delicious,” Beth muttered.

“Uh-oh.”

Beth’s gaze shot to her friend’s. “Oh, no. No worries there. He’s gorgeous and tall and sexy and—” She stopped and took a breath. If she really wanted her hormones to die down, she had to stop thinking about just how good Cam had looked. “It doesn’t matter. I made my choice fifteen years ago.”

“Uh-huh.”

It was Gracie’s sarcastic tone more than her words that caught Beth’s attention. “I’m sorry? Whose side are you on again?”

“Yours, but,” her friend added, “I know bull when I hear it, too.”

Like a balloon meeting a sharp pin, Beth simply deflated. Shoulders slumped, she took another sip of her tea and admitted, “Fine. I’m still susceptible to the Guthrie magic.”

“There you go. The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

Beth laughed shortly. “Is there a Getting Over Cam Guthrie meeting I could attend?”

“You’re there already,” Gracie said. “I’m here to help you be strong. To avoid all thoughts of sexy Cam and remember just how badly it all went back in the day.”

“Not like I could forget it,” Beth mumbled, and picked up a triangle of her sandwich. Taking a bite she didn’t really want, she methodically chewed, and as she did, she remembered the last time she’d seen Cam. Back when he was all she could see. Back when she believed he loved her. Back before he left town with Julie Wheeler, never to be seen again.

Her heart thudded in her chest, and what felt like an ice-cold stone dropped into the pit of her stomach.

“There you go.” Gracie gave her a smile. “Cam was the past, and now you have Justin.”

Oh, she didn’t want to get into Justin McCoy right now. That was over, too, though he hadn’t accepted the fact yet.

Deliberately she took another bite of her sandwich, chewed and said, “Enough about my pitiful love life. Did you track down the caterer for the Fire Department Open House?”

“I did.” Accepting the change of subject, Gracie dug into her black oversize leather bag and pulled out a manila folder. “Turns out she’s been in Galveston for a family thing.”

“That’s nice,” Beth murmured. “But she’s on track and we’re covered for the event this Saturday?”

“Oh, absolutely. She’s emailed me the finished menu for your final approval. I’ve got it right here.” Gracie handed over a single sheet of paper, and while Beth looked it over, she continued. “She says they’ll be there by ten a.m. to start the setup.”

“Okay, that should work.” She handed back the paper. “The menu looks great. Finger food, easy to carry around so people can talk and walk or sit down if they want to.”

“I’ll let her know.”

Beth nodded. “The open house at the fire station starts at one, and I want to hold the raffle by three. Give us time to get as many people there as possible.”

“It’s a brilliant idea, Beth.” Gracie shook her head in admiration. “Getting Connolly motors to donate a new truck for the raffle? A nice write-off for them, and raffling it off to raise money for the firehouse is really going well.”

Beth thought about that for a minute and acknowledged that her assistant was right. By the time the raffle was done, the Royal Fire Department would have enough money to renovate the old station and buy new equipment without dinging the town for it.

With the catering, the live country music band she’d hired and the guided tours of the firehouse, Beth knew that most of the town would turn out for the event. All of them would be hoping to win that shiny red truck.

“Well, now that we’ve got that one figured out, let’s talk about the food drive for the local shelter.”

“Great.” Gracie dipped her head, and her long, dark brown hair fell across her shoulders. “We’ve put up signs at the schools, asking kids to bring in canned or boxed food. Granted, it’s the end of the school year, so that won’t last long. Still, it’s going great, so far. Plus, the grocery store is pitching in, running a special on canned foods. They’ve set up donation boxes at both entrances, trying to make it easy for people to pitch in.”

“Perfect. It’s only June,” Beth said, opening up her phone and checking through the lists on her notepad. “I want to make sure everyone’s fully stocked long before winter.”

“You bet. I’ve got Tucker Davis hauling the donations to our storage units.” She glanced up. “The drive ends next Friday, and Tucker said he and his brothers can deliver all of it to the shelter, so we don’t have to hire a separate company.”

“Awesome.” She made a quick note, reminding herself to call Tucker herself and thank him for his help.

While Gracie went through the inventory, Beth’s mind wandered. Naturally, it took a sharp turn back to Cam Guthrie. He’d been such a huge part of her life, and then he was gone.

He’d unexpectedly married Julie Wheeler, a girl from their class, and the “happy” couple had left Royal—all within a month of Beth refusing to marry him.

He’d turned to Julie so heartbreakingly fast it had forced Beth to admit that Cam had never really loved her. It had all been a lie, and she was lucky that she’d had the sense to end it before she’d married the man.

Lucky, she reminded herself.

She was alone.

And lucky.

Two

Beth was beginning to feel depressed and wasn’t going to put up with it. “You know what, Gracie?” she said suddenly, “Let’s eat our lunch and let the rest go for today.”

Surprise flashed in the other woman’s eyes. “What about the masquerade charity ball at the TCC?”

Beth frowned a little and nibbled at a french fry. That was a big one. They’d be raising money for the children’s wing of the local hospital. So that ball had to come off perfectly. She smiled to herself. There was nothing to worry about. It was months away and they were both on top of the situation.

“It’ll be perfect, Gracie, because you and I will make sure of it. But we don’t have to do it today. The ball’s not until October, so we’ve got a little wiggle room. Enough, at least, for us to enjoy the rest of the day anyway.”

“You convinced me,” Gracie said, smiling. She picked up her hamburger and took a bite.

“That was easy.” Beth laughed, too, and bit into her own sandwich. When she’d swallowed, she asked, “So, did you get your Powerball ticket?”

Gracie grinned. “You bet. My mom always said if you don’t play, you can’t win. So I buy my ticket once a month, just like she always did—until she decided to save her money instead.” Laughing a little, she added, “If I win, I’m going to buy Mom a big house in Florida near her sister, and then I’m going to start up that event planning business I’ve always wanted.”

Beth sipped at her tea. “You know, I’m still willing to back you in that. If you won’t take money as a gift, we could call it a loan. Just enough to get you started.”

Gracie shook her head firmly. “Nope. Thank you though, Beth. I appreciate it. But I’m saving my money, and when I have enough, I’ll apply for a small business loan. I need to do it on my own. But once I’m open I may be ready for investors…” She grinned at that. “And maybe I’ll win the lottery!”

“God, you’re stubborn.” Beth laughed and picked up her sandwich again.

“That’s why we get along so well,” Gracie told her. “We have so much in common.”

Wryly she said, “Good point.”

For the next half hour, Beth didn’t think about Cam and what him being back in town might cost her.

Cam was still reeling from bumping into Beth at the bank. Hell, it had been ages since he’d seen her. He for damn sure hadn’t expected his body’s instant response to her, and there was no denying it, either. One look into her eyes, and he was back in the past, on hot summer nights, in the bed of his truck, lying on a blanket, tangled up with a naked Beth.

For years, he’d pushed those memories into a deep, dark hole in his mind. He had been married to Julie after all, and she was the one who had deserved his loyalty. They’d had a good marriage, he told himself. Together, they’d built a house-flipping business that had made them more money than either of them had dreamed possible. They’d been happy. Until Julie got sick. Then it had been doctors and hospitals and a fast slide to the end. In a matter of months, Cam had lost her and any interest he might have had to keep their business going.

But with her gone, there was nothing to hold him in California, and the pull of his roots was too strong to fight.

Now he was back and he’d bought the ranch he and his parents had once worked on. The Circle K… “Have to change that,” he muttered, stepping out of his truck to stand and take a good look around.

The sun was hotter now, beating down on him until he thought that maybe Texas was planning on giving him a baptism of fire as a welcome home. The air was still, not a hint of wind to rustle the live oaks surrounding the ranch house.

He turned to look at the place and felt a stir of pride. Buying this ranch was satisfying in a way Cam hadn’t really expected. It was as if coming back to Royal was returning to Texas, but owning this place was coming home.

He’d only been back in town for a week, but this house… It was as if it had been waiting for him all these years. It needed fixing up, definitely some updates. The kitchen alone made him cringe and ready to grab a sledgehammer. And he had plans for expansion, too. Some of it he’d do himself, because fifteen years of being both entrepreneur and carpenter was hard to shake. But for most of what he wanted done, he’d already hired Olivia Turner and her construction company.

He leaned back against his brand-new gleaming black truck and took it all in. Two stories, the house was built of river stone, boasted a red tile roof, and its design successfully mixed Spanish and craftsman styles. There was a wide balcony around the second floor of the house and a wraparound porch on the ground floor.

The view from the front was a wide sweep of ranchland, the corral and, off to the side, a barn that was painted the rich, dark green of young meadow grass. There were outbuildings for the ranch hands, a bunkhouse and a separate house for the foreman, Henry Jordan and his family.

Cam’s plans to turn this place into a sort of working dude ranch meant that he’d need Olivia’s company to build a dozen cottages for guests and another stable for the extra horses he was going to have to buy. Which meant, he told himself, they’d also require more ranch hands, but he’d leave the hiring to Henry. He’d be working with them and knew practically every cowboy in Texas, so there was no point in Cam sticking his nose in. He was a big believer in delegating. Find the best person for the job and then get out of their way.

One day, Cam would think about making the house bigger because he wanted a family, eventually. He and Julie had tried, but things hadn’t worked out.

When his cell phone rang, Cam reached for it gratefully. He was willing to thank whoever it was taking him out of his own head for a while. He glanced at the screen, smiled and answered.

“Hi, Darren.”

“Hey, do you miss us yet?”

Cam laughed a little. Darren Casey was his partner in a home improvement line of products they’d started up four years ago. Darren had the manufacturing experience and Cam had his name and the fame he’d built as a house flipper.

He hadn’t been looking to be famous, just to make a good living. But, as word had spread about Cam and Julie’s gift for rehabbing houses, they’d earned sponsors, clients and, finally, their own show for two years on a home and garden network. Then Julie had gotten sick and…

Shrugging out of his suit jacket, he loosened his tie, undid the collar button on his shirt and wished desperately for the gray Stetson he’d left in the house that morning. He undid the cuffs on his shirt and rolled the sleeves up to his elbows.

“That depends,” he answered, only half joking, “what’s the weather in Huntington Beach like?”

Darren laughed. “Same as every year at this time. About sixty-five and cloudy.”

Right now, Cam thought with a glance at the cloudless, brassy sky, the June Gloom of Southern California sounded great.

“Are you frying in Texas already?”

Damned if he’d admit to that with it only being June, so Cam changed the subject. “You call to talk about the weather?”

“Not really. We got an offer to expand our line of tools into the biggest home improvement hardware outlet in the country.”

“Yeah?” He grinned and leaned back against the truck. They were already in a nationwide department store, but this offer would seriously put their tools into the hands of do-it-yourselfers across the country.

“Tell me the details.” While the other man talked, Cam let his gaze wander across the house, the land and the future he planned to build there.

Beth used to love this house, he remembered. They had talked about buying it one day, raising a family here. But that was when they were kids and the future looked big and bright and the only problem he had was keeping his hands off her whenever they were together.

Back then, Cam had had no money but lots of dreams. Now he had enough money for ten men, but no dreams.

He’d come home to change that.

So much for taking the day off.

Beth hadn’t been able to stand it. If she was going to be seeing Cam on a regular basis, then she wanted to lay down some ground rules. She’d practically run from him at the bank and that really bothered her. Why should she run? He should have turned around the moment he’d seen her. But, no. Cam Guthrie did what he wanted, when he wanted. Always had.

Well, she promised herself, until now.

Which was why when they’d finished lunch, she’d left Gracie in town and steered her car toward Cam’s new ranch. If her stomach was dipping and rolling at the prospect of being near him again, she ignored it. Eventually she’d get used to having him in town, right? All she had to do was get past the first rush of whatever was driving her crazy.

The road stretched out in front of her, and Beth realized she could have driven to him in her sleep. She knew every dip, every curve and every damn oak lining the road. Just as she’d once known Cam—or thought she had, anyway.

“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “The past is gone, this is now.”

Even as she thought about it, that past roared into life in her mind. The images tumbling through her brain were so vivid, so real, she had to shake her head to dislodge them or risk driving her car right into a tree. It didn’t matter that she could remember how Cam had smiled at her. How he would swoop in to kiss her and lift her off her feet as he turned her in a slow circle while their mouths fused. Didn’t matter that he’d left her because of one fight.

That he’d turned to Julie overnight and married her as if Beth hadn’t meant a thing to him after all. How much time had she wasted wondering if there’d been signs all along that he didn’t really love her? Had he been cheating on her with Julie behind her back? She wanted to know—and she didn’t. Just like she didn’t want to revisit her old relationship with everyone she bumped into just because Cam was back in town.

He’d been gone a long time and she’d been here. Building her life. Her reputation. She wasn’t going to risk any of it just because Camden Guthrie had decided to return to Royal.

She punched the accelerator and was suddenly glad she’d left the top down on her bright scarlet BMW. Yes, her hair would look like hell when she got to Cam’s place, but hopefully, the rushing wind would push all memories out of her mind.

No such luck.

Because as she made a left into the wide drive, those memories flooded into her consciousness whether she wanted them or not.

Oaks still lined the drive, though of course they were bigger now. Flowers grew wild and tangled in the once tidy beds, and the drive itself needed to be regraveled. But the house at the end of the drive was as she remembered it, if in need of some fresh paint on the storm shutters and the front porch. Beth had always loved this place, but now she wondered if it was only because Cam had lived here.

“Doesn’t matter,” she assured herself.

His truck was parked out front. As she tore up the drive, Cam opened the front door and moved to the edge of the porch to watch her approach. Her heart did that frantic, racing beat again, and as much as she fought it, Beth was half-afraid this would always be her reaction to him. But that didn’t mean she had to act on it.

“For God’s sake, remember that,” she muttered as she threw her car into Park and turned off the engine. Quickly Beth ran both hands through her hair, then opened the door and stepped out. The air was breathless—or maybe that was just her.

She looked up at him. “Hello, Cam.”

He nodded. “Beth. Didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.

“Yes, well,” she answered honestly, “I didn’t expect me here, either.”

He laughed shortly and took the six wide steps down to the drive. She’d always loved watching him walk. It was definitely a cowboy amble, a slow, deliberate stride that made a woman think that he did everything that slowly. And Beth was here to testify that he certainly did. At least some of the time. He could also be fast and explosive. Either way, she admitted silently, was memorable.

Cam had traded his expensive suit for a black T-shirt that clung to his broad chest and a pair of jeans that hugged his long legs and stacked on the toes of his black boots.

Danger! Danger! She heard the warning shriek in her mind, but she was here now and it was too late to walk away without looking exactly like the coward she would be if she left.

“What can I do for you, Beth?”

Oh, there was a loaded question. She could think of so many things he could do for her. And that was not what she should be thinking.

She inhaled sharply, gave herself a silent, stern warning and said, “Cam, I thought we should talk, now that you’re back home.”

He came closer, stopped a foot from her, leaned against his truck and folded his arms over his chest. “Talk about what?”

“Seriously?” Beth stared at him for a long second or two. “You can ask me that?”

“What’s got you so worried, Beth? Me? Or you?”

A little of both, but he didn’t need to know that. “Please. I’m not a love-blinded teenager anymore, Cam. I’m not here to throw myself at your feet.”

“Good to know.” He pushed one hand through his hair. “Fine. You want to talk? Let’s talk about why we have to dredge up the past.”

“Oh, we don’t,” she assured him. “I’m here to talk about what happens now that you’re back.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Look,” she continued, since he was just staring at her. Damn it. “I just think we need to have some ground rules. So we both know where we stand.”

“Is that right?” He straightened up, and one corner of his mouth quirked. “And I suppose you get to decide what the rules are?”

“You bet I do,” she countered quickly. “I’m the one who’s been here. You left.”

All semblance of a smile left his face. “And you know why.”

She blinked at him, stunned. Did he honestly believe that? “No, Camden. Actually, I don’t know. And fifteen years later, I don’t want to know. What I want is to not be gossiped about. Again.”

“Bull.” One word. Clipped. Angry. “You know what the hell happened as well as I do. As for not wanting to be gossiped about? Can’t avoid that, Beth. Gossip is the blood of Royal.”

“Don’t tell me about the town you haven’t set foot in over a decade.”

“I grew up here, too. Far as I can tell, nothing much has changed.”

He had a point, but that didn’t mean she had to admit it. She spun around, took two steps, then turned back to face him. “This is my home, Camden.”

“Mine, too,” he said tightly. “I’m here and I’m not leaving. You’re going to have to get used to it. I know you prefer having everything run the way you arrange it, but some things are just out of your control.”

Again. Stunned. “Maybe I do have a little bit of a control issue, but let’s remember who it was who had our whole lives planned out. That was you, Cam.”

“Yeah. Worked out great, didn’t it?”

Beth felt as if the top of her head might just blow off. She deliberately took several deep breaths and reminded herself how far she’d come from the girl she’d been so long ago. She didn’t owe Cam anything, but she owed herself plenty.

“I didn’t come out here to fight,” she said calmly.

“And yet…”

She gritted her teeth. “We have to come to an arrangement.” Cam was insisting he was home to stay, but she wasn’t sure she believed him. He’d been in California for so long, why wouldn’t he get tired of ranching life and run right back to the beaches?

Off in the distance, Beth heard the whinny of horses and a couple of the working cowboys shouting to each other. The wind was still, the sun was blasting down on them, and Camden’s brown eyes were filled with shifting shadows.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked.

She lifted her chin, met his gaze and stiffly said, “We keep our distance from each other for one.”

“Not a problem.”

That was easy. A little insulting, but easy. She remembered a time when spending one day away from each other had been like a short visit to hell.

As if he could read her thoughts, his mouth curved again. “What’s the matter, Beth? Afraid you can’t keep your hands off me?”

She gritted her teeth again. Why had she once found him so irresistible? “I think I can manage.”

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

“Then you agree?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“What?” She hadn’t expected that. They’d been apart forever. She hadn’t seen him in years. He’d been married to someone else, for God’s sake. Why would he have a problem with the two of them avoiding each other? “Why not?”