grin.
She ducked her head sheepishly, because she'd made many references to him being all those things over the year or so of them skirting their attraction-mainly, to provoke him, she had to admit. But she'd learned a lot about Cameron and his personality over the past few weeks of being with him. Although Cameron definitely had this serious, focused side to him, he wasn't nearly as straitlaced as she'd once believed.
Resting her head against the seat, she glanced toward Cameron, admiring his strong, handsome profile. 'Give me a quick rundown on your family so I know what to expect.'
'Okay,' he agreed easily. 'There's my mom, Barbara, who works for the school district, and my father, Ed, who's an insurance adjuster. The two of them have been married for more than forty-three years.'
She was surprised to learn that his father wasn't connected to the investigative business in any way. 'With your father working for an insurance company, how did you become interested in being a private investigator?'
'My first year of college, I took on an apprentice-type job at the local police department as an assistant to a detective doing grunt work.' He turned the steering wheel as he spoke, and the car took a swerve in the road with ease. 'It started as a part-time job to make some extra cash, but I came to realize that I was incredibly intrigued by the whole investigative process. I've always been one of those kids who loves puzzles and mysteries and solving them, so becoming a P.I. was the perfect career for me.'
She had to agree that he was good at his job and seemed to really love what he did. She envied him that. 'And your sisters?'
'There's three of them. All older than me. Like you, I'm the youngest.'
She hadn't realized they had that in common, both of them being the baby of the family. 'Except I'm sure you didn't have to worry about your sisters being overly protective of you, checking out your dates in high school, and threatening them with bodily harm if they dared to touch you.'
He grinned, his eyes sparkling with amusement. 'No, I suppose it's very different being the only boy, as opposed to being an only girl with older brothers. But trust me,' he went on, his tone wry, 'I had my own share of headaches having to deal with three hormonal girls in the same house.' He shuddered for effect.
She laughed, and because she'd been one of those hormonal teenagers at one time, she could easily imagine what he'd had to deal with-times three. 'Are they married?'
'Yep. All three of them. To great guys, too.'
There was a sense of pride in his voice, as if he approved of his sisters' choice of husbands. Despite him being the youngest of the family, he still obviously had those strong brotherly instincts her own siblings possessed. It had to be a guy thing, she thought.
'There's Claudia and Phillip,' he said, giving her a quick rundown of his sisters and brothers-in-law. 'Heather and Ryan. Susan and Ted. And a slew of kids among them all.'
She found it interesting that he'd remained unattached while the rest of his siblings were married with kids. 'And then there's you, the bachelor of the family. How come you're not married, too?' she asked, voicing her thoughts out loud.
'For the obvious reason.' He shrugged. 'Because I haven't met the right woman yet. When that happens, I'm all for settling down and having a family. But I only intend on getting married once, and I'm waiting to find someone who shares the same values I do.'
She glanced out her window as they entered a residential neighborhood. Undoubtedly, Cameron was searching for a woman who wasn't wild and unpredictable and reckless. No, Cameron was the kind of man who'd choose a wife who was sweet and undemanding and respectable. A woman who didn't enter wet T-shirt contests; wear tight, sexy clothes; and dance on tabletops for fun. Mia certainly didn't have a reputation for being the kind of good girl Cameron would expect to have the same standards and values as he did.
'We're here.'
She was so lost in her own thoughts she hadn't realized they'd come to a stop at the curb of a modest, single- story house. A group of kids, ranging from young teenagers to toddlers, were playing out in the front yard, and they all seemed very excited to see their Uncle Cameron.
She inhaled a deep breath and wasn't aware of the fact that her fingers were twisting anxiously in her lap until Cameron grabbed one of her hands to stop her fidgeting.
'Nervous?' he asked.
The warmth of his touch and the concern in his voice calmed her immensely. 'Yeah, I guess I am. There's just so many of them,' she said, meaning the brood of kids waiting for him to get out of his car.
'But they're a great bunch,' he said, brushing his thumb along the back of her hand. 'Just be your normal, vibrant self, and you'll do just fine.'
As Cameron slid out of the car and then came around to help her out of her seat, she didn't have much time to dwell on being apprehensive because they were instantly surrounded by the most animated, friendly kids-all of whom seemed to idolize their Uncle Cameron. Each one tried to get his attention first, and Mia watched as he managed to dole out hugs to each and every one of them.
'Who's the pretty lady you brought with you, Uncle Cam?' This came from a precocious little boy who had the same dark blond hair and green eyes as his uncle.
Cameron ruffled the boy's hair. 'This pretty lady is Mia Wilde, who is a friend of mine.'
With that explanation, he proceeded to introduce her to each one of his nieces and nephews. There were nine of them in the bunch, and each welcomed her with friendly smiles and boisterous hellos that had her laughing. By the end of the introductions, she was known as 'Miss Mia.'
Cameron picked up the youngest member of the group, a four-year-old girl named Lucy, with a cherubic face and brunette ringlets, who was looking up at him in wide-eyed adoration. He tickled her neck with his fingers, making her burst into infectious giggles.
'Now, let's go meet the rest of the family,' Cameron said and grabbed Mia's hand with his free one.
He laced their fingers and led the way into the house, uncaring of just how intimate their hand-holding might look to anyone who glanced their way. Once they were inside, he let her hand go and set Lucy down on her feet, and Mia followed him into a large, spacious living room where the adults were hanging out.
Another round of introductions ensued, leaving her feeling overwhelmed and certain she'd never remember everyone's names. Between his parents, sisters, their husbands and kids, his family was huge, but they reminded her of her own large clan. And with her cousins Steve, Eric, and Adrian all married off, and recently two of her brothers, even more chaos was added into the mix.
The Sinclairs were loud, openly affectionate, and obviously all very close to one another. Despite Cameron's claim they were on the conservative side, his family was warm and fun-loving and accepted her as Cameron's 'friend' without question or speculation, just as he'd promised. And because of that, she was able to relax and immediately felt comfortable with his family.
Before long, his sisters whisked her off to the kitchen, insisting they needed girl time while the guys did their bonding thing during the final quarter of the Sunday afternoon football game. She accepted a glass of wine his sister Susan poured for her, and then she was put to work spreading garlic butter on the French bread while Susan made the salad and Cameron's mom, Barbara, finished up the spaghetti for dinner.
Because it was Claudia's birthday, she was exempt from helping. So was Heather, because she was eight months pregnant and feeling the strain along her lower back and couldn't stand for long lengths of time because of spasms. The two of them were sitting at the counter across from the large wooden island where Mia, Barbara, and Susan were preparing the evening's meal.
As Mia slathered a pat of seasoned butter on a slice of bread, she glanced in Heather's direction. 'So you have the three girls, Lucy, Gwen and Alison, right?' she asked, trying to place the kids she'd met outside with their respective parents.
'Yep, that trio is mine.' Heather rubbed her burgeoning belly. 'Here's hoping this one's a boy to balance out things a bit.'
Claudia grinned at her sister. 'You mean so your girls have someone to pick on, like we did with Cameron.'
'Oh man, we really did torment him, didn't we?' Susan said as she cut up tomatoes for the salad. 'Do you remember when Cameron was about five years old and how we used to put makeup on him, curlers in his hair, and dress him up like a little girl?'
Mia had just taken a sip of her wine and nearly choked on the drink. The image of Cameron as a little boy,
