not quite as uptight and stuffy as you once were.'
The timer on the counter rang, indicating that something was done. She returned her attention to the meal she was preparing. There were a few pots and pans on the stove top, all of them covered, and she lifted the lid on one of them and stirred the thick, bubbling sauce inside.
'You didn't have to make dinner,' he said and leaned a hip against the counter next to her. Whatever she was making smelled heavenly, but he didn't want her to think he expected anything from her because she was staying at his place for the weekend. 'We could have ordered in pizza.'
She wrinkled her nose at him at that suggestion. 'You're truly a bachelor, aren't you? Why have pizza when you can have chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, and a fresh salad?' Scooping up a small spoonful of the sauce, she lifted it up to his lips. 'Taste this.'
He did and was impressed with the savory flavors that filled his mouth-tomato sauce, basil, and garlic. It reminded of his mother's cooking, meals made from scratch, which he missed because he never took the time and effort to make anything elaborate for himself. It was so much easier to grab something on the run or pop a frozen dinner into the microwave.
This was a welcome change of pace. 'If you keep this up, I'm not going to let you go back home.'
She went back to checking the entrees on the stove. 'You like playing house, hmmm?' she said in that light, frivolous way of hers.
Oh yeah, he liked coming home to Mia, enjoyed seeing her cooking barefoot in his kitchen, and loved having her in his bed all night long. It was a temporary arrangement he wanted to make much more permanent.
'Here, could you put this on the table for me, please?' she asked and handed him a platter of fried, Parmesan- encrusted chicken.
Between the two of them they put everything out on the table and then sat down across from one anther to eat. Cameron heaped his plate with spaghetti and a slice of chicken and smothered both in the sauce. Then he added a side of salad with Italian dressing.
'How did your meeting with Amy go today?' he asked, remembering that Mia had an afternoon appointment at the gallery.
'It went well.' She took a sip of her drink. 'Only a few more weeks until the show. Invitations go out next week, and I have a couple designs I want to finish up before the date. It's all happening so fast.'
He noticed she hadn't mentioned her family at all or how she felt about them attending the show. He thought about asking but then decided not to. This was a huge step for Mia, possibly even a break from the family business, and she needed to play it out
She looked both nervous and excited about the gallery show, but he knew in the end she would be just fine. She was a woman who persevered in the face of a challenge-just so long as it was a situation she
He let that thought go and recalled his earlier conversation with Ashley. 'I finally discovered what Trish Shelton has been up to,' he said and took a bite of the delicious, tender chicken.
'Oh?' She glanced across the table at him as she spun spaghetti around her fork. 'Was it an affair like her husband thought?'
'Thankfully, no,' he said, and that was rare in cases where a spouse was suspected of infidelity. Usually, Cameron presented his client with a guilty verdict and evidence, but not this time, and he could only hope Trish's husband appreciated his wife more than ever after this case. 'All the signs were definitely there, and Doug Shelton automatically thought the worst, but he needs to have some faith in his wife.'
'Why?' Mia's gaze was bright with curiosity. 'What was she really doing?'
'Thanks to Ashley, I now know Trish has spent the past few months planning a very big and lavish surprise party for her husband's fiftieth birthday. It's taking place tomorrow evening in one of the ballrooms of the St. Claire Hotel. Trish was there today to firm up the final details with the banquet manager.'
'Wow, all that surveillance and there was no affair after all,' she said as she cut her chicken into small pieces. 'So how does that other lady Trish was with at the restaurant fit into all this?' Mia asked.
'Margot? She's a graphic design artist, and when I asked Ashley if she was familiar with the name, she said Margot Dalton was working with the banquet manager on some graphic art work for the party. Probably for the invitations or the favors.' Finished with his first serving of dinner, Cameron piled more chicken and spaghetti on his plate.
'What are you going to tell Doug Shelton?' she asked as she absently pushed her salad around in her bowl. 'Are you just going to let him go to the party and be surprised and then give him your final report afterward?'
Cameron was tempted to do that, but his job as a P.I. dictated that he report the facts as he received them, even if it meant spoiling a surprise. Unfortunately, that was the man's problem, not his, and Doug was going to have to put on a convincing 'surprise' act if he didn't want to rouse his wife's suspicions in return.
'I have to tell him what I know,' Cameron told her. 'According to the contract he signed with the firm, I'm bound to reveal any information I come across during the investigative process. That's what he's paying me for.'
He met Mia's gaze from across the table, wanting her to really think about what he was going to say next. 'I might investigate these cases more often than I'd like, but there comes a point when you have to know and trust the relationship you're in. In this case, Doug and Trish had a good relationship. He was just being an idiot.'
He ate a bite of spaghetti and chased it down with a long, cool drink. 'Quite honestly, maybe this will teach Doug to believe in his wife a little more instead of jumping to wrong conclusions. It's all about unconditional trust between a couple. A marriage or relationship can't survive without it.'
And in the worst way, Cameron wanted Mia to trust him, unconditionally. To believe in him. To let him into the deepest recesses of her soul where she'd never, ever, let any other man before. He wanted to be the first to claim that wild, untamed heart of hers, and the very last.
As if she could read his thoughts in his eyes, she glanced back down at her plate and started making small talk about her day at work with Scott and Alex, and how she was feeling restless in her job as their secretary. That didn't surprise Cameron at all, now that he knew what her real passion was.
He could only wonder if she'd come to realize that she was meant to embrace her stained-glass art and make a career of it, or if she'd just continue on with the family business for the rest of her life because of deep-rooted fears and insecurities.
It appeared Mia was going to be facing some very difficult choices and decisions in the upcoming days and weeks. Cameron could only hope he would part of whatever future she chose.
'I don't think Carrie is going to show,' Mia said over the loud music playing at The Electric Blue the following night. After two hours of waiting and mingling and dancing, she was starting to think their plan to catch Carrie in the act had been pointless.
'I wouldn't be so sure about that,' Cameron replied, his sharp, assessing gaze focused on the entrance to the bar. 'I think I saw her come in a few minutes ago, but if it was her, she's doing a good job of laying low and keeping herself inconspicuous.'
That behavior matched what Cameron had told Mia earlier, when she'd asked how Carrie could have taken those second set of pictures and written all over her car when she hadn't been at The Electric Blue that night. He'd explained that because Carrie knew Mia would be at the bar, she'd most likely saw it as an opportunity to vandalize Mia's vehicle and take more pictures without Mia ever suspecting her as the culprit. Her plan had worked… until her latest package had given Carrie away.
It appeared Carrie might be operating on the same assumption this evening.
'Why don't you and Rick go on up to the stage and dance,' Cameron suggested, because they'd invited his friend Rick along tonight for that purpose-to use him as a diversion so Cameron could blend into the crowd and watch Carrie without her knowledge.
'Ahh, I finally get to dance with Mia,' Rick said and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. 'This is what I've been waiting for. Let's go give Carrie a reason to take some more pictures of you.' He waggled his brows at Mia in a playful, teasing manner.
Mia laughed and stood and then gave her sexy, body-hugging sheath of a dress an adjusting tug. 'This is going to be fun.'
'Just keep your hands to yourself,' Cameron warned Rick in a gruff tone and then drained the last of his beer.
