“You have a job.”
He gave a short laugh. “I own the company. I’m best friends with—and have dirt on—all of the other owners. I can do a lot of my work from here. And if I need to be in the office, it’s a five-minute drive.”
“So you would leave her alone,” Whitney said. “I can’t have you—”
“I would never do anything that wouldn’t be completely safe for her,” he broke in, looking annoyed that she’d even suggest that. “I will handle this.”
“How?”
“You don’t need to worry about it,” he said. “That’s what’s so great about this. I’m taking this off your plate.”
“To get on my good side.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t even try to hedge.
Now she wanted to hear him admit something. He was trying to get her into bed. And he was willing to use her grandmother to do it. Gross.
Though it didn’t really feel gross. It felt… good. Someone wanting to be with her so badly that he’d pull out all the stops? She honestly wasn’t used to people wanting to be with her as much as Cam seemed to.
And it was Cam. There was just nothing gross about him. Period.
“Why?”
“Because I care about you.”
That made her stomach flip in spite of how tightly she had her arms crossed.
“And because you want to—”
“She cried, Whit.”
Whitney stopped and frowned. “What?”
“She cried.” He sighed. “She regrets so many things that happened with my grandma. With your grandpa. With the business. But she’s so glad that we stayed together. I didn’t have the heart to do anything but agree with her.”
Whitney’s frown deepened. “You told her we stayed together?”
“No. But I didn’t correct her, either.” The way he lifted one brow was almost as if he was daring her to tell him he’d been wrong to placate her.
Whitney pulled in a breath. She wasn’t going to tell him he was wrong. Grandma tears were the worst. If he’d been able to resist feeling bad and doing whatever it took to make Didi feel better, he would be a bad guy.
And Camden McCaffery was definitely not a bad guy.
“She believes it though,” he went on. “She thinks that we stayed together and have kept the relationship hidden all this time.”
Whitney pulled in a deep breath, then nodded. “She also probably thinks it’s only been a year or so since you left town.”
That made her heart ache. She didn’t want to lose Didi. Her grandmother was her only family left here in Appleby. But, in many ways, Didi had always been her only family. At least in the make-her-feel-supported-and-comforted way families were supposed to function. Didi was the one Whitney had her best childhood memories with. Now she was slowly losing the bright, funny, sweet woman who had been her advocate and had always believed in her.
Whitney was going to be on her own soon. Maybe the Alzheimer’s would take a few years to steal Didi completely, but already her grandmother was changing. Their relationship was changing. Eventually Whitney would be alone. And there was nothing she could do about it. She felt like there was a sharp, hot poker jabbing her just below her ribs when she thought about that.
She needed her work. She needed to secure her place at Hot Cakes. She needed to be vital there. That was all she had and she needed to be a part of something. Her family was gone, the family business was gone, her grandmother would be gone. Hot Cakes was the one place she could belong.
Of course, even Hot Cakes had changed on her, but she was still there and she had a better chance now at being truly essential to the business. It was the only thing she could control. She could control her work and her performance. Everything else involved other people, and, as she knew too well, other people were out of her control completely.
“Even if that is what she thinks,” Cam said about Didi’s poor perception of time. “It makes her happy. Really happy. She wants us to be together. She wants to know that someone is loving you and taking care of you.”
His words made Whitney’s stomach swoop and then dive. She felt the air between them heat. This was different than how he’d talked to her in her office last night but it affected her similarly. Being loved and taken care of by Cam was absolutely as tempting as being seduced by him. Honestly, with Cam, all of that had always gone together.
“So you’re going to lie to her?” Whitney asked.
That was so stupid. She wanted to hear him say it wasn’t a lie. She wanted to hear him say that he did love her and wanted to take care of her. But what if he said that? That would make all of this so much harder. She had to resist. Hot Cakes was her focus. She couldn’t do anything to jeopardize her position there.
“It’s a month,” he said after a long pause. “Right? A month until she can move into her new apartment.”
Well, he certainly hadn’t said, “Let me be your knight in shining armor.”
And she was glad he hadn’t said that. That would have been ridiculous. He couldn’t love her. He didn’t really know her anymore.
Which was the point he was trying to make when he said they needed to date and figure things out.
Whitney pressed her lips together, telling herself to stop being ridiculous. She finally nodded. “Right. A month.”
“A month should be enough time to figure out what we are.”
“What we are?” she repeated.
“Coworkers, friends, or…”
Whitney felt that she was holding her breath waiting for him to fill in that last word.
“Or?” she prompted when he just stood watching her.
“Everything,” he said.
Her breath caught again. They were going to find out if they were coworkers, friends, or everything.
“I feel like I’m not getting much say in this,” she managed, noting that her voice sounded scratchy.
She knew that Cam heard
