The Right One (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Cami stood in front of Paul’s office door at the county office building, hand hovering, shy, unsure, then knocked. His voice called from behind the cheap wood and she turned the doorknob.

His face shifted from friendly to curious to chilled. She fought not to shrink back, guilt pulsating through her. Eyebrow raised, he turned from the monitor and slid the keyboard tray under the desk.  “Cami. This is a surprise. What can I do for you?”

“Hi, Paul. Do you have a minute?” Her voice faded to inaudible on the last word and Paul’s gaze shifted once more, boring into her. “I won’t take much of your time, but I do need to say … some … things.”

He drew in a hard breath and swallowed loud enough for her to hear as he motioned to a chair. “Have a seat. But I don’t have a long. As you can see, I’m at work, and there’s more to be done.”

She nodded, slinked into the navy reception chair and placed her purse in her lap, wishing it was large enough to hide behind. It wasn’t. “Thank you. I know I don’t … I know there’s no reason for you to allow me a couple of minutes.”

Heleaned back, folding his hands, and said nothing.

She nodded. “Right. So. I’m here because I owe you an apology. I was way off.”

Paul shifted in his seat. Said nothing.

“The thing is, I, I’m protective of the sanctuary. What I’ve wanted to do, it’s always been ridiculous to everyone, even family.” Her voice cracked and Cami paused as the thought of her parents sitting at the police department ripped through her mind. Pushing it back into the recesses, she hugged her purse closer. “You were the enemy from the beginning, right from the moment you showed up at the sanctuary. And I couldn’t ever see past that.”

He leaned forward against the desk. “Are you done?”

She shook her head. “No.” The word whispered through her lips. “I was wrong to think that about you. You’re a good man, Paul, and I’m sorry.”

Paul cocked his head to the side. “But you didn’t come up with this on your own, did you? Something happened.”

The blink was long and hard, bordering on closed eyes, and once again, her voice cracked. “What happened doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t it?”

She shook her head. “No. It doesn’t.”
It does,
though, it
really
matters.

“Tell me anyway.”

“Why? What difference does it make?”

“Because it makes a difference to you. What happened?”

Cami turned away, dragged her body to stand and face away from the man who sat behind the desk. Alex. Paul. Paul. Alex. Two good men who were too good to her. “It was my parents all along. Them and one of the men at the ranch who was a guy I trusted inexplicitly.”

“That Alex guy?”

She spun around. “Alex? Oh gosh, no. Not him. Tank. I thought he was a good man, but he was hired by my parents. The background check, I missed something and never saw.”

Paul rubbed the side of his nose and stood, walking to stand to the side of her. No outstretched arms, and Cami didn’t want a hug. The obvious forgiveness was enough. “I’m sorry. That has to be hard. Your parents. That’s … isn’t he a huge lawyer around here?”

She nodded. “That’s how he knew Tank. Tank was a client, and Dad contracted him. Maybe at Mom’s instruction. I don’t know. Either way, they killed two of my cats, and left one so sick he’s still not out of the woods.”

“Regellius? You’re favorite?”

She nodded and turned to face him. “How’d you guess?”

“That fury on your face that day at the restaurant. You love your sanctuary, but none of the cats like that one who you can touch through the fence.”

She nodded. “He’s hanging on, and might have finally turned a corner, but it’s been touch and go. Pesticide. Can you believe it? Tank poisoned them all with pesticide. And my parents asked him to do it.” She paused. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for. Tommy’s taking care of all of that, and I picked up a couple cubs yesterday, and …” No need to say anything about Alex. Paul didn’t need to know that much. “I just came to say I’m sorry. That I know now it wasn’t you.”

He nodded. “Thank you, Cami. That means a lot.” He outstretched a hand. “Friends then?”

“I’d like that.” Straightening her shoulders, she took his hand. “Take care, Paul.”

“You too, Cami.”

In the parking lot, Alex leaned against the grill of the truck, arms crossed, foot resting on the bumper. He straightened when he was her, a strange nervous smile dressing his lips. Cami struggled to smile, but couldn’t. Healing would come, she knew, but not so soon, and she only said, “Can we go back to the sanctuary now?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

Silence engulfed the truck. She leaned her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes, fighting thoughts and fears and hurts.

“How’d it go with Schotter?”

“Hmm?”

“Schotter? How’d the visit go?”

Cami opened her eyes and turned to look at Alex. “It went okay. He was really nice about it, parted on good terms.”

“That’s nice.”

She reached over to take Alex’s hand. “Friends is friends and that’s all we are. Anyway, right now, I don’t have time for anything more.”

“No, I suppose not.”

Silence overtook them once more, and Cami fought back the irritation rising like bile in her throat. Who had time for thoughts about relationships with betrayal so heavy in her heart? She rolled her eyes, closed them, and didn’t open them again until Alex pulled into the driveway at the sanctuary.

Hopping out of the truck, Cami trotted, wordlessly, to the clinic. Regellius and the cubs. No one else in the world.

Nothing else mattered.

Alex slammed the truck door shut, rocking the frame and shaking the windows. For every step forward, two steps back. That was life with Cami. And now, he wondered, maybe it was time to let her go. Friends, yes. Anything more, maybe they weren’t ever meant for it.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Tears rolled as she sat on the floor, two roly-poly cubs climbing across her lap, crouching and pouncing on one another, falling over like clumsy toddlers. One, the female, kept coming back to Cami for licks and nips. “Nakita,” she whispered, rubbing the top of the female’s head, and nearly smiled as Nakita wrapped paws too large for her body around an arm. A playful nip, then her brother, the one named Ravi, batted at Nakita’s tail and set off another round of wrestling with his sister.

Regellius rested in the other room with Jessica, another setback and concern about his future echoed through the clinic. He couldn’t gain enough ground, his body now fighting infection.

All because of her parents.

Nakita ran at her, lunged, nipped at an arm with baby teeth, fell on her side and rolled in a ball of striped fur. Cami reached out and rubbed the cub’s belly. It wouldn’t be long and this kind of play would be dangerous. Until then, she intended to enjoy them.

Ravi followed his sister, paws a bit larger, teeth too, and she ducked out of the way as he launched for her. “Oh no, baby boy. You don’t get a piece of my arm like your sister, you’ll hurt me.” The baby tiger struggled to roar, the sound coming out like a hoarse mew instead, and Cami smiled ruefully.

Jessica came in the room, removing surgical gloves and smiling. “Regellius is going to be fine. The medication is beginning to work. The poisons are out of his blood stream, the fever is coming down. I think we finally have reached the end.”

Cami pet the top of Nakita’s head as the cub rested, worn out from play, on her lap. “We thought that before.”

She nodded. “Yes, you’re right, we have. But this time, I don’t have any concerns. He’s on medications, so that’ll take care of any threat of infection, and there’s nothing else of concern in the bloodstream. Regellius is going to be fine.”

Cami softly knocked Ravi down, and he, too, seemed to have enough as he curled next to his sister, laying his head on Nakita’s back. She looked up to Jessica. “You’re sure?”

She stooped, rubbing Ravi’s back as he grumbled and closed his eyes, asleep in seconds. “Yes. I’m sure. The crisis is over. Now, what about you?”

She shook her head. “I’ll survive, and that’s the best I can say for now, I think.”

Jessica reached out and patted her shoulder. “When you’re ready, when you get past the hurt and anger, forgive them. Staying angry will only poison you. The rest is up to them.”

“But where do I go from here?”

“You do what you’re meant to do. Take care of these babies, Regellius, and every other cat sent to you. You admit to Alex you have fallen in love with him, and you see where that goes. My guess is, with a man like Alex, you won’t be sorry. Then, one day, when the time comes, you deal with your Mom and Dad on your terms, and give them what they need to heal.”

“I haven’t fallen in love with Alex.”

Jessica laughed. “I may not be Liz, and we haven’t grown up together like nearly everyone else in the area. But, Cami, love is love, and that look is that look everywhere. I’ve never seen two people more meant to be together than Alex Reynolds and Cami Lockhart. Never seen a more beautiful couple, either. You are a brave lady when it comes to these guys,” she leaned down and pulled Ravi up into an embrace. “But a total chicken when it comes to relationships. Not everyone is your parents. Unconditional love does exist. Go find Alex. Tell him before some other woman comes in and realizes how wonderful that man is. Tell him before he realizes he’s wasting time waiting on his best friend to open her eyes and trust him.”

She watched as Jessica bent to retrieve Nakita. The cubs, sweet in slumber, were about to be woken for a thorough exam before being put in a room which would be home until they were older. Jessica nodded with encouragement and Cami’s jaw worked as she turned and retreated into examination, the cubs crying on her shoulders.

Alone, she leaned her head against the wall, eyes closed, willing thoughts to stop circling like vultures. Romance – the furthest thing from her mind. Yet, everything Jessica said made sense, more sense than Cami cared to admit. There was nothing she could do about her parents, that was in Tommy’s hands, and the lawyers already undoubtedly hired to keep them from being charged. There was nothing she could do about any of that, or the emotions garbled within.

She drew in a deep breath.
The future. Something can be done about my future
.

Pushing to her feet, she stepped out of the clinic and headed out to the stables, pretty sure she knew where Alex would be.

Nugget whinnied in the pasture as she approached, and Cami stuffed a hand in the fitted jean jacket. “Here you go girl, a cube of sugar for you.” The horse took the treat without hesitation from the outstretched hand. She patted the horse’s neck. “Alex come this way girl?”

The horse snorted as she worked the sugar cube, and footsteps fell behind Cami, catching her attention. She turned.

Alex tilted his head, eyes shadowed by the rim of the Stetson. “Looking for me?”

She nodded. “What’re you doing?”

“Thinking about taking Tradewind out for a bit, then go home. Needing some time.”

She toed the ground, studying the dirt as it scoffed on top of her boot. “Got some time for me?”

“Don’t I always? Why would that change?”

“Because I’m a royal pain, and you’re tired of dealing with my emotional constipation.”

Alex guffawed. “A royal pain, yes, tired of you, never. What is it?”

Tucking fingertips into the tight pocket of her jeans, Cami kept the gaze trained to the ground below. “People have been saying, for years, that we belong together. You’ve been saying it recently, and even more recently, I was thinking maybe we’d be missing out on something if we don’t try. I would be missing something if we don’t give it a try.”

He stepped forward, eagerness washing over his face.

“I think I finally realized, I’m in love with you. Probably have been for a long time.”

“When did you realize this?”

The gruff whisper yanked on her heart and she shrugged, the lump in her throat larger.
You’re going to make me work for this
? “Maybe on the ride to Michigan. Maybe during, or after, that tornado. Probably after. Seeing how you went in there and worked to save those people. I don’t know. Maybe I always knew, but I guess there’s a reason – "

Alex grabbed her waist, broad hands natural along the curves of Cami’s body, and pulled her to him. She dropped her head back, willing and waiting as their mouths met, arms wrapping around his neck, fingers rubbing along the short strands of hair. He squared his body, her leg sandwiched between his legs.

The kiss ended sooner than Cami was ready, and she looked up to him. He smiled. “Our first official kiss.”

She nodded. “Amazing,” she whispered, glanced away only to be stopped by a strong hand.

“Don’t look away from me. Don’t be embarrassed. I’ve daydreamed about this moment for too long. And, amazing doesn’t begin to cover it.”

She didn’t need a mirror to know her cheeks flushed a pretty pink. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Can I kiss you again?”

She nodded, and closed her eyes, waiting to be washed away in love, every day, for the rest of her life.

THE END