Page 4 of All Mine

“How so?”

“I work on the road. There’s not really any time off.”

“I hear that. I don’t know the last time I had a day off.” My bakery took up all of my time, and I barely had anything left for a personal life. But it was worth it. The business was my life. It was all I had left that was all mine.

“Can I buy you another drink? It doesn’t even need to be pink. Or perhaps some food. How about a cupcake?”

After baking, decorating, and smelling sugar all day long, the last thing on earth that sounded appealing was dessert. And I take from his laugh that my facial expression has revealed my thoughts about that.

“All right, no cupcakes then.” He held up a menu. “Real food?”

What am I doing? Camden was this random dude who was in the right place at that right time. But it’d been forever since I’ve had a meal with a man that wasn’t my father or a friend.

Camden, however, was over six feet of well-built trouble. A guy that looked like him and lived on the road would not stick around long term, even if he bought a boat. He’d always be a sometimes guy. Or a one-night guy. He’d come back to town to take his boat out and come through the bakery line where he’d order breakfast and pretend nothing had happened. I’d seen it repeatedly with other women in town.

“Do I take that as a no?” Camden asked, snapping me back from the rabbit hole.

“Oh, I was just thinking.”

“About quantum physics?” He flashed a big grin.

“No, it was theoretical physics.” I smiled. “I’ll take another drink for now.”

“That was certainly a lot of consideration.” Camden chuckled and signaled to a glaring, eavesdropping Finn.

“Don’t you have cleanup left?” Finn asked.

“I have time for one more drink,” I replied. Camden grinned.

“If I get one more drink, then we’ll make it count,” he said. “Finn, get this lady the largest drink in the house. And another beer.”

Finn scowled at Camden and made my standing order. A Cherry Sprite garnished with maraschino cherries. He poured the beer and sat it in front of Camden without a word.

“Geez, tough crowd,” Camden muttered.

“Protective crowd,” I corrected.

“I get it. So it’s true that everyone knows everyone in a small town?”

“Yeah, sure, for the most part. I’ve known Adrian since pre-school and Finn since he was in diapers. Our families have been here forever…” I stopped, needing to steer the conversation in a direction away from family. I didn’t talk about how my family was founding members, not after what happened with my ex-husband.

“And he doesn’t like an outsider talking to you,” Camden said, blessedly not interested in my family name. His deep brown eyes were almost black and bottomless in the darkened bar.

“Well, he doesn’t think you have good intentions.”

“I don’t have any intention,” he said, sipping his beer. “I was sitting here having a drink, minding my business.”

“And then you came to my rescue, so maybe I should be the one buying your drinks?”

“Perhaps.” Camden shrugged. “But I offered first.”

“Hardly seems fair.”

“But this way, you’re sitting here talking to me.”

“Ah, so you did think things through.” The man was panty-melting hot, and he might be hitting on me. It’d been eighteen months since the divorce, and another man had never crossed my mind. Well, other than celebrities that I’d never meet. But there’s no way I was ready for dating.

“Only as far as having a pleasant conversation with a pretty lady. The rest of it is wherever this evening takes me.”

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