A Sweetheart for the Single Dad

“And that was when you declared war on all Camdens?”

He motioned with one hand to all that was around them. “I had good reasons not to admire you all. Nothing personal,” he added.

“Right,” Lindie said with a tone full of sarcasm, goading him. “Because personally you admire me.”

He smiled a sly half smile and shrugged, leaving her unsure exactly what that meant. It did seem as if he might at least be admiring the way she looked, though, because his cool blue eyes never veered to take in anything else.

Then he said, “Are you and the corporation the same thing? Isn’t there anything about you that isn’t business to be admired?”

“There’s a lot about me that isn’t business.” Why was this starting to sound a little flirty?

“Like what?” he asked. “Are you married? Because there’s no ring. Kids?”

“No, I’m not married.”

“Ever been?”

“No. So I also don’t have any kids.”

“You can have one without the other,” he informed her as if letting her in on a secret.

“Well, I haven’t.”

“So what is there about you that isn’t business?” he challenged.

“I have a nephew—Carter—who I love to death. And there’s a new baby in the family—Immy—that my cousin’s about-to-be wife inherited. I love babysitting for her, too. And there’s my family. And I have four dogs.”

“Four? Let me guess, some snobby kind of show dogs?”

“Actually, they’re four rescue mutts that were hard to place. And whenever there’s a need for a temporary foster home for dogs requiring special care until they can be adopted, I take those, too.” Because all the local animal shelters knew she was a soft touch.

“You realize that when your stores do what they’ve done to places like Wheatley and the economy suffers, so do pets. If people are struggling to feed their kids, they certainly can’t feed their dogs and those dogs end up needing to be rescued.”

“Oh, you just never miss an opening, do you?” she lamented, feeling more weight on her conscience.

But this time, rather than tell her she deserved it, he grinned and said somewhat sheepishly, “One too many jabs?”

“If I cry uncle will you stop?”

“Maybe for now.”

“Uncle!” she said.

That made him grin again. “Okay. You did do your own little cleanup tonight along the way, I’ll give you that.”

Lindie made a face, knowing that picking up a bicycle here or a newspaper there was inconsequential and that nothing had really been solved tonight. Not for Wheatley and not for her goal of winning over and compensating Sawyer Huffman.

Yet, somehow, even given all that, she’d enjoyed the long walk and talking to Sawyer in spite of everything else.

“So Thursday...” she said. “What time do you come here?”

“I’m with the kids on Thursdays,” he warned, reminding her that he was unavailable.

“I’ll still be here,” she insisted. After seeing more of Wheatley she felt a need to do something. Coming to the center wasn’t only about finding an excuse to get to him anymore.

“I end my work schedule at two-thirty on Thursdays so I can get here by three, about the time the kids start showing up after school.”

“I’ll be here at three, then,” she said.

He didn’t say anything but this time it didn’t look as if he doubted her the way he had yesterday.

Instead, sounding as if he was admitting something reluctantly, he said, “I’m glad you came tonight.” He smiled mischievously. “Even if I did give you a hard time, it was better than walking the streets alone.”

Lindie laughed at his gentle gibe over her verbal gaffe at the start of the evening. “You just couldn’t let it go completely.”

“I couldn’t,” he confessed. “But that was so much tamer than anything else I could have said.”

He pushed off his SUV and reached around her to open her door for her, waiting with it open as she got in behind the wheel.

“I’ll see you Thursday,” she repeated.

For some reason he smiled as if he was glad to hear it this time. But all he said was “Drive safe,” before he closed her door.

Lindie started her engine and drove off. As she did she hated to admit to herself that—in spite of how it had made her feel to see the damage that her family had caused—she’d been on dates that she’d enjoyed less than her time with Sawyer Huffman tonight.

But as soon as she realized that, she decided to take it as a caution.

The man really didn’t like Camdens and could easily have a hidden agenda when it came to one of them.

And since Lindie was already no stranger to men with hidden agendas that ended up hurting her, she knew very well to watch out.

Chapter Three (#ulink_52fe2641-548e-5c1a-b75f-07c1045a3d8e)

“If I lived in that part of Wheatley I’d hate us, too,” Lindie concluded.

It was lunchtime on Thursday. Lindie was in her office on the top floor of the Camden Building that housed the offices for all ten of the Camden grandchildren. But the door was closed and no one was in on that particular lunch but Lindie and her grandmother.

Georgianna Camden—who everyone called GiGi—had brought beautiful Cobb salads for Lindie and herself to eat so that Lindie could report on her first two encounters with Sawyer Huffman.

As matriarch of the Camden family, GiGi had been the one to read the journals kept by the late H. J. Camden—founder of all of the Camden enterprises, great-grandfather to Lindie, her brothers, sisters and cousins, and father-in-law to GiGi.

As much as all of the current Camdens wished it wasn’t true, having H.J. on a list of modern-day robber barons was not unfounded.

Rumors and accusations had always swirled around H.J.; his son Hank, who was GiGi’s husband; and Hank and GiGi’s sons, Howard and Mitchum. Through the years various people had claimed their business practices were dirty, unscrupulous, underhanded, ruthless and all-round heinous. The men themselves had denied any wrongdoing. And since they’d been loving, caring husbands, fathers and grandfathers, those denials were believed within the family.

Until H.J.’s journals had been discovered at the Camden ranch in Northbridge, Montana.

Reading the journals had proved to GiGi that most of the accusations against the men that all of the current Camdens had loved and respected were actually true. As a result the current Camdens were attempting to seek out some of the people who had taken the brunt of former Camdens’ misdeeds and trying to make it up to them directly or through remaining family members.