Taken by Storm. HEATHER MACALLISTER
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decided she was more than worthy and was mentally complaining to himself about the timing. No, he couldn’t say those things unless he wanted to sound like an arrogant jerk. A little arrogance never hurt anybody, but he wasn’t a jerk. “I’m over it. You apologized. I accepted.” He smiled until he felt his dimples. “See?”
“I see fake dimples.”
Cam’s smile became genuine. “Why are you mad?”
“Because you won’t admit you’re mad!”
“Because I’m not.”
Her cheeks were flushed, but her eyes were a cool green that called him into their depths. Cam was so ready to answer that call. If she weren’t glaring at him, he would.
The seconds ticked by without the heat fading from her cheeks. “How much?” she asked.
“How much what?”
Her arms stole around her middle and she hugged herself. “How much was the beer worth?”
“I have no idea,” he said with exasperation. “But it doesn’t matter. Breakage, bad batches, faulty bottling—it’s all part of the cost of doing business.”
And yet she was still glaring at him. “I don’t believe you. You are exactly the type of man who would know the loss to the penny. Not only that, I’ll bet you broke the damage down by actual cost and retail value.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a business man if I hadn’t. But it’s been so long, I honestly don’t remember.” A movement behind her caught his eyes. Casper had raised his head. The dog probably sensed the tension between them.
Zoey saw Cam glance behind her and followed his gaze. “Hey, Casper.”
The dog thumped his bunched tail and laid his head down again. Zoey moved closer to Cam, close enough that he smelled the sweet, lemony scent of her skin. Like lemonade. “I want the retail value.” She nodded toward his jacket pocket. “If you really can’t remember, call and have somebody look it up. Right now.”
Oh, for— “No.”
She seemed momentarily startled before resolve settled on her features again. “I’m still going to send you money, so you may as well give me a figure.”
This was about more than some exploding beer, Cam finally understood. People always do that when I mess up, he remembered her saying. “Why is it so important that you pay me back?”
She exhaled and looked away. “People get weird when I don’t. They say it’s okay, but the way they act around me is never the same.” She met his eyes. “So I always cover the financial loss and hope for an opportunity to make up for any other wrongs.”
Forget the money. Cam was more interested in the “other wrongs.” “Are you saying you’re accident prone?”
She shook her head. “I make mistakes.”
“We all make mistakes.”
“Yeah, well I make a lot of them. Big ones. And I’m getting tired of it, I can tell you.”
Cam started to laugh but wisely reconsidered. “Don’t you learn from your mistakes?”
“Of course. Don’t hide motorcycles in beer coolers. Lesson learned.”
Now Cam did laugh. “It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s going on my tombstone.” She traced imaginary words in the air. “Zoey Archer. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He laughed again as he mentally filed away her last name. Zoey briefly smiled before saying, “So give me your contact info—or I’ll just send payment to the brewery.”
Cam heard a history of soured friendships and broken relationships in her voice. He was a complete stranger and she could easily avoid seeing him ever again, but she was insisting on reimbursing him anyway. He admired her for it, but he wasn’t going to take her money. They needed to get past this.
She’d been waiting for his response and now gave a little shrug before turning toward the snoozing Casper. “The brewery it is.”
“Wait.” If she walked away now, they’d never be more than two strangers who met at an airport.
Zoey hesitated before looking up at him.
As he met her eyes, Cam tried to come up with a way to convince her to spend time with him. “Rather than paying me back with money, you could help me instead.”
Her eyes narrowed. “With what?”
“I’ve got a box of samples that I’d rather have with me instead of trusting they won’t get frozen in the warehouse.” Cam was thinking on the fly. “It’s heavy, we’re going to be here for hours, and I don’t want to drag it around with me. Not only that, the MacNeil brewery logo is printed all over the box and this is an airport full of bored, stressed people.”
“I can see how that would make you a target,” she said, and he wasn’t clear if she was being sarcastic or not. She was not encouraging him, that’s for sure.
“Since we’re both going to Seattle, we should team up. We can take turns standing in lines and watching each others’ stuff.”
Zoey gazed at him, apparently thinking it over. “My ‘stuff’ includes a dog.”
“Casper. I know. We’re buds, aren’t we, Casper?” Cam glanced toward the dog, whose head rested on his paws as he watched them. Casper swished his tail once. “See? He’s all for it.”
She gave a short, humorless laugh. “You’re a brave man.”
“Because of Casper?”
“No, because of your samples. You’d trust me with beer again?”
Was that the problem? He grinned. “It’s packed in a crate inside a foam cooler inside a box. Completely Zoey-proof.”
“Nothing is Zoey-proof. You hang around me, and eventually you’ll pay for it.” She spoke in a bleak tone of utter certainty.
“It would be worth it.”
“Yeah, you say that now, but—”
“Still worth it,” he said firmly.
Her eyes widened. “What makes you so sure?”
“The chemistry.”
“What?”
“Between us.” Cam gestured back and forth. “You’ve felt it. I know you have.”
“Oh, please.” She looked heavenward. “Does that line actually work for you?”
“It’s not a line. It’s the truth.”
“Next you’ll say you can prove it.”
“I don’t have to. Do I?”
Zoey froze. Asking her to admit to a mutual attraction was a gamble, but Cam needed to distract her from dwelling on past mistakes. He hoped he hadn’t scared her off. Right now, it appeared she could go either way.
“You just met me,” she said.
“That’s my point.” He gave her his most reassuring smile. “I want us to get to know each other.”
She still stared at him, wide-eyed, and he really wished he could tell what she was thinking.
“I’m also serious about teaming up.” He gestured toward the monitors, displaying that airline after airline was canceling flights. “This is going to get messy.”
Her eyes flicked toward the monitors. She swallowed. Maybe he’d come on too strong and now he should back off. “Just consider it while I go get my box. We can talk when I—”
“No.