The Camden Cowboy. Victoria Pade
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“Not that you’ll be an interruption. I just mean that’s the best time for me to get away …”
Of course if she couldn’t get away personally, there were other people who could show him what he needed to move. But somehow Lacey didn’t want anyone else to do it …
“About four-thirty or five?” Seth said, not appearing to notice that she was flustered.
“Four-thirty or five is great,” she agreed, deciding it might be better if she said less because every time she said more she seemed to put her foot in her mouth.
He headed for the door. “There’s a landline on the wall in the kitchen—” He pointed to it. “My cell phone number and the number for my house are on a notepad next to the phone. If you need anything, just call. Try my cell first—that’s the likeliest way to reach me.”
“You don’t have a housekeeper or staff who’s over there even when you’re not?” Her father had an assistant at work and a housekeeper at home who always knew how to reach him. It just seemed likely that a Camden would have at least that, too.
But something about the question made Seth Camden chuckle. “I have a lady who comes in once a week and cleans up the rooms I use. If family is due in for some reason she brings two of her friends to spruce up the whole place, but other than that everybody who works here works on the land.”
Lacey nodded, realizing that again what she’d expected of him and the reality were two different things.
Seeing that his hand was on the doorknob, she said, “Thanks for the help tonight.”
“Don’t mention it.” He opened the door to leave.
And for absolutely no reason, Lacey felt the urge to say something—anything—to keep him there even a moment longer.
So she said, “You know how to get to the site tomorrow?”
Dumb. There wasn’t a single dumber thing she could have said.
Seth paused with his hand still on the doorknob to grin at her. “Uh … I do. I used to own the place, remember?”
Lacey grimaced. “Force of habit—I can’t keep straight who’s local and who’s not, so I just automatically ask if anybody coming out to the site knows the way.”
“Well, I do.”
“Sure. Of course you do. I’ll just see you tomorrow then.”
“Right.”
He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
There was a big picture window not far from where Lacey was standing, and she instantly looked through it to watch Seth Camden walk around the pool and back to the main house.
With a cowboy’s swagger that made her mouth go dry again.
Which was cause for her to command herself to look away, to put the image and every thought of the man out of her mind.
But still she went on watching until he disappeared inside the French door they’d come out of.
And as for thoughts of the man?
Even out of sight, he wasn’t out of mind.
For the second night in a row.
Chapter Three
Lacey did not ordinarily go through her day watching the clock. Certainly since she’d been given the training center project, she’d been so swamped that she very often worked eighteen hours before exhaustion told her that it was well past quitting time. She’d always been shocked to realize just how late it was.
But on Friday, sitting at her desk in the original farmhouse that was being used as the construction site headquarters, she checked the time so often that it seemed as if she were aware of every minute that passed. Of how much longer it was until four-thirty. Until Seth Camden was due.
And that made her more disgusted and aggravated with herself than she’d ever been before.
What was wrong with her when it came to this guy? She was thinking about him every waking moment. She was dreaming about him when she finally could sleep. She was picturing him in her mind’s eye. Ogling him when she did see him. She’d even spent this morning looking across the pool every chance she got, while she was getting ready for work, just in case she might catch a glimpse of him.
And this was all happening now, of all times. Just when she had the kind of chance she’d strived for since she was a little girl, the chance to prove herself once and for all, the chance to be a real part of her father’s love of football, the chance to actually be on Team Kincaid and prove she could handle the responsibilities her father had previously thought only to entrust to a son.
Now of all times, when the last thing she needed was the slightest distraction, not only was she distracted but that distraction was coming in the form of a man—proving her father right …
Morgan Kincaid had always relegated his daughter to the sidelines—where women belonged, in his opinion. Women, he’d said frequently, didn’t belong in seats of power in the business world and especially not in the world of football. Cheerleaders. Receptionists. Secretaries. Possibly assistants. Decorators. Event planners. Morgan Kincaid had a very limited vision of the role of women anywhere. But in the Kincaid Corporation and when it came to football, those were the best positions that could be hoped for.
A woman, he insisted, would always eventually meet a man, and focus on getting him to marry her. Then, when she did succeed in marrying and having a family, that family would be more important to her than a job.
To Morgan Kincaid, that was just the way it was.
He was sexist, old-fashioned and downright silly. Lacey had argued with him again and again, citing any number of women for whom his theory didn’t hold true. But her father was a stubborn, hardheaded person and there had been no telling him differently. Especially when it came to his daughter. Who he was convinced would ultimately end up a wife and mother.
Yes, Morgan Kincaid employed Lacey—after battles and battles to convince him that she wanted to work, that she could work, that she should be allowed to work. But until now, the best Lacey had accomplished within the Kincaid Corporation was to oversee the remodeling of new office space, the hiring of office and restaurant staff, discussing menus with the chefs, working in public relations and marketing.
But to play a role in any important project—particularly when it came to football? No way.
Until now.
Now, when—even though it was by default—Lacey had been given the opportunity to oversee the building of the Monarch’s training center. The Monarchs—the NFL’s newest expansion football team. Owned by her father. His dream come true.
But Lacey had gotten the job purely by default.
It was her twin older brothers who Morgan Kincaid had been convinced would carry on his legacy—both in football and in business. But long ago her brother Hutch had turned his back on the game, disappointing and alienating himself from their father because of it. Hutch had only recently returned to the family fold but not to the Kincaid Corporation—Hutch owned his own very successful chain of sporting goods stores, and it was clear he had no desire whatsoever to have anything to do with the Kincaid Corporation or working for their father.
Hutch’s twin, Ian, had also had a period of alienation from the family, but had come back to the position of second-in-command at the Kincaid Corporation. Even now Ian was the chief operating officer of the Monarchs—a position he retained because he was needed there.
But as Seth had said, Ian had gotten the girl rather than the property. In the midst of acquiring the land for the training facility, Ian had met and fallen in love with Jenna Bowen. He and Jenna had ended up engaged, and Ian had been instrumental in helping her retain her family farm rather than purchasing