To Catch a Camden. Victoria Pade
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blunder, the one that had really caused him to cross the line.
The one he wanted to kick himself over.
The one that had cost him a bundle and most of his dignity....
“If she’s all that your friend says she is, why wouldn’t the church ladies want her for their pastor?” he asked more respectfully.
“She’s divorced.”
“And that’s an issue?”
“It’s only an issue when it comes to their minister—they want someone purer for him, I guess. Plus, like I said, Jean wants Gia for Lucas—”
“Lucas Paulie is a weasel,” Derek said, not understanding why it rubbed him wrong to think of the woman he’d spent all of about five minutes with either the church pastor he didn’t know or the guy he did know.
“I didn’t realize you disliked Lucas Paulie so much,” GiGi said.
“I just wouldn’t wish him on some poor unsuspecting do-gooder.”
“There it is again, Derek James Camden! Do-gooder—that is not a bad thing. A nice girl is what you need. You’d better start looking for one and stay away from what you’ve been bringing around here since you were a teenager. Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”
“I have, Georgie,” he said on a sigh. “I just can’t help it if the...tame ones don’t do it for me. I like a little spice.”
“What you’ve brought around here is not a little spice. And this last one—”
“I know. You don’t have to tell me—again—how damn stupid that was.”
“And yet here you are, barely out from under the mess you were in, looking down your nose at someone doing some good.”
“I’m not looking down my nose at Gia Grant.”
He was doing anything but that, if the truth be known. He sure as hell hadn’t been thinking bad things about her since last night.
It just didn’t matter. He knew the way things went for him—regardless of how beautiful the woman, regardless of how much he might respect and admire her or what she was doing, in no time the good girls just couldn’t keep his interest. In no time they started to seem ordinary. They started to get predictable. They started to bore him to tears.
But he wasn’t a kid anymore. And he had no business letting himself be sucked into situations with the bad girls anymore.
It had been bad enough when he was a kid, but now it was inexcusable. Especially when it embarrassed the whole family right along with himself. Like this last time.
Which was why he was lying low. Why he was doing some self-imposed penance by staying away from all women for a while. Why he was putting his energies into work and the Camden Foundation and trying to make things up to the Bronsons the way his grandmother had asked him to. Even if he was reasonably sure that his grandmother’s intent was to keep him well-occupied so he wouldn’t have time to get involved with anyone else for a while.
Not that he could blame her....
“I gave Gia Grant my card and told her if I didn’t hear from her I’d track her down,” Derek said then, ignoring how much he was looking forward to seeing her again. “She apparently lives next door to the Bronsons, so even if I have to knock on the wrong door before I get the right one, I’ll find her. Then maybe I can try to go through her to get to the Bronsons. I think she may have seen the benefit of our help over her donation jars and church volunteers, but whether or not she can convince the Bronsons—”
“You’ll find a way in,” Georgianna said.
“I really will, Georgie. I’m not going to let you—or any of the rest of the family—down again.”
“I hope not,” GiGi said. “Maybe you should try to let this Grant girl be a good influence on you for a change....”
“You never know,” he said, rather than defend himself the way he might have done before the latest fiasco. “But for now I’d better get back to the office.”
GiGi nodded. As she reached to turn the water on again, she said, “You’re a good boy, Derek. I don’t know why you have such a soft spot for bad girls. Maybe you can turn over a new leaf.”
“Tryin’, Georgie, I’m tryin’.”
But even as Gia Grant’s oh-so-lovely face came to mind again, he wondered if he could.
* * *
“A chicken and steaks and a roast, Gia? You could freeze these, you know,” Marion lectured.
“I already froze a bunch. It’s cheaper to buy at the bulk warehouse, but I end up with more than I can use. You’re helping me out by taking some of it.” It was the same thing Gia said every time she brought Larry and Marion groceries. Their budget was so strapped that meat had become a luxury item. But pride wouldn’t allow them to let Gia provide that for them unless she made it sound as if they were doing her a favor. So that was the slant she put on it.
“Well, thank you. You’re too good to us,” Marion said as she put away the groceries that included some other things Gia knew they liked but couldn’t afford for themselves.
“Let’s open one of those beers right now,” Larry suggested.
Marion obliged her husband and opened the cupboard to get glasses. “Will you have some of this, Gia?”
“No, you guys go ahead,” she said. She declined their offers every time, too.
“I know you didn’t buy this for yourself,” Marion said as she poured the beer into two glasses.
Gia laughed. “And I know how much you and Larry like your little swig of beer before dinner,” she said, using the term they used.
They were in the Bronsons’ kitchen late Tuesday afternoon. Gia had left work at three o’clock, done some shopping and was now delivering groceries as a pretext for what she really came to talk to the Bronsons about.
The couple had been in such good spirits when they’d left the church the night before that Gia hadn’t wanted to dampen them by bringing up Derek Camden. But he’d somehow gotten her cell phone number and left a message this afternoon about the status of persuading Larry and Marion to let him help them.
Gia hadn’t returned his call yet, but his invitation to meet her for coffee at seven to talk had inspired this visit.
And given the boring evening she was facing a whole new spin....
Not that she was eager to see Derek Camden again, she told herself. Even if he had shadowed her thoughts since she’d first set eyes on him last night. It was just that she didn’t have anything else to do tonight and hopefully the evening would end up benefitting Larry and Marion.
When they were all seated around the Bronsons’ aged, scarred kitchen table, Gia said, “There’s something I want to talk to you guys about. You didn’t know it last night, but a Camden showed up at the church—Derek Camden....”
Marion looked alarmed. Larry was instantly angry.
“What’re they doing, coming for the money you’ve raised to help us?” Larry said.
“Didn’t they get enough when they took everything from us? Are those richy-riches even after our pennies now?” Marion said, her tone harsh.
This was the reason Gia hadn’t wanted Derek Camden to crash last night’s get-together.
“There’s no way they could get hold of what’s been donated—that’s in a secure account at the bank under your names and mine,” Gia assured them. Then she added cautiously, “Derek Camden said he came to help... I’m not sure how—”
“Some way that’ll put more in his pocket!” Larry again.
“They’re