There wasn’t an ounce of fat or much muscle left on Larry’s five-foot-eight frame, and Marion could easily qualify as frail—she was barely five feet tall and didn’t weigh a hundred pounds. They both had blue eyes that still showed a zest for life, and ordinarily they both stood straight and moved fairly spryly. But whenever they discussed their current predicament, it just sucked the life out of them right before Gia’s eyes.
“You know I’m with you if that’s the best we can do,” she added to reassure them. “My basement apartment is yours and I’d love to have you with me. But I know that neither one of you wants to do that. You want to stay in this house. And with the kind of money the Camdens have...” She shrugged. “Not that Derek Camden made any promises, but if there’s any chance left of coming up with enough to maybe keep you here...”
“I still think they have something up their sleeve,” Larry grumbled.
“You can’t trust them,” Marion concurred.
And they both sounded so beaten that it broke Gia’s heart.
But as much as she wanted to side with them and tell them she would throw whatever Derek Camden offered back in his face on their behalf, she had to look out for what was best for them. And if the Camdens followed through on their promise, it could mean better than what she’d been able to accomplish.
“I’ll do anything you want. This is completely up to you,” she told them, in hopes of making them feel as if they had some control, some power, some choice in the matter. “But if you’ll accept help from the Camdens, I’ll make sure there are no strings attached to anything they give. That there’s nothing up their sleeve. That nothing about this can hurt you—”
“Or you,” Marion contributed.
“Or me—in any way. And if you never want to set eyes on Derek Camden or any other Camden—”
“Get him over here to pull weeds and let me turn the hose on him,” Larry muttered.
“You can’t turn the hose on someone like that,” Marion chastised. “He’d probably sue us!”
“I can turn my hose on anybody I want to turn my hose on,” Larry contended cantankerously.
“We could bring him lemonade while he works and lace it with laxative—then he’d never know what hit him!” Marion suggested, making Gia laugh.
“So you want me to get him over here to help work so you can have a little payback?” Gia asked, reasonably sure that they wouldn’t actually do either of the things they were threatening.
“A Camden working for us...” Marion mused.
“That’d serve them right,” Larry added.
Gia could tell that they were both finding some fuel in their retribution plots, and she was glad to see them rally.
“So you’ll let me talk to Derek Camden about what they’re offering? And you aren’t opposed to having him come over here and do some of the work?” she said, since she thought she should strike while the iron was hot.
“We don’t want anything to do with them,” Larry reiterated.
“No, we don’t,” Marion confirmed. “But you can take whatever they’re offering, Gia,” she said, as if anything coming from the Camdens through her made it more palatable. “As long as you watch them like a hawk—because they do owe us, and whatever helps you help us we’ll take.”
“But don’t say anything that lets them off the hook for anything, those lousy shysters!” Larry added.
Gia marveled at a phenomenon she’d witnessed before—sometimes it was as if they’d communicated with each other and come to a decision without ever having talked about it. Apparently seventy years of marriage put them on the same wavelength somehow. Or maybe they’d always been on the same wavelength and that was why they’d been able to stay married for so long.
But regardless of how they’d come to this particular conclusion, Gia was just glad they had.
“Then I’ll tell Derek Camden that we’ll take his help.”
The scowl on Larry’s face and the dour, forlorn creases on Marion’s brow told her how unwillingly the offer was being accepted. But Gia thought it was better to get out before they changed their minds. Besides, it would give the Bronsons some time alone to rant and rail about it to their hearts’ content while she went off to deal with Derek Camden.
And why she felt as excited as a teenager who had just finagled permission from her parents to see someone forbidden—who she really, really wanted to see again—Gia didn’t quite understand.
She was a long way from being a teenager.
Larry and Marion weren’t her parents.
And Derek Camden was forbidden because Gia was forbidding herself from him.
Because even if she was ready to date, she wouldn’t date a man like Derek Camden. She might not have a grudge against the Camdens the way Larry and Marion did, but her own past experience taught her to avoid men like Derek.
Her ex-husband was also a man with deep-rooted loyalties to a big, corrupt, ruthless, unprincipled clan-like family, and that was a hot-button issue for her.
So Derek Camden was not someone she would even consider getting involved with.
Personally anyway.
For Larry and Marion’s sake, she would have contact with him—and she would watch him like a hawk, as Marion had ordered—but that was the beginning and end of it.
So any sort of excitement at the thought of seeing him again was something to squash hard and fast.
Which she did as she said goodbye to the Bronsons and left them sitting at the table.
And yet on her way home, a tiny blip of excitement still registered when she started to consider what she was going to wear to see him tonight....
* * *
When Gia returned Derek Camden’s call, he asked if they could meet at a Cherry Creek bakery rather than the coffee shop he’d suggested in his message.
It didn’t matter to Gia where they met, so she agreed. Then she fixed herself a sandwich for dinner and decided she couldn’t wear anything different for this meeting than what she had on.
Not that she didn’t want to change out of the brown slacks and tan pin-tucked blouse she’d worn to work. She just couldn’t let herself. This wasn’t a date and she needed not to forget that.
But she told herself that it was purely for her own comfort that she unleashed her hair from the ponytail it had been in all day, brushed it out and let it fall loose and full into its naturally curly mass.
And when it came to refreshing her blush and adding a neutral eye shadow, some eyeliner and more mascara, it was merely to look at the top of her game in order to warn him that he’d better not try to put one over on her.
Arriving at the bakery five minutes early, she spotted Derek Camden through the storefront windows as she
