He’d do it for Ty. He knew he could be a good dad. But he had no idea what to do with Becca. She was the fly in the ointment of his plans for the future.
There was no discounting the sexual attraction between them, and he wished he could honestly say that he only wanted her in his bed … but he knew that he wanted her in his life. He really liked her as a mom. He knew that there were women who loved their children and would put them first. But this was the first time he’d actually encountered one. Then again, Becca had always been different. When their affair had ended, he’d felt her absence in his life. He’d wanted to somehow reconnect with her but … had been afraid of an emotional commitment. That had come back to bite him in the ass—now he had a son and a woman he wasn’t sure what to do with in his life.
He pulled into the parking lot at Luna Azul and got out of the car. He walked toward the building and felt that sense of home he so often experience here. This was the place he’d poured all of his dreams and desires into. And the club had taken off. It was more than he and his brothers had ever expected it to be.
Luna Azul was in the heart of Little Havana right off Calle Ocho. It had been a cigar factory in its heyday but had closed and fallen into disrepair when Cam had found it and purchased it for a very good price. He’d decided to make it the premiere club in Miami and had done just that, transforming the former cigar factory’s entryway with a Chihuly glass sculpture installation of the night sky showing two moons—a blue moon. And then decking out the rest of the club all in dark Latin tones. Upstairs there was a rooftop club that echoed the streets of Havana back in their pre-Castro glory days.
Now he knew he had to find something else to pour his energy into and Justin had suggested a club in Manhattan. Nate liked the idea because the A-listers there were more accessible than other areas of the country, but Nate had said he’d make it work wherever they wanted to open their new club. He had to think through he details, and he would need to start putting together a team to bring the project to life. They’d all agreed that another Luna Azul wasn’t exactly what they wanted. They needed to make that club unique from the one in Miami.
Opening a club was time-consuming, which was why he’d always been into short-term affairs. He’d had to raise his brothers and he hadn’t had for another emotional commitment.
“You look very serious, bro,” Nate said, coming up behind him and patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I calmed down the local leaders over the latest Mercado drama. We have a meeting set for tomorrow.”
Cam turned and gave his brother a quick hug. “I’m glad. I’m thinking about the new club idea.”
“Good,” Nate said. His brother looked like he’d stepped off the pages of GQ magazine, which was why he was the public face of the company, the one who always showed up in the tabloid gossip columns. “What are your thoughts? “
His ideas were rough, but they were starting to take form. He needed something different. The club scene in
New York was just as competitive as in Miami, maybe even more so, and they’d need to be different to stand out.
“That we need something to reflect whatever community we are a part of up there. I was hoping to do something in Spanish Harlem.”
“Really? Tell me more.”
They’d played a key role in revitalizing the stylized Little Havana area here in Miami, and he was pretty sure they could do the same thing in New York. They just had to have the right idea.
“I know. I was thinking a retro-styled club that captures the glory of the old days. It might fit the city better than a Luna II-type deal.”
Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “I like the idea, but it’s really different from what we’ve done before. That will mean a new design team and everything. I think we should stick to doing what we do best and that’s a Little Havana-style club.”
“I have the perfect designer in mind for this new project. In fact, she’s going to do the interiors on all the redesigns of the shops in the Mercado.”
“Of course you know the perfect person. Cam, when are you going to realize that life isn’t perfect? You always have every angle covered,” Nate said.
Cam tried to always appear to his younger brothers as if he had it all together. It was easy enough when things were going well as they had been for the last few years. But when the company had initially struggled or when their parents had died and Cam had had to find the strength inside himself to step up and keep his brothers focused and happy, it had been hard.
“I try, but Nate, I know that life isn’t perfect. We grew up in the same house, didn’t we?”
“Yes. And I came out of it with my own baggage and lately I’m beginning to see that for you it’s a desire to make everything picture-perfect. No faults allowed.”
Was that true? “I don’t think I’m that difficult.”
“Listen, man, I love you. You’re my big brother and you always have my back, but you are one demanding son of a bitch and I think that you should accept that nothing is going to ever be as perfect in the real world as you want it to be.”
Cam tucked that nugget away for later contemplation. He wasn’t going to change overnight or probably at all. He was too set in his ways.
“So who’s the designer?” Nate asked.
“Becca Tuntenstall. She used to work for Russell Holloway.”
“Are you sure she’s the right choice? We don’t want our club to look like Russell’s.” Nate scratched the back of his head. “It’s hardly my area of expertise. I just want to make sure I’m asking the right questions now that Justin is out of state.”
Justin was their corporate attorney and handled most of the legal problems that cropped up. Recently, he’d negotiated a deal with the local community leaders to launch the Luna Azul Mercado, an upscale shopping center to complement the nightclub. It was fair to all parties involved, and Justin had wrangled himself a fiancée out the deal.
Cam didn’t know what was going on with his brothers up and getting engaged.
He smiled at his little brother. Nate had always been the charmer—the one who skated through life with a smile. Now he was stepping up, and Cam was proud of him.
“She’s done some work for other chains, as well. She’s the best designer for the job,” Cam said. He’d already decided to give the assignment to Becca if she proved worthy. He couldn’t uproot her life and not provide some work for her. Besides, he wanted her completely under his control. He was going to make her regret not coming to him when she’d first found out she was pregnant.
Nate’s expression changed. “Is she more than a designer to you?”
Cam hesitated. He wasn’t the type of person to talk about the women he was involved with, even to his brothers. Plus, she was the mother of his child … something that he had absolutely no idea how to tell his brothers. He wanted everything with Becca and Ty figured out and wrapped up before he said anything to either of them.
“Yes, she is.”
“Wow. You haven’t been seriously involved with a woman since Myra.”
Myra
