up her apartment before she moves back to Miami.”
Geoff laughed. “You do what you have to when it comes to family.”
Family. It was something she seldom thought about except in relation to her eighteen-month-old son, Ty. Her father had left when she was two, and her mother had died of breast cancer when Becca was a junior in college. She’d been on her own for so long that it had never occurred to her that she’d taken something very precious from Ty until this moment.
Ty had uncles and a father who might want to know him. Might.
That was a big word to base her fears on. One thing she knew for certain was that he’d never intended her to be the mother of his child.
She’d never intended it either.
The conversations turned to more private matters, and eventually Russell got up to introduce Amelia. Becca didn’t know if she could sit at the table for another minute. She needed to get out of there.
She wanted to go back home to Garden City where there was comfort in the walls of the home she’d grown up in and in holding her sweet eighteen-month-old son.
As the lights went down and Amelia took the stage, Becca fumbled for her purse. It fell to the floor. Cam leaned in close, his big arm behind her.
“Are you okay? “
“Yes. I just need to step outside for a minute.”
Cam reached down and picked up her handbag, handing it back to her. She pulled out her cell phone and saw that she’d missed a call from Jasper, her nanny. Finally some karma that might be good.
“I’ve got to go,” she said, standing and weaving her way through the tables. She got to the lobby of the club and saw that it was crowded with patrons.
She made her way to a quiet alcove set off the main entrance. She sat down on a padded bench before calling Jasper back.
“It’s Becca,” she said as he answered the phone.
“Sorry to bother you,” Jasper said. “Burt is sick so I had to take Ty to my house. I wanted to make sure you knew before you came home.”
Burt was Jasper’s twelve-year-old English bulldog.“Not a problem. Thanks for letting me know. I might stop by and get Ty tonight.”
“I figured you’d want to. I can even meet you at your house if you call when you are about fifteen minutes away.”
“I will do that,” she said, hanging up the phone.
She stood up and turned to leave the alcove but found that Cam was standing there.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “No emergencies.”
“That’s good. Amelia’s done talking and they’ve opened up the dance floor.”
“And?”
“I’d like to dance with you, Becca. We’ve never done that and it’s been too long since I held you in my arms.”
Two
Becca found herself pressed close to Cam on the dance floor a short while later. He smelled good, like expensive aftershave, and she had to really struggle to keep from resting her head on his chest. But she wanted to. It had been so long since she had anyone hold her, and she’d spent the last two years feeling very alone. She didn’t need a man … she got on very well without one. But there was something about dancing with Cam to the slow bluesy song “Love Is a Losing Game” that Amy Winehouse had made popular a few years ago….
“You’re a good dancer,” she said.
“My mother insisted on lessons. She might not have been too involved in her sons’ lives, but she did make sure we were raised proper gentlemen.”
“What does a proper gentleman do?”
“He knows how to talk to a woman, how to romance her.”
“Romance? Is that what you are doing to me?” she asked. She hadn’t gotten a chance to know the real Cam Stern when they’d had their affair, and though she’d thought she loved him, she knew that had been based on sex and quiet moments in the dark of night. She’d never danced with him or really even seen him outside of that hotel bedroom.
“I am,” he said, pulling her close and spinning them around. Though the dance floor was crowded, she felt like they were the only two people in the room. His eyes were intense as he looked down at her. She felt as if they could bore all the way through to her soul and the secret she kept from him.
She should go. She should walk out of his arms and leave. She needed to remember that no matter how romantic the night felt, Cam wasn’t the kind of man who was interested in settling down or starting a family. And she came with a ready-made one.
He kept his arms around her, and she told herself she was Cinderella and this was for only one night. Even Cindy had gotten one night with her Prince. She knew that Cam wasn’t some white knight who could rescue her. She’d seen the chinks in his armor. But when he held her close like this, it was easy to forget about that all that. It was so easy for her to just pretend that for once she was going to have her cake and eat it, too.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, as she glanced up and found him staring at her.
“That you are the most beautiful woman in the room,” he said.
She flushed and shook her head. “I’m not.”
“In my eyes you are,” he said. He leaned down, and the warmth of his breath brushed her cheek as he spoke directly into her ear. “You are the most exquisite woman I’ve ever seen. You have haunted my dreams.”
“Then why did you wait so long to get back in touch with me?” she asked.
“I didn’t think you’d be able to forgive me. And I wasn’t sure if I had fantasized about you so much that I made you into someone you weren’t. But none of that matters now.”
But it did. He was talking to her as if nothing had happened except a bad breakup. But she knew there was so much more between them, and she had no idea how to tell him.
He wasn’t the evil ogre she’d made him out to be. She’d known that even back then, but she had pride. Some said too much pride was a bad thing, but Becca didn’t really know how to define “too much.” She had only understood that Cam wasn’t the kind of man who’d take the news of her pregnancy well.
She twisted and started to walk away from him.
He caught up with her and grabbed her arm as she reached the edge of the dance floor. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t do this, Cam. I am trying to pretend this is all just a nice night out, but every time I look in your face I see the past. And I’m just not ready to deal with that tonight.”
“I’m not asking you to,” he said. “I think we should forget about what happened between us—”
