ex still rankled.
“Woo, still a sore subject,” Cade said more to himself than to Seth. “Regardless, you’re letting Lacey Kincaid use the guesthouse?”
“Like she said, I’ll probably never see her. I’m just thinking public relations and not wanting bad blood again.”
“Ah,” Cade said, as if he didn’t actually believe that but wasn’t going to argue it.
And his brother wasn’t too far off the mark in his suspicions, because even though Seth didn’t want to admit it, lurking somewhere underneath everything he’d said was still a touch of eagerness to have Lacey Kincaid move in today.
But he definitely wasn’t admitting it.
Instead he changed the subject to ask if Cade had gotten their grandmother a birthday gift yet.
That topic finished their early-morning conversation, yet Lacey Kincaid continued to be on Seth’s mind long after he hung up.
Lacey Kincaid and all the reasons he wouldn’t do anything more than enjoy an occasional glimpse of her from the distance.
He’d meant what he’d said to his brother—he wanted nothing to do with a workaholic or with someone who had the kind of drive he’d already seen in Lacey Kincaid.
Seth was the oldest of the kids in his family and the oldest of all the Camden grandchildren, so he’d had the most experience, and he had the most memory of his grandfather, his father and his uncle. And no memory of them didn’t involve Camden Incorporated as their number one priority.
Yes, the intensity of their drive had built the Camden fortune. But that drive had meant that he’d had almost no relationship with a father who had sacrificed everything to his work. It was a drive that had caused no end of rumors that not all the means and methods used by the Camdens were something to be proud of.
Drive that intense rolled right over other people, and if Seth hadn’t known before not to get in the way of it, he’d had it brought home to him by the last woman he’d had the misfortune of falling for.
So Lacey Kincaid might be lovely to look at, but that honestly wasn’t why he’d said she could use the guesthouse. He was just being neighborly. Cultivating good relations with the new people in town. That was the reason.
But Lacey Kincaid was lovely to look at. And okay, that might have played an infinitesimally small role in granting her use of the place. But that still didn’t mean he was interested in her. Or that he would let himself be interested in her.
And the fact that even at this early hour he’d already rearranged his schedule to make sure that by the time this day was done he would finish work good and early so he could be showered, shaved, ready and waiting for her when she got here?
That was just being a good host.
It was almost nine o’clock Thursday night before Lacey arrived at the Camden ranch. After turning off the highway she drove down a long road that ran between twin white-rail fences that bordered lush pastures where horses grazed at their leisure beneath tall oak trees.
At the far end the road circled an enormous fountain. Water cascaded down a rock waterfall into an octagonal-shaped pool encased in a stone wall that matched the stone of the Camden house.
The house itself was a sprawling two-story with a steeply sloped roof from which multiple chimneys rose. The windows all had earth-brown shutters, and the huge double door entrance sat atop a flight of five wide, semicircular steps.
Lacey had first seen the place the day before when she’d come to find Seth Camden, and while she hadn’t been surprised that such a place belonged to the Camdens, she had been shocked to find it in the rustic countryside of Northbridge. Among English manor houses in the hills of Wales, or mansions in the most plush, elite estates of Connecticut, maybe, but not Northbridge.
Since there had been no answer to her knocks or to her ringing of the doorbell yesterday, she didn’t know what the inside of the house looked like, and she didn’t have any idea where the guesthouse she’d asked to use might be or what it might be like. She’d merely been told by one of the contractors for the training center that it existed. But she doubted it was a hovel.
In fact, she thought it was probably very nice. And maybe her excitement was over getting to see her new place of residence, she told herself. Not over getting to see Seth Camden again.
Lacey went halfway around the fountain and parked directly in front of the house, turning off her engine. She left her suitcases and the rest of her belongings in her car and went up to the front door.
A lengthy moment passed after she rang the doorbell and she checked the time on her cell phone. She’d fully intended to get here earlier, but work had kept her away. She hoped she wasn’t so late that Seth had given up on her getting there at all and gone to bed.
Seth Camden in bed …
Why was she suddenly wondering what he slept in?
Then the front door opened and there he was, looking nothing at all like the Lord of the Manor.
He might not have been in a silk smoking jacket—in fact, he was wearing jeans and a simple white polo shirt—but the shirt showed hints of his muscular chest, and the short sleeves were tight around his mouthwatering biceps. The man still looked good. Really, really good …
“I was beginning to wonder if you changed your mind about this,” he said in greeting.
“No, I’m sorry I didn’t get here earlier and I’m so glad you’re up—I was afraid you might have gone to sleep,” she answered.
“Oh, I was betting that evening to you was going to be later rather than earlier, so I was just waiting.”
Why was he betting that? And why did he sound as if the worst had been confirmed?
“I got held up in meetings and then still had a dozen things that needed to be done before I could get back to Hutch’s place to load my things, and I lost track of time. When I realized how late it had gotten I thought about calling, but I didn’t have a number to reach you and it seemed like I’d just be wasting more time to try to find one. But I am sorry,” she repeated.
“No big deal. Like I said, it’s what I expected. I was just doing some paperwork myself.”
“Paperwork? Did you want me to sign a lease? And we didn’t talk about a damage deposit,” Lacey said, just in case the paperwork he’d been doing had something to do with her using his guesthouse.
That put a curious frown on his brow, and from there Lacey’s gaze went to his hair. No hat-hair tonight, either. The deep, dark, rich brown locks were neat and clean. There was a casualness to the style, as if all it needed in the way of combing was for him to drag his fingers through it.
Sexy. It was very sexy-looking.
And Lacey reprimanded herself for that thought.
“I honestly wish you’d just be my guest and forget the whole renting thing,” Seth Camden said.
What might she owe a Camden if she didn’t pay rent—that was
