how ’bout this?” she suggested in a brisk but friendly tone she hoped would appeal to him. “I’ll split the difference between your rent figure and mine. You leave the For Sale sign on the building, and if someone else shows interest in it we’ll talk about making a change.”
After a few moments he offered his hand, and they shook to seal their bargain. Erin’s previously cautious enthusiasm began bubbling, and she asked, “Can I paint the walls any color I want?”
“Now you’re pushing.”
He hadn’t seen anything yet, she thought with a grin. But since he’d given her what she wanted for a price she could live with, she was willing to overlook his grumbling. “Do you have time to go see Natalie now?”
“Sure.” She started to pull her hand back, but to her surprise, he held on, reeling her closer until they were barely a step apart. “One thing, Kinley.”
“What’s that?”
“No pink.”
She liked having her old nemesis on the ropes this way, making him wonder what she might do to his precious building. Giving him her sweetest smile, she met his dark gaze with a direct one of her own.
“No promises.”
What a situation this had turned out to be, Cam groused to himself while he signed the papers that would connect Erin to him, at least in a professional way. He wasn’t crazy about being a landlord, but he was pragmatic enough to recognize that his sister was right this time. Renting the empty building was better than continuing to front the costs with little hope of shedding them until spring.
Maybe, if business at Erin’s pet shop took off, his first—and hopefully last—tenant would buy the place and he’d be one step closer to leaving Oaks Crossing behind him for good.
“So, when can I start moving in?” Erin asked, looking from Natalie to Cam with a hopeful expression. “I’d love for Parker and me to be able to start out next year in our new apartment.”
“That’s only a few days away,” Natalie pointed out.
“No time like the present,” Erin replied enthusiastically, reminding him of how he’d always admired the energy she seemed to have an endless supply of.
He suddenly realized that the two of them were staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to answer. Hoping to cover his lapse in manners, he dredged up a compliant smile. It would only be a few days before the lease officially began, and what could go wrong? “Sure. Whatever you want.”
“Will your brothers be giving you a hand?” Natalie asked.
“Not if I can help it. They never listen to me, so it’ll be easier and much less aggravating to do it myself.”
“That’s a lot of stairs to navigate,” Natalie commented, giving Cam one of those nudging looks that he’d always thought women must practice in a mirror so they’d be ready to use for an occasion like this one.
When he refused to bite, her mild expression cooled into an icy glare that told him she meant business. After a few seconds, he had to admit she had a point. Moving an entire household was a lot for one person to manage, and any guy worth knowing wouldn’t leave a woman to handle such a huge job alone. “I can give you a hand getting packed up and moved, if you want.”
That made Erin laugh. “Like you’re gonna listen to me any better than my brothers would.”
“Suit yourself.” Quite honestly, he was disappointed by her reaction. He wanted to be accommodating, but trying to do the right thing had earned him a virtual slap in the face.
“Hang on a minute.” She considered him with a pensive look. “It would go a lot faster with the two of us. Do you still have that old pickup of yours?”
“Course I do. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.”
“Meaning no air-conditioning, power steering or functioning gas gauge,” Natalie teased from behind her desk.
“Less complicated means less things to worry about,” he informed her with a grin. “Plus, when something breaks I can fix it myself. These days, even the best mechanic needs a fancy computer to tell him what’s wrong with a car.”
Erin rolled those pretty green eyes and sighed. “You sound like my big brother. Mike’s always complaining about how impossible it is to repair anything made in the last ten years.”
“It’s a conspiracy to make us all buy new stuff.”
“Yeah, he says that, too.”
Their discussion of modern convenience seemed to be over, and then out of nowhere he heard himself ask, “What do you think?”
He hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but since he had, he did his best to look mildly interested in her answer. Erin had never been anything more to him than his buddy Drew’s annoying younger sister. But this morning, Cam had glimpsed a different side of her that he hadn’t noticed before. She’d always been sassy and too smart for her own good.
Now he knew firsthand what was most important to her and how she used that keen intelligence to get what she wanted. Employing a reasonable, logical argument, she’d convinced him to go along with something that only yesterday he couldn’t have imagined himself agreeing to.
Despite the fact that he’d been forced to give in, Cam had to acknowledge that he was impressed by her tenacity.
“I’m partial to old things myself,” she replied. “They’ve been around a long time, and I think they deserve to be taken care of.”
“Not so much a fan of shiny and new?”
In response, she held out one of her beat-up work boots for him to see. Chuckling, he took his copy of their lease from Natalie’s desk and handed the other to Erin. “Gotcha. So, when did you wanna get started?”
“Yesterday.”
The quick response was so like the determined girl he recalled that he couldn’t keep back a laugh. Opening the office door for her, he bowed slightly as he held it open. “Ladies first.”
“You can save your breath,” she informed him as she flounced past him and out of the office. “Those fake manners of yours don’t fool me.”
“What makes you think they’re fake?”
“I know you,” she shot back. Fortunately, she’d kept her voice down so the other folks on the sidewalk couldn’t hear the venom in her tone. “You haven’t changed a bit since you dated your way through the cheerleading squad in high school.”
“I was a football player,” he joked. “It wasn’t my fault the girls came with the uniform.”
“Whatever.”
She was pointedly ignoring him, even when he stopped and tugged her to
