Christmas In A Small Town. Kristina Knight

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СКАЧАТЬ Camden...

      That was interesting on a whole other level.

      “I guess we figured out what’s bugging Levi,” Collin said, coming up behind him at the bar. He pulled his wallet from his rear pocket.

      “Yeah, we thought there was trouble at the ranch. Turns out, Levi Walters just needs to get laid,” Aiden added. Levi started to give a sharp reply, but that would only encourage the two of them. And they weren’t wrong.

      Not that he was going to sleep with Camden Harris. That zing of attraction was just a zing. A reminder that it had been too long since he’d taken time away from Slippery Rock to be with a beautiful woman.

      Like Camden. Levi shoved the thought away. “What do we owe you, Merle?”

      “Thirty’ll cover it,” the older man said.

      “I got it—loser buys, remember? And who was that, anyway?” Collin leaned against the bar, holding out a handful of bills to Merle.

      “She looked familiar. Kind of,” Aiden added.

      “Camden Harris.” Levi turned his attention to the door again and then pulled a few bills from his wallet, but Collin pushed the money away. Right. Because Collin and Aiden lost at darts. Levi needed to get his mind back inside the bar. “You remember. Calvin and Bonita’s granddaughter. She used to spend her summers here.” Neither Collin nor Aiden said anything, and that brought Levi’s attention fully back inside the bar, not out there in the night with Camden. “She used to tag along with us to the lake on really hot days. Camden Harris.”

      Aiden snapped his fingers. “That’s how I know her. She did the beauty pageant thing with Julia while they were in college. The two of them traded off winning and losing there for a while. Until Camden was crowned at the state level and went on to the national competition.”

      “Julia competed in pageants?” Julia was a beautiful woman, but she didn’t have the slick polish Levi associated with beauty pageant contestants. She was too genuine for that. For that matter, so was Camden. At least, the Camden he remembered. The woman he’d spoken to a few minutes before was a stranger, in a wedding gown, wearing a ring she said she didn’t want. Weird.

      “Something her mom got her into. After her parents died, it was a way to keep that connection going. Plus, she wanted to save the money they left her, and academic scholarships only went so far. The pageant circuit paid the difference.” Aiden leaned an elbow on the bar. “I wonder if Julia knows she actually came to town?” he muttered.

      “Julia’s been talking to Camden?” Even more interesting. Camden had made it seem like this visit was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but if she’d been talking to Julia, it probably wasn’t. So what was up?

      “They text, Facebook now and then. She was supposed to be getting married this weekend. Today, actually. Obviously that didn’t happen.”

      Obviously. Levi watched the door for a few more minutes. Camden was engaged. Or had been engaged. Was still engaged? And now she was in Slippery Rock, wearing the dress and the ring, but apparently alone. Interesting on that whole other level.

      “You fellas gonna leave sometime tonight? I’d like to close,” Merle said. He was leaning against the counter on the back side of the bar, arms crossed over his flannel-clad chest. He tapped the toe of one well-worn boot against the rubber matting on the floor.

      “Sorry,” Collin said, pocketing the change Merle had left on the counter.

      The three of them walked out of the bar, got into their cars, and each went in a different direction from there. Once Levi was out of town, he considered what might have brought Camden to town.

      It could be she was just running away.

      It could be that the deal he was about to close with her grandfather had brought her.

      It could be anything, really.

      The narrow road leading to the ranch and the Harris property split, and Levi paused, watching the lane that would lead to Harris land, for a long time. No taillights shone down the lane, not that he’d expected any, and despite the late November date, the foliage blocked out any light that might have shone from the porch or yard lights at the Harrises’.

      Probably she was tucked up in one of the guest rooms Bonita kept in pristine condition despite the fact that no visitors had been at the farm since Levi was a teen.

      Probably she was just here for a quick visit, like she’d said.

      Probably he shouldn’t wonder what might have brought Camden back to Slippery Rock.

      In a wedding dress.

      He really needed to stop thinking about what she looked like in that dress.

      Levi put the truck back in Drive and turned to go down the road that would lead to his parents’ home and then around to his own. All the lights were off at the main house, which meant Bennett and Mama Hazel had gone to bed and Savannah was spending the night at the orchard.

      He shouldn’t let Camden’s reasons for coming to Slippery Rock get under his skin, but her evasive answers in the bar were doing just that. The memory of her soft hand in his still made his palm hot. But her evasiveness, that was the issue here. He had a deal going with Calvin, and he didn’t want that deal messed up. More than that, he liked the older couple. They were like grandparents to him, and maybe it was crazy, but Camden showing up now, when they’d decided to sell—it only made sense if she wanted something from them.

      Like money.

      Levi gripped the steering wheel as he crossed over the cattle guard separating his drive from the county road.

      He would find out what Camden was up to. Then he’d get back to his plans for Walters Ranch. And he’d take a weekend off, maybe go to Little Rock or Tulsa for a few days. He knew women in both cities who would be glad to hear from him, who wouldn’t expect more than a weekend’s worth of fun.

      He turned off the truck and went inside, toeing off his boots in the mudroom and slinging his beat-up jacket on the wall hook.

      Camden Harris was back in town, and he would find out what she was up to.

       CHAPTER THREE

      CAMDEN BLEW TWO sharp blasts into the whistle. The border collie who had been working his way through the course of inclines and tunnels stopped and his head swiveled to look at her. She held him there, not moving, for a slow ten count, then blew into the whistle again, giving him the go-ahead to complete the course.

      She’d been back in Slippery Rock for only two days, and already she felt like the Camden she remembered from childhood. Not the worried, sheltered, bored woman she’d been in Kansas City. She wanted to stay here, and she was beginning to see a way she could. Maybe for a long time.

      “You haven’t forgotten,” her grandfather Calvin said. He stood beside her, looking so much older than she remembered. And shorter, somehow. She didn’t think the shorter was just because she’d grown taller since her last visit to Slippery Rock. God, she’d been a jerk to have stayed away.

      Yes, СКАЧАТЬ