“Why not?” she asked her husband.
Tristan leaned down and whispered something in her ear that made her blush. Then she kissed him, and he put his arm around her. Cam wasn’t sure what had been said, but he knew that it was intimate.
And he wanted that. He had been alone for a long time and had grown used to it, but there were times, especially now that his brothers were both engaged, that he wanted something more.
He glanced down at Becca and noticed that she was watching the married couple, as well. He’d ruined things with her once by not … by what? They’d had an affair. Affairs don’t turn into love overnight. Cam Stern had always known he wasn’t the kind of guy that women fell easily in love with. He was arrogant and difficult. He might know his way around a bedroom, and he knew he was the kind of lover who ensured his partner’s pleasure, but a life together was about more than sex. He’d learned that the hard way.
The conversation at the dinner table was fun and lively, ranging from politics to economic trends to fashion. Becca wasn’t sure she was going to fit in with the billionaires, scandalous heiresses and socialites, but she was managing to hold her own.
Seated around the table for eight were Russell and his supermodel date; Becca and Cam; then next to Cam, Geoff Devonshire—a member of the British royal family—and his new wife, Amelia Munroe-Devonshire; next to them were Russell’s CFO, Marcus Willby, and his daughter Penny.
Despite the fact that she expected Cam to focus on doing his own thing he didn’t. He’d taken the seat right next to her at the table and introduced her to as many potential clients as he could. She wondered if he was trying to make up for breaking her heart all those years ago.
She was seated between Russell and Cam. The friendship between the two men was evident by the way they teased each other and joked around. She forgot about the fact that she intended to stay on her guard. To just get through this night as best she could. Until the topic turned to Luna Azul’s Tenth Anniversary celebration over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. “Did you invite Becca?” Russell asked.
“I didn’t,” Cam said, turning to Becca. “Would you like to come to the party as my guest?”
“You always have time to party,” Amelia said with a smile.
Becca realized that she and Amelia lived in two totally different worlds. To a socialite, it was no big deal to jet down to a party in Miami. But to a working single mother, it was a huge affair. While she liked Amelia, Becca had a feeling she’d never be able to understand the way she lived.
“I own my own business so if I take too many days off, then I don’t get paid,” Becca said.
She wasn’t going to let a table full of socialites pressure her into something she wasn’t sure she wanted to do.
But Becca was curious. “Tell us more about the plans for the party.”
Cam smiled. “Nate is working the celebrity angle so we are going to have a room full of A-listers. Justin has smoothed over the tension we had in the local community and we will be combining the party with the groundbreaking for our new Mercado. That is the work I wanted to talk to you about,” he said.
“We should probably discuss it later,” she said, not wanting to talk business now.
“Definitely,” he said.
“We can all give you some business advice, Becca,” Russell said. “No sense letting you screw up the way I did early in my career.”
“I can’t imagine Russell making many mistakes,” Amelia Munroe-Devonshire said. She was the guest speaker tonight. There was a time when she’d been more infamous than famous as the heiress to the Munroe hotel chain. But then she had married Geoff Devonshire last year and had been in the spotlight lately for her humanitarian work instead of her scandals.
“I have made more than my share, Amelia. I just managed to keep them out of the headlines.”
“Touché! It’s remarkably easier to stay out of the tabloids these days than it used to be. I can’t believe it,” she said.
Becca smiled at the heiress. She was funny and very fashionable but also down-to-earth—something Becca hadn’t expected.
“That’s because I keep a firm hand on the situation,” Geoff said. Geoff was a minor member of the current royal family.
“I believe that,” Cam added. “Both of you are of course invited to the Tenth Anniversary Celebration in Miami.”
“We are scheduled to be in Berne for a special award that Geoff’s brother’s mother is receiving,” Amelia said.
“You must be proud of her,” Becca said. Like most people she knew that Geoff and his two brothers had the same father but different mothers. The scandal that had rocked the world in the ‘70s when they’d been born had followed the men into adulthood and only last year when Malcolm Devonshire had died had it seemed to be put to rest.
“We are. Steven asked us to attend and we can’t say no to family,” Geoff said.
“No, you can’t,” Cam agreed. “That’s why I now have a brother in New York while our business is based in Miami. Justin is up here helping his fiancée close 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