“I’ll see you Thursday,” she repeated.
For some reason he smiled as if he was glad to hear it this time. But all he said was “Drive safe,” before he closed her door.
Lindie started her engine and drove off. As she did she hated to admit to herself that—in spite of how it had made her feel to see the damage that her family had caused—she’d been on dates that she’d enjoyed less than her time with Sawyer Huffman tonight.
But as soon as she realized that, she decided to take it as a caution.
The man really didn’t like Camdens and could easily have a hidden agenda when it came to one of them.
And since Lindie was already no stranger to men with hidden agendas that ended up hurting her, she knew very well to watch out.
“If I lived in that part of Wheatley I’d hate us, too,” Lindie concluded.
It was lunchtime on Thursday. Lindie was in her office on the top floor of the Camden Building that housed the offices for all ten of the Camden grandchildren. But the door was closed and no one was in on that particular lunch but Lindie and her grandmother.
Georgianna Camden—who everyone called GiGi—had brought beautiful Cobb salads for Lindie and herself to eat so that Lindie could report on her first two encounters with Sawyer Huffman.
As matriarch of the Camden family, GiGi had been the one to read the journals kept by the late H. J. Camden—founder of all of the Camden enterprises, great-grandfather to Lindie, her brothers, sisters and cousins, and father-in-law to GiGi.
As much as all of the current Camdens wished it wasn’t true, having H.J. on a list of modern-day robber barons was not unfounded.
Rumors and accusations had always swirled around H.J.; his son Hank, who was GiGi’s husband; and Hank and GiGi’s sons, Howard and Mitchum. Through the years various people had claimed their business practices were dirty, unscrupulous, underhanded, ruthless and all-round heinous. The men themselves had denied any wrongdoing. And since they’d been loving, caring husbands, fathers and grandfathers, those denials were believed within the family.
Until H.J.’s journals had been discovered at the Camden ranch in Northbridge, Montana.
Reading the journals had proved to GiGi that most of the accusations against the men that all of the current Camdens had loved and respected were actually true. As a result the current Camdens were attempting to seek out some of the people who had taken the brunt of former Camdens’ misdeeds and trying to make it up to them directly or through remaining family members.
Settling business grudges was hard enough. Personal grudges, as with the Huffmans, were even tougher. And what had occurred for personal reasons now had business consequences for the Camdens.
“It’s just awful, GiGi,” Lindie went on. “Seeing firsthand how, because of us, people have lost their livelihoods. How perfectly nice homes are now run-down. How hard times are causing domestic violence and crime and families coming apart at the seams and—”
“Okay, okay, slow down, Lindie,” her grandmother interrupted. “You’re getting carried away again. I know you think you have to cure all the ills in the world but you’re supposed to be working on trying to curb some of that, remember?”
“I know. I know,” Lindie said. “But—”
“No buts.”
“But there are kids and—”
“No buts!” GiGi raised her voice. “You need to stop this! To toughen up. We’ve caused problems. We’ll do what we can about them. We’ll do whatever it takes to avoid them in the future. But that’s not what you’re supposed to be looking at now and so far that’s all you’ve talked about. We’ve finished with lunch and I still haven’t heard anything about Sawyer Huffman. The situation with him is what we need you to work on now.”
Lindie took a deep breath and exhaled, knowing her grandmother was right; that she did need to get control of her runaway compulsion to save everyone.
“It’s one thing to be sensitive,” her grandmother went on lecturing. “To care as much as you about...well, everything. We’re all proud of that in you. But you can’t take care of everything or everyone. There has to be limits and you still have to learn when and where to set them. So for right now, let’s just concentrate on Sawyer Huffman.”
Sawyer Huffman with those pale, crystal-clear blue eyes shot through with silver rays...
She might not have said much about him yet but her grandmother didn’t need to be worried that she wasn’t concentrating on him. Yes, her sense of responsibility and guilt was in overdrive again when it came to Wheatley, but not even that had kept her from thinking far, far, far too much about Sawyer Huffman.
Although she had to admit that her thoughts were less on the situation than on the man himself. The image of that sculpted face...that dented chin. The way his lips quirked just so when he smiled. Those broad shoulders and big, big hands and arms he liked to cross over that impressive chest...
Even the deep, whiskey tone of his voice had gotten to her so much she’d been having trouble not thinking about him. And she’d tried. Boy, had she tried!
She just hadn’t succeeded.
“He’s pretty unwavering about us and not taking us on as clients,” Lindie told her grandmother, using business to defuse some of those rampant thoughts about Sawyer Huffman. “He’s nice enough about it. He’s not hostile and so far I haven’t seen signs that he bears too much of a grudge for what went on with his father. He mentioned that it was an influence on him but he hasn’t said more than that.”
“Yet.”
“Right. Yet. But up to now all I’ve seen is that he’s very matter-of-fact about how much he likes the role he’s carved out for himself as our enemy. It’s a role he thinks needs to be filled on behalf of places like Wheatley and its residents, and I’m not sure how—or if—I can get him to change anything. He doesn’t even seem to care about the money he could make from us. I don’t think it even tempts him, so I’m not quite sure what will.”
“These things always look impossible at the start,” GiGi insisted. “Especially this one because Samuel Huffman and Huffman Construction rebounded so well after what your uncle Howard did that I couldn’t find any way that we could make anything up to him directly. That’s why you have to really get to know his son. That will help you find a way in. Then you’ll be able to figure out what we can do in the form of restitution for what happened in the past and, hopefully, get us on the path to better relations for the future. This project is tailor-made for you, Lindie. You like to fix everyone’s problems and I think this is a good avenue for that. You just can’t let yourself be pulled in other directions. Put the problems of Wheatley, its economy and the people in it on hold for the time being and just find a way to fix things with Sawyer Huffman first. Tunnel vision—you have got to develop some!”
Lindie nodded, understanding what her grandmother was saying. Agreeing with it. She just wasn’t altogether sure she was capable of ignoring so many other problems to deal only with the task she’d been given.
But there was a lot riding on this particular mission beyond making amends. Huffman Consulting turned every proposed new store into a political hotbed to keep it from happening. The situation needed to be neutralized somehow and it was her job to do that.
“I’m volunteering this afternoon at the Wheatley Community Center so I can see him again,” she said, wondering after the words were out why that didn’t sound as businesslike as it should.
“Okay, but remember that he’s your goal. Don’t