She couldn’t help laughing. It almost made her forget how mad she was at Cam for glad-handing the entire town, including the mayor.
“Okay, Ms. Wise Guy,” he said, big arms folded and dripping with suds. “See if you can do any better.”
“Come here, Jaggy,” she said. As the dog whizzed by, she grabbed him by the collar and half led, half dragged him back to the dog bath.
Cam followed her over. “You’re going to need help.” He stood next to her as she kicked off her flip-flops and grabbed the handheld faucet. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
“I got this.” She eyed him. “Are you forgetting I’m an expert? All those summers I worked here, remember?”
Cam swept his arm in deference. “Please. Be my guest.”
“Now, Jaggy,” Hadley crooned, “I’m just going to rub you down with soap and warm water. Who wouldn’t like that?”
Cam mumbled something. She thought it was, “Yeah, who wouldn’t like that?” but she wasn’t completely sure.
The dog reached out and licked her.
“There,” she said, laughing a little. “See? He’s calming down.” She hosed the dog down with warm water, talking to him in a reassuring voice the whole time. Then she poured another round of shampoo on him and scrubbed.
“You’re essentially giving him a massage,” Cam said from behind her. She turned and caught his gaze, which contained that spark of heat she recognized all too well.
“Almost finished.” Hadley focused on rubbing behind Jagger’s ears. She grabbed the faucet head and rinsed through his fur. “Well, look at that. You’re not blue anymore. Isn’t that great? You’ll be white and fluffy again in no time.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call him fluffy,” Cam said. He was leaning against the wall, watching her work.
“Shhh,” she said as she continued to rinse Jagger’s fur. “You’ll make him feel bad; then he’ll shake himself all over.”
“Okay, Jag, you’re very handsome,” Cam said. “And…clean.”
Hadley laughed. “As soon as I turn the water off, you throw the towel over him.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cam said, catching the clean towel that Hadley tossed, then sneaking up on Jagger with it. “Hope you still love me.” Cam toweled the dog off before finally giving him his freedom. Which Jagger took, but not after he shook all the extra water in his fur out on Cam. Then he did more laps around the room, excited and a little flummoxed after his big day of adventure. He finished the show by guzzling from his bowl in what seemed like an endless draught.
“All that sugar,” she said, shaking her head, “makes a naughty dog very thirsty.” Jagger looked up at her, water dribbling from his chin, looking like a guilty toddler, too cute to be angry with.
“We can work together when we want to,” Cam said as he used the towel to wipe up the floor around the dog bath.
She nodded. He was so close, she could smell his soap. Dial, if she wasn’t mistaken. And shaving cream. He smelled ridiculously good. From this close up, she could see the coarse, heavy grain of his beard. She had to stop herself from reaching out and running her hand along its rough surface.
He was a handsome man. A good man. One who’d offered himself to the paparazzi on her account.
She smiled. “Yes.” Her mind was whirling.
“I mean, we handled everyone out there,” he said. The way he was looking at her was unnerving. “We stood together.”
She swallowed. He had such nice lips. She tore her gaze from them.
He’d done something unselfish for her. He’d thrown himself into the line of fire. That didn’t change the fact that they were on opposite sides of…of everything. Although at that moment, she was having difficulty remembering what everything was.
“Thank you for what you did,” she blurted. “It was unselfish. And…and kind.”
He reached out and put his hands on her arms again, a move maybe meant to calm her but instead made her pulse shoot through the roof. “I’d do anything for you, Had.”
He’d called her Had, something that had always gotten to her.
“I know how much you hate giving interviews,” she said.
“It’s no big deal,” he said, shrugging.
“No, it is a big deal.” Could her friends have been right? That Cam was struggling with feeling like a failure and looking for a replacement for football? That would certainly explain why he hadn’t wanted to talk to the press. And why he was fighting so hard for his restaurant.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You’re the most successful, driven person I know,” she said, trying to put everything she was feeling into words. “And…I appreciate the sacrifice.”
He leveled his gaze on her, his eyes deep blue and full of a concern that was melting through the ice around her heart. The ice that protected her from him. “I meant what I said. Building or no building, I’d do anything for you. And I want you to know you can trust me to listen,” he added. “You can tell me anything.”
“As a friend?” She bit her lip. Why did that fall out of her mouth? Stupid, stupid her, setting herself up for more pain.
“I’ll always be your friend,” he said. “I’ll always want to protect you from harm. I hate that you have to go through this in public. I’m angry for you.”
Yes, a friend, but…did he want more? Because she did. She couldn’t deny it any longer.
She was way too aware of him, his strong, lean body, the grip on her arms sure and comforting. In that moment, she realized she did trust him. And that scared her more than anything. She glanced from his hands to his eyes.
He was still holding on to her, still staring at her. “Listen,” he said. “I’m sorry about what I said at the festival about a rescue somehow being less beneficial for the town than a restaurant. Your idea about a pet rescue…it’s a good one. A brilliant one, in fact. I keep trying to put distance between us but I…I just can’t. I’m sorry I resorted to that. It was a cheap shot.”
“I’m sorry too. I hate that we’re fighting.”
“And just to clear this up once and for all, I never slept with Mabel.”
“I believe you,” Hadley said. “But back then, I believed her. It was awful to think you did that right after we broke up.”
“I would never do that to you.” He paused. “But then, you couldn’t have known that. Because I left. That was just another way I hurt you.”
“You couldn’t have known. I’m just…I’m just glad I know the truth now.” She grinned suddenly. “It’s just one more reason why I can’t think of you as a jerk.”
“I’m not a jerk, Hadley.”
She looked at his full lips and every part of her wanted to kiss him, and not just because he’d taken a bullet for her.
But this stupid building was everything between them. It made anything else between them impossible.
She realized she was holding on to him, too, her hands gripping his upper arms.
Cam glanced over at the shaded windows. “There’s probably still a huge crowd out there. I’m afraid we’re stuck here for a while.”