“Okay . . .” He paused. “I called in a favor and got some extra leave time. I’ve got another three weeks from the DEA, though I’ll still have to fly out for Coast Guard training for a few days. But I’ll be back.”

She stared at him, absorbing that news.

“Look at that,” he said. “I just left you speechless.”

Yes, and he’d also just changed the rhythm of her heartbeat. “To help your dad?”

“Among other things.”

“Such as?”

He just looked at her.

Oh. Oh, wow. She went a little warm and mushy in some spots, while other areas, such as her brain, started to panic, snagging the very air in her throat so that she couldn’t breathe.

“Yeah. Now you’re getting it,” he murmured, apparently a mind reader now, and he touched his wineglass to hers with a soft clink.

They drank, and then he set his glass aside and took hers to do the same. He pulled her into him and was lowering his mouth to hers when she put a hand on his chest.

“Problem?” he murmured.

Um, she wasn’t sure. Her heart was pounding, and then there was anxiety and worry chasing each other through her veins. To distract from that, she said, “If Winnie did this, she’s watching.”

Cam looked around and shook his head.

“Trust me.” She hurriedly began to gather everything, shoving it all back into the basket.

He was sticking around for longer.

For her.

He liked her, maybe as much as she liked him. Which was a good thing, right? So why then did she feel the need to retreat and take a moment to think too hard? “Sorry,” she said as they walked back.

“For?”

“For cutting things short.”

He gave her a long look.

“What?”

“I thought maybe you were going to admit you just freaked out when I told you I’m going to be around for a bit longer.”

She stared at him, mouth ready to deny it, but . . . she couldn’t.

Because he was right.

Chapter 16

“Let’s see what you’re packing.”

Gavin led an annoyed, grumpy CJ through the dark on the trail around the lake.

“When are you going to tell me what the hell we’re doing?”

It was midnight, quickly becoming Gavin’s favorite time in Wildstone. “You work too hard.”

CJ laughed roughly. “What does that have to do with anything? You showed up at the end of my shift, insisted I come here to the lake with you, that you had something of vital importance to show me. So? What is it?”

The cop was in street clothes tonight. Sexy jeans. Long-sleeved button down opened over a T-shirt advertising CJ’s brother’s motorcycle shop. Bad ’tude all over his face, which came, no doubt, from a tough shift. And possibly a general pissiness from feeling things for Gavin that he didn’t want to feel. Overall look: hot as hell.