“Missing?” she asked, inhaling raggedly as she looked over his shoulder.
Wait a second. Missing. Yes.
“The box from this morning. The one with my yearbooks and pictures. It’s gone.”
Cameron loosened his grip on her, looking over his shoulder at the bureau behind him.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. “Yes. Remember? I took it from you and brought it upstairs, then grabbed my sweater before we went to Harrell. I put it there on the bureau. It’s gone.”
He crossed the room to check out the bureau just as a car pulled into the cottage driveway.
“Let’s go talk to the police,” he said, holding out his hand.
Once again, she felt profound relief that he was here with her, that she wasn’t alone. “Thank you, Cameron.”
He entwined his fingers with hers and pulled her toward her bedroom door. “Come on, baby. We’ll talk more on the way back to the city.”
***
After the police left, Cameron helped Margaret clean up her kitchen and sitting room. She found some cardboard and duct tape, and they covered the window as best they could. Tomorrow she would call Shawn and ask him to have the glass replaced.
The police seemed capable and said they would look into similar occurrences in the area, in addition to having a squad car patrol the road near the vineyards more regularly. Their theory was that one of the folks at Harrell’s wine tasting had had a little too much to drink and gone looking for trouble, a scenario that seemed possible, though Cameron hadn’t noticed any stumbling miscreants headed in the direction of The Five Sisters.
The whole thing frustrated him. The idea of Margaret’s safety in jeopardy was unbearable. As much as Cameron was disappointed that the breakin had crushed their romantic interlude, he wouldn’t have traded anything for the opportunity to protect and help her. Which is precisely how he knew, on the ride back to Philly, driving with one hand on the wheel and holding her hand with his other, that he wasn’t on the precipice of falling in love with Margaret Story. He was already there.
As the city lights drew closer, he spoke softly.
“I need a week.”
“What?” she asked, turning away from the window to face him.
“I told you that when I came for you, there would be no half measures. Well, here I am. I want to be with you, baby. Is that what you want too?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“I just need a week to get my business under control. Will you wait for me?”
“Of course.” She lifted his hand to her lips and pressed a long, sweet kiss to his skin.
“Next Saturday I want to pick up exactly where we left off . . . before we got back to the cottage. Does that sound okay to you?”
“Mm-hm,” she murmured. She rested her cheek against the back of his hand before kissing it again. When she finally lowered their hands to the bolster between them, she braided her fingers through his.
“I want to do this right, Meggie. For the first time in my life, I want to look before I leap. But I want you next to me when I jump.”
“We’ll jump together,” she said.
“Is this happening too fast for you?” He looked at her quickly before turning back to the road. “Us?”
“Us,” she answered, smiling as she half spoke, half breathed the word. “No, it doesn’t feel too fast. It just feels . . . right.”
“Next Saturday,” he said. He turned to her as he pulled up in front of their building and shifted the car into park. “I’ll meet you in the lobby again.”
She leaned toward him and reached for his face. “Pack a bag and plan to stay.”
His body responded to her simple request, his blood coursing to his cock in anticipation of spending the night with her. “Done.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“Don’t go back to The Five Sisters without me,” he said gravely. ‘If something happened to you—”
She cut off his words by leaning forward and pressing her sweet lips to his.
There was urgency in her kiss—goodbye and I’ll miss you and I can’t wait for next weekend—but mostly there was a warm woman who tasted of sweet grapes and sunny days, and his heart throbbed with devotion to her.
“See you Saturday,” she whispered near his ear, then opened the car door and closed it behind her.
Chapter 10