"I can see that. What do you envision?"
"Did you have a chance to look at the portfolio?" he asked.
"Yes, I made some preliminary sketches based on a market I saw in Seville last year when I was in Spain."
Becca had always been a hard worker. Cam remembered that Russell said she was an a.s.set to his team because she brought authenticity to the work she did. "Why did you stop working for Russell?"
She shrugged. "That"s an odd question."
"No, I was thinking about how dedicated you are to your job and how starting your own business while starting a single-parent family was a double whammy. Why did you do it?"
She looked over at him. "I couldn"t continue my busy schedule with Russell and be the kind of mom I wanted to be to Ty."
Cam tilted his head to study mother and child. She had said she was alone, but he realized as Ty continued to grow she"d always have her son by her side. He felt a pang knowing that they shared a bond he could never be a part of, but he knew he was building his own relationship with Ty.
"Russell would have let you work part-time."
She shook her head. "I couldn"t do it. I didn"t want him to know I was pregnant and put two and two together. And I had agreed to a certain work schedule with Russell and I know I wouldn"t have been able to just do half the work I had done previously. It wouldn"t have been fair."
"You wouldn"t have been working to your own standards?"
"Yes. I would have ended up working all the time and never seeing Ty. And that didn"t sit well with me. If I was going to have a child, I intended to be the best mother I could to him."
He hadn"t thought he could respect her any more than he already did, but hearing her thoughts on working and parenting made him even more convinced of her basic integrity.
Becca was the embodiment of everything he"d ever imagined when he thought of the perfect woman. He leaned over to kiss her briefly on the lips.
"What was that for?"
"For being you," he said. He wasn"t going to say more than that. Already Becca was making him reveal things about himself that he"d rather keep hidden. He would never have admitted even to himself that he felt safer working all the time. Until Becca and Ty had come into this life and his home, he hadn"t realized what he"d been missing.
Becca put Ty down as she sat in the cafe area at the back of the Cuban Grocery store. Tomas sat across from her, and even Cam managed to get his tall frame into one of the tiny cafe-style chairs. The store was in disrepair and needed fixing up, but there was a warmth in the cafe that made her feel at home.
The Cuban grocery store didn"t feel like any supermarket she"d shopped in during her life. It definitely made her want to come back here.
"What is your vision for this place, Tomas?" she asked. She"d found that once she talked to the people who were going to work in the clubs, hotels or buildings she designed, she had a better insight into what was needed from her.
"My vision?" he asked.
"Yes, tell me what you want your consumers to feel when they are here."
He rubbed his chin and then glanced around the store. "I guess I just want it to feel like home so that they can remember the old ways and not lose so much of who we are to American commercialism."
Becca was surprised to hear him say that so bluntly. "You know that Luna Azul also brings a lot of celebrities into the area. Is there a way that you can incorporate that consumer into your market?"
"I think that you and your brothers are looking to do something a little different here," Tomas said, looking at Cam. "But we also carry specialty food items that can"t be found in other places, so I think that will appeal to some of the Luna Azul clientele," Tomas said.
"We are thinking about doing something different here. That"s why I hope you will talk to Becca about the store you had in Cuba," Cam said.
"It wasn"t my store but my papa"s," Tomas said. For the next twenty minutes, Tomas talked about pre-revolution Cuba with a fondness that was infectious. Becca took notes as he spoke.
Ty was getting a little restless, which distracted her. She had to keep getting up to take things from him.
"I have to go check in with Junior outside. How about if I take Ty so you and Tomas can talk?" Cam suggested.
"Are you sure?" Becca asked. It would be a lot easier for her to take notes and concentrate on what Tomas was saying if she didn"t have to worry about Ty doing something he shouldn"t.
"Yes, I am," Cam said. He walked over to Ty. "Come on, buddy, let"s go outside where you won"t be getting scolded."
"Thank you, Cam."
"No problem," he said. She watched them walk away. Seeing Ty"s little hand in Cam"s, she felt a pang in her heart. She continued staring as Cam bent down and scooped Ty up when they reached the door leading outside.
"You and Cam have something between you," Tomas said.
"Business, but also our son," she said. She wasn"t doing a good job of keeping her feelings for Cam hidden. She liked looking at him and being close to him.
"More than business, I think. Why do you try to hide your feelings?" Tomas asked.
She shrugged. She was used to being on her own, and a part of her was very afraid if she let Cam in and he left, then she"d feel even more lonely. "It"s hard to own your own business and be involved with a potential client. I don"t want to give the impression that Cam has brought me here for any reason other than my skills as a designer."
Tomas laughed. "You remind me of Selena, my grand daughter. She is the same way. Very much wants her business and personal lives to stay separate."
"Do they?" Becca asked. "I think I could use some advice from her."
Tomas shook his head. "Alas, they don"t for her. At least not where Justin Stern was concerned. And I think it"s the same way for you. No matter how many limits you put on Cam, he will always be more to you than a potential client."
"I agree. I just didn"t want the world to know," she said, desperately trying to think of a way to turn the conversation back to business and not offend Tomas.
"What else do you want to know about Cuba?" he asked, changing the subject himself.
Tomas was at least seventy but wore his years well. He had thinning hair and a thick mustache, and he smiled easily, especially when he spoke of his family.
She thought about it for a minute. "Well, I want to know what your visual impressions were and why you remember those things. I think you mentioned you were a boy when you left. What is the one thing that lingers in your mind when you think of Cuba?"
Tomas leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. "I remember lots of flowers and old brick streets. There were some fountains and of course the shops had lots of outdoor seating. The open-air cafes where poets and revolutionaries sat around and argued about their worldviews. The coffee shops where my father would always buy me a cup of sweet coffee in the mornings and sometimes in the evenings as we"d walk back home from his store. I remember that the doors were always open and big paddle fans stirred the air."
When he spoke, she had an image in her head that matched a little of what she"d seen in Seville, and she knew what she was going to do. She started sketching as he talked, just a doodle really, but it captured what she needed for this moment.
"Will the redesigned store be more focused on groceries or the cafe?" she asked. That would make a huge difference in how the interior would be designed.
"The cafe," Tomas said. "When I was growing up I sat in the cafe part of my papa"s store and listened to the old men tell stories while they sipped their coffee and smoked their big cigars. I want to ensure that the current generation and the future ones don"t lose sight of where we came from. That the old stories stay important."
"Maybe you could have murals on the inside walls of the store, Tomas. Ones that captured the scenes you were just talking about. I think that would be a nice way to make your store feel different than the local chains. And to give parents and other visitors something to talk about."
"I love that idea. And I know the perfect local artist for the job," Tomas said. "Do you want me to give you his name?"
"That would be great," she said.
Becca knew exactly what he wanted. And she had a vision of how she could bring it all together. She liked working to bring the past and the future together. It was something she"d learned working for Russell. His Kiwi Klubs were successful because they took the best of the existing culture and melded it with the trendiest things happening in the world.
"Thank you for sharing your past with me, Tomas."
"You are very welcome. And good luck to you with your design. I hope that you create the one that captures everything the Mercado can be."
"Me, too," she admitted. She gathered up her papers and notes and walked out of the grocery store.
Cam was talking to a construction worker while holding Ty. They all had hard hats on, including Ty.
She blinked and then turned away, needing a moment to gather her emotions before she went over to them. Cam was exactly the kind of man she"d always hoped to find. He was s.e.xy and dashing and charming. But more than that, he was a man who put family at the top of his priority list.
She"d had no idea he was that kind of man when they"d been involved two years ago. That was her own fault because she"d been embarra.s.sed to be having an affair with one of Russell"s friends. She"d tried to keep him a secret. So they hadn"t really had a chance to know each other outside of the bedroom.
Her biggest regret was that she"d cheated both of them out of years they could have spent together with their son. And she could only hope that she hadn"t cost them their future, as well.
Cam"s cell phone rang as Becca came over to him. He handed Ty over to her and then glanced at the caller ID. "It"s Nate, give me a minute."
She nodded, and he stepped aside to take the call. She seemed tired and a bit unsure as he walked away.
"Hey, Nate, what"s up?"
"Not much. Jen and I are done early at the club and are having her nephew over for dinner. We wanted you and Becca and Ty to join us."
He glanced over at Becca. He wanted time alone with her yet he didn"t. He needed time to figure out just how he was going to handle the intense emotional and physical rush he felt every time she was near him.
"Yeah, let me check with Becca and call you back."
"Yes. Definitely."
He hung up and walked over to Becca, who was making baby talk with Ty. They were so cute together. He stood there for a moment just watching the mother and child bond and feeling a little bit envious that his mother had never cuddled him close the way that Becca did with Ty.
"Is everything okay?" she asked when he approached her.
No, he thought. She had a way of finding empty pieces inside of him that he"d never been aware of.
"Yes, fine. Nate invited us over to dinner. What do you think?"
"I...I was hoping to talk to you alone tonight," she said.
"I want that, too," he said. "We will be alone when we get home. Nate will help you with your designs, too. You can get his insights into the Mercado, as well."
Becca looked up at him. She"d pushed her sungla.s.ses up on the top of her head, and he could see her pretty eyes. She was very serious. "I think I have enough insight. What"s this really about?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. He hated not feeling sure of himself, and for some reason that was how she made him feel. "I want you to get to know my brothers better, and I want Ty to have a real relationship with his uncles."
She studied him for a long minute, and then she nodded. "Okay. Then I"d be happy to go to dinner at his house. I know how important family is to you," she said.
"You and Ty are important to me, too," he said. "I wish we hadn"t lost so much time together."
He"d replayed their first relationship in his head a dozen times, and he didn"t see any way for it to have gone differently. He had been a man driven to keep his eye on business back then. And she had been the same way. Just two workaholics scratching an itch, and he wished they would have been able to see into the future and this moment. Maybe things would be different now.
"You didn"t want me to stay."
"I know," he said.
It was odd that they were having this conversation in the middle of a parking lot, yet somehow fitting. With Becca the most inconspicuous moments turned into the most monumental.
"You made me forget about everything except being together with you. That"s not any way to live your life. I would have lost myself, and I think that would have destroyed me and whatever we had between us."
Cam considered her for a long moment. He would have enjoyed having Becca lost in him. But she had a point that eventually it would have wrung them both out, and they would have broken up any way.
"You"ll know when you"re ready to meet someone who can be everything to you."
"Am I everything to you?" she asked. "Do you think I could be?"
"Yes, you are." And in that moment, Cam realized he was telling G.o.d"s honest truth.
"I"m flattered," she said. "You are the first man that has made me feel this way, Cam."
"I"m glad to hear that," he said. He wanted to be the only man she thought of from this point forward.
She shook her head. "You confuse me sometimes. It"s one thing to think of you as my lover but something else to think of you as Ty"s father. The other night when we had that fever...you were really there for me, and I don"t want to make that into something more than it was to you."
He reached over and hugged her with one arm. "It was nice for me. I don"t think anyone other than my brothers has trusted me when they needed something. I mean outside of business."
She tipped her head back to look up at him. "I trust you."
"Let me call Nate back and then we can head over to his house."
"Okay," she said.
He stepped away to return the call but couldn"t take his eyes off of Becca and Ty. No matter how unsettled he felt around her, he still wanted to spend all of his time with her.
"Hey, big bro," Nate said as he answered his phone.
"Hey, little bro," Cam said.
Nate laughed, and it was a good sound. Cam remembered how solemn Nate had been when he"d gotten injured and had been forced to give up baseball. Nate was a very different man today.
"So? Are you coming tonight?"