Then You Happened (7 page)

Chapter 11

Sierra

“Fuck me,” were the words that flew out of my mouth as I stopped midway down the stairs and saw Cameron standing there.

“Excuse me?” He smiled.

Oh what the hell,
I thought. This was me on most mornings after I drank, and with him going to be working on my house, I was sure this wasn’t the last time he’d see me like this.

“Sorry. I look like shit. Get used to it and I need coffee.”

He chuckled as I walked past him and he followed me into the kitchen.

“Coffee?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“Rosa, two coffees.”

She rolled her eyes at me as she took two cups from the cabinet. “No looks today, Rosa.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have drank so much last night and then you wouldn’t look like this,” she said as she moved her hand up and down in front of me.

Again, Cameron chuckled. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the office?” he asked.

“I took today off. I have work I can do at home, but I think I’m just going to relax by the pool today.”

“Yeah, she just took the day off as of fifteen minutes ago. You just can’t do that, Sierra. I have meetings scheduled,” Kirsty said with irritation.

Rosa handed me my cup. “Listen, I’m the CEO. It’s my company and I can take a damn day off. I’m hung over and just need to relax by the pool. Cancel the meetings. Reschedule them. I’m not going in today.”

Kirsty sighed. “Fine. I’ll be at the office if you need me.”

As Kirsty walked out, I heard her yell from the hallway. “Your painting is here.”

“Oh good. Tell them to bring it in the kitchen,” I yelled.

A handsome-looking man walked into the kitchen with the painting I bought last night. “Are you Sierra Adams?” he asked as he looked me up and down.

“Yeah. That’s me.”

He had a smirk on his face. “Can you sign here, please,” he said as he handed me the pen.

“What’s that look for? Haven’t you ever seen a woman hung over before?”

His eyes widened and Cameron looked at me. “Sorry, miss. I think you look good.”

“That’s better.” I smiled as I handed him the pen and paper back. “Thank you for delivering this. Have a good day.”

He walked out and Cameron began to laugh. “What?” I asked.

“You totally had him flustered.”

“Well, then, he shouldn’t have looked at me like that.”

“You’re right; he shouldn’t have. But look at the way you’re dressed. He couldn’t help it.”

I bit down on my bottom lip because I thought Cameron was telling me in a subtle way that I looked sexy. I took the wrapping off and revealed my painting.

“Do you like?” I asked as I looked at Cameron and Rosa.

“It’s pretty. What is it?” he asked.

“The streets of Italy. See this café right here?” I asked as I pointed to the painting. “That’s the last place my dad and I had breakfast together before he died.”

Cameron looked down. “I’m sorry. It’s a beautiful painting.”

“How much did that cost you?” Rosa asked.

“Ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand dollars for a painting! You’re joking, right?” Cameron asked.

“No, I’m not. Not only was the painting special to me, but the money is going to Haven Hall for domestic violence.”

“Oh. That’s a good cause, but still.”

I didn’t expect him to understand. I was sure ten thousand dollars was a shit load of money to a guy like Cameron.

“Can you hang it for me?” I asked.

“Where do you want it?”

I walked over to the empty wall by the table. “Right here. That way, I can stare at it when I eat breakfast and think about my dad.”

“You don’t eat breakfast in here,” Rosa said.

“Well, I’m going to start.”

“You two need to scatter. I’m not used to having people in the house while I’m trying to clean. Now go. You’re throwing off my mojo.”

“I’ll go get my tools and hang that painting for you. Then, I’ll get started on your closet. Paolo should be here soon with the drywall.”

“I’m going to get dressed. Just make sure it’s centered,” I said as I walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to take a shower.

****

Cameron

I went to my truck and grabbed my tool box. The thought that she paid ten thousand dollars for that painting still filled my mind. I walked back to the kitchen and Rosa poured me another cup of coffee.

“This is the last of it,” she said.

“Thanks, Rosa.” I smiled.

I was digging through my tool box, looking for the anchors and nails to hang the picture, when Rosa walked up behind me.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

I turned my head and looked at her. “No.”

“Hmm,” she said. “Why not? You’re a handsome, hardworking man.”

“Thanks, Rosa.” I laughed. “I just haven’t found the right girl yet, I guess. Plus, I’m not staying here in California for long, so it would be silly of me to meet someone here, form a relationship, and then have to leave.”

“Hmm. We will talk more later on. I have work to finish.”

She was nice lady. The way she and Sierra went back and forth was funny. I hung the picture on the wall and took a step back to view it. That was when I heard her voice.

“Thank you. It looks great there,” Sierra said.

I turned around and she was standing behind me in a sun dress. Her hair was still wet and wavy, and she had put on some light make-up.

“You’re welcome. Are you done upstairs?”

“Yeah. Do you need to get started up there?”

“I want to get the plastic put down before Paolo gets here with the drywall,” I replied.

“Rosa’s up there, cleaning up my mess. So give her a few and then go up. I’ll be doing some work by the pool if you need me.”

There was a knock at the door and it was Paolo. “Hey, man.” He smiled.

“Hey, Paolo. Did you get the drywall?”

I walked with him to his truck and we carried in the sheets of drywall. “Be careful; there’s a lot of stairs,” I said.

We made it up the stairs and into the bedroom. “Wow, look at this room,” Paolo said.

“Wait until you see her closet.” I laughed as I shook my head.

Paolo walked in and looked around. “Why are we expanding this? This is like another bedroom.”

“She needs more shelves for her shoes.”

“More shoes? My God, look at all the shoes she already has.”

Just as Paolo said that, Sierra walked into the bedroom. “I’ll tell you what I told Cameron. If you’re going to walk the path of life, you might as well do it in style.”

He walked out of the closet with a smile on his face. “I like the way you think.”

“Thank you.” She smiled back.

I introduced them and then Sierra walked back out. She just needed to get a rubber band for her hair.

“Wow, dude. She’s really hot. Shit. I’d tap that ass. Out of my league or not.”

“Don’t talk like that and I don’t want to talk about her. Let’s get to work.”

Chapter 12

Sierra

So much for my day. Instead of canceling my meetings, Kirsty turned them into phone conferences. I sat in the lounge chair by the pool with my phone on speaker. Cameron and Paolo had been working all day on my closet. Once I finished the last meeting, I got up and went into the kitchen for a bottle of water. Rosa was cooking dinner.

“Builder Boy doesn’t have a girlfriend,” she said with her back turned to me.

“So.”

“I think he’s a good man.”

“You’ve known him for a few hours. He could be a serial killer, for all you know.”

“Listen to your nonsense.”

My phone rang and it was Delia calling. “Hello,” I answered.

“Are you home, darling?”

“No, I’m not. I’m still at the office.”

“Really? Because I was just at the office and they said you worked from home today.”

Shit
. “Just joking. Of course I’m home.”

“Good. I’m on my way over. I have something to talk to you about.”

F.U.C.K
., I mouthed as I pounded my fist on my thigh. “Okay, Mother. See you soon.”

Rosa stood there, staring at me with a wooden spoon in her hand. “Is she coming now?”

I nodded my head. Instantly, I had a headache.

Cameron and Paolo walked into the kitchen, as they were finished working for the day.

“It was nice to meet you, Sierra.” Paolo smiled.

“It was nice to meet you too, Paolo.”

Cameron smiled at me and then started to walk out the door to the guest house.

“Excuse me, but where are you going?” Rosa asked.

I wanted to burst into laughter.

“I’m done for the day. I was going to take a shower.”

“When you’re done, come back here. I cooked dinner for you.”

“Oh, Rosa, thank you, but—”

Oh boy, here it comes. You don’t turn down something Rosa did for you. Big mistake.

“Excuse me, young man? I slaved over this stove all day to cook a meal for you and you’re going to refuse it?” she yelled as she shook the wooden spoon at him.

He looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders.

“No, Rosa. I swear, I’m not refusing it. It smells delicious. Just let me go shower and clean up real quick and I’ll be back.”

“Okay. Hurry up,” she spoke calmly.

I was dying and bursting with laughter on the inside. “Good job, Rosa. You probably just scared my builder off and now my house will never get done.”

“Nonsense. Did you want to be alone with Delia?”

“Have I told you that I love you?” I smiled.

“You can thank me in my next check.” She smiled as she handed me a glass of tequila.

I took a couple sips when I heard the doorbell ring. Delia had already opened the door and let herself in before I got there. My stomach tied itself in knots.

“Hello, darling,” she said as she kissed both of my cheeks. “Did your painting arrive?”

“Yes. I hung it in the kitchen,” I replied as she followed behind.

She stood there and looked at it with her finger on her chin. “Do you think that’s the best place for it?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes I do.” I didn’t want to tell her the meaning behind the painting. She wouldn’t understand and she’d just make some rude comment about my father.

She said hello to Rosa and walked over to the stove to see what she was cooking. A few moments later, Cameron walked through the patio door. He looked at Delia and smiled.

“Sierra, who’s this man that just walked into your house?”

Here we go
. I sort of felt bad for Cameron, having to be subjected to the likes of Delia. I walked over to him and hooked my arm in his. He looked at me strangely.

“Mother, this is Cameron. He’s the escort I rented for the week. He’ll be staying in the guest house. He’s here to fulfill my needs.”

The horrified look on her face was priceless. Rosa was holding back the laughter and Cameron’s eyes grew wide as he looked over at me.

“Oh. I see. It’s nice to meet you, Cameron. I’m Delia, Sierra’s mother.”

She looked at me with that stuck-up look she always had on her face. “I didn’t know you did things like that.”

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know I do.” I winked and then took a drink of my tequila.

Cameron was at a loss for words, but I think he got the hint when I squeezed his arm.

“We’re just about to sit down for dinner. Would you care to join us?” I asked.

She cleared her throat and sat down at the table. “No, thank you. I’m going to make this quick, since you’re obviously busy.” She glared at Cameron. “I have my doubts that Ava is going to make it into the final round for Miss Teenage California. She isn’t focusing and I think it’s because of a boy.”

I reached my hand across the table and touched her arm. “Oh my God, a boy! No way!”

“This is no time for jokes, Sierra. I’m serious. I want you to have a talk with her. Tell her that boys are no good and they just will get sick of you and throw you away, like Ryan did to you. You have experience. Share it will her.”

Ouch
. That really stung. Cameron looked at me and then looked down. I picked up my glass of tequila and finished it off. Rosa turned her head and looked at me with sadness in her eyes. She walked over and grabbed my glass from the table and refilled it. I was at a loss for words because what my mother said stabbed me so deep in the heart that I felt it ache all over again.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said as I took another drink.

“Thank you. I knew I could count on you. Now, I must go. I’ll speak to you later darling. Ta ta, Rosa. It was nice meeting you, Cameron, I think.”

She le
ft and Rosa set our plates of food on the table. There was complete silence in the kitchen. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at him. I was humiliated. Suddenly, Rosa spoke up.

“Go on; eat your pasta. I’m going to go home now. I’ll see you both in the morning. Sierra, don’t give what that woman said a second thought. Brush it off, girl. You know how she is.”

I forced a small smile as Rosa left. “Now you know why I drink,” I said as I held up my glass.

“Water?” Cameron asked in confusion.

I handed him the glass and he sniffed it. “Oh, that’s not water.”

“I’ve had to live with that shit all my life.”

I realized what I’d just said and stopped. I wasn’t about to revisit my past with Delia and I certainly wasn’t going to share it with Cameron.

“I’m sorry, Sierra,” he said.

“You have no reason to be sorry and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. You better eat your dinner before it gets cold. Do you drink alcohol?”

“Yeah.” He laughed.

“Let me guess. You’re a beer kind of guy.”

“A majority of the time, yes. But I do like my hard liquor too.”

“Like?”

“Vodka.” He smiled.

“Grey Goose?”

“Yep. Grey Goose is great.”

I got up from the table and walked over to the cabinet next to the sink. I took out a bottle of Grey Goose and a small glass. I held both up as I walked back over to the table. He flashed me his bright smile and I swear to God I started dripping, and not from my armpits. I poured some vodka in the glass and handed it to him.

“Cheers.” I smiled as held up my glass and threw back the tequila.

We started eating the dinner Rosa made for us. Cameron sat across from me and he seemed to really enjoy Rosa’s pasta.

“This is so good. I haven’t had a home-cooked meal in a very long time.”

“You’ll get one every night now. Rosa is a superior cook.”

He looked across the table at me and smiled. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” I said as I put the fork down and wiped my mouth.

“Why did you tell your mom that you hired me as an escort?”

I laughed as I took a sip of my tequila. “Delia and I have a different kind of relationship. I don’t like to tell her too much about my life because she likes to put me down.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because she’s Delia and she couldn’t mold me into the perfect little princess she wanted me to be. It’s exactly what she’s doing with Ava right now. When my parents got divorced, I lived with my father for two weeks out of the month. He threw me into the corporate world and taught me everything I needed to know. I guess you could say that he molded me into what he wanted me to be and my mother resented him for that. So, when Delia asks me things that are none of her business, I tell her things to shock her.”

“I think you really did shock her with the escort introduction.” He chuckled. “The look on her face was kind of funny.”

“She’ll figure it out soon enough why you’re really here.”

****

Cameron

Dinner was great and, when we finished eating, I asked Sierra if she wanted to go sit on the patio.

“I thought maybe since I’m going to be living here for a while and working on your house all day, maybe we should know a little bit about each other.”

“Okay,” she said as she grabbed the bottle of
tequila, vodka and both our glasses. “Let’s go.”

I followed her outside and we sat down in the oversized, cushy lounge chairs. “The view is really beautiful, Sierra. I can see why you bought this place.”

“Sunset is my favorite time of the day. I like to come out here and watch it set over the hills. So, Mr. Cole, tell me about you. You already know about my crazy mother.”

I laughed as I took a drink from my glass. “Well, you know I’m from North Carolina. My dad started the company when he was twenty years old with a hundred dollars in his pocket and a hammer. Now that he’s retired, he and my mom opened up a small fruit market down the road from the house. Did I mention that I have five brothers and sisters?”

Sierra nearly choked as she sipped the tequila from the cup. “What?! There are six of you?”

I couldn’t help but laugh because she was so cute in the way she said that. “Yep. There’s Austin who’s eighteen, Jolene, who’s twenty, Mark, who’s twenty-two, Kelly who’s twenty-four, Jaden who’s twenty-six, and then me, who will turn the big three-O in a couple of weeks.”

“Really? When’s your birthday?” she asked.

“July eighteenth” I replied.

She looked at me and cocked her head. “My birthday is July eighteenth and I’ll be the dreaded three-O too.”

“No way!” I said.

“Yes way!” She laughed. “Wow. Look at that; we have something in common.”

“We sure do.” I smiled.

I couldn’t help but stare at her. Shit. The more we talked, the more I liked her. I didn’t want any of this. I couldn’t fall for her because I wasn’t staying in Los Angeles. From what I gathered by the bits that Delia and Kirsty said, her heart was broken pretty badly and I would never want to hurt her. Los Angeles wasn’t my home and, to be honest, I didn’t know if it ever could be.

“Are any of your brothers in the building business?” she asked.

“Nah. Austin works for my parents while he goes to school. Mark is a bartender at a bar in town, and Jaden just passed his bar exam. Jolene is still in college. She’s studying architectural history and Kelly is a hairdresser who’s happily married with a baby.”

“I take it you’re all really close?”

“Yeah. We’re a very close family.” I smiled.

“And you like to build things, right?” she asked.

“I do. It all started with Legos when I was a kid.”

She laughed and smiled.

“I don’t mean to get too personal, but do you have a girlfriend back home?”

“Nope. No girlfriend.” I wondered why she was asking. Was she curious for a reason? I decided to throw her question back at her.

“The guy from your office; is he your boyfriend?”

She poured some tequila i
n her glass and sipped it before answering my question. She wouldn’t look at me when she finally decided to answer it.

“No. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend. Listen; it’s getting pretty late and I have to be up early for work, so I’m going to head up to bed.”

“Oh, shit. I forgot to tell you. Is there another room you can sleep in? I still have all the plastic covering everything. Tomorrow, Paolo and I are going to get the wall painted and then, as soon as it dries, I can put up the shelves. Then you’ll be able to display all your stylish shoes.” I smiled.

“Sure. I can stay in the guest room.” She smiled back as she got up. “Sleep well in your new bed, Mr. Cole. I’ll see you in the morning,” she said as she walked into the house.

I would sleep well if she was in my bed, lying next to me. The thoughts I didn’t want to have kept filling my head. How her lips would taste when I pressed mine against them. How soft her skin would be when mine was touching hers. How soft her hair would be while I ran my fingers through it. How beautiful and soft her breasts were and how good it would feel to be inside her. How good would it feel to make love to her all night long and wake up with her body wrapped around mine.