“Anyway.” She plasters on a smile, even though I can still see the conflict all over her face. “Tell me about Sutten. I would’ve bet all my money that Sutten Mountain would’ve been the last place you ever opened a gallery.”
“Do you have any money?”
She grabs a pen from the jar on my desk and throws it at me. “Jerk!” she yells. “You don’t have to remind me.”
I smirk. “Stop hating on my business choices, then.”
“It’s just you seemed to hate it when we were there for Beck and Margo’s wedding.”
“Maybe I still do.”
“Do you?”
“How could I hate something that’s making me a lot of money?”
“Fair point.”
The gallery has exceeded my expectations, and it’s only going to get better. Tommy has recommended other talented artists in Sutten, and give it a month or two and I’ll have a whole section for local talent at the gallery. It was a great idea for Pippa to show me that I didn’t have to look far to find people with exceptional talent—not that I’d ever tell that to her. So many tourists are eating it up to buy art from locals. The gallery hasn’t even been open a few weeks, and we’ve already made double what I was expecting, which is a relief.
It felt good to have dinner with my parents and tell them how well it was doing. Especially to my dad. It felt even better when he told me he didn’t believe me and to show him the numbers. I did because I feel this stupid need to impress him even when he doesn’t deserve it. Even after I gave him the numbers, he told me it wouldn’t last. The appeal of the high-end small-town gallery would fade, and I’d be left losing money off my newest endeavor.
I’m ready to prove him wrong, which means I need to go back to Sutten. I need to find more talent. I’m even playing with the idea for the next event to be one fully focused on talent from in and around Sutten.
“Are you going back soon?” Emma’s question interrupts me from my thoughts.
I shouldn’t. I should avoid Sutten at all costs so I can avoid the temptation that is Pippa, but I know I won’t. I’ve already planned to return under the guise of going back for work. “Yeah. I go back tomorrow.”
Her eyebrows rise in surprise. “That’s quick.”
“Lots of things to get done there.” It’s kind of the truth. Just add in the fact I need to clear the air with Pippa so maybe my mind will stop thinking of her late at night when my fingers are wrapped around my cock.
“I need to visit sometime. I’m bored. What else do I have to do?”
Emma had the time of her life at Beck and Margo’s wedding. Except when she drunkenly cried during the reception that she didn’t find a cowboy to “break her back”—her words, not mine. “Not sure if escaping to a small town will solve all your problems, but you can give it a shot.”
“Escaping somewhere will. I just have to figure out where that is.”
I shrug because it makes no difference to me if she comes to Sutten or not—as long as she doesn’t have any unexpected drop-ins like today.
“Just ask Beck and Margo to stay at their place. There’s no way in hell you’re staying with me.”
She laughs. “I wouldn’t want to anyway. I don’t want to hear anything through the walls when the infamous, dark, and broody Camden Hunter brings some innocent small-town girl home.”
I grunt because I’d love to say I’ve brought a woman home recently, but I haven’t. I’ve tried, but I’m not interested. A certain small-town, opposite of innocent with the way her warm mouth closed around my fingers, always arguing woman has gotten under my skin and made it to where no one else interests me.
Standing up and rounding my desk, I give Emma a squeeze on her shoulder because I don’t know what else to do. She has a tiny frown like something is still bothering her, but I don’t know how to comfort her. “I leave for Sutten tomorrow. Text me if you decide to come, and we’ll have coffee or something. Just find somewhere else to stay.”
“I was hoping we’d have sleepovers and gossip about boys with face masks on,” she throws out sarcastically.
“Don’t expect anything more than coffee, Emma!” I yell as I walk out of my office.
If she does show up in Sutten, it would give me an excuse to go to a certain coffee shop and interact with a certain cafe owner…
24
PIPPA
“Take it,” I demand, attempting to shove a box full of cupcakes toward Cade.