Ask Me Why Read Free

need my elbow room.”
    â€œYou’re a spoiled, pampered brat, and we all know it.”
    Mary laughed at their sparring.
    â€œDon’t listen to her, Mary,” Patrick said with a wink, which had Mary blushing to the roots of her brown hair. “We all know who the spoiled brat is here.”
    â€œYeah, and it’s not me.”
    â€œI’m afraid I have to side with your daughter, Patrick. There’s nothing spoiled about her. She works harder than all of us put together.”
    â€œThank you, Mary. I’ll make sure Hunter hears about your fifty percent raise.”
    They left Mary laughing as they went back downstairs.
    â€œWhat’s her story?” Patrick asked.
    â€œWho, Mary?”
    â€œYeah. She’s adorable.”
    â€œDad . . . Don’t. She’s a really nice person. Leave her alone. She wouldn’t stand a chance against your brand of charm.”
    â€œWhy can’t I have a little fun while I’m in town?”
    Cameron stopped on the landing and turned to him. “She’s off-limits. I mean that.”
    â€œDon’t be so touchy, Cam.” He kissed her cheek and proceeded ahead of her into the store.
    She watched him go with a growing sense of unease. She’d be watching him this weekend and keeping him far, far away from Mary—and all the other single women in Butler.

T WO

    AFTER A WINDSHIELD tour of Butler and the surrounding area, Cameron took her dad home to their cabin in the woods. “I want to make sure you know it’s kind of rustic,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “You might find it primitive compared to what you’re used to.”
    â€œBelieve it or not, I wasn’t always a billionaire with a Park Avenue penthouse. You forget I grew up in a six-room ranch house in New Jersey with a single bathroom shared by five people. I can do rustic.”
    â€œIt’s just . . . I know you’ll be tempted, but don’t make fun of the cabin. Will loves that place, and he built it himself.”
    â€œNot sure what you take me for, sweetheart, but I’m not about to poke fun at my future son-in-law’s home.”
    â€œOkay,” Cameron said on a deep sigh of relief.
    â€œI wish you’d relax. I’ve got no plans to rain on your parade. I know you’re happy here, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted for you, believe it or not.”
    Cameron tried to do as he requested. What did she care, really, if he hated everything about her new home? It wouldn’t change how she felt about it. Except . . . she wanted him to understand why she’d chosen to live here. His approval had always mattered more than it should have. That was just a fact of her life.
    â€œRight here is where I first met Fred the Moose,” she said, pointing to the spot on the road where her life had changed forever.
    â€œHe’s the one who crushed the MINI, right?”
    â€œYep, only he’d tell you the MINI crushed
him
, not the other way around.”
    â€œAnd you have conversations regularly with this moose?”
    â€œMore often than I’d like to. Lincoln says he has a crush on me.”
    Patrick laughed. “Is that right? Well, I hope to meet this fellow while I’m here so I can gauge his intentions toward my daughter.”
    â€œI hope none of us lay eyes on him this weekend,” Cameron said hopefully. By now, she knew better than to expect a day completely free of Fred. He seemed to turn up with alarming regularity wherever she was. The thought of Fred crashing the wedding was one that Cameron refused to entertain.
    â€œAnd here we are at home sweet home.” Cameron took the right turn onto the dirt road that also served as their driveway. “When I first came here last spring, it was mud season and this road was full of potholes.” Why was she telling him that? What did he care?
    â€œIt’s nice and smooth now. Does Will