Cam lifted a shoulder. “A bit.” He reached for a towel and dried his hands. “I took the laptop out to the patio while she sunbathed with her margarita and answered some emails on my phone while she was watching her Spanish soap opera.”

“Didi speaks Spanish?” Dax asked.

“No. She said that makes it better because she can pretend they’re saying whatever she wants them to.”

Dax laughed. “Well, if you need to come into the office, bring her with you. Some of the girls watch soap operas in the break room and there’s a couple of Spanish ones. Didi could hang out with them.”

Cam grinned. “I might do that. I took her to yoga yesterday.”

“No way,” Aiden chuckled. “How’d that go?”

“It was perfect. She laid down to do the deep breathing, a kitten crawled up onto her chest and started purring, and within two minutes they were both asleep.”

“She just took a nap during yoga?”

“Yep.” Cam shook his head. “So I went through a few of the moves and… two hours later, Paige woke me up because her pregnant mom’s class was coming in and they were a little louder and she didn’t think I’d be able to sleep through it.”

The guys all paused a beat and then started laughing. “You napped at Paige’s?”

Cam grinned. “Yeah. There was no class after ours, and then there was one for older gals and they all decided I must need the sleep.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Which I did. Didi had me up watching Magnum, P.I. ’til the wee hours.”

Aiden pushed away from the counter. “This is going to be interesting.”

Cam glanced toward the family room. “But good, I think. It’s kind of nice already.”

Aiden nodded. “Henry misses Letty.”

“We all miss her,” Cam said. His chest felt a little tight.

He’d come home fairly often for a guy who lived in another city and had a demanding job, but Letty had passed away quickly. He had regrets about not being there more and only barely getting home before she died. Having Letty in his life was something he’d always taken for granted and he was sorry about that now. Henry wasn’t the only one who was enjoying having someone around who reminded him so much of his grandmother.

Aiden clapped him on the shoulder. “Yes, we do,” he agreed. “And it seems that Didi is really enjoying this.”

Cam nodded. “Maybe Whitney isn’t the only one that the Lancasters didn’t pay a lot of attention to.”

Grant’s and Dax’s eyebrows rose but Aiden actually nodded. “And speaking of Whitney…”

“We already talked about Whitney.”

“We need to talk about her some more.”

Cam had known this was coming. “Whitney and I are fine.”

“Are you?”

This actually came from Grant rather than Aiden.

All three of his friends faced him fully. Grant folded his arms, Dax put his hands on his hips and Aiden braced a hand on the counter beside him, which blocked Cam’s escape from the kitchen.

Cam sighed. They were feeling protective of Whitney. He’d been expecting his. His friends were all protective types, in one way or another. Dax the lesser of the three, but he was still not about to let one of his friends mess with a woman that he liked and respected. Well, any woman really, but it was clear they all liked Whitney and that meant Cam wasn’t going to get away with so much as looking at Whitney wrong.

Good thing he didn’t want to look at Whitney wrong at all.

“We need her,” Aiden said firmly. “We knew it before, but she has absolutely confirmed it now. She has to lead us in… most of the things we have coming up.”

Cam knew that. It had been obvious during the meeting, even over his computer screen. “Of course we do.”

He wanted Hot Cakes to be successful, of course. But not because of his own bank account, and less and less because of wanting to throw it back in the faces of the Lancasters. It was about his friends. This was important to Aiden. And Grant now that he was staying in Appleby with Josie. It was also important to Whitney.

That was the ultimate reason Cam wanted this to all go forward and be huge. Aiden and Grant could make it work, somehow. They’d probably have to hire some more people. Consultants and shit. But they’d figure it out. Eventually. Possibly not on the timeline they’d laid out that morning though.

But they were both already millionaires, for fuck’s sake. And they were also entrepreneurs who had previously built a business from the ground up. They’d find something else if Hot Cakes flopped.

This was a lot bigger deal to Whitney. It was all she had.

So yeah, he was going to be her friend. So that she would feel she could confide in him so he could help her. But also because she’d made it clear that was what she wanted. She hadn’t bullshitted him or taken her panties off to try to get her way—which definitely would have worked. She’d been clear about what she wanted.

Now, she needed help. And he and his friends were, obviously, the best ones to give it to her.

“So don’t piss her off,” Aiden said. “Or turn her off about working for us.”

Cam frowned. “Which is why she and I are going to be just friends.”

“And boss-employee with no extra shit,” Grant said, almost as if he hadn’t heard Cam. “You can’t be making her uncomfortable or to feel like she has to worry about—”

“I know,” Cam said. “I think we should offer her a partnership.”

All the other men were quiet, clearly surprised.

“She’s doing more to move things forward than the rest of us,” Cam said. “She deserves it. That will help her feel like she’s truly an equal part. That we trust her. And that she doesn’t have to prove anything to us.”

“So you can sleep with her then without it being weird?” Dax asked. He’d given up his share in the company so he could date Jane, an employee.

“No.” Cam sighed. “I’m trying to be mature here.”

“Sorry,” Dax said with a grin. “Mature isn’t really something I’m used to. Hard to recognize it.”

Cam nodded. “Fair enough. Especially with me. When it pertains to Whitney.”

They were good enough friends to not confirm they agreed with that. At least out loud.

“I’m trying to be a good guy,” Cam said.

“This is a one-eighty in five days,” Aiden commented.

“It is,” Cam agreed.

Aiden shook his head. “I really expected fireworks from you two.”

Cam nodded. “Me too.”

“But you’re not at each other’s throats?” Aiden asked. “It’s not tense or awkward?”

He hardly saw her, really, so no it wasn’t either of those things. But honestly, it wasn’t tense or awkward anyway. He’d expected them to fight. Or at least bicker. But… it didn’t feel right. She made him feel protective and hell, proud. Yeah, proud over the things she was doing at Hot Cakes. Of all the crazy things.

Laughter from the family room made him smile and he said, “Whitney and I have bigger things going on than a breakup from ten years ago.”