“Whoa. Don’t even start thinking it, Cam. You can’t do it. Not alone. No one could.”

Finally she turned, and tipped those river-deep eyes at him. “Were you under the impression I was asking your opinion about anything?”

So sassy. So rude. So much fury.

He was tempted to kiss her. Not a little kiss, and not an old-neighbor friendly peck, either. A kiss that might shake through her anger. A kiss that might touch some of that fierce, sharp loneliness. A kiss that might make him feel better-because right now it ripped raw to watch his beautiful Camille hurting and not have the first clue how to help her.

The impulse to kiss her invaded his mind for several long seconds and stung there like a mosquito bite, itching, swelling, daring him to scratch it. Then, thank God, he came to his senses. Certainly he had his stone-headed moments-didn’t everybody?-but Pete wasn’t usually troubled by lunacy.

He zoned on something concrete and practical as fast as he could get the words out. “So, Cam…exactly what do you know about growing lavender?”

“Well…everyone in the family knows a little, because my mom loved it so much. She always grew enough to make sachets and soap and dried flower arrangements, that kind of thing. And Violet-she knows the recipes, all this unusual stuff about how to use lavender as a spice. And Daisy’s been living in France for several years now-she knows more than both of us, because she’s around Provence and the perfume industry, so she’s learned how lavender’s used as a perfume ingredient and all that.” She added, “But what I personally know about growing lavender would fill a thimble. Assuming the thimble were extra small.”

“So you know not to try and tackle all these acres by yourself.” He just had to be sure she wasn’t going to do anything crazy. Then he could leave. And he badly wanted to leave, before he had another damn-fool impulse to kiss her. God knew what was wrong with him. Maybe he needed an aspirin or some prune juice. For damn sure, he was going to dose himself with something when he got home-but first he needed to be certain she wasn’t determined to dive off the deep end into a brick pool.