Cameron (The Burnett Brides #11)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

C ameron Burnett came from a privileged family, but he did his best not to exude entitlement so his mother and grandmother wouldn’t come back from the dead to punish him. The family members were billionaires, but they were not to show off their wealth or they were punished as a child.

He’d borne the feel of the strap against his legs more than once for being “too uppity” as his mother called it. Bragging or even reveling in their wealth would have her bringing out the belt.

Already his great-great-great-great-grandmother was matchmaking his cousins and she’d set her sights on him. And that ghost had a success rate of one hundred percent, with his never-getting-married cousins now living in wedded bliss.

Christmas was two weeks away, and he’d been glancing at travel brochures for places he could escape to before the marital noose settled against his throat. Not that he didn’t want to get married, but there was no one who interested him.

What did his grandmother expect him to do? Go on a dating website? Oh, hell no.

His focus was on getting his start-up business off the ground. Right now, he was working seven days a week on his little company – an adult playground where couples went for destiny weddings and vacations. A place that didn’t cater to families like the Burnett Dude Ranch. Nothing explicitly sexual, just a place that pandered to adult couples. Not families.

Near the end of every summer, he was sick of dealing with crying kids, whiny parents, and wanna-be cowboys, leaving him longing to create his own retreat. And that was what he was doing. With one property already making money, he was searching for a second to invest in.

Today, he’d received an email from an old college buddy who was in a bind. Someone who needed to dump a ranch property quickly.

Picking up the phone, he dialed the number.

“Edward, how are you,” he said, leaning back in his chair. A year ago, he’d built an office onto his home at the Burnett Ranch where he conducted his business when he wasn’t working on the dude ranch.

Someday working on the ranch would all come to an end and he was ready.

As much as he loved the Burnett family, the dude ranch was a pain he could live without.

While he was grateful for the money it made the family, he wanted to run his own business. Be his own success.

“Cameron, I’m great. So good to hear from you,” Edward replied. “Are you calling about my email?”

“Yes,” he said, not wanting to say too much.

In college, Edward had always been the one to get into trouble. While everyone else was studying, he was out partying, and at the last moment, he would ask for help to save himself from flunking.

A nice guy, but he barely graduated. And he was the type of person Cameron would never put in charge of anything unless you wanted to lose it. Apparently his parents didn’t realize their son was not a businessman or even a good rancher.

In college, Edward was the one who knew where the poker gatherings were or where you could find a frat party or even girls who ran with the wild crowd. If you wanted trouble, all you had to do was contact Edward.

Cameron learned quickly he wanted no part of Edward’s adventures.

“So tell me what’s going on,” Cameron said.

For the next twenty minutes, Edward told Cameron all about his ranch in Montana and how long it had been in the family. Shame to lose a family business because of poor management.

“What are you doing now?” he asked, wanting to know if they were doing anything to try to save the family land.

There was a moment of silence. “My sister has started a wedding destination business. She and her friend Tara, a wedding planner, are holding weddings at the ranch. This is her first year. The business has been slow getting started, and well, I can’t wait any longer. We’ve got to sell.”

“Does she know the ranch is in trouble,” he asked.

“Oh yes, that’s why she started the wedding business. Right now, she’s so busy with this first wedding that we haven’t had time to talk much. But she knows we needed her business to succeed or we’d lose the ranch.”

Then why would she start a business that would take a while to get going? Warning bells went off in Cameron’s mind and he reminded himself of what he knew about Edward.

“You know I don’t play dirty,” Cameron said.

“I’m not asking you to,” he said. “It’s just that I don’t want to tell her until the deal is done. In ten days, this wedding will be over and then I’ll sit her down and explain to her that this is not going to get us out of the financial trouble we’re in.”

If she was busy, that seemed fair enough. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the property. He never bought anything without first seeing it and going over the numbers. It would be a working ranch like the Burnett Ranch only with a place for couples or even weddings.

He even liked what the sister was doing to help make money. Maybe he’d buy her out as well.

“When’s a good time for me to come visit? I’d like to spend several days going over the property, looking at the accounting and even riding the range. Then if I’m interested, I’ll give you a proposal,” he told the man, gazing out the window at the pastures filled with cattle.

Yes, they were college friends, but that didn’t mean an automatic yes as far as Cameron was concerned. Especially for Edward.

“Like I said, we’ve got this wedding and it’s right before Christmas. Why don’t you come in the next few days? I’ll make you a reservation and you will be a member of the wedding party,” Edward said. “That way, I won’t upset my mother or my sister until we know if this is a property you’re interested in.”

Cameron’s brows drew together. “Your family knows the ranch is in trouble, but they don’t know you’re thinking of selling?”

There was a moment of silence on the phone.

“My sister, Samantha, wants this wedding business to save us, but so far, we’ve only had one wedding and it’s just not going to make us the cash we need,” he said.

What did he believe? Was the man protecting his family or was he lying to them? He wouldn’t know until he arrived there.

“All right, give me a few days. I’ll be out there on the twelfth. I’ll stay a week at the most and then I’ll be home before Christmas,” he said. Or on a lovely beach somewhere avoiding his grandmother’s wedding noose.

Or maybe he’d fly straight to Cancun and avoid the annual Burnett Christmas party, where someone was always announcing they were pregnant or they were getting married or some other kind of nonsense.

“Thank you, Cameron,” Edward said. “There’s no one else I would rather have my family’s ranch.”

That still wasn’t going to be the closing factor. It would be whether he saw potential in the property.

“See you soon,” Cameron said, hanging up. How many others had Edward offered the property to?

He sat back in his chair and sighed. He needed a land appraisal done and on his desk before he left for Montana.