Falling For Zoe (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1) (18 page)

“I bet Mom would do it different.”

It felt like someone had stabbed Jake in the heart. Marsha most definitely would have chosen not to have Ava if she had it to do over again. Ava was too smart to fool with half-truths and platitudes.

“Maybe she would have,” he agreed, pulling Ava close again. “But I wouldn’t. Not in a million years.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, kitten. More than you will ever know.” Now his eyes were filling with tears. Sweet Jesus! All this estrogen was turning him into a wuss.

JAKE SAT IN the swing a long time after Ava had hugged him for the last time and taken herself to bed. He stared across the shadowy lawn to Zoe’s now totally dark house and thought about all the things he
would
change if he could.

“I love you, too, Zoe. I should have told you so when I still had the chance,” he whispered into the quiet night.

Chapter 29

ZOE EXPECTED TO feel a little nervous as she approached Jake’s house with a bowl of cornbread salad in one hand and a pie-taker in the other. She hadn’t expected the mad scramble of butterflies currently churning in her gut. Her footsteps slowed as she shut the gate behind her and crossed the lawn.

Jake’s driveway overflowed with vehicles: three pickup trucks, his aunt’s late model Buick, two minivans, and one low-slung, expensive-looking, sports car. Jake had asked her if she was serious about meeting the rest of his family when he invited her to his end-of-summer barbecue, but it wasn’t like this was an important job interview or meeting prospective in-laws for the first time. It was just Jake’s family, and she and Jake were just friends.

He wasn’t a talker, and she’d had to pry information out of him. His brief comments had made it clear he admired all three of his brothers, thought his sister was smart, pretty, and a lot of fun, and his parents were the best. What would they think of their son’s new neighbor? The unwed mother-to-be, who had claimed so much of Jake’s time of late and insinuated herself into every aspect of his family?

Two boys dashed past her with Taffy chasing after them. Must be the nephews Jake had mentioned. Zoe glanced back at the tree house and wondered if the twins and their girl cousins were up there hiding from the boys. A hum of voices came from the back yard, punctuated by an occasional shout of laughter. Zoe’s nervousness increased.

“Are you going to stand down there all afternoon, or are you coming up?”

Zoe’s gaze jerked toward Jake’s front porch. His Aunt Catherine stood at the top of the stairs, as elegant as ever, her eyebrows arched in question.

“I guess I better bring these in the house where it’s cool until it’s time to eat.” Zoe lifted the cornbread salad slightly, then began to climb the stairs, not an easy or graceful task with both hands full and her ungainly girth making the stairs seem endless.

“Here, let me.” Catherine reached for the salad as Zoe reached the top. Her gaze flicked down over Zoe’s swollen belly, then back to her face with an unreadable expression. “Y’all might as well come in and meet everyone.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Zoe handed the woman the salad bowl. She would have extended her hand in greeting, but Catherine had already turned to open the door. Rather than holding it open, though, Jake’s godmother sailed on ahead down the hall toward the kitchen.

“This is Zoe. From next door,” Catherine announced as she deposited Zoe’s cornbread salad on the table.

Ava looked up from a platter of vegetables she was arranging and grinned. Kate waved a greeting and smiled around a half-eaten stalk of celery clamped between her teeth. The other occupant of the kitchen dried her hands on a towel and bustled in Zoe’s direction.

“I’m so glad to finally meet you. Jake talks about you all the time. I’m Sandy Cameron. Jake’s mom.”

Sandy didn’t look old enough to have a son Jake’s age. She barely looked old enough to be Ava’s mom. With her straight blond hair in a swinging ponytail and her brown eyes twinkling with youthful merriment, Zoe would have guessed her to be closer to forty had she not known better.
Good genes
, she thought.
I hope I look half that great when I’m her age.

Snatching the pie-taker out of Zoe’s grasp, Sandy plopped it onto the counter. Then she enveloped Zoe in a welcoming hug. Zoe felt momentarily awkward with her big belly pressed between them, but Sandy’s casual friendliness melted her embarrassment, and Zoe returned the woman’s embrace.

Sandy backed off, holding Zoe by the shoulders. “Jake was so right. You are just as pretty as can be.”

Zoe gaped. Jake had told his mother she was pretty? A jumble of things caromed through her startled brain. The echo of Jake’s voice, telling her that she had more sex appeal than any woman he’d ever known. The idea that Jake, the untalkative one, apparently talked about her all the time, to his mother, at least! Was there a chance that he cared more for her than he was willing to admit, even to himself? Could there really be more than just friendship between them after all?

“Isn’t your baby due soon?” Sandy asked as she lifted the lid of the pie-taker and sniffed.

“Yes, ma’am. In another month,” Zoe confirmed. Her brain still scrambled with the new revelations about Jake. “I hope you like peach pie.”

“It’s one of my favorites. But come, you need to be sitting outside in one of those comfy chairs with folk waiting on you.” Sandy gave Zoe’s protruding belly a gentle pat and then urged her toward the back door.

Sandy moved with the athletic energy of a much younger woman as she hustled Zoe down to the back yard and dragged a big Adirondack chair into the shade a short distance from the cluster of men standing around the grill. Then she grabbed one of the boys Zoe had seen racing past her out front and sent him off to bring Zoe a glass of sweet tea before trotting back up the stairs to the kitchen. Just as the boy returned and handed Zoe the glass, the tallest of the men around the grill turned and noticed her.

He shoved the bottle of beer he’d been drinking into Jake’s hand and came toward Zoe. “Guess I’m going to have to introduce myself.”

Zoe struggled to get up.

“No, no, no. You stay sat. I’ll come down to you.” He grabbed a folding beach chair and dropped into it. “You must be Zoe.” His smile was broad and contagious.

“And you must be Jake’s father.” Zoe couldn’t help grinning back at the handsome blond man with touches of gray at his temples and twinkling blue eyes. He might be several inches taller than Jake, but she’d have guessed the relationship even without seeing them side by side. Jake’s eyes were gray, and his hair a little darker, but they had the same square chin, the same peaked eyebrows and high cheekbones, and the same dimple punctuating their left cheek when they smiled.

“Nathan Cameron. Jake’s daddy,” he confirmed. Zoe’s hand disappeared into his big, warm grip. “But call me Cam. Please. Jake tells me you bought the old Jolee house, and he’s been helping you fix it up.”

“That’s me. The lady with the grand plan, but a lot short on experience.” Zoe snickered at herself. “It if weren’t for Jake, I think the place would still be falling down around me. I owe him a lot.”

“Nah. Keeps him out of trouble. Besides, he’s—”

“C’mon, Dad,” Jake cut his father off, snagged another free lawn chair, and plunked it down between Zoe and his father.

Another obviously Cameron male appeared behind Cam. “I’m Ben, and that’s Will over there. He pointed to the man who had taken over the grilling duties. He could have been a clone. “Pleased to finally meet ya.”

“I guess twins run in the family, huh?” Zoe made note of the fact that Ben wore a blue shirt, and Will’s was a loud Hawaiian print. Blue for Ben. Wild for Will. It was the only way she was going to be able to keep them straight.

“They do at that, ma’am,” Ben chuckled. “The two wild Indians running around are my boys, Evan and Rick. Lucky for me, they’re
not
twins.”

Then the last of Jake’s brothers stepped into the circle of tall men towering above her. In spite of Jake’s father’s insistence on her staying seated, Zoe felt totally overwhelmed and couldn’t resist the need to drag herself back onto her feet. Cam and Jake leapt to their feet as well.

“Philip. My biggest big brother,” Jake made the introduction.

The only differences between Jake and this brother were a few years and a much tidier haircut. This had to be the brother who was still in the Marines and temporarily stationed at Camp Lejeune.

“Ma’am.” Philip took Zoe’s proffered hand in a friendly greeting. He squinted slightly with an openly assessing gaze. Then his face broke into a grin that rivaled his father’s. “Jake didn’t do you justice.”

Unused to such admiration and not knowing how to respond, Zoe looked toward Jake for salvation.

“Well, I tried. But I’m not so good with words,” Jake answered his brother’s charge. A flush crept into Jake’s cheeks, and the pink grew bright under his tan, astonishing Zoe even more.

“I think you’re very good with words,” she blurted, then realized how that might be interpreted and felt an answering flush blossom in her own face.

As the brothers traded knowing looks and lifted brows, Zoe muttered some inanity about needing to refill her barely sampled glass. She shot one last look at Jake and fled.

Philip jabbed Jake in the ribs. “When are you planning to propose?”

“I don’t know if she’ll have me—now.”

“Now?” Philip’s brows rose. “What have you done to spoil your pitch?”

Ben turned from watching Zoe’s retreat. “Maybe Jake doesn’t want another kid. Especially one that’s not his.”

“That’s not it!” Jake defended himself in a rush. “I don’t have a problem with the baby. But I—I maybe gave Zoe that impression.” Jake closed his eyes, trying to block out the memory of the expression in Zoe’s eyes when he’d made that outrageous statement. It didn’t help, so he opened them again. Philip studied him with a furrowed brow. Ben bit his lip as if he was wondering if he should say something or not. His father’s expression didn’t give anything away, but he was clearly thoughtful.

“Maybe you need to correct that impression then,” Ben finally suggested. “I would, if I were you.” He glanced pointedly toward Zoe, then back at Jake. “I definitely would,” he repeated as he turned away and returned to help his twin at the grill.

Philip gave Jake a brotherly cuff on the side of his head. “And do it before it’s too late.” Then he sauntered back to the cooler and grabbed another beer.

“Brothers can be a pain sometimes, but they only want the best for you. Even when they don’t see the whole picture,” Cam offered gently.

Jake had two uncles living and one who’d been killed in Vietnam. He guessed his dad had probably gotten a lot of unsolicited advice himself when he was younger.

“Maybe they don’t know everything, but they aren’t really wrong. I had my chance weeks ago, but I panicked. I said things I didn’t mean and I hurt her. And now . . .”

“Apologies aren’t easy. I should know. Some of the shit I put your mother through—” Cam shook his head and made a disgusted little sound in his throat. “She forgave me for all of it once I found the courage to admit I was wrong and told her so.”

“It’s not that simple, Dad.”

“Doesn’t get much simpler than I’m sorry. Or I love you. Or both.”

“But her baby’s father is back in the picture.”

Cam’s blond brows pinched together above his blue eyes.

“He showed up a couple weeks ago and gave her an enormous diamond.”

Cam glanced toward the table where Zoe was moving plates around to make room for a basket of rolls. “How come she’s not wearing it, then?”

“She’s not sure why he really proposed, and she’s trying to decide what’s best for the baby.” Jake hesitated. Then he told his father everything.

“. . . so I backed off. I thought she should have the space to consider her options for her and her baby without me and Porter circling around, trying to mark our territory like a couple of alpha dogs peeing on everything.”

“Well, there’s a reason dogs pee on things. It’s a calling card to let all the other dogs know who’s around and who’s interested in staking a claim. If you don’t tell Zoe you love her
and
her baby, she’s got no way of knowing you’re one of her options. What has she got left to choose from?”

Jake felt like his father had jabbed him in the solar plexus. The simplicity of his father’s observation left him breathless. Jake hadn’t given Zoe a choice between Porter and himself, only the space to make a choice between Porter and nothing. What an idiot he’d been. Again!

“Your mom had a lot more to forgive me for than you’ve given Zoe. She deserves your honesty, if nothing else.” Cam grabbed Jake’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Talk to her. Apologize. Tell her how you feel. Then trust her to make the right decision.”

Jake blinked hard, trying to keep the stinging in his eyes from becoming an embarrassing display. “Thanks, Dad. I will. Tonight.”

“Good,” was all his father said as he gave Jake’s shoulder another squeeze before moving away to sneak up on Jake’s mother and surprise her with an unexpected hug. His mother squeaked with pleasure as she turned in her husband’s arms and snaked her arms about his neck.

Jake watched the tender scene that had always been such a central part of his parents’ lives. He wondered if he still had any chance to make something similar possible between himself and Zoe. Not once since that disastrous night on her front porch had Zoe leaned toward him in invitation or given him any encouragement to think she might still welcome his touch. But, she’d helped him settle Celia into Safe Haven and given him the emotional support he needed to cope with the change. She hadn’t hesitated to go out in the middle of the night when Ava called needing a ride home, and she’d helped Jake make smart choices about how to handle the crisis. She’d pretty much invited herself to today’s party, so she could finally meet the rest of his family.

Jake studied Zoe’s bare fingers splayed across the swollen stretch of her abdomen. He pictured Porter’s ring where he’d last seen it. After Jake had replaced a blown fuse, he’d gone to the sink to wash the dust off his hands. Late afternoon sun, slanting through the window, had glinted brightly off the polished facets of the big stone. It had been impossible to miss.

It was a beautiful ring. Expensive. A testament to every advantage Porter Dubois could offer Zoe. Jake, on the other hand, although a construction engineer with a decent salary, was a volunteer fireman on the side, had a family to support, three girls to put through college, and an eight-year-old van.

But he loved her, and he’d never told her so.