Falling For Zoe (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1) (5 page)

Chapter 8

“AVA TELLS ME you were all over your new neighbor like fleas on a hound dawg,” Philip Cameron said as he dropped into a lawn chair next to Jake who was tinkering with the lawnmower.

Jake jerked his head up to glare at his oldest brother. “Ava said
what
?”

“Well, maybe that’s not exactly how she put it.” Philip took a swig of the beer he’d brought out with him and smirked at his kid brother. “But she seemed to think you were pretty interested. I figure it’s just being neighborly for y’all to invite her over for dinner, but walking her home afterward . . . ? That requires some checking into. What’s she like? Is she hot?”

“She’s okay, but I’m not interested,” Jake flat out lied. He hadn’t been able to get Zoe out of his mind, but what he’d been feeling was totally out of line, and he was determined not to act on it. Especially if Ava was watching him that closely.

Philip raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “Really?”

“Really.” Jake picked up the file and began drawing it purposefully along the blade of the mower.

“You know, you’re not a monk, and you are a free man again. What’s wrong with a little fooling around?”

Jake put the file down and sat back onto his heels. He stared at his brother, wondering how much to say, or not say. He should have just ignored Philip’s teasing in the first place and hoped he’d get tired of waiting for an answer. But his brother’s face had turned serious and patient. “She’s not that kind of woman.”

Philip gazed at Jake for a long moment. “Not what kind of woman?”

“Not—” Jake shrugged. “Not easy. Not—She’s a sweet, girl-next-door kind of woman. The kind a man marries first and screws after. Not someone who’d be interested in a meaningless affair. And I’m not ready for anything serious.”

“Now you’re sounding like me. Except I know you. You’re Dad all over again.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“A one-woman man. Dad married the love of his life, and he’s been faithful ever since.”

“Yeah, well I married the woman I thought was the love of my life, and look where that got me!” Jake couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.

He was over Marsha.
So
over her. But rejection had hurt just the same and eroded his self-confidence. There was no denying, at least to himself, that the feelings Zoe had stirred up, he hadn’t felt for any woman in years. Maybe he just hadn’t
let
himself think that way about other women.

Philip hesitated. Probably wondering if he should say I told you so, or leave it hanging out there unsaid. He opted for tact. “So you made a mistake. Maybe this woman is different.”

“As different as night and day!” Jake stated without hesitation. “Which is why I’m not going to mess around with her.”

Philip opened his mouth to comment, but changed his mind, shrugged, and took another swig of beer.

“Any news on your next deployment?” Jake changed the subject.

“Nada.” Philip shrugged again. “Right now they’ve got me on recruiting duty at all the local colleges and high schools. I’ve heard rumors though. Afghanistan in the fall, maybe.”

“Be tough on Dad. Mom too. Another holiday season with their first-born in harm’s way. Ever think of getting out?” Jake set the mower back on its wheels, put the file down, and got to his feet. He retrieved his half-finished beer and slouched into a chair next to his brother.

“I’m a Marine.” Philip studied the label on his beer bottle. “I’ve been a Marine since I was seventeen. I don’t know anything else.”

Jake punched his brother’s arm with affection. “I’m proud of you, Philip. Never think otherwise, but I’m still going to pray it’s just a rumor. It’d be nice to have you home for Christmas this year.”

“It would be nice for a change. Wouldn’t it?” Philip lifted his beer bottle in Jake’s direction. They tapped bottles briefly.

“Amen.”

“AMEN! AMEN!” Polly rocked wildly on her perch. “Amen! Amen!”

Scotch barked, and Jet circled Zoe’s feet, tail wagging furiously.

“Enough, already!” Zoe told her four-footed alarm system as she headed for the door to see who had rung her bell this time.

Ava stood beside the door, rocking from one foot to the other.

“Hi, Ava. What’s up?”

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

“Nothing that I’m not happy to have interrupted.”

Ava looked as if she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how to start.

“I’ve been scrubbing floors,” Zoe offered. “Never my favorite activity. You want to set a spell and have a glass of sweet tea?”

“Sure!” Ava grinned eagerly.

Zoe pointed toward the row of rocking chairs she had inherited along with the purchase of the house. “Be right back.”

After Zoe had returned with the icy drinks and they’d settled into the rockers, Ava seemed on the verge of saying something, but for several long minutes remained silent. Zoe waited for Ava to get to whatever she’d come to say.

“It must have been hard losing your mom like that,” Ava finally blurted.

“It’s always hard to lose your mother, however it happens. It’s probably just as hard if you’re sixty instead of thirteen. I guess it’s natural to think of your mother as immortal and shocking to find out she’s not.”

Ava sighed and ran her fingers over the rivulets of moisture dripping down the sides of her glass. Then she looked at Zoe. “My mom left us on purpose. She had a choice.”

“That must have been difficult to understand. At least I knew my mom didn’t want to go.” Zoe’s heart went out to this young girl who so obviously needed her mother at this point in her life. Zoe knew what it was like to be on the threshold of becoming a young woman, then suddenly thrust into the role of mother and homemaker.

“She just took off. No explanations or anything. Like she didn’t care what happened to any of us anymore.” Ava pushed the rocker hard, letting her hurt and anger show in the rapid movement. “Daddy’s always going on about how she still loves us and it’s just him she has a problem with, but how could she? How could she just go off like that if she really cared about any of us? How could she do that to Daddy?”

“The relationship between your parents doesn’t affect how they feel about you,” Zoe tried to reassure her. “I’m sure your father is right, and your mom does love you. She must have had her reasons for the choices she made.”

“She didn’t want to be a mom anymore. She wanted to be free.” The note of baffled hurt intensified in Ava’s voice.

“Perhaps something was making her very unhappy, and leaving was the only way she knew how to fix it?”

“They never argued or anything. Daddy’s not like that. He was devastated. I don’t think he had a clue she was even thinking about leaving.”

Zoe’s heart contracted in distress at the picture that leapt into her head of Jake with a look of baffled abandonment in his eyes. She could only begin to imagine how hurt he must have been.

“Your mother never tried to explain it to you?” As soon as the words left her tongue Zoe knew she was getting awfully close to prying into things that were none of her business, but the question was out there, and she couldn’t take it back.

“Mom left while I was at school. The twins were at Aunt Kate’s house, and Daddy had been called out to fight a big fire out on the island. We came home, and she was just gone. Her clothes were gone. And her computer and all her personal stuff. But no note. No explanations. She didn’t even say goodbye to her own mother.”

Zoe sucked in a shocked gasp at the callousness. How could a woman do that to her own kids? And her mother? Never mind the man you’d promised to love and cherish ’til death do you part, and whose children you’d borne. “And you never heard from her?”

“Oh, she called late that night when she figured Daddy would be home. But she never said goodbye to us.” The bitter angry edge to Ava’s words spoke volumes about the bewildered hurt she’d suffered and still did. “And we never saw her again.”

“I’m sorry,” was the only thing Zoe could think of to say.

“Why should you be sorry? You didn’t do it.” Ava flipped her hair back with an angry gesture.

“No, but I can be sorry it happened to you. I know how hard it is to grow up without your mom around.”

“Are all your brothers and sisters younger than you?”

“All of them!” Zoe reached to set her empty glass on the table beside her chair. “I’m the oldest, like you, so I got to be the mommy whether I liked it or not. And my father didn’t share the cooking either.”

Ava shot Zoe a look of surprise. “Never?”

“Well, sometimes he’d take us all out to eat. That was his way of giving me a day off. Eventually my sisters got big enough to help, but Daddy never made my brothers join us. That was women’s work. He was . . .
is
kind of a chauvinist.”

Ava chewed nervously on her lower lip. She looked across the lawn toward her own house, then back at Zoe. “Did your father tell you what to wear all the time, and who you could see, and where you could go?”

“I’m sure he would have if there’d been a chance for me to get out of line. But I went to parochial school, so I wore a uniform. And when I wasn’t in school, I was too busy doing housework and watching out for my brothers and sisters to go anywhere.”

Ava’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Ever? Like didn’t you have friends you liked to hang with? Didn’t you have a boyfriend?”

“I had one real friend. My best friend. She’s the lady who told me about this house, in fact. But I never really had any boyfriends in high school. I guess my father would have had a lot to say about that. He’s pretty bossy.”

“Even now when you’re all grown up?”

“Even now.” Zoe thought about the royal fight she’d had with her father when she told him about her break up with Porter and her pregnancy. It was the reason she’d been determined to move out of his house and build a new life for herself that didn’t include a constant barrage of negative criticism and unfair expectation.

Zoe pushed herself out of the chair and crossed to the railing. She gazed out over the still unkempt back yard to the marshes the bordered the waterway. It had been a momentous decision to spend her inheritance on this wonderful old house in the face of her father’s vehement opposition. She turned back to her young visitor. “My father even picked out the man he thought I should marry, and he hasn’t been too happy with me since the relationship broke up. Daddy didn’t want me to buy this house or move out of his either. But I’m an adult, and I decided it was long past time to start making my own decisions. And my own life.”

“Wow! And I thought my father was impossible.” Ava sagged back into her rocker, then stood and moved toward the stairs as if preparing to leave. She stopped and hesitated, poised on the top step a moment before turning to face Zoe again. “Daddy says I should dress more like you. I think he liked your pink dress.”

Zoe’s heart jumped, and a sudden feeling of warmth filled her breast. She’d put the pink dress on hoping Jake would notice, but then he’d been in a heated argument with Ava, and she’d thought her efforts had gone unnoticed.

“Is that what the argument was about on Saturday?” Even while she asked the question, Zoe’s mind was still turning over the fact that Jake had admired her dress enough so that Ava had picked up on it.

“He didn’t think what I was wearing was appropriate. But everyone dresses like that. He just doesn’t get it.”

“Well, the outfit was a little extreme.” Zoe didn’t want to alienate Ava, but neither did she want to say anything that might undermine Jake.

“Yeah, that’s what Daddy said. Actually, what he said was that I looked like a prostitute. And he said it wasn’t fair to be a tease. But I wasn’t trying to tease anyone. I just wanted to . . . I just thought . . . I wanted Travis to think I was pretty. And maybe a little bit sexy. I didn’t mean to be a tease about it.”

Zoe felt her eyebrows lifting at the image of Jake telling his daughter she looked like a prostitute. “Well, that’s a little harsh, but maybe your father has a point.” Zoe lifted her shoulders for emphasis and then relaxed again. It felt like she was walking in a minefield. “But you can be attractive without being a tease. Sometimes mystery is more effective than showing everything off.”

“Wouldn’t that still be considered teasing?”

“It could, I suppose, but if you dress with style and class, I doubt your father would have anything to complain about.”

Ava seemed to consider this option. Then she grinned at Zoe with a look of conspiracy lighting her eyes.

“Maybe we should go shopping together?”

Suddenly, Zoe felt trapped. She didn’t have a classy outfit in her closet. And what she knew about style could be written on the back of a business card. Sure, she’d had a hand in helping her sisters through the teenage years, but it wasn’t like Jake knew that. He had no reason to trust her judgment.

“Please say yes.”

Chapter 9

“THAT WAS FUN.” Ava grinned across the table at Zoe.

They sat at a little table outside an ice cream parlor surrounded by shopping bags, sipping on milkshakes. Zoe had been more than a little surprised when Jake approved the shopping expedition without question. Even more astonishing, he’d handed Ava his credit card without even mentioning a spending limit. One pink dress seemed hardly enough to base such faith on, but Zoe had done her best not to violate his trust.

She wondered what Jake would think of the clothes Ava had purchased today. All were reasonably appropriate, but whether they’d meet with his approval was something else. Fathers tended to be ultra conservative where their own daughters were concerned. Just to be on the safe side, Zoe had tucked all the receipts in an envelope so anything he didn’t like could be returned.

“Thanks for coming with me. My mom—” Ava bit her lips into a tight, hard line, then took a deep breath and relaxed again and went on in a sad little voice. “Mom never took me shopping with her. She just bought things she liked and expected me to wear them whether I liked them or not.”

Zoe tried to think of an appropriate reply. She was beginning to really dislike Marsha Cameron for her uncaring disregard for the feelings of her family. It would appear that her insensitivity had begun long before she’d walked out of their lives.

Ava brightened. “At least Daddy’s going to like my new bathing suit. He hated the bikini Mom bought me just before she took off. I didn’t really like it all that much, but I wore it to please her. Only it didn’t matter, I guess. She left anyway.” The cloud returned to Ava’s face.

“I’m certain your father will approve of the replacement.” Zoe hurried to redirect the discussion. Ava had chosen a very flattering two-piece suit in green and blue. A tankini top, at least that’s what Zoe thought the clerk called it, and a hot pant style bottom with little ties on the sides. A lot less revealing than the bikini Zoe had seen in the picture on Jake’s mantle, but just as flattering.

“I know he will,” Ava agreed. “It doesn’t even show off my navel ring. Maybe I’ll take it out anyway. It itches. Travis talked me into doing it, but I don’t think Daddy would have said yes if I’d asked him.”

“He doesn’t know about it?”

“Oh, I think he knows. He just hasn’t said anything. I guess he figures it’s not worth arguing about.”

“Maybe he’s trying to give you room to grow up.”

Ava’s eyebrows peaked. “You’re kidding? Right? He’s all over me about everything else. He won’t let me go to the library after supper with my friends. He doesn’t approve of Travis. He’s always on me about my homework. I get all As and Bs. I don’t know why he doesn’t trust me to get my stuff done.”

Zoe laughed, remembering how often her brothers had avoided homework when they were growing up. “Boys don’t take homework as seriously as girls usually do. Maybe your dad just doesn’t understand that girls are different. Especially, that you’re different. Have you ever talked to him about it?”

“Ava!” A chubby, vivacious brunette hurried up to the table and plunked herself down in a chair, interrupting the conversation. “You’ll never guess who I just saw down by the surf shop!”

Ava ignored the urgent question as she spoke to Zoe. “This is my friend Debbie Renkin.” With an apologetic shrug, Ava turned back to her friend. “Zoe Callahan is . . . She’s my new next door neighbor, and we’ve been shopping.”

“Oh! Hi.” Debbie glanced at Zoe in a distracted way, then back to Ava. “So, don’t you want to know who I just saw?”

“I was trying not to be rude,” Ava whispered.

Debbie flushed. “Sorry,” she mumbled in Zoe’s direction.

Ava relented. “It’s obvious you’re dying to tell me, so spit it out. Who’d you see?”

Whatever else Jake might be missing about teenage girls, he was bringing Ava up to be a considerate young lady. Zoe’s estimation of him went up another notch. He was more than just a great-looking guy with a broken heart. He was a pretty decent dad.

“Travis,” Debbie answered in a breathy voice filled with outrage. “And you’ll never guess who he’s with.”

“Nope, I guess I wouldn’t.” Ava tried for nonchalance, but Zoe saw the look of alarm in her warm brown eyes.

“Andrea!” Debbie said between gritted teeth.

Ava’s eyes widened, but she didn’t otherwise react as if this were unpleasant news. “He has a right to see whoever he wants to see. It’s not like we’re an item or anything.”

Debbie sat back, obviously confused by her friend’s reaction. Then she gathered herself together and got to her feet. “Well, I gotta go. My mom’s going to be looking for me. See you.” She turned to Zoe. “Nice to meet you.” Then she hurried away, zigzagging through the tables and disappearing around the corner.

“I suppose we should get going, too. Daddy and the twins’ll be home soon.” Ava got to her feet and began collecting her bags.

“Is Travis the young man who stopped by my first night in the neighborhood when you had me over for supper?” Zoe asked as they moved toward the parking lot.

“Yeah.” Ava strode toward Zoe’s truck with total disregard for other cars in the lot and narrowly missed colliding with a woman backing up. She stowed her bags in the truck bed and waited for Zoe to unlock the door. Zoe finessed the key into the rusted old door lock and turned it. Ava climbed in, buckled her seatbelt, and stared pointedly out the side window.

The old truck coughed to life, and Zoe pulled out, negotiating the busy parking lot to the street. Clearly Debbie’s revelations had upset Ava more than she wanted to let on. Zoe glanced across at Ava’s averted profile. Ava sniffed, and Zoe waited for her to decide if she wanted to confide or not.

Ava didn’t look Zoe’s way when she finally spoke. “Daddy was right.”

Zoe slowed to avoid a car pulling out of a side street, then shot a quick glance in Ava’s direction before turning her attention back to the road. “Your father was right about what?”

“About boys and sex.”

“Oh?” Zoe queried cautiously. “I’m guessing he knows more about it than either of us. The boy part anyway.” Without a doubt he knew more than Zoe did. She’d been too busy taking care of her siblings to date much in high school, so her experience with teenage boys had been mostly limited to what a sister knows about her brothers.

“He told me boys have a one-track mind when it comes to girls. And it’s all about sex and how far a girl will let them go.”

“Well, I doubt sex is the
only
thing boys think about when they’re with girls, but it’s probably right up there at the top of the list,” Zoe offered as she thought Jake’s bald assessment over. She thought about some of the things her brother Michael had confided when he’d first hit puberty. Things that had shocked Zoe at the time, but after watching three more brothers grow up she’d gotten more comfortable with.

“Testosterone is suddenly ruling their lives, and it’s not just about their voices changing and having to shave for the first time. Boys are suddenly discovering feelings and urges they never had before. It’s natural to want to experiment and find out more. And exciting.”
Same deal for grown men as well
, Zoe thought ruefully. In retrospect, the only thing Porter had wanted from her was sex. He’d put on a good act to lure her into his bed, and she’d fallen for it.

The light turned red, and Zoe came to a stop, which gave her a chance to really look at her young companion. “Is this about your relationship with Travis?” Ava blushed and looked down at her lap. “Or about Travis and Andrea?”

“Both, I guess.” Ava twisted the fabric of her T-shirt. “Andrea’s got a reputation as the school slut. She hooks up with anyone and everyone. At least that’s what I’ve heard. So, if boys are all so set on getting some, and I won’t put out, then maybe that’s why Travis was with her?” Tears welled up and slid down Ava’s cheeks.

Zoe’s heart swelled in sympathy. She wasn’t so old she’d forgotten how it felt when she’d had a crush on the boy next door. He’d been the first boy to kiss her. And she’d stood there in the shadows behind her father’s garage, thinking she was in love. She had believed he felt the same about her, only to find out later that her heartthrob was doing a lot more than just kissing another girl he’d met at a party to which Zoe hadn’t been invited.

A car tooted, bringing Zoe back to the present and the fact that the light had turned green again. She took her foot off the brake and waved a vague apology to the impatient driver behind her. Route 17 was not a good place to be having a discussion like this.

“Travis isn’t the only fish in the sea. You’re a very pretty girl and—”

“But I love him.”

The anguish in Ava’s voice cut into Zoe with jagged intensity. Zoe wondered if she’d ever felt that strongly about a boy or a man. Certainly not about the fickle kid next door. And definitely not about Porter who she had slept with in spite of not loving him. For a moment, the memory of Jake standing so close she could feel the warmth of his skin flashed into her mind along with the overwhelming desire she’d had for him to kiss her. Had that been just sexual attraction, or had it been her heart’s reaction to the look she’d seen in his eyes earlier in the evening?

Thankfully, they were almost home. Zoe breathed a sigh of relief as they turned off the four-lane road onto Jolee. Nothing further was said until she turned into her own driveway. It was hard keeping her mind on driving safely, answering Ava’s questions in a responsible manner, and keeping her own feelings out of the mix. At least now she could concentrate. She cut the engine and turned in her seat.

“Look, Ava, it probably feels like love, but there should be more to a relationship than just physical attraction. You should have other things in common that you enjoy doing together. Music and your favorite artists. Mutual friends and activities you’re both into. If the only thing Travis wants from you is sex, then it’s not about love. At least, not on his part.”

“It isn’t just about sex. I know it’s not. Travis isn’t like that. He even said it was okay if I wasn’t ready for . . . well, you know. He said he loves me, and he just likes being with me whatever we do. Andrea probably came on to him. Maybe he couldn’t help himself with all those hormones and stuff. Or maybe he was just trying not to hurt Andrea’s feelings.”

Zoe doubted that last rose-colored explanation. Based on the breathless way Debbie had delivered her little bombshell, it was more likely the former, but then, Zoe didn’t really know Travis, so she probably shouldn’t judge. If Travis had moved on, Ava would find out soon enough on her own. But it was a little alarming to hear that Ava and Travis had actually discussed having sex. No wonder Jake was worried!
Please God, let it be that Travis had moved on and wouldn’t be pressuring Ava into anything.
Jake would be out for blood if he knew.

“Have you reassured your father that you’re not ready to jump into bed with Travis, or anyone else, for that matter?”

Ava gasped, her eyes growing as wide and dark as the centers of the sunflowers in Zoe’s back yard. “Are you kidding? I could never tell Daddy a thing like that.”

“Maybe you should. If he knew how responsibly you take such a decision, he might lighten up a little. He’s just worried about you. Fathers tend to worry about their little girls. And trust me, you will always be his little girl, no matter how old you are.”

Ava chuckled sadly. “Yeah. Daddy’s little girl and all that.”

“Don’t knock it.” Zoe wished she’d been Daddy’s little girl. Or at least she wished she could remember being so. Maybe once upon a time she had been. Before her sisters arrived. Before her mother died, and Zoe had had to grow up fast and become the surrogate mom while her sisters were treated like princesses. There had been times Zoe had felt more like Cinderella than she liked to admit.

Jake’s van turned in past the old brick gatepost, pulled around the circle and into his driveway. The twins piled out and ran toward Zoe’s truck.

“Thanks,” Ava said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “For everything. It’s . . . it’s nice to have someone I can talk to. I mean someone older than me. Not that you’re old, but you know—”

Zoe smiled at the young woman sitting next to her. “I know. And you’re welcome. Come over any time.” Zoe climbed down from the truck and then spoke across the hood. “Maybe we can go shopping again. When your father’s credit card has recovered, that is.”
When nothing I own fits me anymore
.

Ava smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Think about talking to your father. Seriously. He might be a lot more understanding than you’d guess.”

“Miss Zoe! Look what we got!” Lynn almost ran into Zoe in her eagerness.

“Look, Miss Zoe!” Lori waved a sheet of colorful stickers in Zoe’s direction.

The chance to say anything more to Ava was lost in the exuberance of her sisters’ excitement, but Ava smiled before turning away. “I’ll think about it.”