Irish Eyes (Stolen Hearts Romance) (26 page)

But Cameron did not know that. He couldn’t. After he had turned Shaughnessy over to the FBI and freed Devin and her, they had taken a slow, awkward trip back to Cincinnati. Always aware of Devin’s watchful eyes and ears, they hadn’t spoken of anything personal.

By now, Julia had begun to wonder if there had ever been anything personal between them at all. Perhaps the loneliness of losing herself in the work of the shelter had made her see things that simply weren’t there. And feel things that Cameron did not share.

She swallowed to force down the lump in her throat. It lodged hard and high in her chest, settling in with the dull ache she’d felt ever since she’d last heard a certain teasing Irish brogue.

She thought of his sweet but brief good-bye when she went to see his plane off. With Fiona and Devin beside him, he’d set off to do the thing he’d sought to accomplish for so long. The stolen coins would be returned—and so would his family’s honor.

That had been over a month ago.

She forced out a shuddering sigh.

“Julia?” Norman came fully into the room. “You okay?”

“Sure.” She lifted her chin and shook back the hair clinging to her cheeks. “Why shouldn’t I be okay? I’m just a little—tired and testy.”

“Sorry if my singing bothered you, then. I just sorta had this sudden outpouring of goodwill and optimism,” he explained, touching the brim of his baseball cap.

“I don’t mind you enjoying your work, Norman.” She leaned back in her creaking swivel chair. “But could you, um, maybe pick a different song?”

“You miss him, don’t you?”

“Who?” She batted her lashes and hoped she looked sufficiently perplexed.

“Okay, I get it.” He held his hands up. “None of my business. I just hope your mood picks up a bit before the groundbreaking ceremony today.”

The thought of going before the press and putting on a happy face rattled Julia. She wasn’t much of an actor—that was Cameron’s department. And this was Cameron’s project, to keep the little ones from saying their good night prayers in a cafeteria, he had said when he’d suggested it.

The memory brought a tingle to the tip of her nose and a burning to her eyes. She set her jaw and swallowed hard. She would not cry. She refused to let these feelings dominate her. She blinked to battle back the tears.

The trick, she had learned, was simply not to let herself dwell on thoughts of Cameron.

How could she go to this event and not think of him? How could she think of him and not feel blue? She whisked her hand through her hair and groaned out a burdened sigh. “Actually, I’m pretty busy here today. I don’t know if I can make the time—”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Norman wagged his finger at her.

“Oh, no, she doesn’t what?” Craig sauntered into the office.

“She’s trying to back out of going to the groundbreaking ceremony for phase two.” Norman turned to Craig, standing shoulder to shoulder with the younger man as if to say Julia was going to have to go through both of them to get out of this deal.

“St. Patrick’s is the parent facility of this project.” Craig shook his head, touched his glasses then squinted at her, like a trifecta of disapproving gestures. “You can’t just not show up at the phase two groundbreaking.”

“You could go in my stead.” She said it so sweetly, too. Like she was finally entrusting the man with the responsibility he had wanted for too long.

He refused it, and let her know he wasn’t buying her act, with a roll of his eyes. “This is upper echelon all the way— directors, CEOs, civic group presidents, the mayor. No one else is sending an assistant and you can’t either. With a group like that nobody will be impressed by a second banana.”

“Second banana.” Norman hooted laugh and threw an elbow in Craig’s ribs. “Now there’s a doozy of a nickname for you, kid.”

Craig rubbed his side and scowled, good naturedly. Mostly. “Well, if I’m second banana, what does that make you, pal?”

“Anything else would sound more
appealing,”
Norman countered.

Julia winced and pushed away from her desk, the wheels of her old chair squeaking in protest over the cold floor. “Another bad pun like that one and I’m going, to have to ask you both to split.”

“Oh, my word, Craig, do you see that?” Norman feigned shock.

“What?” Craig followed the other man’s line of vision, zeroing his gaze in on Julia’s face.

“A smile!” Norman tipped back his cap and squinted. “If I’m not mistaken—and I could be since it’s been so long since any of us has had an actual Julia Reed smile-sighting—that’s a bona fide grin.”

Craig played it up big, blinking and shifted his head to stare at her from more than one angle. “You know, you may be right.”

“Okay, you two got me. I admit it, you jollied me up a bit.” She held her hands up in surrender. “Happy now?”

“We won’t be truly happy until you promise to come to the groundbreaking ceremony today,” Norman said.

“They’re going to introduce the new project director,” Craig sing-songed, as if that might prove too tempting to pass up.

“They’ve hired someone already?” She sat up.

The two men looked at each other in a way that made Julia feel they didn’t think she should have to ask that. She rubbed her temple and shut her eyes. How had she gone from needed to control every aspect of the shelter to not even knowing that the board had selected a new director for phase two?
That news did shed a new light on the situation. She really should make an appearance if just to thank the right people and meet the person she’d be spending a great deal of time with.

“It’s a golden opportunity,” Norman chimed in.

Julia stiffened at his choice of words.
Golden.
It made her think of the gleam in Cameron’s hair when the sun hit it just right and of the mischievous glint in his dazzling emerald eyes. She slumped in her seat.
“I’ve got so much pressing business here today—”

“Wee-oo. Wee-oo.” Craig placed one hand to his lips like a mouthpiece of a trumpet. “Waffle alert. Lady in sector five is thinking of backing out on her commitments.”

She straightened her spine. “I do not back out on my commitments.”

“Then I guess we’ll see you at the new project site in an hour.” Craig gave her a quick salute and slipped out the door.

Norman tipped his cap and did the same.

“I am not up to this,” Julia growled an hour later as she tottered on unaccustomed high heels through an open field. She tugged at the collar and then the sleeve of the new kelly green linen suit she had bought just for this presentation.

“You can do this, Julia,” Craig assured her as they walked
toward a cluster of cameras and dignitaries.

“You’ll be as terrific as you look.” Norman beamed from his place at her elbow.

“Well, I’m wearing this fancy outfit under protest, you understand. If you two hadn’t shamed me into buying it, I’d be in my favorite jeans and a comfy T-shirt.” Her legs wobbled as she stepped along the uneven ground. “I feel silly. I think I should be dressed like I came here to work.”

“You should be dressed, Miss Shelter Director, like you came here to do business.” Craig waved his hand. “It’s an entirely different thing.”

“Absolutely.” Norman’s short legs did double time to match their long strides. “Besides, don’t you want to look your best when you see—”

Craig cut him off with an abrupt slashing motion across the base of his own throat.

“What’s going on here?” She paused, and her heels began to sink into the lush grassy ground. “When I see what?”

“Um, when you see this.” Craig extended his arm in a sweeping motion that encompassed the whole chaotic scene. “We really did it up right, Julia. Press, CEOs, city officials. The Wacky Wake Up Weather Guy.”

She narrowed her eyes to tell Craig she hadn’t bought his story then glanced at the assembled crowd. Everyone he’d mentioned was there—and then some. A semicircle of people she’d never seen before stood in expensive suits and dresses around a white-flagged stake in the dry ground. Each of them held authentic gardening spades, spray-painted a gaudy gold.

As she approached, an anxious young man rushed up to her with an identical spade in his hands. He thrust it toward Julia. “So glad you got here, Miss Reed.”

He escorted her to the end of the semicircle, pausing to whisper in her ear. “Now, the mayor is going to give a short speech, and the CEO of the funding company is going to introduce the new director. After that, they’ll join the group here, and all of you will push your spades into the ground at the same time. That will make a great shot for the newspaper.”

She nodded to let him know she understood, but he had already scurried up to the makeshift podium to signal the beginning of the media event.

The mayor’s speech was a benign blend of humor and pathos, ending with a plea for a better world and a reminder that the way to build that world was by voting. He didn’t say “voting for me” could improve the world, but even Julia, in her fog of boredom and despondency, got that message.

She smiled politely as he passed in front of her to take his place on the other side of the half-circle of groundbreakers.

The CEO of the company who had provided the start-up funds for the project stepped up to the microphone.

Yadda, yadda. Blah, blah, blah.
He probably said something more significant than that, but to Julia’s ears, it didn’t sound much different.
Her feet hurt. The sun scorched the top of her head. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes, and to top it all off, she missed Cameron.

And still the CEO droned on, extolling the virtues of his company’s philanthropy.

Life goes on,
she told herself. Like the river, like her life’s work, every day it just keeps flowing ever onward. And for all her brave talk of letting go sometimes it was all she could do not to let the old ways barge in and use every resource available to find Cameron. Find him, she thought, and then demand that he tell her why he never called or wrote—or seemed to care at all what had happened to her.

“And that is why it is with great pride—”

Julia perked up. That sounded like the beginning of the end of one insufferably long speech.

“That we have chosen a director to oversee this project—”

Finally,
Julia said to herself as she stretched her neck up just a bit to get a better view through the crowd,
something interesting.

“Who embodies the goals of our generous corporation towards ending the blight of homelessness in our city—”

Just say it already,
she mused.

“Former Interpol agent and hero in his home country and locally—”

Julia’s heart stopped.
Don’t say what
I
think you’re going to say.
Not even her pulse registered in her ears as the new director’s name echoed through her mind and body.

“Cameron O’Dea.”

Sunlight glinted off the golden curls on Cameron’s head as he moved from the blur of the crowd to shake the CEO’s hand. He exchanged some pleasantries with the businessman beyond the reach of the microphone then stepped up to acknowledge the enthusiastic applause with a wave.

Stunned, Julia could neither think nor react. She just stood there with her mouth gaping wide, as the man with the brilliant green eyes fixed his gaze on her and came to take his place at her side.

He smiled down at her.

She blinked. Her muscles were as limp as rags and yet her posture was rigid. She wanted to ask him how or why or what was going on, but the connection between her brain and her lips failed. She just stared.

“And now, let us break ground on this new and worthwhile project!” the CEO announced.

Every other golden spade crunched into the barren ground. The air filled with the scent of fresh earth. A cheer went up.

Julia just stared.

“Sweet Julia?” Cameron whispered.

She smiled her gaze caressing his cheeks, his lips, his eyes. “It’s really you, isn’t it? You’re really here.”

“I’m really here. And I’m really here to stay. I’ve resigned my position with Interpol, and I want to make Cincinnati my home.” He reached over and helped her push down on the ceremonial spade.

The blade cut into the soft soil, crumbling the ground into dirt and clods.

Julia kept her eyes on him. She inhaled the scent of him, savored the heat of his body and the way he made her feel protected and safe.

“Cameron?”

“Hmm?” He met her gaze.

Those eyes spoke to her just as they had the very first day. She saw in them goodness and humor and just enough human frailty to make him the perfect man for the job he had taken and for…

“I’m glad you’re back,” she said.

“I’m glad to be back.”

“No, I mean I’m
really
glad that you’re back.”

“And I’m really glad to
be
back, sweet Julia. Whatever the future brings, I’m won’t regret coming back to… to do what needs to be done.