Oceans Apart (Ocean Dreams Book 1) (26 page)

The beach below was alive and humming with Sunday morning activity. Local families were out enjoying the fine weather. Dogs barked as they ran next to their owners and the seagulls squawked as they swirled around in the light breeze. Cam heard none of that. He had completely tuned it all out, as he leaned on the railing of his balcony. His eyes closed as he focused on the sound of the ocean. It was the one thing that would always calm him when life seemed to soar out of control. He slowed his breathing down and tried to concentrate on the ocean breaking against the shore but his thoughts were constantly interrupted with reflections of his Nashville Angel.

‘Where the hell was she?’
he thought as he slammed his hand on the railing. He continued to recount the events of last night in his head, hoping to find some clarity of what he should do.

After getting over the shock of what Lana had told him and seeing Annie leave without him, he had stood there on the side of the busy road, stunned at all that had happened. He just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact he was going to be a father or that the love of his life had just walked away from him. Needing to find Annie was most important. Cam’s car arrived and he assured Lana they would talk soon. He rushed to the driver’s side of the car, shoving some money in the valet’s hands as he jumped in and revved the shit out of the engine before taking off into the night. He drove straight back to his house, hoping Annie would go there. To his dismay, the house was empty.

He stayed up all night, pacing the house and anticipating Annie’s eventual return. He didn’t know where she could have gone. It was the middle of the night and she had no other friends in Sydney. Cam had fallen asleep a couple of times on the couch. The last time he was woken, Bowie had been licking his face. It wasn’t quite sunrise and he knew Matt would be up for a morning surf or run. Cam rattled off a couple of texts to his mate, hoping Matt would have some idea of where she might have gone. It was a long shot but he didn’t know where else to start.

Chelsea was the next person to receive a barrage of text messages from her worried older brother. After half a dozen sent texts, his phone rang with a grumpy Sea on the other end of the phone line.

“Seriously, Cam? The sun is just rising on a
Sunday
morning. You know I’m not a morning person.”

“Didn’t you read my texts?” Cam said with annoyance.

“I barely have my eyes open. Just bloody tell me,” she said tiredly.

Cam could hear Sea yawning. He let out a loud sigh. “Annie is missing, Sis.” Saying those words aloud gutted him to the core. He thought about the hurt she must be feeling. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he did, and now her absence was hurting him too.

“What? Cam, what do you mean Annie is missing?”

Cam explained the events of last night to his sister. She didn’t utter a word or make a sound while her brother poured his heart out to her.

“The last time I saw her was when her taxi was driving off into the night.”

Sea didn’t say anything for a moment before all of a sudden, she said, “I’m getting up and going to shower. I’ll make some phone calls, and then I’ll head down to the city.”

There was no arguing with his little sister. She might be younger than he and Chris, but she was headstrong and not to be messed with. Cam was now waiting for Chelsea to arrive. He always thought it was funny how she liked to ‘mother’ her older brothers but he never minded. She did it out of the goodness of her heart.

Cam was pulled out of his thoughts by the frantic barking of Bowie, alerting him to a knock at the front door. He rubbed his hands vigorously over his face to rouse himself from his daydream. He headed downstairs and noticed the clock in the kitchen. He was surprised it had been close to three hours since he had talked to his sister. He really was out of it and in his own world while he was sitting on his deck.

“Thanks for coming,” Cam said as he flung the front door wide open, but received the shock of his life when he saw his mother standing there next to Sea.

“You’re welcome, Son.” Carol walked in and squeezed Cam in a loving embrace. Cam looked over his mom’s shoulder at Sea.

“Sorry. Wasn’t sure I could handle this one on my own. Needed to call in the big guns.” Chelsea just smiled at him and moved past them. She called Bowie to follow her up the stairs.

“You didn’t have to…” he started to say.

“Cameron John,” Carol started sternly. “Don’t be stupid. Mothers are supposed to help their children and from what your sister has said, you need some.”

Cam looked at his feet. He was feeling a little sheepish about his predicament; and now having to explain it all to his mother, although he was going to have to do it eventually anyway.

“Come on, darling. Let’s go upstairs and talk over a cuppa tea. We’ll get your sister to rustle up something to eat while we do.” She smiled with a knowing grin like she knew everything would work out fine in the end.

Cam had retold the events from last night and his mother and sister listened to him. There was no judgment or questions but an understanding nod every now and then. He finished the tale and waited for a response, but the two women just sat there.

“Aren’t you going to say anything, Mum?” He looked at Chelsea. “Sea? You’re usually the first to have an opinion about shit like this.” He wanted a solution and he was taking his impatience out on them.

Chelsea shifted in her chair, seeming uncomfortable, and not knowing what to say to him. His mother stood up and walked over to him, giving him another hug. While he didn’t mind, he did roll his eyes at his sister over his mother’s action.

Carol pulled back from Cam but held on to his shoulders with her hands. “I can’t believe you, of all my children, are making me a grandmother for the second time. Wonders will never cease.”

Cam gave her a half smile from the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, completely tripped me out too. Biggest bloody shock to the system. Well, next to Annie taking off.” He sighed and hung his head in defeat. He missed her. He felt like a part of him was missing. It was a familiar feeling but one he hadn’t felt in over ten years. Not since he lost Zoe. He didn’t like it one bit.

“First thing’s first though, Son. We need to find Annie. It must’ve been horrible for her to hear that news,” Carol told them as Chelsea’s phone rang.

“Excuse me for a moment,” Sea said as she walked out onto the balcony for privacy.

“I have no idea where to start looking for her and I have a funny feeling she won’t want to be talking to me just yet.”

“Give her time, Cameron. All you want to do is know she is safe. From our brief chats, she had never felt valued or important before, always second in line to affection and attention. This situation with Lana would be the same thing for her. Her heart has been broken too many times, but hopefully, once we establish where she is, we can move on to the next step of telling her how she means everything to you,” his mother said confidently. One thing could be said for Carol Hart, she was levelheaded in a crisis.

Chelsea hurried in from the balcony with a look of accomplishment on her face. “Cam, I’ve found Annie.”

Cam’s eyes widened with surprise and hope. “Really? Where is she?”

“She’s staying at Kirby’s. She turned up there last night not knowing where else to go.” Sea paused and looked to her mum before walking up to Cam and taking his hand in hers. “There’s just one thing. She wants to come and collect all her things from here.”

His eyes closed. Cam was happy Annie was safe but his heart was slowly breaking at the thought she wanted her things out of his place.

“And,” Sea continued. “She doesn’t want you to be here when she comes to get them.” She squeezed her big brother’s hand in a show of support. “I’m so sorry, Cam. I…”

Cam’s eyes opened and tears had started to well up in them. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” he repeated. She didn’t want to see him. She wanted nothing to do with him.

“Right. You need to respect her wishes, darling. She’s hurting and needs to work through it just the same as you do,” Carol told her son. “Give her some space and hopefully it will all work out for the best.”

He knew his mother was right but he was so angry. He was angry with Lana. Himself. Even Annie. He just wanted to talk to her. To feel her and have her gentle touch, caress him. He needed to tell her everything would work out. She was his world and the other half of him that for so long had been missing. Cam dropped Sea’s hand and paced back and forth across the living room. Reaching one wall, he looked up at it, pulled back his arm, and balled his fist up. With all his might, he threw a punch into the wall, leaving a hole the size of his fist.

“Arghhh. Fuck. Fucking hell,” he swore from the pain shooting up his arm and through his body. He grabbed at his fist with his good hand and bent over, trying to keep in control. Doubled over, his emotions got the better of him as silent tears fell from his eyes. He leaned against the damaged wall before slumping down to the floor. Tears dropped down his cheeks and onto his chest. Less than twelve hours before, he had been the happiest he had been in a long time and now his world was spinning out of control. He was going to be a father, which he had never even considered he would ever be. Annie had been the center of his newly found happiness but she now wanted nothing to do with him. Cam had no idea what he was going to do or how it would all fix itself, or if it even would at all.

Cam leaned his head against the wall before using his head as a hammer and knocking it hard a few times as if he needed to wake himself up from this bad dream.
It has to work out
. He thought of all the plans he had for his life and Annie was a part of them. He wished now he had told her and included her in his ideas. Maybe then, she wouldn’t have run off without a word.

Carol came over and crouched down beside her hurting son. “Here,” she said as she gave him an ice pack for his throbbing hand. “You have so much going on it that head of yours but you need to take it all one step at a time.”

Cam rubbed his good hand over his face to clear it of the unwanted water. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes tight as he released it. Looking up at his mother, he saw the woman who had been through thick and thin with him; and again, she was there at his side, ready to support him with her wise words of wisdom.

“Okay, Mum. What do you suggest I do next then? All I wanna fucking do is run over to Kirby’s right now and get Annie back. I need to see her. I need my Annie.” The frustration was evident in the rushed and intense tone of his voice. Cam clenched his jaw and his face pinched together in a tension-filled look.

“Calm down, Cameron,” his mother admonished him. “Chelsea, ring Kirby back and tell her it’s fine for Annie to come over in an hour. In the meantime, you,”— Carol fixed her gaze on her woeful son— “are going to shower and change. Then your sister is going to take you out. A walk. A surf. For food. I don’t care, but you will give Annie the chance to feel that her wishes have been respected. I believe she will talk to you in her own time. She loves you too much not to.”

Cam hung his head and huffed out an exasperated breath. His mother was right. She always was. He picked himself up off the floor and gave his mother a hug. “I’m so sorry, Mum. I just can’t bloody lose her. I can’t lose another love of my life.”

Carol patted her son’s back, just as she used to when he was a child. “It’s all right. Annie is a smart woman. She has been hurt many times in the past, but I believe she loves you dearly and will want to be with you. But you need to give her this time to evaluate her situation. In her eyes, she is now just as alone on the other side of the world as she was in Nashville. Hopefully, she will realize we are her family now, as I am guessing is your intention. Listen to your heart and the good things you deserve will follow. Allow her to listen to her heart too.” She kissed Cam on the forehead before pushing him lovingly in the direction of his bedroom.

Kirby had received a phone call from Chelsea just over an hour ago. She promised Cam would be out of the house this morning so Annie could gather all her things. Kirby had offered Annie her spare bedroom for as long as she needed; and since Annie needed a room and a friend, she took up the generous offer.

As the car got closer to Cam’s house, the beat of Annie’s heart rapidly increased. She didn’t know why she was feeling nervous about going to his place. She knew he wasn’t going to be there. Sea wouldn’t have told her to come if he was. She wouldn’t lie to Annie, especially, if Cam had told her what had happened.

Kirby’s car pulled up alongside the row of parked cars outside Cam’s house. Kirby looked up and down the street. “It doesn’t look like there is a close car park. Why don’t you hop out and get started while I find a parking spot? I’ll walk back to help you as soon as I can,” Kirby said with a comforting smile.

“That would be great. Thanks,” Annie said. She hopped out of the cute vintage sports car of Kirby’s and ventured toward the tall wooden front gate. Taking a deep breath, she opened it silently. Just as she closed it, she heard the familiar panting and then bark of Bowie. Annie turned and was greeted by the happy dog jumping up on her front.