A tight knot had been forming in her stomach all day. For weeks and months she’d planned for this very moment. And somehow it had slipped through her fingers. That only served to heighten the anxiety she felt about the situation. Leaving the Moose Café without telling Cameron the most important reason for her return hadn’t been her intention. The text message she’d received had interrupted them, and due to the pressing matter at hand, she’d had no choice but to table their discussion for another time.
Cameron, you’re a father. How exactly did one just blurt that news out? No matter how many times she had practiced her speech in the mirror, it never came out sounding right. Tears gathered in her eyes. She’d been so wrong about so many things.
If she was being honest with herself, telling Cameron about Emma wasn’t something she’d wanted to do with Hazel within earshot. In her heart she’d wanted to tell him in a private moment shared by just the two of them. And that moment hadn’t presented itself.
Ever since her daughter had come into the world, Paige had made her the number one priority in her life. Now it was time to give Cameron that choice, as well.
As a woman who’d moved toward her faith after becoming a mother, she harbored regrets about not being married to Emma’s father when her daughter was conceived. Her actions hadn’t been consistent with her upbringing or her own moral compass. But in the aftermath of her dad’s massive betrayal, she and Cameron had turned to each other for comfort. Days later she’d fallen under the town’s suspicion and Cameron had distanced himself completely from her. With no other options, she’d left Love and headed back to Seattle. Her life had been in shambles until she’d made the discovery some weeks later that she was pregnant.
Looking back on her life, she realized that what had been missing had been a spiritual base. Even though she had always considered herself a joyful, content person, there hadn’t been anything to anchor her to the world around her. Perhaps if her father had led a more spiritual life, he wouldn’t have been so tempted by financial gain.
Bringing her beloved daughter into the world had given her life meaning. God had given her a foundation on which to stand. With His forgiveness, she had been able to move forward. Praying, attending church and being part of the faith community had all taken center stage. Because of Emma, her relationship with the Lord had strengthened and blossomed. For fourteen months Paige had lived every day with some measure of contentment—all the bitterness and anger she’d been harboring about the past had been soothed because of Emma and her faith.
But being back in Love meant facing up to her truths. Somehow she had to find a way to tell Cameron that he was the father of a baby girl.
Cameron watched helplessly as Paige walked out of the Moose Café and hustled down the street at a fast clip. He drifted toward the window, his gaze trailing after her as she faded from sight. He pressed his eyes closed as the ache of loss swept through him.
Still, after all this time, it hurt to acknowledge that Paige was no longer a part of his life. Getting over her had almost killed him. Yet here she was, back in Love and vowing to make amends. Suddenly everything he’d been trying to forget had come bubbling back to the surface. Pain. Embarrassment. Loss. He didn’t know what to do with all these chaotic feelings roiling around inside him. Even though he’d been trying to stuff down these raw emotions ever since he’d come face-to-face with Paige, they were still riding on the surface.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he was being played again. Hadn’t Paige mentioned returning a portion of the money her father had stolen? If that was true, it could help the community immensely. But he didn’t want to get his hopes up without seeing an actual check in his hands made out to the town of Love, Alaska. He’d already been burned once by Paige and Robert Reynolds.
It was all coming at him too fast now—like an out-of-control train. He pulled out a chair and sank down in it, his shoulders slumped forward as he held his head in his hands. The sound of Hazel’s clunky footsteps heralded her arrival. She bent down and began gathering up the ceramic pieces in a dustpan and wiping up the liquid on the hardwood floor.
She looked up at him. “Are you okay?” Her voice was filled with worry.
“Never better,” he said. Hazel had already seen him at his worst. He couldn’t count the number of times she’d consoled him when he’d broken down over Paige and the financial scandal that had sent shock waves through his hometown. There was no way he was going to burden her with any more of his misery.
She let out an indelicate snort. “You look like you’ve been run over by a truck.”
Cameron shoved his hand through his hair and let out the breath he’d been holding. He stood up from his chair to face her. “I can’t believe this is happening. Paige thinks she can undo the damage she and Robert caused. She thinks she can just stroll into town after all this time and put all the pieces back together.”
“I heard every word she said,” Hazel admitted, rolling her eyes. “She always did have a pie-in-the-sky mentality.”
He frowned at her. “You were eavesdropping?”
Hazel planted her hands on her hips. “It’s called watching out for me and mine. I saw the carnage she caused the first time around. I’m not about to let it happen again. Not on my watch!”
A sigh escaped his lips. “Hazel, I love you dearly, but I’m begging you to stay out of this. And whatever you do, please don’t tell Jasper or Boone that she’s back. I want a little time to digest everything before complete chaos breaks out.”
Hazel quirked her mouth. A sinking feeling landed in the pit of his stomach.
Cameron folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his gaze. “Hazel,” he said in a reproachful tone. “I hope you didn’t—”
The door of the Moose Café burst open with a loud crashing sound. His brother Boone, town sheriff, and his grandfather, Mayor Jasper Prescott, came barreling into his establishment.
“Hey! Didn’t you two read the sign? We’re closed,” Cameron shouted, knowing it was too late to stop the impending hurricane from whirling all around him.
Jasper darted his gaze around the café. “Where is she?”
Cameron crossed his arms again and rocked back on his heels.
“Who are you talking about?”
“You know who I’m talking about. That beautiful blonde trickster you were so enamored of for all those years. Miss Paige Reynolds. Daughter of the most crooked man who ever stepped foot into Love.”
“Jasper! Knock it off! Let’s keep the drama to a minimum,” Boone barked. “Give him an opportunity to talk.”
“I can’t believe she had the nerve to come back here,” Jasper fumed. “Returning like a bad penny!”
“Settle down, Jasper,” Boone said, reaching out and clasping his hand around his arm.
He shrugged off his grandson’s hand. “I won’t settle down. As town mayor, I implore you to arrest her, Sheriff Prescott,” Jasper said in a raised voice.
“There’s no proof that Paige had anything to do with her father’s scam,” Boone explained. “We already went through this dozens of times. There’s no grounds to charge her.”
“There never was,” Cameron said, a slight defensive edge to his voice.
Boone shot him a curious look. Cameron looked away from him. His older brother had a canny ability to see straight through him, right down to the things that mattered most. He couldn’t afford that intense scrutiny right now, not when he was battling old feelings that were rising up in him like a strong tide.
“What about aiding and abetting a criminal?