Healing A Hero (The Camerons of Tide’s Way #4) (21 page)

Chapter 39

Memorial Day Weekend, 2015

Tide’s Way, North Carolina

ELENA CARRIED HER overnight bag on her shoulder and a box of pastries from her favorite bakery in one hand. Julie had her gear shoved into a backpack, and carried her tennis racquet with the hopes of getting in one last practice with her father before the big event at school.

As they emerged from the apartment building, Julie gasped and bolted down the steps.

“¡Hay caramba! When did you get the awesome car?”

Impossibly handsome and looking far more relaxed than Elena had seen him lately, Philip leaned against the fender of a cherry-red Chevrolet Camaro convertible with his arms folded across his chest. His expression, shaded by a navy blue Tarheels cap, softened as Julie raced toward him. He opened his arms just as she reached him and returned her enthusiastic hug.

Elena’s heart contracted with a mix of intense envy and thanksgiving. Philip had so easily and wholeheartedly accepted his paternity, and that should make her grateful. It did, but she couldn’t help wishing he would reach out to hug her, too.

“You like it?” Philip answered Julie’s eager question. “I just couldn’t manage the stick shift until your mom got me fixed.”

“It’s the bomb.” Julie danced around the car to view it from all angles. “Can we put the top down?”

Philip glanced toward Elena with his eyebrows raised.
He’s looking for my permission now? He invited Julie for the weekend without even discussing it with me and now he thinks to ask about taking the top down?

She shrugged her assent, still feeling decidedly off balance with the conflicting emotions raging in her brain.

Philip opened the trunk while Julie fidgeted with excitement.

“Is all our stuff going to fit?” Elena gestured to her weekend bag and the box of pastries.

“No sweat,” Philip responded, taking the bag and the box, and tucking both into the well of the trunk. “Yours can go in the back seat with you,” he told Julie, pointing to her backpack.

Julie pouted. “I don’t get to sit up front?” She shot a frown toward Elena, then brightened again as she turned her gaze back to Philip.

Philip laughed and gave her shoulder a pat. “I’d give you that old saw about age before beauty, but your mom’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. She’d win on both counts. So, I’m going to let you two ladies duke it out.” He shut the trunk and moved around to the driver’s door, folded himself inside, and fiddled with something above his head while Elena’s heart dealt with the unexpected compliment.

The top lifted and folded toward the back as the windows descended.

“Please? Can I sit up front, Mom?” Julie begged.

A stab of envy struck again. Elena had never felt this tug of warring emotions with Eli. But then, her relationship with Eli had been very different. She’d been more certain of herself, at least until he’d begun to cheat on her. But jealous of Julie? That was new. Unsettling. And not very flattering.

She swallowed her chagrin, folded the passenger seat forward and climbed into the back. She shoved Julie’s backpack across the seat and settled in.

Philip glanced over his shoulder and gave her a brief smile. “Comfortable? There’s not much legroom back there.”

“I’m good,” Elena answered, not quite meeting his gaze. Being short had at least some advantages.

Philip winked and Elena’s heart did a somersault. Then he turned his attention forward and started the engine. “Buckle up and take your hat off unless you want to lose it.”

Julie grabbed the ball hat with Mickey on the front and yanked it off her head. “That go for you, too? Traitor!” She tweaked the brim of Philip’s hat, knocking it off into the back seat. “I thought you were a Padres fan?”

“We’re in Tarheel country, now. My brothers would give me grief if I wore anything else.” He rolled his eyes. “Are you ladies in a hurry to get to Tide’s Way, or would you rather go the scenic route?”

“The scenic route,” Julie answered before Elena could voice an opinion.

Philip gave her a brief salute and turned at the corner to head in the direction of Topsail Beach.

A perfect day for a drive in a sporty convertible. Julie’s long dark hair blew in tangled confusion while her face exuded enjoyment. She gazed at the beautiful homes and peered eagerly down side streets to catch glimpses of the ocean. When they finally turned inland, she gazed at her father instead. She seemed to be studying his face as they chatted, and she smiled more often than she had since they’d moved east. Whether it was the company or the exuberance of a ride in a convertible, Elena couldn’t guess.

They might be similar in appearance, but the contrast between Eli and Philip, their lives and personalities, couldn’t have been sharper. Eli had the build of a runner. Philip was all solid muscle, but both were of above-average height. Eli’s eyes weren’t quite as blue, nor his hair as fair, but they still might have made people wonder if they were related. On their philosophy and life choices however, they were a world apart.

Eli was a pacifist, Philip a warrior. Eli was an only child, overprotected and spoiled, while Philip, the oldest of five, had spent his entire life, even as a boy, taking on responsibility. Eli spent so much of his time either reading or writing novels that he often lost sight of current events and real life. Philip loved to read, but he was totally grounded in the here and now. Elena wondered how the two men measured up in Julie’s eyes.

Julie had always adored Eli, but in the short time she’d known Philip, she appeared equally captivated by him. With a start, it occurred to Elena that Julie had spent a lot more time on the phone with Philip in the last two weeks than she’d spent talking to Eli. And that was on top of the hours she spent with him, both on the tennis court and going out for pizza.

Now that circumstance, in the form of that box of old stuff Eli had handed over to Julie, had finally brought the truth out, Julie seemed far more resigned to their move to the east coast. After her initial shock, Julie had accepted Philip’s presence in her life with far more grace than Elena ever would have expected. Maybe it was a good thing that the information had come without being attached to an announcement of a relationship between Philip and Elena.

If there ever had been a relationship between them beyond the physical.

Philip’s guarded behavior over the past few weeks filled her with doubt. One moment, she was sure he would never forgive her. The next he would say or do something to give her a glimmer of hope. But, except for that brief kiss at the end of his last physical therapy appointment, he had not touched her, nor seemed to want to. There had been no heated gazes, no electric sparks of desire when they happened to be close. The possibility that there might never be anything more than this distant feeling of friendship stabbed at her heart with painful, almost breathtaking intensity.

By the time they finally crossed the bridge to the small barrier island that Philip’s parents lived on, Elena’s nerves were frayed, and what little confidence she’d mustered up for this confrontation with his parents had almost disappeared.

A few minutes and several qualms later, Philip pulled into a driveway packed with vehicles. A Ram pickup truck, scuffed and burdened with toolboxes, the familiar blue Buick, an ancient minivan, another pickup truck with a logo featuring the head of a handsome German Shepherd, and a North Carolina State Highway Patrol car. Should have just been the Ram and the Buick. The crowded driveway meant all of Philip’s brothers were here, too. Elena’s heart surged into panic mode.

Julie unfolded herself from the car and surveyed the clutter of vehicles, then looked up at the house. Usually outgoing and comfortable meeting new faces, she suddenly seemed as nervous as Elena felt.

Elena climbed out of the low-slung sports car and faced Philip across the roof. The scent of the ocean permeated the air and a slight breeze tangled in her hair, but that just triggered old memories. Memories that left her slightly breathless. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and caught Philip’s gaze.

“You said this was just a visit for Julie to meet her grandparents.”

“That’s what I thought it was.” The look in Philip’s eyes was a mix of chagrin and apology. “I forgot about the annual Memorial Day gathering.”

Philip’s mother appeared on the deck above them, surrounded by dogs of all sizes and descriptions, and with a wide, welcoming smile on her face. “I wondered when you’all’d get here.” She hurried down the stairs with an eager Lab and an officious Scotty at her heels.

Philip enveloped his mother in a hug that lifted her clear off the ground. The big black dog circled them, his tail slapping at Philip’s legs while the Scotty woofed softly. Philip whispered in his mother’s ear as he set her down, and she shrugged with a look of complacent triumph on her face. Then she turned to Julie who stood shyly in Philip’s shadow.

“And you’re Julie. My gosh, I’d know you anywhere.” She swept Julie into her embrace. When she finally let go and stood back with her hands still gripping Julie’s shoulders, there were tears on her cheeks. She looked at her son for a moment, then turned toward Elena. Elena expected to see condemnation in her expression.

But she was wrong.

“One day, you will tell me everything, but not until you’re ready,” Sandy Cameron said as she pulled Elena into a group hug with Julie.

Tears prickled in Elena’s eyes. All the things this woman might have done, or the things she might have said and had every right to do or say, and instead, she’d hugged her as if Elena was already a cherished part of the family.

“I’m so glad you came,” Philip’s mother said, releasing Julie and Elena. She brushed the tears off her face and smiled. “Y’all come right on up, now. Philip, you get their things. Your father has been on the edge of his seat, waiting for you to get here.” She grabbed both Julie and Elena’s hands and towed them toward the stairs. No mention of the rest of Philip’s family who were obviously also here and waiting to meet Julie.

Nathan Cameron and three more dogs met them at the top. With a smile twinkling in his blue eyes and a dimple puckering his right cheek, Philip’s father looked so much like his son and granddaughter, it caught Elena by surprise. The alikeness tore at her heart all over again when she glanced at her daughter’s face and considered how many years she had denied Julie the knowledge of these people. Her family. Her birthright.

Her grandfather kissed Julie on the forehead, then hugged her. “Call me Gramps. Please.” He cupped her chin in his hand. “Another beautiful granddaughter . . . how lucky can one man get?”

Then he turned toward Elena. She started to offer him her hand, but he scooped her into a bear-hug of an embrace. “You can call me anything you like except late for dinner.” He laughed as he set her free. “But Cam is probably easier.”

He half turned and pulled a petite, blond teenager forward. “This is Ava. She’s been almost as antsy as me.” Ava was Philip’s youngest brother’s daughter, and she’d been two that long ago summer, which made her sixteen now, almost three years older than Julie.

“Oh my God! You can’t begin to guess how glad I am to meet you.” Ava air-kissed Julie with a bright sparkle in her brown eyes. “Someone else my own age at these family powwows! I hope you don’t mind sharing a room with me. Otherwise I get to bunk in with the kiddos.”

“Cool,” Julie responded, her earlier trepidation quickly melting away.

Philip arrived with two overnight bags over his shoulder and the dogs on his heels, Julie’s backpack in one hand, and the box of pastries in the other. Julie reached for her backpack and let Ava tow her off toward the door. Elena slid her bag off Philip’s shoulder.

“I told you they’d be glad to see you,” Philip whispered in Elena’s ear. He gave her hand a squeeze, then let go.

“Put that box in the kitchen,” Sandy Cameron directed her husband. “I’ll get our girls settled while you catch up with Philip.” She led the way inside and turned to ascend a wide set of shallow stairs leading to a balcony that looked down over the family area. At the top of the stairs, she gestured to several doors that all opened off to the left.

“I’ve put you in Philip’s room.”

“But where will Philip stay?” Elena protested. She’d assumed she and Julie would share a room. She hadn’t considered the possibility that she would be sleeping in Philip’s bed where there were dozens of memories to haunt her.

“He gets to bunk with the boys. If he’s lucky, they’ll be asleep by the time he goes to bed.” Sandy laughed happily and led the way to a room Elena remembered all too well.

Philip’s mom was obviously comfortable having her house packed to the eaves with family, and reveled in the confusion and noise. Elena couldn’t tear her anxious thoughts away from all the introductions. The questions and frowns of disappointment and disapproval.

“We’ve been waiting lunch on you,” Sandy said turning back to the stairs and starting down. “But we’re not starving so take your time.”

A jumble of memories surged through Elena’s heart as she stepped over the threshold of the room Philip had grown up in. Memories of falling in love with Philip here in this space. Memories of standing on the deck just beyond the sliding doors, kissing in the moonlight, and, come morning, sitting with Philip’s back to the wall and her tucked between his bent knees watching the sun come up. Making love in his bed.

“You okay, Mom?” Julie stuck her head into the room.

Elena shook off the vivid, poignant memories and plastered a smile on her face. She felt so off-kilter. “I’m good. You go on down. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Julie’s head disappeared and a moment later came the distinct sound of two young girls galloping down the stairs.

Elena had been uncertain how this weekend would go to start with. Now she was totally adrift. She was afraid to hope, yet unable not to. Whatever her sins of the past, it appeared Philip’s parents were not going to condemn her for them. But would Philip forgive her as easily? And even if he did, was she ready to entrust her heart to him whatever his future held?