Authors: Emily March
Lori’s and Sarah’s jaws both fell open, then, after the two older women departed for their own picnic quilt, Lori observed, “I guess Celeste’s Redemption Plan really is working.”
Sarah studied him with a measuring look. Sensing that she was about to ask how he’d done her and Nic right, Cam debated his response. When a chorus of hellos interrupted the moment, he sighed inwardly with relief. Now was not the time or the place to tell her about the locker room snapshot.
Nic and Gabe Callahan arrived with a whole gaggle of kids and adults, obviously Gabe’s brothers and their wives, which meant the old man arriving in a golf cart with a Chihuahua on his lap must be the Callahan family patriarch, Branch.
A few minutes later, the Timberlakes arrived with their three adult children. Behind them, Cam spied the Raffertys making their way through the growing crowd. Colt carried folding lawn chairs and a picnic basket. Devin was with them, toting a cooler. Lori spotted them, too, and said, “Wow. Sage has always been pretty, but now she looks gorgeous. Like an earth-mother fairy queen. When is her baby due?”
“Next month,” Sarah replied.
Some of the Callahan children called for Lori to join them throwing a Frisbee. She seemed happy for the escape, especially, Cam deduced, since Devin was about to join them.
Devin’s mouth twisted in a wry smirk as Lori fled, but then he shrugged and greeted Ellen and Sarah politely before plopping down onto the quilt. “I’m exhausted.”
“Are you done for the day?” Cam asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Would you like a soft drink or some peach iced tea?” Sarah offered. “I have cookies, too.”
Devin’s expression lit. “What kind?”
“Ginger and”—Sarah gave Cam a sidelong glance—“sugar cookies.”
They shared a private smile as an oblivious Devin said, “Ginger cookies and peach tea, please.”
Cam glanced toward the Frisbee players and saw Lori frowning in their direction. Stifling a sigh, he said, “Lots of people in town today.”
“I had a great day at Fresh. I sold out forty-five minutes before closing time, and that’s after increasing my usual daily production by a third.”
“Awesome,” Devin said. “I’ll bet you are as tired as I am.”
“I’m happy to sit and rest a bit.”
“I hope you’re not tired, Dad.”
“Why is that?”
“I signed us up for the kayak race.”
“You what?”
“It’s a two-man race. Actually, it’s a couples race—one guy and one girl. It starts in an hour.” He polished off a cookie, then looked over at Lori as he added, “I put us down for two boats. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show the whole town that we are okay together. We can cancel if you guys don’t like the idea.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Sarah said.
“What will she think?” Cam asked, nodding toward Lori.
“Honestly, I think this is right up her alley. Lori loves to compete.”
“She’ll partner with me?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” As Devin helped himself to another cookie, Sarah added, “It depends on which of you two she’s feeling more resentful toward at the moment, which of you she wants to defeat most.”
Cam and Devin shared a look, then Devin grinned. “Two bucks says she wants to be in your boat.”
“I’ll take that bet.”
“Well, let’s have a chin-wag with the Sheila, eh? See what she has to say.” Devin rolled to his feet, picking up his canned drink and yet another cookie, and sauntered toward the Frisbee free-for-all.
FIFTEEN
Lori watched him come. Whereas dealing with Cam left her numb, the very idea of Devin scraped against her brain like shards of broken glass. She understood that her reaction was emotional rather than logical, but she couldn’t help it. He prodded at things deep within her—things like envy and jealousy and resentment. Her feelings toward Cam were justifiable. These things she felt toward Devin were not. It wasn’t his fault that his mother had died and Cam had decided to adopt him. He wasn’t to blame for the fact that he’d had a father around when he was growing up. Just because his last name was Murphy and hers wasn’t didn’t give her a legitimate reason to despise the guy.
But she did. Deep down inside herself, she did. She didn’t like it that she felt this way. She wasn’t happy to be so childish, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
Cam had adopted this boy, but she’d never rated so much as a phone call. Okay, so he’d tried to send money, but he hadn’t tried too hard, had he? He’d given up. He hadn’t wanted her bad enough to keep trying—and now she had a full-blown case of sibling rivalry going on.
How stupid is that?
Devin walked up to her and shot her a cocky grin. “Hello again, Lori. I’m here to challenge you to a race.”
“A race?” She frowned. “What kind of race?”
He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket and handed it over without comment. Lori scanned the page. The kayak race. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. I’ve already entered us.” He put his hands on his hips, rocked back on his heels, and lifted his chin. “Whose ass do you want to whip more, Sis? Me or Dad?”
She narrowed her eyes and literally bit her tongue to keep from saying
Don’t call me Sis
. She needed to talk to him, but she did not want to do it within the line of sight of her mother and Cam. “I need to get something out of Mom’s car. Want to walk with me?”
“It’s not a baseball bat, is it?” He scratched a nonexistent beard. “You know, to beat me over the head with?”
“Very funny.” The Frisbee came her way once more, and she tossed it to a Callahan kid, then called, “I’m out!”
Lori felt her mother’s questioning gaze on her as she led Devin away from the picnic area, but she refused to look. At this particular moment, she acted on instinct alone. She sensed she needed to deal with Devin on her own.
When they arrived at the parking lot, he abruptly stopped. “Did you really leave something in the car?”
“No. I didn’t want to talk in front of everybody.”
“That’s what I figured.” The teenager leaned against the back hatch of a shiny new car and folded his arms. “I’m glad, because I feel the same way. I want to talk about something, and I’d just as soon not do it in front of the world.”
Warily, she asked, “You’re not going to try to sell me drugs, are you?”
Hurt flashed across Devin’s face, then settled into a scowl. He spoke with an edge in his voice. “I’m trying to apologize, okay? I wasn’t selling drugs. I was trying to help a friend.”
“Oh, so you were buying?” she asked, knowing she was being a snot but not able to stop herself.
“No!” He gave her a brief summary of what had transpired, ending with, “I screwed up, and so I messed up the big meet between you and Dad. He went to a lot of work to make it nice and everything. He wanted you both to have the perfect opportunity to say everything that you needed to say, and I went and screwed it up so that instead of having your talk at our friend Jack’s mountain mansion, you had it in a cemetery.”
“You know Jack Davenport?”
“Yeah. He’s kind of a cousin of my dad’s. He’s visited us a bunch.”
“I see.” A wave of jealousy rolled through her. She set her teeth and fought it back.
“The whole cemetery thing sucks, and it’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I told Dad, but I wanted to tell you, too.”
He told Dad. Dad
. Bitterness bubbled up and spilled out before she could stop it. “I am jealous of you, and that makes me crazy. It’s stupid for me to feel that way. I don’t care that he adopted you. I don’t care about him.”
“In that case, you’re stupid, too,” Devin shot back, his eyes flashing with righteous anger. “People make mistakes, you know. Nobody is perfect. You don’t have to look any further than your gramma to prove that.”
“Hey, don’t you talk about my grandmother.”
“She interfered. She stole ten years—”
“Stop it!” she demanded, even as, deep down, she acknowledged the truth and it hurt. Yet family loyalty made her defend her grandmother. “Don’t you talk about her.”
Devin drew a deep breath and tried again. “Fine. I’ll talk about Dad. He’s a great dad. I’m so lucky to have him, and you are, too, even if you’re too pigheaded to admit it. He tried to do the right thing, you know. What if he
had
turned out to be like his father? You should see the scars Brian Murphy left on his back. If Dad turned out like his father, you’d have been glad he cut your mother loose.”
Scars?
Lori’s chest felt tight. He’d said his father hit him, but he’d never mentioned scars. Angry tears stung her eyes. “The capacity for cruelty isn’t genetic.”
“Maybe not, but people repeat what they’re taught. Cam is a good man, Lori. He’s been a great father to me, and he wants to be that for you, too.”
“Too bad. You’re wasting time trying to pull my heartstrings.”
“Cause you don’t have a heart?”
No, because Cam bailed. He left. He chose to live elsewhere. He chose you!
She gave her head a toss. “I don’t need him.”
Devin sneered with disgust. “Then you’re an idiot. Do you know what I’d give to be in your shoes? My parents are dead, Lori. Dead! My mom can’t bake me ginger cookies and blueberry pies. I love Cam. I really do. But do you know what I would give if my real dad could show up out of the blue and buy me a freaking car? You’re throwing away a chance I’ll never have.”
Shame washed through Lori. He’d been an orphan. That had always been one of her greatest fears. She used to imagine what would happen to her if her mother died. Who would care for her? Who would … buy her a car? “What? What did you say? A car?”
Devin winced, then started babbling. “He’s sacrificed a lot to come to the States to meet you. He’ll say that the tour operation gets along fine without him, but that’s not mentioning all the hours he puts in on the phone in the middle of the night. He’s been working his ass off and missing sleep in order to hang around Eternity Springs until you decide to stop being a twit and talk to him.”
Lori waved her hand. “Wait. Stop. Did you say … Did you mean … Devin, did Cam Murphy buy me a car?”
The man himself responded: “I did.”
Lori turned to see Cam striding toward her from the trees. Her mother was with him, but she’d stopped walking. Her mouth gaped open, and her eyes were round with shock. Guess she hadn’t known about the car, either.
“Oh, great,” Devin muttered. “Another day, another screw up.”
Cam’s steady, hopeful gaze never left Lori’s face. He offered a hesitant smile. “Your mother mentioned that she worried about the high mileage on the car you drove. Nobody wants to see you breaking down on the highway in the Texas panhandle on your way back to school.”
“You bought her a car!” Sarah exclaimed. “Without bothering to mention it to me?”
At that, he finally tugged his stare from Lori and gave Sarah a sheepish look. “There hasn’t been a good time.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sarah said, starting forward.
Soon the four of them stood together behind the car where Devin originally had stopped, the car where Cam had been standing when they arrived for the picnic, Lori realized. “Oh, wow.”
It wasn’t just a car. It was a
new
car. A too-cute crossover with dealer tags on the back. A hot-off-the-dealer’s-lot car. With a sunroof!
Cam folded his arms. “I hope you like it. Choices were limited, since I wanted to have it here for you this weekend. This model ranks high on safety and is equipped for mountain driving. The salesman told me that this kind of crossover between a car and an SUV is popular with young women your age.”
“Wait just a minute,” Sarah warned. She braced her hands on her hips. “I think I’m angry about this. You should have discussed it with me, Cam.”
“You’re right.” He shrugged boyishly. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
Sarah arched her brows. “And you figured it was easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
Lori watched the exchange between Cam and her mother and frowned. Something was weird. Mom acted way too … comfortable with the man. It was almost as if she … liked him.
Excuse me? Whoa. No
. Emotion rolled through Lori.
Uh-uh
. She had to be misreading the looks. Her mother wouldn’t do that. She’d been angry at Cam Murphy for two decades. He couldn’t change all that in two weeks.
Could he?
She’s probably just shocked about the car. No one’s ever tried to make things easier for us this way. Surely she’s just stunned
.
“What is this going to do to my insurance?” Sarah groaned. “We only carry liability on Lori’s car.”
“I’ll pick up the insurance, too,” Cam assured her. “I want to do more for my daughter. I should do more for her.”
“You can’t buy me.” Lori tore her gaze away from the car and met Cam’s stare. “I won’t like you any more or any less if you give me things.”
“I never expected that you would,” Cam replied, his tone matter-of-fact. “I will admit that I did hope that the car might soften you up toward me a bit, but I never anticipated I’d be able to buy your affection. From what everyone has told me, you have too much integrity for that.”
Okay, well, good
. Lori stood a little straighter.
Cam continued, “To be perfectly honest, I bought the car as much for myself as for you.”
“How’s that?”
“I want you to be as safe as possible at all times, but especially when you’re on the road. Knowing you are driving a reliable car will help me sleep at night.”
Wow
, Lori thought. That sounded just like something her mother would say. Like something a parent would say.
Like something a father would say.
Her heart cracked, just a little, but Lori recognized it and resisted, attempting to shore up her defenses. As an adult she knew she should accept his gesture and open her heart to the possibility of someday allowing him inside. But Lori the child still existed, and Lori the child nursed a fierce anger toward Cameron Daniel Murphy.
“Any other surprises I should know about, Cam?” her mother asked.
Sheepishly, he asked, “You mean gifts?”
“Yes.”
“I brought a couple of things for her from Australia.”
Sarah frowned the Mom frown. “Expensive gifts?”
“No.” Sarah obviously didn’t believe him, and he added, “Not when you consider that I have lots of birthdays and Christmases to make up for.”
“I don’t want any gifts,” Lori declared even as she stole one more look at the car and wondered what the other gifts were.
How could he top a car?
Sadness dimmed his eyes, and once again, Lori felt ashamed. “All right, Lori. I won’t try to force gifts on you. The car shouldn’t be counted in that category. The car is basic support.” He looked at Sarah as he added, “I’ll bet your mother will agree.”
Sarah slowly nodded. “Cam is right, Lori. I worry myself sick when you’re on the road. Knowing you’re in a safe, reliable car will make my life easier.”
“So you want us to keep it?”
“I do.”
Cam pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “Want to take it for a spin?”
Excitement sizzled through her.
A car
. Her own brand-new, totally awesome automobile. Heck yeah, she wanted to take it for a spin. She opened the door and caught a whiff of that awesome new-car smell. From the side of her eyes, she saw Devin glance at the race flyer that she continued to hold in her hand.
Lori opened her mouth and surprised herself by saying, “I do want to take it for a spin, thank you. I’ll go right after the kayak races. Right after …” She waited until she caught Devin’s attention, then offered a sisterly gesture by sticking her tongue out at him and finished, “Right after we whip baby brother’s butt at the boat race.”
Cam went still. “You’re in my boat? With me?”
“Well, you do run a dive operation, right? So theoretically, you’re good with a boat. I like to win.” Lori gave a little shrug. “It’s a start.”
Cam Murphy beamed as if he’d just won the America’s Cup.
“C’mon, Sarah,” Devin urged. “Dig. They’re pulling away.”
“I’m digging, I’m digging.” Sarah frowned as Cam’s back shot over her shoulder, then got momentarily distracted by the sight of his muscles working to propel the kayak across Hummingbird Lake.
Yum
.
“Dig harder.”
“My arms are too short.”
“My mistake for letting Lori choose,” the teen grumbled. “I should have guessed she’d stick me with the runt.”
“Hey, I have muscles. Baking bread for a living does that for a girl.” Sarah attempted to toss a glare over her shoulder, but the good-natured glimmer she spied in his eyes made her smile instead.