River Road (River's End Series, #4) (25 page)

“Looks like that’ll work. Maybe you should dab your makeup off? The water will only make it run.”

Cami accepted the hand towel that Kate took from the stove handle and handed to her. She briefly disappeared. Okay, still no words, but she was kind of interacting.

When she came back out clean-scrubbed, Kate wanted to croon how pretty she was, but that was not what Cami wanted to hear. So Kate just nodded and handed her the SPF 50 tube of sunscreen. The poor girl already had faint pink lines on her arms and around her eyes. She rubbed it on while Kate grabbed another towel from Jack and Erin’s laundry room.

Back at the beach, AJ had just finished tying off the inner tube. It bobbed gently in the current with the long span of rope tied securely onto three branches of a tree, anchoring it near the shore. AJ held out a lifejacket. “This okay?”

Cami snagged the lifejacket and snapped it over her chest. “Yeah.”

Kate and AJ exchanged a glance. Between the two of them, it was like climbing to the top of Mt. Everest. They managed to get Cami to join in, and even respond to them! They were both still wary and neither dared to trust her yet. Kate was waiting for Cami to flip off the lifejacket, or take a knife to the inner tube. She shook her head. Cami really wasn’t that extreme, but Kate was still worried how far Cami might take her anger in her vendetta against them.

Cami entered the water. For the first time, a small smile lit up her face. She carefully, awkwardly backed onto the inner tube as she nodded to AJ. “I’m fine.”

He released his grip and she drifted out. Staring hard at the surface for several minutes, Cami finally put her hands under the water and began to paddle around a bit. Then, relaxing in her newfound confidence, she tentatively laid her head back and seemed to be sunbathing.

“Wow, we actually got her to act normal,” Kate muttered to AJ.

He chuckled, watching her floating peacefully. “I can’t imagine if we left her to do her own shopping, what she’d buy to swim in.”

“She’s so tiny. How could she be your daughter? There’s
nothing
tiny about you.” Teasing, Kate elbowed AJ’s chest. AJ rolled his eyes and caught her hand in his but held it longer than he needed to. Her heart did an odd little tumble around her ribcage that it seemed to be doing quite frequently of late. Kate loved these little interactions of flirting and innuendoes. She even loved it when AJ sweetly held her hand. Together, they watched Cami enjoying herself.

Then, Ben noticed her. Kate immediately realized his intent. Ben didn’t realize Cami couldn’t swim, and Kate yelled out, “No!” But it was too late. He dove underwater and easily flipped Cami over when he came up. Cami screamed as she got dumped. It wasn’t a happy scream of fun and playing like Charlie’s and Joey’s were when Ben did that to them. Kate jumped into the water, but AJ was faster. In three strong strokes, he reached Cami, lifting her out of the water in his arms, even though she was wearing a lifejacket. Everyone quit playing around and the shrill screams and laughter stopped all at once. AJ was holding the still shrieking girl in his arms. She was out of her mind with fear as the water dripped off her trembling body.

Kate was close enough to hear AJ trying to soothe her. “It’s okay, Cami, it’s okay. I got you. You’re safe now.”

Cami started to quiet down and AJ walked her across the swimming area to the beach, where he set her down. She was panting in sharp, shallow gasps. There was no doubt she was truly afraid and having a panic attack. Kate got closer to her and undid the snaps of the lifejacket. “Grab a towel,” she said in a calm, matter-of-fact tone. Allison tossed her one. Kate wrapped it around the hysterical girl. She rubbed her arms and dried her off gently with the soft towel.

Ben was dripping water with his face drawn in sorrow. He stood at the edge of the beach.

“Cami, it’s okay, honey. Shh,” Kate said as she kept rubbing her arms. Cami was crying and her face was staring down towards the sand. AJ stood near her, looking miserable at her sorry state. “You were just dunked underwater. Ben didn’t know you couldn’t swim. No one was trying to hurt you,” Kate explained as she tried to soothe the fearful girl.

Hearing his name, Ben came forward. “I’m sorry. I had no idea. I was trying to include you. You know? Because you’re new here. I thought maybe you were feeling shy. I thought I could break the ice, you know, and just wanted you to have fun…”

Cami’s sniffling slowed. Her face stayed down, but her trembling ceased. Then she lifted her face a fraction of an inch and replied, “Really?”

Ben put his hands up and squatted down until he was eye level with her. “I swear. I didn’t know. I was kidding around. You were wearing a lifejacket, so I thought you were just super nervous. I had no idea you were really scared or couldn’t swim.”

“You wanted to include me?” Her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief.

Kate nodded. “He was just horsing around. And no one meant you any harm. They were just trying to include you as part of the fun.”

Cami nodded. Burying her hands in the towel, she dried her forehead as streams of water dripped over her. “It’s okay.”

Kate had no idea if Cami were talking to Ben, Kate or AJ. That she was even talking was pretty huge, and apparently, not being mad at them was even bigger.

Ben put his hand out as if to shake hers. “Truce?”

Cami stared at his hand, then up at his face. There was a spark of interest in Cami’s eyes and Kate’s breath hung on her reaction.
Please
, she wanted to beg her.
Try.
Try to accept the friendship, and the inclusion by this family, this place, this father who wanted to provide for her if only she’d allow it.

Cami put her hand in Ben’s to shake it. “Truce.” It wasn’t a declaration, but it also wasn’t “whatevs.”

Ben smiled and stood up. The rest of the onlookers took it as sign to continue with what they were doing and they all quit staring at her. Cami finally glanced up at AJ and said, “Thanks.”

AJ nodded, squatting near her. “We wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

She glanced at Kate, and Kate smiled, asking, “Why are you looking at me? Do you doubt I wouldn’t?” Kate put her hand out as Ben had. “Truce?”

Kate expected the insolent, intolerant, rude girl to do or say something inappropriate or just go back to
whatevs
, but she put her hand in Kate’s, saying, “Truce.”

Kate smiled. “Good.” Kate continued, “But where you fell in isn’t any deeper than your chest. I think you should get back in now, or you might never want to again. And you just don’t strike me as a girl who refuses a challenge or wusses out. I mean, with hair like this”—she tugged on one dreadlock—“you’re making a bold statement. You got guts. I think you should use them.”

AJ’s gaze whipped up to her. Kate was pushing again, and he opened his mouth to argue, but Kate shook her head just slightly, her eyes wide with warning.

“It’s that shallow?”

“Yes. No one will bother you now. We all realize you can’t swim and there’s the lifejacket, along with AJ, who already proved he can lift you. Look at him. He could probably lift a bull out of deep mud. I mean, look at those muscles. He certainly won’t have any trouble with a little tiny thing like you. Besides, I think all of them would like to swim with you,” she said, waving her hands towards Joey, Ben, Marcy, Jocelyn, and Charlie. All of them were in the water as if obeying an unspoken fiat to continue having fun. They formed a chain of inner tubes by holding the handles of their neighboring tubes, in a circle, their asses in the water, and their legs and arms sprawled atop the round inner tubes.

Cami’s eyes stared with undisguised interest at them. She eyed the pile of different inflatables still on shore. Addressing AJ, she asked, “Would you maybe, you know, hold my inner tube?”

AJ’s chest slowly exhaled. He nodded with an unreadable facial expression, but Kate could see his surprise by his widened eyes and the careful way he held on to Cami’s gaze. “Sure,” he tersely replied. He also knew how to keep it easy and light. The request was huge coming from her, especially towards him.

Kate stood up and fell back onto a beach chair as AJ helped Cami into the water. He was holding the inner tube while she attempted to fall into it like everyone else. She peered down into the shallow water with some terror, but at least she didn’t shriek or start running to shore.

Kate glanced up at Jack, who sat down next to her.

She smiled, and he reciprocated as their gazes looked out over the teens floating away… and AJ.

“She might come around after all.”

“Well, at least, she stopped accusing us of being perverts. So… maybe.”

Jack leaned down, sifting the sand through his fingers. “Any idea what she’s been through?”

“No. Not really.”

“Must be tough.” His gaze traveled to Charlie. “I imagine Charlie being out all alone in the world without me…I can’t stomach it. So much could happen. They are so innocent, and so much could go wrong.”

“I think that’s what happened to AJ.”

Jack nodded. “He told you? About his past?”

“Parts of it. Can I ask? What made you hire him when you didn’t know him except for his criminal history?”

“His sincerity and honesty. He told me right up front about it. First time I met him. Not many ex-cons are that honest. I doubt I would have checked into his background to find out. I respected his honesty and concluded if he’d tell me that, he’d be truthful about everything. And from day one, he’s been faultless.”

“I think part of why I like you is because you gave him a chance.”

Jack smiled. “After you concluded I didn’t beat up my wife?”

“A little before that.”

“You’re not here for me though, are you?”

She sighed. “No. Not fully, I mean.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. He’s a good guy. He just doesn’t seem to realize it.”

“Yes, there is that.”

“Is she a deal breaker?” Jack nodded to the floating pair.

“Cami? I don’t know. I mean… it’s a lot to think of, taking on both of them.”

“But aren’t you already?” Jack pointed out, his tone level and dry.

“I—” Kate couldn’t argue. She had already been handling the two of them. “I have no idea. This summer has turned everything upside-down. I was living in Seattle, running my company, and pretty content, or so I thought. And then my mom died, and I find out I have a sibling, and I come to this place, and now, a man is involved and his estranged daughter, who might hate me, and yet, here I am. I don’t know why I’m still here. I just didn’t think you knew that.”

Jack shrugged. “I got eyes. I saw why you were here. It doesn’t bother me. Strangely enough, after our initial mutual dislike, we seemed to mesh together pretty easily.”

Kate glanced at Jack, a smile lingering on her lips. “We do. Are we that alike? Or just different enough?”

“Erin says we’re alike.”

“Well, shit, I’m sorry for you, Jack. Do you get accused of being hot-tempered, over-reacting, slow to change, often a jerk, and occasionally wonderful?”

He chuckled. “It’s like you were quoting Erin about me.”

“Yeah, me too,” she mumbled with a sigh.

“The house is unoccupied, except for Joey who was traumatized by whatever happened that night involving Cami. I have an idea what went on, but Joey won’t say. He called it ‘inappropriate behavior.’”

“Cami was acting out. She has a lot of anger. Poor Joey is all I’ll say.”

“Have you considered staying permanently?”

“Here?” The shock and surprise competed in her tone. “No, no way. I can’t live here. It’s stupid to talk about. I don’t belong here. I—”

“Not the way I see you. I think you make wherever you are belong to you. Anyway, it’s just a thought.”

“I think part of why I’m staying here is to avoid being in Seattle without my mom.”

Jack nodded. “I can see that. Were you two close?”

“Yup. Like peas and carrots, butter and rice. So close, I had no idea she’d hide such a terrible secret from me.”

Jack stared out at the river. “I can’t pretend to know what she was thinking or doing, but I never missed her. I loved my mom, Donna, who raised me for as long as I can remember. I didn’t know I wasn’t biologically hers until I was ten years old. So, if it’s any consolation, I don’t wish my life were any different.”

“I guess that makes it better. I mean, if she’d abandoned you to a life of misery, it would be impossible to forgive her. It’s just so hard for me to reconcile.”

Jack stretched his legs out. “I’m glad you showed up now. No matter what brought you here.”

“Me too.” She shrugged. “I just wish it didn’t taint the memory of my mother so much.”

Jack was silent for a moment, watching his sons. “I guess you should just look at it as your mother did the best she could. Sounds like she tried to make up for what she couldn’t give me after she had you. Be grateful for that. I was okay, and you and I found each other. So maybe, in death, you can let her rest, Kate. Just love her as you remember her, and we’ll let her rest in peace. You know what I mean? The older I get, the more I understand how imperfect each of us are. We are capable of things that don’t always fit in with what we should do or be. I’m sincerely glad I got to know you, and maybe that’s enough.”