Lover's Leap (6 page)

He snorted derisively. “I could possibly buy that you never saw the first one. I sent it regular mail, although it did have a return address. The rest of them I sent by registered mail to the Trading Post. You signed for them.”

“What?” Sarah’s jaw gaped. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d never signed for any registered letters from Australia. That’s not something a girl forgot. But if he sent them and someone signed for them, that meant someone had intercepted her mail.

“After three years of trying, I threw in the towel, but I did leave the bank account open. I continued to add to it. The money is still sitting there, collecting interest.”

He spoke with such sincerity that she had to believe him. Besides, it would be easy enough to check. Letters. Checks. What had happened to them? Who had intercepted them? Mail tampering was a federal offense!

Even as she asked herself the questions, movement beyond the gazebo caught her attention. Nic Callahan approached at a run, her face wreathed with worry. Sarah’s stomach sank. She called out, “Nic?”

“Sarah. Thank goodness I found you. We’ve been looking everywhere. April called. Your mom fell. She’s at the clinic.”

“Oh, no. How bad is it?” she asked, stepping toward the gazebo’s exit.

“I don’t know.”

Nic’s gaze slid past Sarah’s to Cam. Sarah glanced over her shoulder. “I have to go. This conversation isn’t over.”

“I hope she’s all right, Sarah,” Cam solemnly replied.

Me, too. Dear Lord in heaven, me, too
.

Sarah took off running, leaving all thought of missing letters and Cameron Daniel Murphy behind.

FIVE

After Cam watched Sarah dash away without a word to him, he turned a wary look toward Nic Sullivan. Blond, blue-eyed, and still beautiful, he thought. Once upon a time, she had been one of his few friends in town. However, she’d been Sarah’s
best
friend, and based on the disapproving frown she turned his way now, he knew she rooted for the home team still today.

“Well, look what the mountain cat dragged in.” She wrinkled her freckle-dusted nose. “You always did know how to get people’s attention.”

“Hello, Nicole.”

“I don’t know whether to hug you or give you a roundhouse to the chin.”

“I take it you heard the news I spilled today?”

“Sarah clued me in a few years ago when she was trying to figure out what to tell Lori.”

“Then I’m surprised that a hug is even a possibility.”

“It’s a slim one. Very slim.”

His gaze trailing after Sarah, Cam wore a troubled frown. “Is her mother seriously injured?”

“Rose—our doctor—didn’t think Ellen broke anything, but she’s ordered X rays to make sure. This is the last thing Sarah needs on her plate right now, especially after you dumped a load of … liverwurst … on it.”

Cam chose to ignore the food reference. “Where’s Sarah’s father?”

A shadow passed over Nic’s face. “He died when Lori was in middle school. Sarah has taken care of the whole family since then—all by herself. It hasn’t been easy. Her mother has Alzheimer’s.”

“That’s too bad.” Ellen Reese had been nice to him. Not so nice that she would have wanted her daughter to date him, but kind. She’d had a gentle soul, and people in town had really liked her. “How bad is it?”

“It’s not end-stage, but I suspect that’s not too far away. Sarah’s doing everything she can to keep her mom home as long as possible.” Nic explained how Sarah’s bakery came to be, adding, “It’s definitely bought them more time together.”

Cam lifted his hand and rubbed the back of his neck. “I sent money to her, Nic. Half a dozen times, years ago. She says she never got it.”

Nic’s eyes widened with surprise. “What?”

“We had just started talking about it when you ran up. She didn’t know about it, did she?”

“No, she didn’t,” Nic replied, sincerity gleaming in her blue eyes. “I’m sure about that.”

Cam thought it through, his anger flaring once again. He paced the gazebo. Someone had done this. To him. To Sarah. To their child. Dammit, he’d tried to do the right thing and someone had purposefully interfered. “Someone intercepted my letters.”

“Wow.” Nic tucked a stray strand of long blond hair behind her ear. “Who would have done that?”

“Her parents, I guess. Who else would it have been? Unless …” He gave her the dates he’d sent the letters. “Was there someone else around at the Trading Post during that time? A new boyfriend, perhaps?”

“I don’t think so, but I wasn’t living in Eternity Springs at the time.”

“I need to find out who the postman was then. Someone forged Sarah’s name, signing for the letters. The postman would have known.”

“Mr. Fain. He was still our mailman. He retired five or six years ago. He would have let her mom or her dad sign for them.”

Nic considered the question some more. “It probably was her parents. Why would they do that? She never told them about you.”

“If they read the letters I sent, she didn’t have to tell them. They learned everything.”

“But why would they have read the first letter to begin with? Sarah was an adult by that time.”

“Who knows? Maybe the first offense was an accident. Maybe they opened all of her mail.” Cam shrugged. “With her father dead and her mother ill, we may never get that answer.”

“Oh, man. I can’t believe this.” Nic looked in the direction where Sarah had disappeared and shook her head. “Okay, I now have the answer to another question.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m definitely not going to punch you.” Nic crossed the gazebo and gave him a hug. “It’s wonderful to see you again, Cam. I missed you.”

With that, a tension deep inside of Cam eased. He returned her embrace and said, “Thank you, Nicole. It’s good to see you again. You look great.”

“Thank you. I’m a happy woman. I have an outstanding husband, spectacular twin daughters who are almost through the terrible twos, and a career I love.”

“I’m glad for you,” he replied, meaning it. “I recall that you wanted to be a veterinarian. So is it Dr. Nic?”

“It is.”

“Congratulations.”

She tilted her head and studied him. “You know, Murphy, contrary to what I was hearing in the streets, you don’t look like the devil incarnate.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he shrugged and remained silent. Amusement brightened Nic’s face, then she glanced at her watch. “I have to get home, but I have a bazillion questions for you. Want to tag along?”

“Sure.” Cam had plenty of questions of his own, and he suspected he’d have better luck getting answers out of Nic than Sarah. First, though, he needed to check on Devin. The boy claimed that he could hold his own against the slings and arrows of Eternity Springs, but under the circumstances, Cam couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Tugging his phone from his pocket, he said, “I need to text my son and let him know where I’ll be.”

“He probably won’t see it right away. When I left Aspen Street, my friend Celeste had taken charge of Nic’s booth so that Devin could head to the school’s baseball diamond for batting practice with another friend, Colt Rafferty. Colt is coaching a summer league, and apparently Devin told him he could hit. Colt will keep him busy for at least another hour.”

Cam thought it sounded like Devin had dealt with any arrows just fine. “The kid does swing a mean bat.”

“You gonna be around awhile? Colt would be thrilled to have another bat for the team.”

“That’s still up in the air.”

While they walked, Nic caught Cam up on the details of her life, including her first marriage and divorce, then her return to Eternity Springs and subsequent second marriage to Gabe Callahan, a landscape architect originally from Texas. They lived in her aunt and uncle’s old house with their daughters and dog. Her aunt, a widow, had retired to Florida along with Nic’s mother a few years back. Cam noted that she took the long route home, avoiding the crowd on Aspen. She also kept the conversation comfortably away from Sarah and Lori. Guess she preferred privacy when she administered the third degree.

As they approached her house, Nic groaned and muttered, “I swear I’m going to kill that man.”

She picked up her pace. Spying what had raised her ire, Cam grinned just as she called out, “Gabe Callahan, I can’t believe you put the girls in a dog crate!”

The tall man, dressed in jeans and a Texas Rangers T-shirt, wore a leather tool belt around his hips. He took off his sunglasses and shot Nic an offended glare. “Hey, I took off their leg chains first.”

He strode over to the wire crate and flipped open the latch. The door swung open. Identical twins crawled out. Barking.

“Oh, for goodness’ sakes,” Nic said.

Gabe folded his arms, arched a brow, and drawled, “They ate half a box of dog treats. Meg likes the red ones the best.”

Nic gave an exaggerated sigh, then picked up one toddler and propped her on a hip. “They really ate dog biscuits?”

“Yep.” Gabe Callahan scooped up the other girl, carrying her like a football. She giggled and kicked her legs while he extended his free hand. “I’m Gabe Callahan. Welcome to the animal-out-of-control facility.”

Cam laughed and shook Gabe’s hand. “Cam Murphy. Nice to meet you.”

“Cam Murphy,” Gabe repeated, his gaze shifting briefly to Nic. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I just bet you have.”

“Cam arrived in town today,” Nic explained. “He and Sarah went off to talk, but I had to chase them down and interrupt things. Ellen fell this afternoon.”

“Oh, no.”

Nic relayed what little she knew about Ellen Reese’s injuries, then added, “I invited Cam to tag along with me. I want to grill him.”

Gabe swung his daughter upright and asked Cam, “Charcoal or gas?”

Nic sniffed. “Real women use charcoal.”

The afternoon played out differently than Cam had expected. For all her talk about bazillions of questions, Nic asked surprisingly few of them. Instead, while he entertained her daughters, she caught him up on local events, gossip, and answers to his queries, which usually began,
Whatever happened to …
The only grilling that took place was to a quartet of rib eyes after Devin called him to ask if he could grab a pizza with some of the Grizzlies—the baseball team—and in anticipation of another dinner guest, a friend of the Callahans’ named Celeste Blessing.

She arrived on a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, wearing white leathers trimmed in gold and a helmet decorated with angels’ wings. She had silver hair, happy blue eyes, and just enough wrinkles on her face to suggest wisdom but not old age. She approached carrying two colorful gift bags.

“You have to stop giving gifts to the girls,” Gabe chided when she drew near. “Between my father, Nic’s mom, and you, they are beginning to think Christmas comes once a week instead of once a year.”

“Wouldn’t that be lovely!” Celeste said, turning a beaming face toward Cam. She extended her hand. “Hello. You must be Cameron. You have certainly set the town abuzz today. I’m Celeste Blessing. Welcome home.”

Welcome home. She was the first person who’d said that to him, and it made him feel a bit strange. Then, as he took her hand for the handshake, the sensation he got was downright disturbing. Warmth. Reassurance. Familiarity.
I’ve met this woman before
. “Um, thank you. Have we met before, Ms. Blessing?”

“Call me Celeste, dear.” She patted his hand and smiled into his eyes, into his heart. Into his soul. “People ask me that all the time. I must have one of those faces. Now, where are my girls? And don’t give me more grief about presents, Gabe Callahan. Today I’m giving them the gift of Serenity.”

She reached into one of the bags and pulled out a little stuffed animal, a fluffy white poodleish dog.

Nic brightened. “Your order finally arrived. It’s taken forever.” Celeste handed the animal to Nic, who added, “Oh, Celeste. They’re so cute.”

“Serenity is part of our Angel’s Rest branding,” Celeste explained to Cam. “She’s our mascot. Your Sarah won the contest to name her, the prize of which was the trip to Australia.”

Cam was so distracted by her use of the words “your Sarah” that he almost missed the import of the rest of her sentence. So he owed this chance to connect with his daughter to a stuffed animal. “Can I buy one? I’d like to have it sent to Lori. Could you do that for me?”

Celeste positively beamed. “Absolutely. She’ll be thrilled.”

Nic’s mouth twisted. “Maybe not, Cam. Sarah probably won’t be thrilled.”

“She will come around.” Celeste patted Cam’s arm. “You’ll see.”

Dinner was enjoyable, served on the Callahans’ patio while the twins played on a plastic jungle gym under their parents’ watchful eyes. The adults talked a little politics, some Major League Baseball, and quite a bit about good fishing spots around Eternity Springs. Celeste drew Cam out about life as a tour operator, and he and Gabe discussed different dives they’d each made in various spots around the globe. Between the good steak, nice wine, and pleasant company, Cam relaxed, so Nic caught him a bit off guard when she served up a pointed comment along with ice cream for dessert. “So what’s the deal with Devin’s mother? Are you married? Divorced? What?”

No one would have missed the accusation in her voice. Before he could frame his response, she added, “You must have hooked up with her the minute you got out of juvie jail, or else Devin looks awfully old for his age. That one’s hard to forgive.”

“Wait a minute.”

She didn’t wait. She was on a roll. “It’s probably the biggest reason Lori wigged out the way she did that day on the wharf, and why she hasn’t come to terms with you being you yet. It’s definitely the biggest hurdle you’ll have to overcome when dealing with Sarah. Think about it, Cam. You rejected her and her baby, then first chance you get, you knock up someone else. Only this time, you keep the kid and raise him!”

Cam jerked back in his chair. He set down his spoon, blinking hard.
Whoa. Is that what they … Yeah. Of course they did
. He grimaced and shook his head. What an idiot he’d been. He’d never gone down that path in his thoughts, but he damn well should have. “They’re girls,” he murmured.

“What?” Nic demanded. “Girls? You have more?”

“No. I said ‘girls’ because Sarah and Lori are girls. Devin and I are guys, and our brains didn’t go in that direction. Nic, I adopted Devin. He came to live with me when he was six years old after his mother died.”

“He’s not your son?” she said.

“He damn sure is my son,” Cam snapped back.

“No, I’m sorry.” Nic shook her head. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Of course he’s your son. What I was processing was that you didn’t get another girl pregnant the minute you got out of juvie.”

Placated, he explained further. “It wasn’t like that with me and his mom. We were friends, never lovers, certainly not married. Elise managed the office for the tour company I worked for before I started my own business. She was a single mom, and the owner allowed her to keep Devin on the premises. He was a cute little kid. He and I got to be buddies. In fact, being around Devin and his mom brought home to me how much wrong I’d done Sarah by bailing on her like I did. They’re why I sent that first letter. When Elise got breast cancer, she asked me to be Devin’s guardian.”