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As Paige led the way upstairs, then toward the bedroom at the end of the hall, Cameron trailed behind her. He followed her almost soundlessly. Once she’d laid Emma down on the small twin bed, she began to rub her back and sing to her. It was the same song every night, the one her own mother had sung to her. Cameron stood off to the side, quietly taking it all in. His expression was thoughtful, reverent almost.
“Good night, little one,” Paige crooned as she pulled the quilt over Emma’s body and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She turned off the lamp sitting on the bedside table and made sure Emma’s favorite night-light was lit up. Sleeping in a strange house might result in a middle-of-the-night awakening. If so, Paige would hear any cries or babbling on the baby monitor she’d placed nearby.
When she turned around to tiptoe out of the room, she noticed that Cameron was gone.
* * *
Watching Paige put their daughter to sleep had been a gut-wrenching experience for him. His daughter was achingly beautiful. And innocent. She’d looked so small and defenseless nestled up under her covers. A protective feeling had risen up inside him, one that shocked him by its ferocity. The earth-shattering knowledge that she belonged to him had ricocheted through him like a bullet. He knew from this moment forward he would fight all her battles and make sure everything was right in her world.
His little girl. He’d never imagined bringing a child into the world as a single, unmarried man. The dream had always been to stand at the altar and exchange vows with Paige before God and all their family and friends. It didn’t sit well with him that the Cameron of two years ago hadn’t been connected with his God or his faith. And he’d made mistakes in his relationship with Paige that he deeply regretted, although something told him he would never regret being a father to his precious little girl. He’d turned his life over to God two years ago when everything in his world had gone up in flames. His life was now firmly rooted in his faith with every step he took. Nothing could shake it.
And even though he harbored regrets about his poor choices, he knew that the Lord had a plan for him and sweet Emma.
Emma Prescott. He let out a groan. For all he knew, Paige had given her the last name of Reynolds. He let out a snort. That would go over like a lead balloon in this town.
How could something so delicate and wondrous and perfect have come from him? And how could Paige have hidden something so monumental? Hadn’t she owed him the truth? Lord, please help me make sense of this deception. I feel like I’ve been betrayed all over again.
A myriad of emotions had flooded him when he’d watched Emma drift off into slumber. Joy. Wonder. And resting right on the surface...a righteous anger at Paige for keeping his daughter’s existence a secret. Fury had been stoking inside him like a slow-burning fire. He’d left Emma’s bedroom rather than run the risk of saying something negative to Paige in front of Emma. Try as he might to calm himself down, the questions continued to whirl all around him.
As he gazed out of the huge bay window in the living room, he found himself taking solace in the stunning vista that stretched out as far as the eye could see. The onyx sky was scattered with twinkling stars, while snow-dotted mountains loomed in the distance. If it had been light outside, he might even have been able to catch a glimpse of Deer Run Lake or Nottingham Woods.
Paige’s footsteps echoed behind him. He turned around to face her, making sure to breathe in and out to calm himself. Tension crackled in the air between them.
She reached out and gently touched his arm, causing shivers of awareness to trickle straight through him. “Are you all right? I know everything must be coming at you like a freight train. Finding out you’re a dad is going to take some getting used to, I imagine.”
He r
an a hand over his face. “I’m still in shock, I think,” Cameron said. “I can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that I’m somebody’s father.”
Tears shimmered in Paige’s eyes. “She’s wonderful, Cam. I know I’m biased, but she’ll wrap you right around her finger in no time at all.”
Paige’s words were tantamount to poking a grizzly with a stick. He didn’t want to hear about how magnificent Emma was when he’d missed out on the first year of her life. He should have had the opportunity to experience it himself rather than hear it secondhand from Paige.
“I wish you’d—” He stopped himself, feeling frustrated by his inability to find the right words to express himself without finger-pointing or rage. He let out a strangled sound.
“Reached out to you and told you about Emma?” Paige asked in a low voice.
He frowned at her. “Why’d you do it? Was it some sort of payback for the town wanting to prosecute your father? Was it your turn to turn the tables on me because I wasn’t in your corner?”
Paige shook her head. Her eyes narrowed. “None of those reasons. It wasn’t based on spite or meanness or a desire to lash out at anyone. If you remember correctly, I didn’t leave Love of my own accord. I was thrown out of this town like yesterday’s garbage. Not a single person here wanted to hear what I had to say about the stolen money, nor did anyone consider how it must have felt to be standing in my shoes. I was the town pariah. So when I found out I was pregnant with Emma after leaving here, the very last thing I ever wanted to do was come back to this town.”
“Or to me?” The reality of it wounded him. Things had been so bad between them she’d chosen to raise Emma alone rather than share the experience with him. That knowledge shattered him.
Paige’s mouth hardened. “That wasn’t an option. You made that quite clear when you turned your back on me. If I remember correctly, you told me to leave town, said there wasn’t anything for me in Love.”
“I turned my back on you?” Cameron asked, feeling incredulous at Paige’s spin on things. “You knew where your father went when he left town with all our money and you refused to tell me or anybody else,” he protested. “You protected him!”
Paige angrily brushed away tears. “I didn’t know his whereabouts until much later. He was my father. No matter what you thought of him, he was my only living parent. And I didn’t know for certain where he’d gone or what he’d done. He fled town without saying a word to me. I had my suspicions, but no facts. And this town wanted blood. When they couldn’t produce my father, they went after me.”
Cameron winced inwardly as memories from those terrible days washed over him. He’d been so outraged and jaded and shocked by Robert’s duplicity that he’d been numb to Paige’s pain. It had been an impossible situation. And he still didn’t know how much or how little Paige had known about her father’s scam. For some reason it had been easier to believe that she too had betrayed him, even though he had always known Paige to be an honorable woman.
“Tensions ran high. I’ll admit that,” Cameron said. “People were hurt and devastated and furious. But no matter what went down between the two of us, you owed me the truth about Emma. I had a right to know she was part of this world.”
“That’s one of the main reasons why I’m here, Cameron. Losing my father made me realize that I have no right to keep you from knowing your daughter. Because warts and all, I adored my father. I’m thankful he was in my life. And I want you to have the chance of having the same relationship with Emma.”
He was trying not to lose his temper, but hearing her talk about the man who’d nearly bankrupted Love grated on his nerves. He didn’t want to hear about her great love for her father when he’d missed fourteen months of his daughter’s life. Not when Robert had hurt the people Cameron cared about most in this world and taught him a brutal lesson about betrayal.
“I can appreciate that, but don’t expect anyone else in town to echo those sentiments. Your father was a thief and a liar. He deceived this entire town. And now, because of him, I lost out on moments with Emma that I’ll never get back. The moment she started crawling. Her first steps. Her first word.”
