Falling For Zoe (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1)

by Skye Taylor

  “Is that when it happened?” Ava glanced at Zoe’s belly, then back to her face.

  Zoe looked away from the assessing, questioning eyes. It hadn’t happened then. Not until weeks after that disappointing weekend. But how could she tell this young girl about those other nights she had let Porter follow her to her bedroom, take his pleasure, then leave her to stare into the dark, feeling used and empty? How could she admit to being such a total fool for thinking Porter loved her and that one day she would learn how to love him back?

  “I was careless and stupid.” Zoe avoided answering the question.

  “Why stupid? You’re old enough to get married and have a family.”

  “I know. And I would have married Porter if he’d asked. But he didn’t. When I told him about the baby, he got upset and insisted I get an abortion. Then, when I refused, he said he wanted nothing more to do with me, or the baby, and if I tried to insist it was his, he’d sue me for entrapment or something along those lines.”

  Ava gasped, her eyes widening in outrage. “What a bastard!”

  Zoe nodded. “Yeah, he’s that. But he’s a boring one so I’m better off without him messing up my life any more than he already has. I guess I should have told you about the baby the day we went shopping, but . . .”

  “Are you happy about it? The baby, I mean?”

  “I am now. Actually, I’m kind of excited about it now that I’m used to the idea.”

  The frown lifted from Ava’s brow. “Then I’m happy for you.”

  Unconsciously, Zoe curled her hand about the firm little mound of her growing uterus. Her mind flitted back over the last few months and the myriad feelings this pregnancy had filled her with. First dread, then panic, and finally acceptance. And with acceptance, once she’d stood up to both Porter and her father, had come happiness.

  “Can you feel it moving yet?” Ava glanced toward Zoe’s middle, her eyes alight with interest.

  “For a few weeks now. Just a little flutter. Like a butterfly.” And that sign of life had blossomed instantly into a love like Zoe had never expected or felt before.

  “Is it moving now?” Ava’s glance was more pointed and less self-conscious this time.

  “No, not at the moment. I guess she’s sleeping.”

  “Wow, so you already know it’s going to be a girl. Do you have a name?”

  “Molly Ann.”

  “Molly Ann,” Ava repeated softly. “So, what did your father say? Was he really angry with you? For—for getting pregnant, I mean? He must be totally pissed at Porter.”

  Zoe’s pleasant moment of shared wonder jerked to a halt. Jake thought she was a good influence for his daughter, but that was about to come to a screaming stop. How could an unwed mother possibly be considered a proper role model for a teenager on the verge of exploring her own sexuality? Jake would probably ban her from his daughter’s life all together. Just when she’d begun to feel like the Cameron family was becoming friends she’d enjoy for a lifetime.

  “I didn’t tell my father what Porter said. I didn’t think it was fair to Porter to get fired over it. I mean, the whole thing is more my fault than his, and—”

  “That’s a load of crap!” Ava leapt to her feet and paced toward the door, then back. “You didn’t get pregnant by yourself. He should get fired at the very least! Especially for the way he treated you!”

  “But Porter never once mentioned marriage, and I knew he wasn’t keen about kids. I should never have slept with him at all. It’s my mess, and I have to live with it.” Might as well be totally honest. Make sure Ava got the message that safe sex was the woman’s responsibility, regardless of the circumstances. And that abstinence was even wiser. “Bottom line, it’s my responsibility.”

  “Is your father good with that?”

  “He thinks I should give the baby up for adoption.”

  “But you can’t do that!”

  “No. I can’t.” Zoe covered her stomach with both hands. “I could never do that.”

  “Can I be like”—Ava paused, pursed her lips, and then rushed on—“like an honorary aunt? Or something?” She reached out and grasped Zoe’s hands and squeezed. “I feel like we’re sort of like sisters. You know? So, that would make me sort of like an aunt. Right?”

  Zoe hesitated, thinking of Jake’s reaction, but then saw the first hint of disappointment in Ava’s eyes. Ava felt rejected by her own mother, and Zoe wasn’t going to let her feel rejected again. Not if she could help it. She returned the pressure of Ava’s hands firmly.

  “Oh, Ava! That would be so much fun. I love having you for a friend, and a woman can never have enough sisters. Molly will be so lucky to have an honorary aunt living right next door. As long as it’s okay with your father.”

  WOULD JAKE BE okay with it? Zoe wouldn’t blame him if he wasn’t enthusiastic about his very impressionable teenage daughter hanging out with an unwed mother-to-be. Zoe wasn’t exactly the kind of role model a conscientious father would choose for a girl he was having a hard enough time just acknowledging was becoming a young woman. Zoe would understand if he did his best to discourage it. But it would hurt.

  She stood in the dark, gazing out her bedroom window at Jake’s house, wishing she’d told Jake about her pregnancy earlier instead of trying so hard to hide it. All the reasons she’d had for not wanting him to find out before seemed stupid now. After all, they were just friends, so why should it matter to him personally if she was pregnant?

  But as friends, she should have been the one to tell him, not Ava. Wearing oversized shirts and not saying something when she’d had the chance seemed so dumb in retrospect, because she’d known he’d find out eventually. She couldn’t hide it forever. And now she might have jeopardized the friendship that had grown so quickly between them. Trust was so important, yet so terribly fragile.

  If only she hadn’t fallen in love with him. That’s why she’d been reluctant to say anything. She hadn’t meant to fall in love, but it was like trying to un-ring a bell. And in spite of all evidence to the contrary, she’d continued to hope he might feel a spark of attraction in return.

  Except that men didn’t fall in love with women who were carrying another man’s baby. Zoe wiped angrily at the tears that had begun to dribble down her face.

  “But I should have told him,” she whispered into the darkness of her lonely bedroom.

  Chapter 14

  “DADDY? I KNOW Mom was already pregnant, but was that the only reason you got married? I mean, you were going to get married anyway. Right?”

  Jake had just come down from tucking the twins into bed and found Ava curled up on the couch with a paperback novel in one hand, a can of soda in the other, and the dog sprawled beside her. Her question stopped him in his tracks.

  “We talked about it. We talked about getting married after we graduated college, that is. But then you happened.” He moved to the chair across from the couch and sank into it. Where is Ava going with this question?

  “So, you would never walk out on a woman you’d gotten pregnant, right?”

  Jake’s heart began to thud in painful apprehension. “I cared about your mother very much. I would never have walked out on her, pregnant or otherwise.”

  “But if you hadn’t loved her, would you still have gotten married?”

  “Of course I would have offered to marry her. Why all the questions?”

  “And you definitely wouldn’t tell her to just go get an abortion. Right?”

  “What is all this about?” Jake’s heart clenched painfully. Was his baby pregnant? Had everything Zoe told him been wrong? Had Travis worn Ava’s resistance down, and then told her to get lost once he’d had his way with her? When was the last time he’d seen Travis, anyway? The facts were adding up, and Jake didn’t like the sum. “Ava, are you pregnant?”

  Ava g
aped at him. Then a look of indignation flashed across her face. “Daddy!”

  “Well, are you?” He had to know. He didn’t want to know, but he had to. Jake tried to calm himself. It took a moment for him to realize that Ava was shaking her head no. Relief flooded through him so quickly he thought he might faint.

  “Travis and I were never really that together. I don’t know why you’re jumping to all the wrong conclusions. Considering that Travis thinks I’m such a baby, and all.” A cloud of unhappiness came into Ava’s eyes, leaving Jake even more confused than before.

  “I’m sorry, kitten. I didn’t mean—look, if you’re trying to get back at me for something, it’s working. So please, tell me what this is really about.” Jake still felt lightheaded, and his heart jerked erratically as it slowed to something closer to normal.

  Ava looked at her hands and fiddled with her book. Then she patted the dog and cleared her throat as if she’d gotten something lodged in it. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Daddy. I’m—I’m still a virgin, if that’s what you’re dying to know.”

  Zoe was right after all! Thank God! “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to such a thoughtless conclusion.” He took a deep, steadying breath. “So who are we talking about? Your mother and me, or one of your friends?”

  “A friend.”

  “Has your friend told her parents?”

  Jake’s hands trembled. Must be the aftermath of shock. Some other father is going to go through that roller coaster I’ve just been on, only his ride won’t have as happy an ending. Poor bastard. It only took me all these years to understand how Richard Jolee must have felt when I got Marsha pregnant when we were just seventeen years old.

  “Yeah, she did,” Ava admitted carefully. “But her father told her abortion would be compounding a sin, and she should put the baby up for adoption so she could get her life back on track.”

  “Is he forcing her to have the baby?”

  “It’s Zoe I’m talking about, Daddy. She’s old enough to tell her father to take a hike.”

  For the second time that night, Jake’s heart jumped into his throat. Zoe pregnant? Beautiful, funny, sexy Zoe? Pregnant? How had he not noticed?

  “You’d have found out sooner or later anyway, but I told you because Zoe thinks you won’t want me hanging around with her anymore. I really like her, and I know she likes me. She listens to me, and she cares about what I think.” Ava leaned toward Jake with eager intensity in her young face. “Please, Daddy. We can still be friends, can’t we? Just because she’s having a baby doesn’t have to change anything. Does it?”

  “Of course, not!” Jake assured his daughter, his brain still reeling. In the short time Zoe had lived next door, she had become more than just a friend to his little girl. Actually, as Zoe had so strenuously pointed out, Ava wasn’t a little girl anymore, even if he still thought of her that way. And Zoe listened to Ava’s teenage dreams and angst. Ava was always welcome in her house. And he knew from his conversation with Zoe that Ava felt comfortable going to Zoe to ask difficult questions about things Ava couldn’t come to him with. Pregnancy or not, he suspected Zoe would continue to be a good influence on his daughter, giving her things he couldn’t and filling the gaping hole where her mother should have been.

  “Friends should stick together,” he finally said, dragging his attention back to his daughter’s worried expression. Ava probably needed Zoe more than Zoe needed a teenager adding to her problems, but who was he to make that decision? “Especially now.”

  Ava grinned in relief. “I know she’s got Bree and her sisters, but Zoe told me she likes doing stuff with me. ’Cause we’ve both been through the same kind of stuff, and we understand what it’s like. Not having a mother, I mean. And she’s going to need all the friends she can get when the baby gets here. Being a single parent and all. But I guess you know all about that part.”

  Jake opened his mouth to make an observation about how Zoe had gotten into such a pickle and then shut it. Another thought had just occurred to him. Maybe there was more upside to this than down. Maybe watching Zoe grow big and uncomfortable would highlight the less pleasant results of careless, unprotected sex. And after the baby arrived, being around Zoe when sleep was hard to come by and any semblance of her former life disappeared would be an eye-opener. It would give Ava some very strong reasons to stick to her guns the next time Travis or some other randy kid wanted to get into her pants.

  “We haven’t known Zoe all that long, but she really has become a good friend, and friends don’t take off when you need them most. I’d have been disappointed in you if you didn’t stick by her.”

  “And can I borrow your credit card again? I want to take Zoe shopping this time. I want to help her pick out some really cute maternity clothes.”

  Only half thinking about it, Jake pulled out his wallet and slid out the credit card. He offered it to his daughter. “Just remember I’m not made of money. Okay?”

  Ava snatched the card, then surged off the couch and wrapped her arms about Jake’s neck. Just as quickly, she backed off and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks, Daddy.” Then she grabbed the book she’d been reading and headed for the stairs.

  Jake watched her go, feeling like he’d just gone a few rounds with a punching bag that fought back. He tucked his wallet back into his pocket and thought of Zoe. How was she going to manage pregnancy and all that entailed as well as keep that big old house together all by herself? Jake wondered about Mr. Callahan. What kind of father was he? Jake knew he lived in the historic part of Wilmington, which wasn’t that far away, but so far as Jake knew, the man had not even been to Zoe’s house. In spite of his disapproval, would he be there for his daughter if Zoe really needed help?

  Well, one thing was certain. Jake knew how to be a good friend, too. As his daughter had pointed out, Zoe was going to be a single parent, and Jake knew what that was like. At least, he knew what it was like to be a single dad. That had to count for something. Besides, there were things he could do that Ava couldn’t. He made up his mind to do what he could to make sure things ran smoothly at the old Jolee house, fixing anything that needed fixing. Maybe fixing things that didn’t. And another thing was for sure—Zoe definitely wasn’t going to do any more painting. Paint fumes weren’t good for a pregnant woman or her baby. If he couldn’t convince her to put the rest of her painting projects off until after her baby was born, then he’d just have to find time to do them himself.

  Jake reached out to run his hand down the silky head of the retriever. Taffy licked his hand, then put her head back on her paws and stared at Jake with her liquid dark eyes.

  “Friends hang together,” Jake told the dog. “Right?”

  ZOE WAS FOLDING laundry in her bedroom with afternoon sunlight streaming across the floor when the dogs began their routine: Scotch barking his fool head off, Hoover scampering for the door with his tail wagging, and Jet began hunting for a toy to present to whatever friend was headed her way. Polly squawked just because the dogs were barking. Zoe figured it must be Danny, who loved coming over to play with the dogs, but when she crossed the hall and stuck her head out the front window, it wasn’t Danny after all.

  Jake strode up her front walk with a stack of boards balanced easily on one shoulder. Zoe stretched out the window in an effort to see below the overhang of her porch roof. Jake’s toolbox sat on her bottom step. What on earth was he up to now? She hadn’t reported any new malfunctions.

  Quickly, she retreated back into the room, then hurried down the stairs and yanked the front door open. Jake was nowhere in sight. She stepped out onto the porch, but he wasn’t there either. The toolbox, however, still sat on the bottom step, and the stack of boards leaned against the railing.

  Zoe sat down on the top step to wait for Jake to show up and explain. She had some explaining to do herself, she was sure of it. Because by now Ava must have t
old him about the baby.

  Zoe was glad that she’d chosen to wear a dress to church that morning, one that made her feel at least halfway pretty. With her new hairdo and the sunny yellow dress with a flare to the skirt, she’d studied her reflection in the mirror and been pleasantly surprised. The cut of the dress didn’t show off the growing belly. At least not too much. But it did highlight her breasts and legs. Two of her more attractive attributes.

  When she saw Jake loping across the lawn with a pry bar in his hand, Zoe got up to go meet him.

  Jake spied Zoe coming down the stairs and jerked to a stop halfway up the front walk. She looked fantastic. How could she possibly be pregnant and still look so sexy? When had she cut her hair? He loved the way it curled about her face. It made her eyes seem even bigger than they had appeared before. And that dress!

  “Hi, Jake.” Zoe turned to gesture toward the lumber he’d stacked against her railing. “I came down to see what you were up to. I don’t remember calling you to report any new disasters.”

  Jake looked from the lumber to Zoe. She looked gorgeous. He wondered if she had any idea how terrific she looked. No wonder he hadn’t noticed. Pregnancy looked good on her. Her skin had a fresh, healthy glow to it, and the new haircut just added to the allure.

  “Jake?” Her eyebrows repeated the question.

  “I . . . um . . . Your railing needs fixing.”

  “My railing?” Zoe spun on her heel and returned to the steps. “What’s wrong with my railing?”

  What’s not wrong with it? The whole thing was so loose he’d spent half the night worrying about her grabbing it for support and falling, hurting herself and the baby being born too early. Babies born too early didn’t have a chance, and he wasn’t about to have another little life get snuffed out before it had a chance. Once was enough to last him a lifetime.