More than Neighbors

by Shannon Stacey

  He wanted to know how a man could give up his child, and the amount on the check wouldn’t give him that answer. And his father wouldn’t be able to give him that answer.

  He could only hope that Carolina’s journals would.

  Chapter Nine

  “This is a good spot, Mommy.”

  It was as good a spot as any, and since they’d spent the last twenty minutes wandering through the maze of families in the park, Meredith was well past being picky about it.

  It had taken forever, too, since a lot more people in Blackberry Bay remembered her than she would have guessed, and making their way through the maze had included at least a dozen stops to say hello.

  “Help me spread the blanket out, then,” she said, dropping the quilt she’d been carrying around for the better part of an hour.

  Once they’d spread it out and felt around for any rocks under the fabric, she had to admit Sophie had chosen a good spot. They’d have a perfect view of the fireworks show over the bay, and there was enough room so people could walk around their quilt instead of over it, while not leaving enough room for people to spread more blankets next to them.

  The downside to getting a good spot, of course, was being there early and having time to kill before the show started. She unzipped the outer pocket of the backpack she’d prepared for tonight and took out her cell phone. The first text she sent was to her parents, who were meeting them there, so they’d know where to look for them.

  Then she sent a text to Reyna. If you get a chance to stop by, Sophie and I parked our quilt about halfway between the gazebo and the big maple.

  They weren’t the most precise directions, but if Reyna wandered in their direction, she’d find them easily enough.

  “When are Grandpa and Grandma coming?” Sophie asked for the umpteenth time.

  “Soon, sweetie. Why don’t you have a snack?”

  To cut down on the amount and expense of junk food bought from the food carts, they’d eaten a fairly large, early dinner, and there were a variety of snacks packed in the backpack, as well as a refillable water bottle.

  “I’m not hungry yet. When will the fireworks start?”

  Not soon enough, Meredith thought as she scanned the crowd.

  “Hi,” she heard Sophie say, and she looked up from the backpack to see Reyna standing at the edge of the quilt.

  “Reyna,” she said. “You found us. This is my daughter, Sophie. And, Sophie, say hello to Ms. Bishop. We went to school together when I lived here before.”

  They greeted each other, and Reyna looked at Meredith. “It’s unbelievable how much she looks like you. Like a mini version.”

  “There’s definitely no doubt she’s mine. Are you here with anybody? There’s plenty of room on our quilt.”

  She made a face. “I’m here on yet another first date, actually. I’m hoping this one doesn’t propose during the fireworks finale.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  “You know what they say,” an older woman said from behind Meredith, and she turned to see Mrs. Bishop carrying a tote bag with a blanket poking out of the top. “My Reyna is hell on men.”

  Reyna had mouthed the words hell on men as her mother said them, so it was obviously something she’d heard before. “Thanks, Mom.”

  “Where is this mystery date?” Meredith asked.

  “He’s getting us caramel apples, because trying to gnaw your way through one of those is totally sexy on a first date.”

  They laughed and Mrs. Bishop rolled her eyes before heading off to wherever she was spreading her blanket. “There can’t be that many single men in Blackberry Bay, Reyna. You’re going to have to move at some point if you don’t find a good one.”

  “Oh, this one lives twenty minutes away. I figured out a long time ago that the pool in this town is too shallow for me.”

  “Maybe he’s the one?” she asked hopefully.

  “I’m trying not to hold the caramel apples against him, so we’ll see. I should get back, though, so he doesn’t think I ditched him. Let’s do lunch or something soon, okay? Sitting down at a table so we can actually catch up and all that.”

  “Definitely. I’ll find out when my mom can hang out with Sophie and let you know.”

  Reyna said goodbye to Sophie and then, with a wave, headed back to her date. Meredith barely had time to pull out some crackers for Sophie before her parents arrived. She’d been hoping to fill her daughter up some before her dad arrived, since he had a tendency to spoil his granddaughter on the rare occasions they’d gotten together in the past.

  Now that they’d be seeing Sophie on a regular basis, they were going to have to start setting some ground rules. Like maybe no to the giant bag of cotton candy Sophie talked her grandpa into when he took her to swing on the playground for a little while.

  Things settled down as the light started to dim. The children were all excited—and hopped up on spun sugar—but everybody was settled on blankets for the most part, with a ring of lawn chairs around the edge of the park for those who couldn’t sit on the ground.

  “Cam!”

  Meredith almost dropped the water bottle she’d been sipping from. And maybe her heart rate picked up and her skin flushed because she’d been startled by her daughter’s sudden shout, but maybe not. Following Sophie’s gaze, she saw Cam standing on the outskirts of the park, looking around.

  And he must have heard Sophie, because he was looking back at her. Sophie was waving desperately to him, but he waited until Meredith sighed and beckoned to him to start walking.

  “How come you don’t have a blanket?” Sophie demanded when he reached them.

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring one. Mr. and Mrs. Lane, it’s good to see you again.”

  “Neal and Erin will do fine,” Meredith’s dad said. “And likewise.”

  “Don’t you know how to do fireworks?” Sophie asked, unwilling to let their neighbor’s lack of preparation go. “Have you gone to fireworks before?”

  He laughed. “Yes, smarty-pants, I’ve seen fireworks. I’ve seen them from rooftops and from a boat and some other places, but I’ve never watched them from a park, so I didn’t know the rules.”

  “We have a big blanket, so you can sit with us,” Sophie said, scooching over and patting the empty space next to her.

  “The more the merrier,” Meredith’s mom said. “Do you want some lemonade? Neal bought an entire gallon and some paper cups.”

  “Because his granddaughter hadn’t had nearly enough sugar for one night,” Meredith added in a droll tone. And she didn’t even bother to help Cam find a graceful way of declining the invitation to share their blanket. With Sophie and Erin both offering, he and Meredith were both doomed.

  * * *

  Cam had no idea how he’d come to be flat on his back on a quilt, next to Meredith. Granted, Sophie was between them, making ooh sounds with every colorful burst in the dark sky.

  But here he was, once again somehow a part of a family outing with a family that wasn’t his. And, despite feeling slightly too old to be lying on the hard ground, he was enjoying himself immensely.

  He’d once watched a fireworks display from the bow of a megayacht belonging to one of the richest men in the world. They’d been wearing their finest tuxedos and the crowd of impossibly beautiful women had worn gowns and been draped in stunning jewelry. The liquor had been top-shelf and the actual fireworks display ridiculously ostentatious, to go with the overall theme of the night.

  Lying on a quilt in the grass, laughing at the big booms with a little girl and her mom, was so much more enjoyable that he knew, in the future, when he thought of fireworks, he’d think of this night first.

  The fourth or fifth time Sophie asked if this burst was the finale, he turned his head sideways to look at Meredith just as she did the same. Their gazes locked over the top of her daughter’
s head and they smiled together.

  She turned back to the fireworks first, and for a moment he watched her profile—the way exploding colors lit up her face.

  Then he noticed Erin was watching him watch her daughter and almost gave himself whiplash looking back to the sky. He didn’t need Meredith’s mother getting any ideas.

  He had enough of his own.

  Since making the decision to head downtown and join the celebration, he’d been trying to convince himself he was not looking for Meredith. She’d mentioned the Fourth of July event in passing and Sophie had brought it up several times, but he hadn’t thought much of it until her SUV pulled out of the driveway. Sitting in a quiet cottage with a cat who’d refused to have anything to do with him that day—for reasons only she knew—had filled him with a weird sense of loneliness.

  Cam was accustomed to being alone. But he wasn’t used to being lonely.

  So he’d decided he’d drive downtown and experience a small-town Fourth of July celebration because he had nothing better to do. He wasn’t deliberately looking for Meredith, but he also hadn’t been sorry when he heard the familiar shouting of his name from Sophie.

  “Okay, this is probably the finale,” he heard Meredith tell her as a long barrage of color and sound started.

  Cam let the child’s excitement wash over him as he took in the fireworks finale. It was a lot more impressive than he’d anticipated, and he joined in with the rest of the crowd’s applause and whistles of appreciation when it was over.

  “That was the best ever,” Sophie shouted, still clapping her hands.

  “Definitely,” he agreed. “I’ve never enjoyed a fireworks show more.”

  Meredith gave him a skeptical look, but he was telling the truth so he didn’t look away until she stood up. “It’s way past bedtime, Sophie, so let’s get this picked up and the quilt folded so we can get home eventually.”

  By the time they’d repacked the backpack and Erin’s tote, made a trip to the trash barrel and folded the quilt, there seemed to be a mass exodus out of the park.

  “Does everybody in Blackberry Bay come to this park for the Fourth?” he asked, stepping out of the way of a double stroller.

  “Pretty much,” Neal said. “What else are we going to do?”

  That was a good point, since that was why Cam had shown up. What else was he going to do? “There’s going to be an actual traffic jam getting out of here.”

  Meredith shrugged one shoulder. “That’s why it’s best not to be in a hurry. And since Sophie will probably be out like a light two minutes after the car starts, I’m not worried about it.”

  With everything picked up, there didn’t seem to be anything left for Cam to do. “I guess I’ll get going, then. I’m hoping even though I haven’t been here long enough to remember street names and landmarks, I’ll remember how to get back to my car. I remember I’m near a bookstore.”

  “I hope you had a good time,” Meredith said, and their gazes locked over Sophie’s head.

  “I did.”

  “Oh!” Erin’s interjection startled them both. “I want to introduce Sophie to my friends over there. We’ll probably be a little bit, so why don’t you finish up here and we’ll just meet you back at your car, Meredith? We saw it in front of the paddleboard shop, so I know where you’re parked.”

  “I’ll help you carry stuff,” Neal offered, but Erin immediately shook her head.

  “You’ll come with me so we can show off your granddaughter together. Cam can help Meredith carry stuff to her car.”

  “Mom.” There was a subtle warning in Meredith’s voice, but her parents were already walking away, with Sophie skipping between them.

  Erin Lane definitely got zero points for subtlety, Cam thought with a chuckle. Meredith didn’t look as amused as he was, though. Her face was flushed and she rolled her eyes when he looked at her.

  “I can get this stuff to my car by myself, so you’re off the hook.”

  “I’m not going to let you carry all this without help.”

  “What you and my mother both seem to have forgotten is that I carried all of it from my car to here without help, so it stands to reason I can carry it back by myself just fine.”

  “But now it’s dark,” he countered because, even without her mother’s interference, he wouldn’t just walk away and leave Meredith to fend for herself. “You shouldn’t be doing it alone.”

  “I feel like I should apologize for my mom, since she volunteered you for this and now you feel like you have to help, but you really don’t have to, you know. There’s not as much stuff as it looks like there is and, again, I carried it here with no problem.”

  “What is it you’ve learned about me so far that makes you think I’m the kind of man who’ll just stand here and watch a woman lug a bunch of stuff to her car?”

  “Well, you start lawnmowers at seven thirty on a Sunday morning.”

  “Fair.” He picked up the backpack before she could. “But I’m still carrying this.”

  “Fine. But then you’ll be even more lost and you’ll never figure out where you parked your car.”

  “It’s a small town. I’m bound to find it eventually.”

  They joined in the crowd leaving the area, and several times they had to pause while somebody spoke to Meredith. She introduced him and said he was staying in the Archambault cottage for the summer, which got him some curious looks. But, for the most part, people wanted to get home and didn’t ask questions. Because it was late before the sky was dark enough for fireworks in July, there were a whole lot of kids who were up past their bedtimes.

  They made small talk while they walked. She pointed out businesses he might be interested in, and shared some stories from growing up in the town. He was surprised the years of living in San Diego hadn’t spoiled her, but she honestly seemed happy to be back in a town that didn’t even have a Starbucks.

  While he had no intention of admitting it out loud, she was also right. By the time they reached her SUV, he had no idea where he was or where he might be in relation to where he’d parked.

  Meredith hit the button for her liftgate and then tossed the quilt into the back, along with the two stuffed animals and the foam flag Sophie had talked her grandfather into buying for her from the street vendors. He waited until she was done and then set the backpack in next to the quilt.

  “Thank you,” she said as she hit the button to close the liftgate, and they moved out of the way, onto the sidewalk. “Maybe next year I’ll remember she always leaves with more than she arrived with, and I’ll bring a backpack and an empty tote.”

  “She’s worth it, though. I’ve watched some impressive fireworks displays from some pretty fancy places, but I’ve never enjoyed them as much as I did tonight.”

  Meredith’s face softened, and the warmth in her eyes made him want to pull her into his arms. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “It’s the truth. Her excitement is infectious, and I like your parents, too.” He paused. Took a tentative step that halved the distance between them. “And you. I like spending time with you.”

  He heard the sharp intake of her breath, but she didn’t back away from him. “I should have invited you to come with us.”

  “So you’re not mad I crashed your quilt party?”

  She smiled, her gaze fixed on his mouth. “Not at all.”

  Everything faded away except for her brown eyes and the smell of her hair and his need to touch her. He reached out and ran his fingers down her hand, giving her the chance to pull away without it being a big deal.

  But she slid her fingers through his and, as he tugged her closer, she tilted her face up to him.

  As he lowered his lips to hers, anticipation sizzled across his skin and he had to concentrate on not hauling her into his arms and kissing her until they couldn’t breathe, the way he desperately wanted
to.

  Instead, he kept his fingers interlocked with hers and with his free hand, cupped the back of her head as his mouth claimed hers. Their breath mingled and she sighed when he ran his tongue over her bottom lip.

  He wanted to devour her—to kiss her for hours—but he settled for a taste. Then, with a reluctance she could surely feel, he broke off the kiss and rested his forehead against hers for a few seconds before lifting his head.

  Tears shimmered in her eyes, but she chuckled as she did her best to blink them back. “Wow.”

  “Are you okay?”

  She nodded before wiping away the single tear that escaped. “You’re the first man I’ve kissed since I lost my husband. My first first kiss since the day I met him.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t... I...” He sucked in a breath. “I don’t really know what to say right now.”

  As if realizing she’d just brought her husband into a moment when she should have been totally focused on the kiss they just shared, she winced. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “I get it. It’s a pretty big deal, and I’m honored it was me, I guess.”

  “You guess?” She laughed with him. “Well, I guess I always knew I’d have another first kiss someday. I didn’t expect to be kissing my annoying neighbor, though.”

  “Annoying neighbor?”

  “Really annoying neighbor, actually.”

  He refused to be insulted. “Really annoying as in you really don’t like me and wish I’d just move away already, or really annoying in that you actually like me a lot, but don’t want to?”

  Pink spread across her cheeks. “Are those my only two choices?”

  That was answer enough for him. Plus, over her shoulder, he could see her family approaching, though it was taking them a while to work through the crowd, since her parents appeared to know everybody in town.

  “Fair warning, your parents and Sophie are on their way over here.”

  Her eyes widened, and then she sucked in a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself. “Okay. I... No offense, but I’d prefer none of them know my mother’s scheme to get us alone actually bore fruit.”