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“I missed...certain things.”
“Your dad,” he supplied softly.
She smiled for a moment before it faded. The worry that had nestled inside her belly began to spread, causing her to roll down her window.
“How is he really?” she asked quietly.
Elle still couldn’t believe her dad had kept the cancer diagnosis from her. When he’d finally told her, he’d been so flippant about it. “Oh, it’s only bladder cancer. That’s one of the easy ones.”
There was nothing easy about cancer.
Cam followed suit and rolled his own window down. “He had some rough moments toward the end of the treatment period. But I think overall he’s doing really well. Except for a couple days off here and there, he never stopped working.”
For twenty-four years her dad had been the chief of police in Bayside. After her mom had died, they’d moved back to her father’s hometown for a fresh start. While he’d retired a couple years ago, no one could keep a man who’d been working since the age of ten at home. He’d been volunteering as security at the local high school ever since.
“Really?” she asked.
Cam nodded. “Sure. Heard he broke up a minor fight last week.”
“A fight? Is he okay? Should he even be doing that right now?”
He slanted a steady glance in her direction. “He’s fine. Don’t worry. The whole town’s looking out for him.”
Yeah, the way they’d looked out for him ten years ago? Elle shook her head and willed the memories away. It hadn’t been the town’s fault he didn’t get voted in as county sheriff. That had been her doing. Her and that damn video. She wiped her sweaty palms on her khaki linen pants.
Cam turned the truck onto Bay View Road, heading away from the center of town. They passed the fork in the road, the one that would take them to either the east side, known as the nice, wealthy portion of town, or to the west side, where she lived.
“Really,” he added with another sidelong glance as she raised an eyebrow.
“Please tell me the truth.” She could hear the urgency in her voice.
“The truth is he has cancer.”
She gulped. “I gathered that part already.” Typical. The very few conversations she’d ever had with Cam had been pretty similar. He hadn’t been known for his words. Or his demeanor. Really, he’d been a loner. A tall, somewhat scary kind of recluse.
Elle didn’t know what she was expecting now. To be honest, the fact that he was giving her a ride home was a huge step toward the socialization of the Cameron Dumont she knew.
Then he did something that surprised her. Cam reached over and squeezed her hand.
Her eyes grew wide and she inhaled sharply. If anyone ever asked, she would claim it was nothing short of shock at him being nice. The reality of the situation was that the touch of Cam’s callused hand on hers made her feel...something.
“He’s going to be fine,” he said.
She didn’t know why, but the statement made her feel better for the moment. “So,” she began, searching for something to say as she reclaimed her hand and clasped it with the other one. “You’re still in Bayside.”
“Yep.”
“Working for your parents’ company?”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Nah. I started my own business.”
“Really?” That was a surprise. Cam was the oldest son in a four-generation family business. Naturally, he was supposed to take over the reins. “Also doing real estate?”
“Construction. I’m a contractor.”
“Bayside Builders,” she said, putting it together. He looked over. “I saw the name on the side of the truck.”
“That’s my company.”
She wanted to ask more questions, but they’d reached 14 Bay View Road. Cam threw the truck into Park and slid out of his door. But Elle didn’t move. Instead, she let her homesick eyes drink in the sight of the one level house she’d lived in for most of her life. It looked exactly the same, even though she could tell it wasn’t. Her dad had put a fresh coat of paint on. There were new shutters and the landscaping was different.
But it was home and therefore would always be exactly what she needed to see.
“Traditionally, you leave the car when you reach your destination.”
She glanced up at Cam standing in her window, watching her. Rolling her eyes, she offered him a small smile. “Good thing you’re here to help me with these super hard ways of the world.”
His mouth twitched before he opened her door and reached across her to unbuckle her seat belt. Elle caught a whiff of a very masculine scent. Something musky, but clean. Like a really fresh soap laced with wood.
“When did you get rid of the beard?” she couldn’t help asking.
Confusion passed his face. Then he ran a hand over some appealing-looking stubble. “Years ago. Had to back when I worked for my father.”
Now that she was allowing herself a really good look, Elle acknowledged that Cam and Jasper barely resembled each other. Jasper was all light hair and crystal-blue eyes, tall but lanky, while Cam was dark and large. Both brothers were attractive—beyond attractive, really—but in very different ways.
“Do you even have a key to get in?” Cam’s question burst her bubble and she finally exited the truck.
“No worries.” After she walked to the small front porch, she bent over and smiled as her fingers touched the key in its usual place under the decorative ceramic frog that held watch at the front door.
Cam dragged her bags into the house and stepped back onto the porch. She turned to thank him for the ride, but before she could get the words out, he put his hand on the top of the door frame. Even though she could—and should—take a step backward into the open living room, she didn’t move. His eyes raked over her entire body until she squirmed.
“I’m glad you’re back, Elle.” Then he abruptly turned and walked back to his waiting truck.
With that, she nodded, wondering why she suddenly felt light-headed.
* * *
Cam considered himself to be a rational, sane man, but something happened to him when he saw Ellie Owens again. And that reaction defied reasoning.
“Damn,” he said aloud as he drove away from her house and made his way back down Bay View Road. When he reached the fork, he started veering toward town before he remembered that he’d left his favorite cordless drill at his parents’ house the night before.
Yanking the steering wheel to the left just in time, he made his way toward the east side of the bay. He’d been called by his mother to fix a shelf. Funny how when he’d arrived, tools in tow, there was nothing to fix. Instead—surprise, surprise—an attractive woman had been seated in one of the living rooms. His mother’s interior designer this time.
Cam loved his mom, but her attempts at fixing him up had been increasing at a fast pace over the last two years—ever since he’d turned thirty. Even if he’d been onboard with her efforts, she clearly didn’t know his tastes. Cam preferred a certain kind of woman. When his thoughts turned back to Elle, he swerved again before righting the truck.
Little Ellie Owens, who used to keep her head in a book, or in a sketch pad, while wearing jeans with patches over the knees. She’d never stepped a toe out of line until that idiotic video surfaced. Cam remembered how embarrassed Jasper had been seeing her announce her undying love for him. In Cam’s opinion, it never seemed like much of a burden to have a woman show you some love. Especially a woman as grounded as Elle. Of course, Jasper had been in a pretty serious relationship back then.
Regardless, somewhere along the line, she’d grown up into a gorgeous, stunning woman. Gone was the plain-Jane scholar. In her place was an accomplished, interesting person.
Cam turned into the gates of the mansion at 1954 Bay View Road and offered a wave to Stan, the head gardener. Then he parked his truck, and ran in the back door to retrieve his drill. He was about to climb back into the truck when he noticed that not only were his parents’ cars in the driveway, but so was his brother’s. Cam climbed the steps to the front porch and pushed his way inside the large and impressive house he’d been lucky enough to grow up in.
He heard the shouting before he even entered the solarium.
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“You think you can come in here and start making changes like you own the place?” his father asked.
“I kind of do own the place.”
“Not yet,” his mother’s voice rang out. “Not while your father and I are still in charge.”
Cam didn’t have to be in the room to know that Jasper would be rolling his eyes the same way he was doing himself at the usual argument. His parents and brother butted heads on a daily basis.
“If you’d only let me implement a few small changes. Tweaks,” he added quickly. “We need a better social media plan. Our communications department is currently living in the stone age figuring out how to make fire.”
“It’s like you don’t even want to be part of this company, the way you keep trying to change everything.” Cam could hear the frustration in his father’s voice.
His own stomach clenched at the comment.
“Of course I want to be part of the company. Why else would I be here?” Jasper replied. “I’m simply trying to bring us into this century.”
Feeling a thickness in his throat, Cam decided to save his baby brother. Giving a quick cough to announce his presence, he stepped into the room.
“There’s my handsome son.” Lilah Dumont rose and patted him on the cheek before pulling him into a hug.
“Hey,” Jasper called out. “I thought I was your handsome son.”
She turned back to him. “Oh, you are. But only when you aren’t irritating me with new proposals involving hashtags.”
Cam hoped that Jasper saw the look of adoring, unaffected love their mother shot in his direction. But by the way Jasper had turned toward the window, he suspected not.
“Hey, Pops,” Cam said to his dad.
“Why aren’t you at work?” his dad asked as a reply and a welcome.
“Why aren’t any of you?” he countered.
“We are working.” His mother poured a glass of lemonade and handed it to him. “We’re discussing your brother’s latest idea.” She used air quotes and Cam was fairly certain he could hear Jasper grind his teeth. “Then we were going to talk about the next fund-raiser.”
Cam lifted an eyebrow. “Fund-raiser?”
“Yes.”
“Ah. A party,” he stated. His mother could justify giving a party more easily than some people could drink a glass of water. Although Lilah Dumont was so much more than a party-loving socialite. She could make just as many deals as his father simply by schmoozing during a black-tie event. Where Collin Dumont was old-school business etiquette, Lilah was about face-to-face interaction. Underestimating either her intelligence or business savvy had been the web that caught more than one misjudging fly.
“Social media is an inexpensive way to throw a party,” Jasper contributed from the corner. “A virtual party. Keeps costs in check, connects you with the right people.”
“Why not be personal? Why does everything have to be over the computer or smartphone or Instagram?” his mother asked. “People like personal interactions. That still means something.”
Cam thought he would try and back his brother up. “Jasper does have a point. Perhaps we need to cut down on the amount of parties?”
His mother looked indignant. “Everyone loves our parties. You know that.”
“Isn’t less more in this situation?”
Lilah rolled her eyes. “Less is never more. I despise that saying.”
On this one topic, his mother and father were in agreement. Cam had to suppress a groan. If another Dumont party was on the horizon, that meant he would have to take out his tux—again—and put on a happy face—again. Two things he hated almost as much as his mother’s parties.
Jasper appeared to have forgotten his earlier hurt and turned to Cam. “Why aren’t you working your butt off somewhere? Aren’t you usually covered in dirt and sweat by this hour?”
“I had a meeting with a client earlier this morning.” He grabbed an apple from a large display of fruit placed in the middle of a marble table. “You’ll never guess who I picked up after that.”
“It’s bad enough that you drive that thing instead of a real car,” Jasper began.
“Hey, I like my truck. I’d like you to know that Lamborghinis are not the only car available. Anyway, I did a favor for Ted Owens this morning.”
“His doctor’s appointment,” his dad said from his chair. “I need to give him a call later and see how that went.”
There were a lot of things that could be said about Collin Dumont, but one area Cam thought his dad did right. He respected his staff, his friends and the other citizens of Bayside. He’d been friends with Ted for years, and Cam heard the note of concern in his voice.
“Right. He had an appointment, so I had to pick up his daughter.”
“Ellie?” his mother asked. “She’s back from Italy?”
“Who’s Ellie?” Jasper wondered.
Sometimes Cam didn’t know if he should be appalled by or jealous of his brother’s ignorance.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me, right?” Cam said. “Ellie Owens, the daughter of Ted, former chief of police.” At Jasper’s blank stare, he continued. “You were in the same class in school.”
“Did we date?”
Their mother let out a loud chuckle. “Oh, most certainly not.”
“She was in love with you,” Cam said loudly and slowly, to get through to Jasper.
“Didn’t she make some video about you that got played at your prom?” their father asked from behind the iPad he was now reading.
Cam tensed. He’d never understood why Elle had made that video in the first place. The whole thing was out of character. Feeling oddly protective, Cam decided to steer the conversation away from the video talk. “She’s back. I’m not sure for how long, but she’s here now for her dad. She looks amazing, by the way. All grown up.”
“No kidding?” Jasper’s tune changed quicker than he could get his Lamborghini from zero to sixty.
“Apparently Europe agreed with her.”
“Good for her,” Mrs. Dumont put in as she poured more lemonade into her glass. “I always thought she was sweet. And everyone knew how smart she was. Top of her and Jasper’s class. Or she would have been...”
“Didn’t she throw herself in the bay after that prom?” Collin asked.
