Alaskan Reunion

He raised a hand and sliced it through the air. “There are no buts or what-ifs or maybe-sos in this situation. I lost everything because of what happened. When your father embezzled those funds, I was left holding the bag. All fingers were pointing at me. I lost every shred of credibility I had. You have no idea what it feels like to have an entire town turn against you.”

Paige raised an eyebrow. “Don’t I? I was run out of here because the same suspicions were leveled against me. And I was just as innocent as you were, Cameron. I know what it feels like to have everyone turn against me. Including the man I loved.”

The man I loved. She had loved him. Of that he’d always been certain. And he’d loved her in return. Madly. Devotedly. With every fiber of his being. He had dreamed of one day making Paige his wife. Because of her, he’d wanted to become a better man. And even though he still dreamed of pledging forever to a soul mate, he had a hard time imagining ever feeling that way again about anyone. So many of his dreams had been wrapped up in Paige. And her betrayal had left him wounded.

Despite the fact that dozens of women had arrived in town to participate in Operation Love, he never allowed himself to imagine getting into a relationship with any of them. The idea of being that vulnerable again terrified him. The past still loomed over him like a dark cloud.

Had he made the right decision when he’d forced Paige’s hand and told her to leave town? For so long he hadn’t even second-guessed himself, but now, after hearing her heartfelt words, a sliver of doubt crept in. Why had he been so convinced of her guilt? What had made him so willing to turn his back on the woman he had adored?

“Cameron. I can’t pull this off without you. Nobody in Love is going to want to listen to what I have to say. No one will work with me to make it happen. The dream this town once had of opening a cannery is still viable. I know we could make it work.” Paige’s cheeks were flushed and her voice vibrated enthusiasm.

“We?” His head was feeling fuzzy. Had he heard her correctly? She wanted him to team up with her?

“I need your support to rally the townsfolk.” Her shoulders drooped and she let out a sigh. “As you know, I don’t have a lot of credibility here. But I do have an MBA and several projects to my credit.”

“What are you asking me to do? I have a business to run now.” Cameron looked around at the café. It meant the world to him. Making a success out of it had given him the redemption he’d craved. It gave him respectability after the cannery fiasco. Finally, people in town weren’t shaking their heads at him anymore. He’d won them all over with hard work and grit, convincing them to make the Moose Café a staple in town. No way! He was done stepping out on a limb and taking leaps of faith. Once bitten, twice shy.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Paige, but this town closed the door on that pipe dream a long time ago.”

She narrowed her gaze. “Really? I’ve been keeping tabs on Love for a while now, Cameron. I know it’s still suffering financially.”

“Things have been improving bit by bit. Don’t believe everything you hear,” he snapped. For some reason it annoyed him to no end that Paige knew how badly they’d continued to struggle. They may have fallen on hard times, but the industrious townsfolk in Love had banded together to try to reverse the town’s fortunes. That single fact made him proud to be part of this community. The town was down at the moment but not out.

A low buzzing sound cut into the silence. Paige fished in her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. She knit her brows together and peered at the screen. Her eyes slightly widened. “I—I’m sorry. I have to go, Cameron.”

“Seriously, Paige? You can’t just show up here after all this time and drop a bombshell like this and take off,” he protested.

Paige locked gazes with him. “There’s a lot more I have to say. Things I should have said a long time ago. And whether or not you approve or disapprove, I’m going to try and make amends for my father’s crimes. It’s the only way I can look at myself in the mirror in the weeks and months ahead.”

There she was. The Paige he’d fallen in love with well before he’d ever had the courage to tell her how he felt. Obstinate. Opinionated. And now she was here in front of him, determined to right her father’s wrongs. Which meant she’d be staying right here in Love to make amends. There was no point in his standing in her way. That slight edge to her voice indicated she meant business.

“I’ll be in touch with you tomorrow.” With a nod in his direction, she turned on her heel and began to quickly walk away. Once she reached the door, Paige turned around and met his gaze. “By the way, I’m really proud of what you’ve done here. The Moose Café is beautiful. Some dreams can’t be denied, can they?”

Before he could even respond, the jingling of the door serenaded Paige as she sailed out the door and into the Alaskan night.

“What just happened?” he muttered as he stood in the middle of his establishment wondering if he should follow after her or just leave it alone for now. Like a true force of nature, she’d blown into his world and left him feeling as if he’d been caught in the path of an unexpected storm.

* * *

As soon as Paige turned off Jarvis Street onto Main Street, she let out a deeply held breath. She’d faced Cameron head-on without backing down. And she was still standing! It had turned out better than expected even though she hadn’t achieved her main objective during her visit. He needed to know about Emma.

A tight knot had been forming in her stomach all day. For weeks and months she’d planned for this very moment. And somehow it had slipped through her fingers. That only served to heighten the anxiety she felt about the situation. Leaving the Moose Café without telling Cameron the most important reason for her return hadn’t been her intention. The text message she’d received had interrupted them, and due to the pressing matter at hand, she’d had no choice but to table their discussion for another time.

Cameron, you’re a father. How exactly did one just blurt that news out? No matter how many times she had practiced her speech in the mirror, it never came out sounding right. Tears gathered in her eyes. She’d been so wrong about so many things.

If she was being honest with herself, telling Cameron about Emma wasn’t something she’d wanted to do with Hazel within earshot. In her heart she’d wanted to tell him in a private moment shared by just the two of them. And that moment hadn’t presented itself.

Ever since her daughter had come into the world, Paige had made her the number one priority in her life. Now it was time to give Cameron that choice, as well.

As a woman who’d moved toward her faith after becoming a mother, she harbored regrets about not being married to Emma’s father when her daughter was conceived. Her actions hadn’t been consistent with her upbringing or her own moral compass. But in the aftermath of her dad’s massive betrayal, she and Cameron had turned to each other for comfort. Days later she’d fallen under the town’s suspicion and Cameron had distanced himself completely from her. With no other options, she’d left Love and headed back to Seattle. Her life had been in shambles until she’d made the discovery some weeks later that she was pregnant.

Looking back on her life, she realized that what had been missing had been a spiritual base. Even though she had always considered herself a joyful, content person, there hadn’t been anything to anchor her to the world around her. Perhaps if her father had led a more spiritual life, he wouldn’t have been so tempted by financial gain.

Bringing her beloved daughter into the world had given her life meaning. God had given her a foundation on which to stand. With His forgiveness, she had been able to move forward. Praying, attending church and being part of the faith community had all taken center stage. Because of Emma, her relationship with the Lord had strengthened and blossomed. For fourteen months Paige had lived every day with some measure of contentment—all the bitterness and anger she’d been harboring about the past had been soothed because of Emma and her faith.

But being back in Love meant facing up to her truths. Somehow she had to find a way to tell Cameron that he was the father of a baby girl.

Chapter Two

Cameron watched helplessly as Paige walked out of the Moose Café and hustled down the street at a fast clip. He drifted toward the window, his gaze trailing after her as she faded from sight. He pressed his eyes closed as the ache of loss swept through him.

Still, after all this time, it hurt to acknowledge that Paige was no longer a part of his life. Getting over her had almost killed him. Yet here she was, back in Love and vowing to make amends. Suddenly everything he’d been trying to forget had come bubbling back to the surface. Pain. Embarrassment. Loss. He didn’t know what to do with all these chaotic feelings roiling around inside him. Even though he’d been trying to stuff down these raw emotions ever since he’d come face-to-face with Paige, they were still riding on the surface.

He couldn’t help but wonder if he was being played again. Hadn’t Paige mentioned returning a portion of the money her father had stolen? If that was true, it could help the community immensely. But he didn’t want to get his hopes up without seeing an actual check in his hands made out to the town of Love, Alaska. He’d already been burned once by Paige and Robert Reynolds.

It was all coming at him too fast now—like an out-of-control train. He pulled out a chair and sank down in it, his shoulders slumped forward as he held his head in his hands. The sound of Hazel’s clunky footsteps heralded her arrival. She bent down and began gathering up the ceramic pieces in a dustpan and wiping up the liquid on the hardwood floor.

She looked up at him. “Are you okay?” Her voice was filled with worry.

“Never better,” he said. Hazel had already seen him at his worst. He couldn’t count the number of times she’d consoled him when he’d broken down over Paige and the financial scandal that had sent shock waves through his hometown. There was no way he was going to burden her with any more of his misery.

She let out an indelicate snort. “You look like you’ve been run over by a truck.”

Cameron shoved his hand through his hair and let out the breath he’d been holding. He stood up from his chair to face her. “I can’t believe this is happening. Paige thinks she can undo the damage she and Robert caused. She thinks she can just stroll into town after all this time and put all the pieces back together.”

“I heard every word she said,” Hazel admitted, rolling her eyes. “She always did have a pie-in-the-sky mentality.”

He frowned at her. “You were eavesdropping?”

Hazel planted her hands on her hips. “It’s called watching out for me and mine. I saw the carnage she caused the first time around. I’m not about to let it happen again. Not on my watch!”

A sigh escaped his lips. “Hazel, I love you dearly, but I’m begging you to stay out of this. And whatever you do, please don’t tell Jasper or Boone that she’s back. I want a little time to digest everything before complete chaos breaks out.”

Hazel quirked her mouth. A sinking feeling landed in the pit of his stomach.

Cameron folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his gaze. “Hazel,” he said in a reproachful tone. “I hope you didn’t—”

The door of the Moose Café burst open with a loud crashing sound. His brother Boone, town sheriff, and his grandfather, Mayor Jasper Prescott, came barreling into his establishment.

“Hey! Didn’t you two read the sign? We’re closed,” Cameron shouted, knowing it was too late to stop the impending hurricane from whirling all around him.

Jasper darted his gaze around the café. “Where is she?”

Cameron crossed his arms again and rocked back on his heels.

“Who are you talking about?”

“You know who I’m talking about. That beautiful blonde trickster you were so enamored of for all those years. Miss Paige Reynolds. Daughter of the most crooked man who ever stepped foot into Love.”

“Jasper! Knock it off! Let’s keep the drama to a minimum,” Boone barked. “Give him an opportunity to talk.”

“I can’t believe she had the nerve to come back here,” Jasper fumed. “Returning like a bad penny!”

“Settle down, Jasper,” Boone said, reaching out and clasping his hand around his arm.

He shrugged off his grandson’s hand. “I won’t settle down. As town mayor, I implore you to arrest her, Sheriff Prescott,” Jasper said in a raised voice.

“There’s no proof that Paige had anything to do with her father’s scam,” Boone explained. “We already went through this dozens of times. There’s no grounds to charge her.”

“There never was,” Cameron said, a slight defensive edge to his voice.

Boone shot him a curious look. Cameron looked away from him. His older brother had a canny ability to see straight through him, right down to the things that mattered most. He couldn’t afford that intense scrutiny right now, not when he was battling old feelings that were rising up in him like a strong tide.

“What about aiding and abetting a criminal? Rumor has it she reunited with that thieving dog once we ran her out of here. Doesn’t that prove they were in cahoots?” Jasper asked.

Cameron shook his head at Hazel. “How long did it take you to call them? Two minutes?”

“I figured we might need a small army to run her out of town again,” Hazel explained, her expression sheepish. “And they did need to know about her plans to give back the town’s money.”

“No one is getting rid of Paige,” Boone said. “I’d like to talk to her about the funds she wants to return. That’s important for Love’s finances.”

“And our future! This town needs money in the coffers,” Jasper growled. “If you ask me, we should charge her interest.”

Cameron rolled his eyes, resisting the impulse to show his grandfather the door. “Funny you should say that, since I don’t remember asking you.”

“So, Cameron. What did she say, exactly? How much is she giving the town? I must have missed that part,” Hazel said.

“I don’t know,” Cameron mumbled, feeling foolish that he hadn’t asked her for specifics. He’d been so blown away by her mere presence that he hadn’t homed in on it. Was she really prepared to give a hefty sum of money?

“You didn’t ask her?” Jasper shouted. He threw his hands up in the air and began muttering in a loud voice. “What a bunch of foolishness!”

“No, I didn’t. I was pretty much blindsided when she strolled in here. It took a few minutes to get my thoughts together.” Cameron ground out the words in a no-nonsense manner. It was just like Jasper to show up and start trying to boss him around. As long as they were in his place of business, he wasn’t about to allow his grandfather to walk all over him.

“Stop being so insensitive,” Hazel said in a loud stage whisper. “You’re acting like a bull in a china shop.”

Jasper and Hazel exchanged a long, meaningful look. Jasper’s expression softened. He took a deep breath, then continued. “Well, if you beg my pardon for asking, where is she?”

Already Cameron was feeling weary. Normally, he could go a full twelve rounds with his grandfather, but he was still reeling from the unexpected encounter with his ex. He simply didn’t have the strength at the moment. Paige’s surprise appearance was resting heavily on his heart.

“There aren’t too many places she could go, Cam. Matter of fact, there’s really only one,” Boone said, his dark brows knit together.

The homestead. The two-story log-cabin home and vast acreage that had belonged to the Reynolds family for generations. Years ago when Paige’s father had been flush with money, he’d renovated the home and transformed it into a modern showcase. Although many villagers had wanted to seize the property after Robert’s misdeeds came to light, homesteads in Alaska were not eligible for seizure.

And so it had sat unoccupied. Until now.

Three pairs of eyes were trained on him. It was clear what they wanted him to do.

“I’m not chasing after her. She said that she would talk to me more about all of this tomorrow.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets.

“Ha! And you believe that?” Hazel cried out. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.”

“Do you really want to leave all that in her hands instead of being proactive?” Boone asked. “This isn’t personal, Cam. It’s about the town. You need to find out if she’s serious about the money. I wasn’t going to mention it just yet, but we need an influx of cash in order to move forward with the production of Hazel’s boots. This enterprise has become a lot more expensive than we anticipated. Strangely enough, Paige’s return could be the answer to all our prayers.”

Hazel had designed stylish and functional boots for the townsfolk that were now being mass-produced and sold throughout the United States in order to bring profit to the treasury’s coffers. Boone’s wife, Grace, had the brilliant idea to capitalize on the fashionable winter shoes as a way of boosting the local economy. For the first time in a long time, the residents of Love had hope of turning things around. But, like any new enterprise, it all boiled down to money.

The answer to all our prayers. Boone’s words were ironic. Once upon a time he had believed that Paige was the answer to all his prayers. Only he’d been wrong. Although the love he’d felt for her had been stronger than anything he’d ever known, everything had come tumbling down like a stack of dominoes. He still felt as if he was picking up the pieces of his former life. Opening the Moose Café had been a huge step in the right direction. It had always been a dream of his to have his own establishment in his hometown. And even though people had lost faith in him, they’d come around once they’d got a taste of his unforgettable coffee drinks and sampled the delicious menu. Finally, his life was back on track.

And yet he still felt guilty about being fleeced by Robert Reynolds. He continued to struggle with his leading role in the town’s financial downturn. Had he missed any warning signs along the way? Had his feelings for Paige blinded him to her father’s larcenous nature? Those questions continued to plague him in the hours between darkness and dawn as he struggled to get some shut-eye on sleepless nights.

Was it possible that he could help make things right by working with Paige? The one thing he knew he was guilty of was being biased against anything she had to say. She’d burned him once before and he no longer trusted her. But in order to help the town, he might have to take a leap of faith and take her at her word. The very idea of it rocked him to his core.

“I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll go find Paige and get the information you want.”

“That’s more like it!” Jasper cried out. “I knew you’d come around.”

Cameron reached for his coat and shrugged into it. He glared at his grandfather. “Don’t get the impression I’m doing your bidding, Jasper. I’m acting in the best interests of this town. Considering my role in the economic downturn, it’s the least I could do.”

Boone approached him and placed his hand on his shoulder. “I know this isn’t easy, Cam. I’m sure it stirs up a lot of memories. You want some company? I don’t mind coming along for moral support.”

He let out a sigh. “Thanks for asking, Boone, but I’ve got to handle this on my own. Go home to that beautiful wife of yours. I’ve got this.”

His brother nodded in acknowledgment, his expression solemn.

Boone and his wife, Grace, were newlyweds. Despite Grace having pretended to be a participant in Jasper’s Operation Love campaign when she arrived in Alaska, she’d really been a journalist working undercover on a series about the town. In the end, their love had triumphed.

He couldn’t even pretend to himself that he wasn’t a little bit jealous of what Grace and Boone had together. It was what he had once believed he’d had with Paige. True, enduring love.

As he headed out the back entrance of the café and walked toward his red pickup truck parked in the lot, the full weight of the situation was sitting squarely on his chest. He’d once promised to never chase after Paige Reynolds again. And lo and behold, it was exactly what he found himself doing.

* * *

Paige navigated the darkened Alaskan roads like a semiprofessional driver. It was funny how the mind worked. She hadn’t lived in this town for years, yet she could probably drive this road blindfolded. Some things a person never forgot. A tender word. The sweet verses to a song. Your baby’s first cries. The only man you’d ever loved.

Coming face-to-face with Cameron had been an electrically charged, emotional moment. Her knees had been trembling the entire time. Not a day had gone by since she’d left Alaska that she hadn’t thought of Cameron. His strength. The larger-than-life smile that almost took over his entire face. The sound of his laughter ringing out with such tremendous joy. The way he’d always looked at her with love shining from his eyes.

So much had changed since those wonderful days. Earlier, there had been nothing emanating from Cameron’s eyes but disgust. And given everything at stake, it frightened her. Every night since Emma had been born, she’d prayed that his heart would soften toward her. Not for her sake but for Emma’s. Clearly those prayers hadn’t been answered. He’d been as implacable as granite.

She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Once she had received the text message from Fiona, her nanny, she’d had no choice but to cut things short and head to the homestead. Emma needed her mother.

The sign heralding her arrival at The Last Frontier appeared just before she turned right into the long driveway and parked her loaner car in front of the house. After grabbing her purse and exiting the car, she climbed the front steps, silently admiring the wraparound porch and the rustic yet modern feel to the house. It seemed strange being here without her father. This house had been his pride and joy, back in the good old days before he’d lost his way.

Maybe she was being overly optimistic, but she was hoping it might feel like home again.

Before she could even put the key in the lock, Fiona Gersham pulled open the door and greeted her. She was holding Emma on her hip. With her round face, soothing voice and sweet expression, the middle-aged woman had given Paige a good feeling the moment she’d presented herself for the interview to be Emma’s nanny. As her father’s illness worsened, Fiona’s presence in their lives had been a godsend. As much as her father had been vilified for his misdeeds, she’d never stopped loving him. And the grief that had consumed her after he’d passed away had been overwhelming. It had felt like being buried by an avalanche with no hope of rescue.

With God’s love, Fiona’s steady assistance and the almighty love she felt for Emma, she’d crawled her way out of the darkest days she’d ever known. She’d emerged ever changed. If losing Cameron and her father so close together hadn’t broken her, nothing in this world ever would. Emma had come into her life like a bright light and given her a purpose. She’d been her rainbow after the storm.

Fiona stepped aside and ushered her out of the cold and into the toasty house. Emma held up her hands and gifted her with a beatific smile that traveled straight to her core.

“I’m so sorry to disrupt your meeting, Miss Paige. I tried to get her calmed down, but between the flight over here, the time difference and the new surroundings, I think the little lady is turned upside down.”

She patted her nanny’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Fiona. You’re right. It’s been a long day for her.” She scooped Emma up in her arms and cradled her against her chest. Smoothing her daughter’s dark curls back, she pressed a kiss against her temple. “How’s my sweet girl?”

“Want Mama. Night night.” Emma’s dark lashes were moist from crying. Paige’s heart expanded by leaps and bounds every time she held her child in her arms. She wanted to give this precious little girl the world wrapped up with a big bow. Right now Emma needed her mother’s loving arms and the comfort that only she could provide.