If I Didn't Know Better (The Callaways #9)(22)

"Jeremy," he said, a harsh, rough note in his voice.

"Dad."

She stiffened at the word. "This is your father?"

"Yes," the man said stiffly, answering for his son. "Cameron Holt."

"Mia Callaway."

"And this is my daughter," Jeremy said. "Ashlyn Price."

"Price?" Cameron echoed. "Why doesn't she have your name?"

"I told you why, but you probably don't remember."

A tense silence followed his words.

Mia decided to break it. "I heard you were on vacation, Mr. Holt. Was it somewhere lovely?"

"Vacation?" he queried with a grumble. "Is that what he told you?"

"I might have misunderstood," she said quickly, realizing now it had been a lie.

"Why did you come back here?" Cameron asked Jeremy. "You said you'd never live in Angel's Bay."

"That's a question I keep asking myself," Jeremy replied. "You should join your friends."

"You never did want me around."

"You never wanted to be around," Jeremy returned.

A long, hard look passed between the two men. There was so much anger that the air practically sizzled between them. Ashlyn must have picked up on the tension, because she scooted her chair closer to Mia.

Both men saw the little girl's move. Anger flared in Jeremy's eyes at the action. But the look that Cameron gave his granddaughter was filled with pain. Then Cameron turned and walked over to his friends.

"Are you okay?" she asked Jeremy, seeing the tension in every hard line of his face.

"Fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Just leave it alone."

"Jeremy—"

"I need to take a walk," he interrupted. "Could you stay with Ashlyn?"

"Of course, but I think the food will be here soon."

"I just need a minute. I'll be right back."

When Jeremy left the café, Mia saw his father's gaze follow him out the door. There might be a lot of anger between the two men, but there was something else, too; she just wasn't sure what it was.





Six

Jeremy walked a half-mile before his pulse went back to normal and he wasn't seeing the world through the colors of rage. He didn't know why he let his father get to him. He didn't know why he ever expected the man to act any differently. Cameron Holt had been pissed off at Jeremy for his entire life, or at least every day since his mother had died.

His father's sister had tried to tell him that Cameron was destroyed by his mother's death, but that had never explained why his father had turned away from him. Not that they'd ever been close.

His father was a wanderer. In his youth, he had traveled the world, crewing for whatever ship needed another hand. And as an adult, he had spent lots of time at sea, sometimes fishing the oceans on the other side of the globe. He was probably not a man who should have ever gotten married or had a child, but apparently when he'd met Tracy Warner, he'd decided she was worth staying home for. So he'd settled in Angel's Bay, saying he was content to fish the Pacific Ocean for the rest of his life as long as he had her.

And his mother was everything his father was not. She was warm, friendly, interested in people, someone who liked to have friends, to be social, who participated in community events. Sometimes his dad would come along, probably just to humor his wife, but Cameron had always been more content in his own company or with the few men who were just like him. If he had nothing in common with someone, he wasn't going to waste a minute trying to find something to talk about; he'd just move on.

He'd moved on from Jeremy right after Tracy died. He'd gotten his sister to stay with Jeremy the first few weeks. Then it was a series of housekeepers/babysitters until Jeremy was in high school. Then it was just the two of them.

Actually, it had mostly just been him.

Drawing in a breath, he stopped to look at the ocean. The large, rough waves crashing against the seawall in the distance fit his mood quite nicely. That was the thing about Angel's Bay. The calm waters in the bay turned into turbulent waves that could take down a ship, wreck everything in its wake, and make you wonder if you would ever get back to shore.

His life had felt very much like that ocean in recent weeks. But he would get back to shore. He would beat the storm, because he didn't just have himself to save; he had his daughter.

It wasn't about him and his father anymore; that wasn't the family he was interested in. It was about him and Ashlyn. They would be the new Holt family, the one his mother had tried so hard to build while she was alive.

Sadness ran through him as he thought about his mother. She would have loved to have a grandchild, to know Ashlyn. She would have known how to reach his daughter. As a teacher, she'd loved kids—all kids, even the ones who were a little broken.

But Ashlyn would recover. He would make sure of that.

Turning, he walked back to the café, feeling guilty and pissed off that he'd let his emotions get the best of him.

He shouldn't have left Ashlyn with Mia. He shouldn't have walked out on either of them. That had been a mistake. He didn't think Cameron would try to speak to Ashlyn on his own, but Jeremy certainly didn't want that to happen when he wasn't there.