Alaskan Reunion. Belle Calhoune
Tears slid down Paige’s face and she choked back a sob. Her graceful fingers wiped away the evidence of her sorrow. She bowed her head for a moment, then slowly raised it, her mournful eyes meeting his gaze.
“He’s dead, Cameron. My father passed away two months ago of liver cancer.”
Cameron felt as if someone had knocked him in the teeth. Robert Reynolds was dead. His former mentor. The man who’d betrayed his trust and made him a town pariah. Paige’s beloved father. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he felt a slight ache in his soul. They had once been close friends, or so he’d believed. The feeling of loss surprised him since all he’d felt toward Robert for the past few years was a hot, burning anger.
Paige, an only child, was now alone in the world, having lost her mother when she was a teenager. Before she’d shown up here today, he’d thought he was well past caring about her hurts, but the sight of her looking so wounded and grief-stricken tugged at his heartstrings. He knew that, with no family to speak of, she must have gone through the ordeal alone, with no one to share the burden. He steadied himself against the feelings of sympathy coursing through him, knowing it wasn’t wise to make himself vulnerable to the one woman who knew how to bring him to his knees. He’d vowed to never go down that road again. He couldn’t. His very survival depended on it.
She stuck out a wobbly chin. “I know you think he’s a monster, but he had remorse for what he did. On his deathbed he made me promise to right his wrongs.” She shrugged. “So you see, I don’t have a choice. I need to fix everything he destroyed.”
“Everything?” Cameron asked with a raised eyebrow. Robert’s treachery hadn’t harmed just the town of Love. Cameron’s relationship with Paige had been a casualty of the town scandal. Nearly everyone in town had believed Paige was in on her father’s scam. Even though it had killed him to think she was capable of such duplicity, he’d grown to believe in her guilt, as well. Nothing else had made sense. As a result, everything in his life had fallen apart. He had been at rock bottom trying to claw his way out of the abyss. He had emerged on the other side, but not without an abundance of scars.
“I’m aware some damage can’t be undone, no matter how much I wish otherwise.” Her simple statement was full of meaning. Once it would have meant the world to him to hear her speak of regret and making amends. Now, with so much standing between them, her words seemed hollow.
“You’re absolutely right,” he snapped. “Some things can’t be fixed.”
She let out a sigh. “I know you’re still angry, Cameron. And you have every right to be. But if you would only hear me out, you’d realize that what I’m proposing is in the best interest of this town. You can’t let anger and bitterness cloud your judgment.”
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