Love, Scars, & Shooting Stars

Chapter Twenty

"This is a nice surprise," Cameron called, wiping his hands on a rag as stepped out onto the weathered porch. "I don't get many visitors out here."

"Well, that's a crying shame," Becca Gibb drawled as she climbed out of the driver's seat. "I guess it's a good thing we decided to drop by then, isn't it, Julie?"

Julie pushed the passenger side door closed and shot Becca a frosty look over the hood of the van before turning her eyes up to Cameron on the porch.

"I tried to tell her you'd be too busy for company," Julie apologized.

"Never too busy for company," Cameron said, praying for the aged railing to hold as he leaned against it with what he hoped was a casual air. Standing in the late afternoon sunlight, with her hair piled high in a damp, tousled knot and her skin alight with a faint bronze glow, Julie Callahan was definitely a sight for sore eyes, as the saying goes. Cameron recalled that she had said something the night before about going to the beach today, and his gaze skittered briefly to her grey t-shirt and denim cutoffs as his mind pondered which style of swimsuit might be underneath.

"We wouldn't want to keep you from your work, though," Julie wavered, interrupting a particularly daring image of his mind's eye.

"I, uh... Actually, I was just about to wrap things up for the day," Cam fibbed, wiping the cold sweat from his brow before tucking the rag into his back pocket. "Just give me a sec to turn the generator off and I'll give you all the grand tour."

When he returned a moment later, Finn and Brandon had already barreled out of the van and headed for the small pond at the far edge of the property, so it was just the two women and the little girl who entered the ramshackle house as he held the door open. He stepped into the foyer and let the screen door fall closed with a gentle slap.

"Watch your step," Cam cautioned, stooping to toss aside an extension cord and a small piece of scrap wood as he led them to the first room on the right. "I haven't done much with the downstairs yet, so it's kind of a disaster right now."

Based on the furnishings that had been left behind by the last known occupants, the room had obviously been used as a study. Becca lifted the drop cloth that covered the massive oak desk and began gushing over the style and craftsmanship, her role as Historical Society VP shining through.

"Do you know how much a desk like this is worth?!" Becca gasped, not really expecting an answer.

That was a good thing, because Cam wasn't really listening. Instead, his attention was focused on Julie, watching as she slowly circled the room and waiting anxiously for her reaction. Strange that it hadn't occurred to him to show her the house before, but now that she was here, it was suddenly very important to him to know what she thought of it—especially if she didn't like it—, although he couldn't say why, exactly.

She paused in front of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and Cameron could see by the tilt of her head that she was skimming the titles of the countless books that remained. Every so often, she'd reach out to trace her fingertips over the soft leather bindings or a title of stamped gold lettering, and Cam wished he could see her face from where he stood. When the bookcase ended, Julie moved slowly to a window on the back wall and paused to gaze out through the wavy, aged glass. The view from the back of the house was spectacular in summer, with the small yard backed by a vast, sweeping meadow of wildflowers that butted up against a dense grove of pine trees in the distance. The river was visible beyond that from the upstairs windows, but Julie seemed suitably impressed even without the water view.

"The view is beautiful," she said.

"Yes, you are," Cameron murmured absently, studying the long, elegant sweep of her neck.

Shit! Did I say that out loud? he wondered, although the look on her face when she turned around was all the confirmation that he needed.

"I, uh... I mean it is," he stammered. "The view, I mean. Through the window."

Owl-eyed and stunned, Julie could only blink back at him, clearly uneasy and most definitely not buying his weak attempt at backpedaling. Dammit, in his mind, he'd simply agreed with her assessment of the view outside the window, so why did he say... something else when the words came out of his mouth? Talk about your Freudian slips! And the way she was looking at him now... well, he'd obviously crossed a line somehow, and she seemed poised to bolt at any second. Cameron just stared back at her, unsure of what he should say.

A loud thwack solved the problem for him, and the awkward spell was broken as their attention was diverted to the other side of the room

"Baylee!" Becca scolded, righting a fallen push-broom and scooping the toddler up onto her hip before turning to Cameron and Julie. "Sorry about that, I can't take my eyes off her for a second!"

"I'll take her," Julie offered too quickly, holding out her arms.

A peculiar expression passed over Becca's face as she picked up on the awkward tension in the room, and her eyes darted back and forth between Cam and Julie.

"Um... that's okay," she declined, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth as she ducked toward the doorway. "Actually, I think I'll take her outside for a while; I should probably check on the boys anyhow."

"Do you want us to wait for you?" Julie called after her, as Becca was already halfway to the exit.

"No, you two go ahead!" Becca trilled back over her shoulder. "I'll see the rest another time!"

The door slapped closed behind her, and Cam turned to Julie with a shrug, not sure if she would want to continue on alone after the unsettling moment that had just passed between them. She turned toward him, although her eyes stopped just short of meeting his.

"Lead the way," she said, obviously eager to let the matter drop.

"Gladly," Cameron agreed on both counts, and stepped out into the foyer.