You are not in trouble. You didn’t do anything wrong. Do you understand me? This is not your fault. I just banged my head on the boat. It was an accident. Okay?”
“Okay. Daddy said it wasn’t my fault, but I thought it was because you had to jump off the boat and get me. I lost the fishing pole, too.”
“I don’t care about the fishing pole.”
“Shelly said it was really expensive and I would have to buy you a new one.”
Marti glared at Cameron. He winced and rubbed the back of his neck.
“I don’t care about the fishing pole getting lost. I care about you. I love you, sweetheart, and I would jump off my boat a million times to make sure you were safe.”
“You would? Even with the sharks?”
Marti glared at Cameron again. “Let me guess, Shelly. She took a bad situation and used it to scare a little girl.”
“She said you were an idiot for jumping in the water with the sharks.” Emma’s lips trembled and tears filled her eyes.
“Did she now? Well you know what? I don’t want to talk about Shelly anymore.”
She didn’t want to think about Cameron kissing and touching that woman, and she didn’t want to think about him marrying her. She didn’t want to think about any of those things, and yet they were circling her cloudy, heart-banging mind. Tears threatened and she needed to move onto something else, or cry right there in front of everyone.
“Tell me what you’ve been doing for the last couple of days, Sugar Bug.”
“Daddy let me have dessert before dinner when I came home from the hospital. I was real sad we had to leave you here, and you didn’t have anyone to be with you. You don’t have a mom or dad, and your grandparents are gone too. No one came to see you but us. Captain Finn gave Daddy your cell phone, but no one called you.”
Leave it to a five-year-old to spell it out as plain as day. She didn’t have anyone in her life, no family, no friends, no one to come and see her in the hospital. No one had called her cell phone because everything had been solved with the lawyers and her uncle knew she was in the hospital. He’d done what he could, and that was fine. Her editor gave her a week to submit her work. She wasn’t expecting any calls and she hadn’t gotten any. Who would call? The closest people she had in her life were Cameron, Emma, and his friends.
Unable to stop the tide, the tears fell. Jack and Cameron saw her crying, but she didn’t care. Her head hurt. Most of all, her heart hurt. The special people she wanted in her life were Cameron and Emma and she couldn’t have them.
Cameron was stunned by Emma’s insight. He hadn’t realized just how alone Marti was. He carried her phone with him for three days, hoping someone would call and he could tell them about her, or perhaps get some information about her.
She could have died, and the only person they notified was an uncle, who couldn’t be bothered to come and see his niece.
He remembered again what she’d said to him in the shower.
She has everything I want. You’ll all be a family, and I’ll be alone again. I won’t have Emma, and I won’t have you.
The people she wanted in her life, who cared about whether or not she lived or died, would never be hers. When he married Shelly, he wouldn’t be able to see Marti. Once George passed away, Marti wouldn’t live at his home and Cameron would lose touch with her. She’d live her own life, find someone to love, get married, have a family, and be happy with someone else, someone who wasn’t him and Emma.
He rubbed the back of his neck and hung his head.
Jack decided to save Marti, since Cameron seemed lost in thought. “Emma, how about you and I give your dad a minute with Marti? She’s got a killer headache and should probably get some sleep. I’ll buy you a candy bar at the vending machine.”
“Any kind I want?” Emma asked and stood on the bed to jump into her Uncle Jack’s arms.
“Absolutely.”
Cameron nodded his thanks to Jack and waited for them to leave the room before he approached Marti.
Chapter Twenty-Two
* * *
CAMERON SAT NEXT to the bed in the chair Jack vacated and waited for Marti to turn and face him. It took a