Chapter Six
Ian guzzled his coffee, needing the rush of caffeine to clear his head. He hadn’t slept the night before. Like a coward, he’d stood between the palms watching Cameron sob until she’d appeared to have nothing left. The sun had been lighting the sky when she finally made her way from the beach to the path he assumed led to her home. He’d gone to the beach where clean-up crews were trying to clear the airplane debris from the water. He’d helped until he was too tired to be of any use. Still, when he’d climbed into his hastily pitched tent, he’d been unable to do anything but think of Cameron. After all this time, he’d found her, but their reunion had been nothing like he’d imagined. Despite her leaving, he’d believed she still loved him. Oh, he knew she’d blamed him for the death of their daughter in Africa. She hadn’t hidden her wish that he’d allowed Wes to let them both die. But he’d thought with time, she’d see he’d had no choice. Wes couldn’t save the baby, and neither of them could stand to lose Cameron. In the end, they’d lost her anyway, because she’d left, and the woman they’d found on this island wanted nothing to do with her past.
But why? Why had she chosen to leave him and the memories of their daughter only to come here and start a new life with a new man and new daughter? She’d avoided his questions about Keso, but the answers were obvious. Although Ian had only seen Arabella’s eyes briefly, he knew he’d never seen eyes that shade of green before. And then Keso Lawrence had walked in, touching Cam with familiarity and love shining from eyes the same sea-glass green as the girl’s. Ian didn’t know what relationship Keso and Cam had now, but it was clear the other man was Arabella’s father. The knowledge made Ian’s stomach twist and his fists clench. Cameron should be his wife now. Her children should be his. How the hell had she just walked away and lived the life meant for them with someone else?
“Whoa there, soldier.” Matt held up his hands to keep Ian from plowing into him. “Something on your mind?”
Ian snorted. The other man had to be fucking kidding. Something on his mind? Hell yeah, he had quite a few things on his mind. Like why was Cameron on this island and what the hell had she been doing for the past five and a half years?
Matt sobered and inclined his head toward the room where Arabella Lawrence slept. Ian had planned to check on her earlier, but when he’d passed by, Keso had been sitting beside her bed. This morning he didn’t think he could face Cam’s lover, husband, baby daddy . . . whatever the hell title the other man held.
“Wes told me about the doctor,” Matt offered. “I’d heard stories. I thought she was dead.”
So had Ian. So had everyone. Cam wasn’t some flighty kid. She’d been a damn good doctor on her way to head up the Women’s Department at their hospital. Women loved and trusted her. She possessed a cool head, expert knowledge, and a warm heart. And she’d left it all. Why? Just to get away from him? Or because she’d found someone better?
“She appears to be very much alive.” Ian stopped in front of Arabella’s room. Through the doorway, he could see Cameron curled on her side with her daughter tucked against her chest. They both slept peacefully, their chests rising and falling in sync. Cameron’s breath ruffled the girl’s curls. He forced back the sudden loss that swamped him. How many times had he dreamed of finding Cameron and their own daughter snuggled together? His chest ached with the love he still felt for this woman who’d so thoroughly broken his heart. There had to be a reason, an explanation for her callousness. The woman he loved wouldn’t have let him go so easily. He refused to believe she’d changed that much.
Cameron pulled in a deep breath, causing her daughter’s head to bob against her breast. He raised his gaze to her face, to the smooth cheek shadowed by dark lashes. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, the only one he’d ever loved. He didn’t care what she was to Keso now. She’d been Ian’s first. He’d do whatever he could to make her his again.
“So, the girl’s hers?” Matt asked, pulling Ian’s attention away from the sight of mother and daughter in front of him.
“Appears so,” he muttered.
“She’s what, three, four?” The other doctor turned away from the sleeping forms and headed toward the entrance. “How long has the doctor been gone?”
Ian gave the other man his full attention now. “Five and half years.” He could recite the time down to the day, but he’d spare his colleague.
Matt gave a low whistle. “Didn’t waste any time, did she?”
The doctor’s words were like a fist to Ian’s already roiling gut. He could clearly remember one afternoon about a month before she left, Cameron had been in the baby’s nursery folding and refolding clothes. For some unexplainable reason, he’d promised her when she was ready, they’d try again for another baby. When she’d spun to face him, she’d told him they couldn’t replace their daughter, and she didn’t want to try again. The look of disgust on her face at his offer was still branded in his memory. But what Matt said was right—she hadn’t waited long before creating a new life with Keso.
“How’s everyone this morning?” Wes asked as they approached the table he’d pulled to the entrance as a desk.
“Peachy,” Ian mumbled instead of going into details of the shit day he was already having.
Wes’s brown eyes narrowed. “Perfect,” he replied slowly, recognizing the lie Ian told. “They’ve asked me to assess the tourists and send them back, if we can.” He checked the list of patients he’d scribbled on to a crumpled piece of paper.
Matt nodded. “That’s doable. Most of those were minor injuries. Shock, that sort of thing.”
“That just leaves the islanders?” Ian asked. They’d handled most of them. Would they need to be sent to another island for assessment?
“What about the islanders?”
Ian jumped at the sound of Cam’s voice so close behind him. How had he not heard her approach? Once, he’d been aware any time she was near.
“Good morning, Cam,” Wes greeted with a smile.
“Morning.” She slipped a stethoscope beneath her braid, looping the instrument around her neck and leaving it to hang just above the hint of cleavage revealed by her V-neck tee. “Sorry, I meant to be available sooner, but . . .” She cast a gaze toward her daughter’s room.
“No worries,” Wes assured her. “I was just telling Matt and Ian we’ve been asked to assess the tourists and send them to the main island, if possible.”
“The big island,” she mumbled. “It’s the big island.”
Wes nodded. “My apologies.”
Cam squeezed her eyes shut briefly, giving her head a small shake. “Sorry. It’s just . . .” She sighed. “If you want these people to trust you, to accept you, you can’t give them reminders that you’re an outsider.”
“And you’re not?” Ian wished he could take the words back as soon as they left his mouth.
Wes winced. Matt shook his head.
Cam narrowed her blue eyes. “Not anymore. Though I assure you I had to earn my spot here. These people are here for a reason. Most of them chose a life without luxury or conveniences in exchange for peace and stability. They aren’t used to strangers. They don’t welcome strangers. Not your kind anyway.” She mumbled that last part under her breath, but Ian didn’t miss her comment.
Who the hell did she think she was? Like they weren’t the same. She might be here pretending to be like these people, but she belonged to the same world as he and Wes.
“My kind? Just what the hell is my kind? The kind that comes in and saves their asses when they realize living off the fucking grid is dangerous and impossible? The kind that knows running and hiding on a goddamn island is a coward’s way out?”
“Ian.” Wes pushed in front of him, blocking his view of the infuriating female who’d replaced the woman he loved. “That’s enough.”
Ian’s breaths huffed out hard and ragged. He ground his back teeth until his jaw ached.
“Take a walk.” His friend’s mouth barely moved as he issued the order.
Ian glared at the man who acted as his boss in the field.
“Now.” Wes shifted, still acting as a barrier between Ian and the woman he’d tried unsuccessfully to get over.
* * *
Cameron held her breath as Ian and Wes stood chest to chest, each waiting for the other to give in. Finally, Ian shouldered past the other man and stomped from the clinic. She pulled in a ragged breath and blinked away tears.
Wes’s body sagged as he released a long sigh. “It’s been a long five years.”’
“Wes,” she warned. This wasn’t the day for hearing about Ian’s poor, miserable life since she’d left.
Her former friend turned and met her gaze. His brown eyes were duller than she remembered. Lines now spread from the corners to disappear into the graying hair at his temples. He’d aged since she’d last seen him. They all had. They’d moved on with their lives. They’d evolved. None of them were the same as they’d been before that last trip to Africa. They never could be again.
“I wasn’t trying to insult him or either of you.” She needed to move this conversation away from her past. Their past. “Let’s look at the facts here. You’re all Americans. You’re doctors, which they equate with wealth. You’re educated, which is a privilege here. You represent things they’ve tried to escape. Maybe eventually they can trust you, but you’ll have earned that trust. What you did for Ara and Brodie will pave the way. How you treat them going forward will determine the rest.”
Wes continued to study her from eyes that rarely missed anything. She forced herself not to squirm under his scrutiny.
“Calling people cowards for being here won’t help your cause,” she finished.
“Cameron, he’s understandably upset. He’s just verified that you left and chose to stay away.”
She snickered. “Of course, I chose to stay away. Why else wouldn’t I have come back?”
The two men exchanged a look she couldn’t comprehend.