Falling For Zoe (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1) by Skye Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

opened his mouth to comment, but changed his mind, shrugged, and took another swig of beer.
    “Any news on your next deployment?” Jake changed the subject.
    “Nada.” Philip shrugged again. “Right now they’ve got me on recruiting duty at all the local colleges and high schools. I’ve heard rumors though. Afghanistan in the fall, maybe.”
    “Be tough on Dad. Mom too. Another holiday season with their first-born in harm’s way. Ever think of getting out?” Jake set the mower back on its wheels, put the file down, and got to his feet. He retrieved his half-finished beer and slouched into a chair next to his brother.
    “I’m a Marine.” Philip studied the label on his beer bottle. “I’ve been a Marine since I was seventeen. I don’t know anything else.”
    Jake punched his brother’s arm with affection. “I’m proud of you, Philip. Never think otherwise, but I’m still going to pray it’s just a rumor. It’d be nice to have you home for Christmas this year.”
    “It would be nice for a change. Wouldn’t it?” Philip lifted his beer bottle in Jake’s direction. They tapped bottles briefly.
    “Amen.”
    “AMEN! AMEN!” Polly rocked wildly on her perch. “Amen! Amen!”
    Scotch barked, and Jet circled Zoe’s feet, tail wagging furiously.
    “Enough, already!” Zoe told her four-footed alarm system as she headed for the door to see who had rung her bell this time.
    Ava stood beside the door, rocking from one foot to the other.
    “Hi, Ava. What’s up?”
    “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”
    “Nothing that I’m not happy to have interrupted.”
    Ava looked as if she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how to start.
    “I’ve been scrubbing floors,” Zoe offered. “Never my favorite activity. You want to set a spell and have a glass of sweet tea?”
    “Sure!” Ava grinned eagerly.
    Zoe pointed toward the row of rocking chairs she had inherited along with the purchase of the house. “Be right back.”
    After Zoe had returned with the icy drinks and they’d settled into the rockers, Ava seemed on the verge of saying something, but for several long minutes remained silent. Zoe waited for Ava to get to whatever she’d come to say.
    “It must have been hard losing your mom like that,” Ava finally blurted.
    “It’s always hard to lose your mother, however it happens. It’s probably just as hard if you’re sixty instead of thirteen. I guess it’s natural to think of your mother as immortal and shocking to find out she’s not.”
    Ava sighed and ran her fingers over the rivulets of moisture dripping down the sides of her glass. Then she looked at Zoe. “My mom left us on purpose. She had a choice.”
    “That must have been difficult to understand. At least I knew my mom didn’t want to go.” Zoe’s heart went out to this young girl who so obviously needed her mother at this point in her life. Zoe knew what it was like to be on the threshold of becoming a young woman, then suddenly thrust into the role of mother and homemaker.
    “She just took off. No explanations or anything. Like she didn’t care what happened to any of us anymore.” Ava pushed the rocker hard, letting her hurt and anger show in the rapid movement. “Daddy’s always going on about how she still loves us and it’s just him she has a problem with, but how could she? How could she just go off like that if she really cared about any of us? How could she do that to Daddy?”
    “The relationship between your parents doesn’t affect how they feel about you,” Zoe tried to reassure her. “I’m sure your father is right, and your mom does love you. She must have had her reasons for the choices she made.”
    “She didn’t want to be a mom anymore. She wanted to be free.” The note of baffled hurt intensified in Ava’s voice.
    “Perhaps something was making her very unhappy, and leaving was the only way she knew how to fix it?”
    “They never argued or anything. Daddy’s not like that. He