Love, Scars, & Shooting Stars

Chapter Nineteen

Julie draped her towel over the coarse, scorching sand as the two nearly-teen boys raced for the water's edge. These outings were much easier now that Finn had attained a certain level of independence, but as her eyes drifted to little Baylee playing contentedly amidst a plethora of beach toys, Julie couldn't help but feel nostalgic for times gone by. She slipped out of her t-shirt and cutoffs, feeling more than a little self-conscious in the red two-piece that Becca had loaned her for the day. Julie hadn't worn a bikini since before Finn was born and, let's face it, her figure wasn't quite what it used to be—

"That suit looks fabulous on you—I hate you!" Becca joked, smearing a thick sheen of oil onto her already sun-bronzed skin and squinting up at Julie in the glare of the late-morning sun. "I knew there was a body hiding somewhere underneath those things you call clothes!"

Julie stretched out on her back, chuckling at her new friend's appraisal.

"Are you implying that I have no fashion sense, Becca?"

"No, I'm simply saying that you have a smoking-hot bod," Becca said pragmatically. "And that maybe you should try showing it off a little."

"Um, no. I'm not really the 'show-it-off' type," Julie said, tugging self-consciously at the bra of the borrowed swimsuit. "I prefer to keep my private parts private."

"Okay, so maybe 'show' isn't exactly the right word," Becca corrected, raising her head to check on the kids and then tilting her face back to the sun. "Accentuate. Yes, that's a better way to put it. Dress to accentuate your curves, emphasize your feminine qualities. That's what I meant to say."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm sure a low-cut blouse and a pushup bra would work out really well down at The Sub Shack."

"Well, it would increase your tips, that's for sure," Becca shrugged, her lips twisting into a cryptic grin. "And I'm sure your boss wouldn't mind the view..."

"Cameron?"

"Oooh, so it's Caaaameron now, is it?" Becca purred, lifting her sunglasses to peer over at Julie. "When did you two become so cozy?"

"We didn't! I mean, we're not!" Julie insisted, tearing her eyes away and staring up the only cloud in the sky, a puffy white one that looked like a giant ball of cotton. "That is his name, after all, and I have to call him something—he's my boss, not to mention my landlord!"

"Mmm, how convenient for the both of you," Becca murmured playfully.

"Becca! There is nothing between me and Cameron Shepherd besides work and rent!" Julie insisted, maybe a bit too emphatically. "I don't think of him in... that way."

In truth, Cameron Shepherd was all Julie had been able to think about since the night before. Lying on the very same couch where he himself had probably lain before, she had replayed their unexpected rendezvous over and over in her mind: His tanned legs stretched long in the pallid moonlight, the velvety bass timbre of his voice, the electric heat that sparked from his skin when his arm had brushed up against hers. And then, when she had risen this morning to prepare for her beach outing with Becca and the kids, Cameron was still on her mind: As she made breakfast in the same kitchen where he had once prepared his own; as she stood beneath the hot spray of water in the same shower that had once belonged to him; as she dried her wet, naked flesh with a towel that had likely been in contact with his bare, muscular physique...

"I don't think of him like that," Julie reiterated, more for her own benefit than Becca's.

"Oh, come on!" Becca crowed, sitting up and turning her whole body sideways. "You've never noticed his ass? Or those blue eyes of his, or—"

"Becca!" Julie gasped, sidestepping the question, because of course she had noticed. "Need I remind you that you're a married woman?"

"So? I'm married, not dead," Becca pouted. "I can still look!"

Julie laughed. "Not me," she sighed wistfully. "Hell, if I had someone like your Gary, I'd never even think about another man! Seriously, Bec... I'd give anything to have a family like yours."

"Well, be careful what you wish for," Becca murmured, rising to grab her daughter a drink from the cooler.

Julie's ears picked up on the unusual note of sadness in her friend's demeanor.

"What do you mean?" she asked warily. "Becca, is everything okay?"

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah, everything's fine," Becca evaded, flashing Julie a frozen smile as she snapped the cooler shut again. "I'm just saying that nothing in life is as perfect as it seems, that's all." She handed her daughter a cup of juice and reclaimed her spot on the sand, her demeanor uncharacteristically subdued as she pretended to straighten her towel. Julie eyed her friend with concern, but a moment later Becca's brief moment of melancholy seemed to pass, and her smile warmed as she watched little Baylee toss her drink aside and resume digging in the sand.

"God bless the person who invented the Sippy Cup, right?" Julie ventured.

"Amen, sister!" Becca agreed, back to her usual self as she lay back and propped herself up on her elbows. "Besides, it's not me he's interested in."

"Who?" Julie asked, her nose crinkling in confusion. "The Sippy Cup guy?"

"No, silly!" Becca said, swatting Julie on the arm. "Cameron Shepherd! Even if I wasn't married, I wouldn't stand a chance with him. He's got his eye on someone else."

"He does?" Julie said, struggling to sound nonchalant as the air was inexplicably sucked out of her lungs. Sure, during her training at The Sub Shack she'd seen women flirt with him on several occasions, but she couldn't recall if he'd shown an interest in any one in particular. "Who?"

Becca slid her sunglasses up onto her head and turned to Julie with an admonishing gaze.

"Don't tell me you haven't seen him checking you out."

"Me?!" Julie sputtered. "What? Becca, you have lost your mind; Cameron Shepherd has never 'checked me out'!"

"How would you know?" Becca challenged, casually inspecting her nail polish. "He's not going to do it when you can see him, dummy! He only does it when you're not looking, like when you're walking away or something. I've seen it with my own eyes..."

Julie's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish as she tried to formulate a response, but no words were forthcoming. Surely, Becca was mistaken. Julie had seen the picture of Cameron's former fiancé, so she knew the type of woman that he was interested in, and she was definitely not that! So why would he be 'checking her out'? No, Becca was mistaken, or else she was making it up! But...

What if she isn't? Julie thought to herself, and her stomach did an odd little flip.

"What are you smiling about?" Becca asked, propping herself up one palm and fixing Julie with a suspicious eye before a huge grin broke over her face. "Oh. My. God. You like him!"

"No, I don't!" Julie insisted, shaking her head in frantic denial. "I mean, I do, because he gave me a job, and he's renting me an apartment for next-to-nothing. He's a nice guy, and he's done a lot for me and Finn, but I don't... like him like him!"

Becca's grin grew even wider. She flopped onto her back once more, tipping her sunglasses down over her eyes as she resumed her worship of the sun. Julie stared up at the sky, grateful that Becca was finally going to let the subject drop. Or so she thought.

"You do like him," Becca murmured candidly. "You just won't let yourself admit it."

"No, I don't," Julie insisted, flipping onto her stomach and turning her face away. "Besides, it would never work out..."

Women like me don't end up with guys like Cameron Shepherd, she finished silently.

"Bullshit," Becca said, as if she had read Julie's thoughts. "He'd be damn lucky to have you."