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

turned away from the mysteries under the sink and smiled at her. His mouth was less than a foot away, and it looked very kissable. Zoe licked her lips. Jake stood abruptly and leaned back against the sink with both hands gripping the edge of the counter.
    Slowly, Zoe got control of herself and straightened as well, being careful to move away as she did. I’m shameless. I barely know the man, and all I can think about is kissing him . She pushed herself up onto a stool beside the breakfast bar. He came to talk about Ava. He clearly isn’t as attracted to me as I am to him, and this is getting embarrassing .
    Which thought immediately brought her last discussion with Ava to mind, and the troubling tidbit of information Ava had inadvertently let slip. The fact that Travis had tried to convince Ava to have sex and been turned down. Should she tell Jake, or keep the confidence and hope Ava would tell him herself? Little chance of that, Zoe supposed. Not that she would have told her father such a thing either. Good grief! The very idea made her shudder.
    “I had a nice time shopping with Ava. She’s a great kid, you know. You must be really proud of her.” Zoe was babbling, but couldn’t stop herself. Jake just stood there, braced against her sink, not saying anything.
    Jake couldn’t think what to say. Zoe was telling him something about Ava, but all he could think about was Zoe’s mouth and how much he wanted to kiss it. I gotta get out of here before I do something I can’t take back .
    Jake jerked toward the door, then realized he hadn’t acknowledged anything Zoe had said. “I, ah . . . yeah, I am proud of her.” Now that the kitchen island stood between them, he felt safer. He relaxed and remembered what he’d come for. “Actually, Ava’s the reason I came over.”
    Zoe leaned one hip against the island and looked at him with a puzzled expression in her hazel eyes—eyes that were surrounded by the thickest lashes he’d ever seen. Rich dark lashes, much darker than her red-gold hair. They made her eyes look big and vulnerable. And perfect in her heart-shaped face with the sprinkling of freckles across her nose.
    “What about Ava? I mean, other than that she’s a great kid?” Zoe prompted.
    Jake pulled away from the doorjamb and perched on a stool on the opposite side of the island.
    “I don’t know how much Ava told you about her mom.” Jake folded his arms and rested them on the worn chopping block surface.
    “A little. Ava said she left without saying goodbye a couple years ago. That must have been hard for everyone, not just Ava.”
    Jake shrugged. He wasn’t here to talk about himself. “Sometimes I think I’m doing pretty good with her. Ava, I mean. Then we have a scene, and I feel like I’m missing something. She accuses me of not caring how she feels, but it’s not that I don’t care. Maybe I care too much.” He shrugged. “I guess I just don’t always understand. I try, but . . . but I’m just her father, so maybe I’ll never understand. I don’t know.”
    “Well, she’s just a kid, so she probably doesn’t get where you’re coming from either. Kind of makes you even. But unless you tell her how you feel , she can’t guess.”
    The emphasis Zoe put on the word feel made Jake uneasy. “But I do tell her how I feel. I tell her I love her all the time, and I tell her I’m proud of her, too.”
    “Okay, so maybe that was the wrong way to put it.” Zoe pulled her lower lip in and bit it, obviously mulling over what to tell him. “Ava and I have been through a similar experience. An experience that makes us different. We talked about how being the oldest is hard sometimes even when your mom is still around. But when she’s not, it’s even harder. You really just want to be a kid instead of having to fill in for a missing parent. We talked about how that changed our lives and made us different from our peers. But that’s only part of what’s bothering her. She just feels