Cameron stood at the base of Dunn’s River the next morning, a whole bunch of tourists surrounding him. Dunn’s River was one big waterfall broken up in tiny chunks. The river wound down the mountain in a soft flow of small waterfalls and pools. The water was emerald green in some spots and clear blue in others. He kept on a fake smile, but all he’d been able to think about was the woman he’d pushed into the pool last night.

His nephews were splashing each other, and his sister and Craig were holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. He wanted to tell his sister that she and her husband looked like teenagers, but he resisted. Hey, at least, he felt like teasing again. That was a good thing, right? According to Alicia it would be. His old self was back, right? He tried to think about who that man had been. The self before he’d lost Kat.

It was strange because he hadn’t noticed much the past year. Hadn’t thought about much besides Kat and his team, the Storm. But when the woman last night had been trembling, there was a part of him that had to help her. Strange. And when she’d said she’d lost her husband and son … Well, that resonated as deep into him as if he’d been standing inside a church bell.

“Line up.” The tour guide waved his arms to everyone. “We don’t climb until we are all lined up and holding on to the other person’s hand.”

The whole group began to move into a line.

His sister, her husband, and the two boys were in front of him. He held Jon’s hand.

Jon smiled at him. “Uncle Cam, this is cool.”

Cam thought he would rather not be stuck with this whole group. He would rather have paid for a private tour for the family, but his sister wasn’t happy he’d paid for the whole trip already. She’d insisted he let her book the excursions even if he wouldn’t let her pay. She wanted to get them a good deal. “Plus, my boys don’t need to be spoiled,” she had argued.

Right now, he wanted to demand they have a helicopter take them to a private island somewhere that had a pool, zip lines, and hundreds of acres to explore. Although he knew once his sister had set her mind on this and got him out of mandated therapy, she wouldn’t let him deviate from her plans. It was pretty freaking annoying. That’s what it was.

The good thing was that most people didn’t even notice him right now, which suited him just fine.

Groups of people were still pushing together trying to get in the line. When he turned back and reached out his hand, he was quite surprised to see it was her.

The “her” from last night.

“Hey,” he said, grinning.

She wasn’t paying attention. She was facing away, looking at Dunn’s River, taking a picture with her phone. When he spoke, she jerked and turned to him, dropping her phone.

“Oh crap.” He was fast and picked it up for her while she was still bending down.

The woman stood up, staring at him as she took her phone, her eyes not breaking from his. “You want me or something of mine in the water, don’t you?”

At first, he thought she was angry. Then he saw the edges of her lips turn up.

He smiled back and searched her eyes. They were deep green, and her red hair made her breathtaking. “Sorry.”

“No more apologizing,” she said. She was wearing a blue halter-top swimsuit with a white see-through cover, and a huge white hat. “It was my fault last night. I was trying to help the pregnant woman understand her swelling is out of control, but … well, it doesn’t matter, does it?”

He thought about the way she’d been fussing over that woman despite the woman’s rude response. She had done her best to help. Now, worried that he had damaged her phone, he looked it over. “Is the phone workable?”

Glancing at it, she shrugged. “I have this waterproof case, so I should be okay.”

“Oh.” A nervous energy pulsed through him, and he realized he found this woman attractive. Which felt so weird. “I’m really sorry about last night.”

“Please no—”

“Apologizing,” he filled in for her.

“Yep.”

“Hook up!” The tour guide called out.

They fell into line, and he held his nephew’s hand and hers.

The whole group started moving forward, and Cam noted the guide tried to keep them out of the really slippery places.

Part of Cam wanted to drop everyone’s hands and go off on his own.

He was trying to be his “old self,” he reminded himself. The one before Kat passed but even his old self wouldn’t do this. He knew that.

They navigated through some slippery parts of the trail. Then the guide said, “Okay, let’s explore this pool of water for ten minutes. Then we’ll hook up again.”

They all broke their grip, and Jon splashed him.

It sent him and Jon and Paul into a splashing war and ultimately left the two boys falling into the pool. “Yeah, that’s right.” Cam laughed at them as they ended up on their rears. He still had it.

The boys laughed and began wrestling with each other in the water.

He caught his sister’s eye, and she laughed and winked at him, holding Craig’s hand.

Craig laughed too, nodding at him.

Craig was a nice guy. He’d been a bronc rider in his younger years and now just ranched and farmed. He was grateful for Craig. Craig was steady.

That’s what Cam yearned to be again. Steady. He took a step back.

“Watch it.”

Turning, he saw the redhead again.

“Dang, looks like I can’t help but stumble at you or into you.”

She was doing something on her phone and didn’t look up. “Yeah.” She smiled, but he could tell it wasn’t real. “My sister keeps bugging me and it’s distracting.”

For a few moments, he just stood next to her while she looked at her phone.

Was it strange that this woman didn’t try to engage him at all? “My sister took my phone,” he said.

She looked up at him. “What—are you twelve?”

A laugh jerked out of him, which seemed to surprise both of them. Most women didn’t talk to him like this. No, if it were a social setting, he was either spoken to with way too much care or blatant flirting. “Are you a doctor or something? Is that why you tried to help that pregnant woman?”

The edges of her eyes creased. Then she pressed another button on her phone. “No, a doula. Well, I used to be a doula.”

“What is that?”

She shrugged. “Basically, I helped women have babies. I was a support person for natural child birth.” She cocked her head to the side. “Or just a support person if the woman wants to have the baby in a hospital too.”

He assessed her and thought about the pregnant woman last night that she had been trying to help. “So… if you used to be a doula, what are you now?”

She looked upset for a moment then shrugged. “I’ve been in school for a couple of years. Just got my physician assistant’s license.”

He nodded. “Nice.”

Silence reigned.

Her eyes met his. “Most people don’t want help until they absolutely need it.” He thought of the pregnant woman again.

“Probably true.”

Stuffing her phone into a spandex pocket attached to her covering, she turned her attention to the water, still looking a bit off-kilter. “That woman last night needs to be careful. Her feet and legs are swelling, and she is carrying really high. Too high. If you noticed, she was clearly in a lot of back pain. She might have been having contractions.”

He frowned. This didn’t make sense to him. “You could tell all of this by simply seeing her lounging on a deck?”

She nodded. “Oh yeah. I can see things from just standing here talking to you.”

Straightening, he felt put on the spot. “And what is that?”

Sucking in a slow breath, she peered at him like a doctor would. “You work out hard, but you’ve lost weight recently. A little too much. That’s why you have that haunted expression around your eyes.” She cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t sleep much.”

Touching his eyes, he found her observations off-putting. “Hmm.”

“And you don’t like it when people tell you things like that, which is funny because I wouldn’t have bothered giving you my assessment if you hadn’t kept trying to talk to me.”

Which was true, he thought and wondered why he was pushing to talk to her. He sighed. “Maybe I thought trying to help that pregnant lady was sweet, in a bossy kind of way.” He shrugged. “My sister is a total boss, but she tries to help too.”

Not responding to his comment, she turned her attention to the falls. “This view is amazing.”

He wanted to ask her about her husband and child, but it wasn’t like you just bring that crap up with people.

“My sister tells me I never take the help I should take.”

She turned to him. “And why are you telling me this?”

Yes, why indeed? He let out a soft laugh. “I have no idea.”

Turning to face him, she gave him a sad smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s … well, my mom says that’s my superpower, getting people to tell me their life stories in less than a minute.” She shrugged. “Well, it used to be.”

Perfect opening to ask about her child and husband. “About that—”

“Hey Isabel! Come over and see this!”

Cameron looked up and saw some guy in the worst Hawaiian shirt ever. He had a nineteen-seventies mustache and a thick layer of white sun block on his nose.

A light smile played at her lips, and she turned fully to look at him. “My sister thinks this cruise is a good idea because she thinks it will help me meet men. But I don’t want to meet men.” She winked. “And the funny thing is, when you don’t want to meet men, some of them are attracted to you that are way over eager.”

He turned to look at moustache guy again then wondered if she was talking about him. “Why are you on this cruise?”

A sad look filled her face. “I … just want to heal.” She cocked an eyebrow. “My therapist thought it was a good idea, you know how it goes.”

“Isabel!” The Hawaii shirt guy called out again. “Come look at this.”

She rolled her eyes. “Dang, some people can’t take a hint.”

Cameron wasn’t used to be around people who talked about what their therapists wanted for them. He didn’t speak.

“So fair is fair, why are you on this trip?” she asked him.

He shrugged. “My sister got me out of mandated therapy sessions to be here.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

Suddenly, Cam found they were both smiling, staring at each other.

She let out a light laugh. “So you really are twelve. She takes your phone, and she manages your therapy.”

After she said it, they were still smiling at each other, so it felt like more of a flirtation between them than like she was being rude.

“Guess so.” He shrugged.

“Isabel!” The Hawaiian shirt guy was with a group, pointing to something in the water. “You gotta see this.”

Their eyes held for another second before she said, “Excuse me.”

Cameron watched her walk to the group and then watched the Hawaiian guy put his arm around her and engulf her in the crowd of people. She actually looked back at him for a second before he lost sight of her.

He felt a tinge of what? Attraction? No. He dismissed the thought immediately. He stayed there until the guide pulled them all back together. She stayed with the single’s group. For the second time in two days, he wondered about someone else’s sad story.