Kate Carlisle - Sweet Surrender, Baby Surprise

Of course, she might be a little disappointed that he had no intention of marrying Julia, but she would just have to live with it. Cameron would never marry, that was all there was to it. He would never want to destroy someone else the way his parents had destroyed each other.

It’s not like he’d been a martyr to his fate. Cameron had tested the waters more than once, in spite of the boyhood pact. But things had never worked out, to put it mildly. There had been plenty of women in his life and a few attempts at serious relationships, but they’d been disastrous. He’d used those as strong reminders that he’d come from bad stock and things would never change. He wasn’t willing to put someone else through that kind of pain, let alone experience it again himself. No, he was meant to go it alone, and that suited him just fine, thanks.

He stood and checked his wristwatch. The babysitter had taken Jake for a long walk around the hotel grounds so Cameron could have a short meeting with his brothers here in the suite. They were due any minute.

They would soon find out they were uncles, Cameron thought. So much for sacred pacts. But at least Cameron hadn’t been the first brother to break it. That honor went to Adam when he married Trish James last month.

The doorbell rang and Cameron greeted his brothers, then led the way to the kitchen. “You guys want beers?”

“You have to ask?” Brandon said, swinging the refrigerator door open and grabbing three bottles from the shelf.

“How’s Trish?” Cameron asked Adam, knowing his brother had brought his wife along for a quiet, romantic weekend at Monarch Dunes.

“She’s great,” Adam said with a smile. “She ran into Mom and her friends downstairs so they’re probably relaxing at the pool by now.”

“Relaxing?” Brandon laughed. “We’d better get this over with so you can rescue her.”

“Good idea.” Adam sat at the dining room table and opened a thin binder of notes and spreadsheets.

Cameron and Brandon joined him at the table where they discussed some last-minute scheduling items that had arisen over the hand-off of priority projects from the Monarch Dunes resort to the Napa Valley property.

“You’ve done a great job with Monarch Dunes, bro,” Brandon said, tipping his beer bottle in Cameron’s direction.

“Thanks,” Cameron said. “Napa’s looking good, too.”

The three men had found out years ago that the best way to run their development company was to put each brother in charge of a particular property from start to finish. The Monarch Dunes property had been Cameron’s baby from day one and he’d run the project much as he ran his life: with military precision.

The multifaceted, multileveled Craftsman-style resort, located forty miles south of their home town of Dunsmuir Bay, was already completely booked for the next three seasons and on its way to becoming the premier destination spot along California’s Central Coast.

Cameron had had a hand in every decision along the way, from the expansiveness of the lobby that opened to a spacious terrace overlooking the ocean and cliffs, to the placement of the greens on the state-of-the-art championship golf course that wound around the wide perimeter of the hotel.

“My staff is more than ready to have me move out of here,” Cameron admitted. “They’ve started saluting me when I ask them to do something.”

“When you ask them to do something?” Adam said sardonically. “More like barking out orders, I’d say.”

Brandon shook his head. “Once a marine, always a marine.”

With a shrug, Cameron said, “Hey, I just prefer to have things done the right way, so let’s get back to business.” He read his notes off a legal pad. “I’ll let my assistant know that the Napa grand opening will be pushed back one week to coincide with the grape harvest and crush. She can coordinate schedules with the Napa staff.”

The Dukes’ Napa property was being built adjacent to the acres of vineyards and the winery they’d purchased years ago. The white wines were already being marketed all over the country and the reds were on the verge of reaching world-class status.

“Good,” Brandon said and walked toward the kitchen. “Hey, what’s this?”

Too late, Cameron realized Brandon had picked up the scrapbook Julia had given him earlier. “It’s nothing. I’ll take it.”

But Brandon was already thumbing through the pages. “Dude, these are baby pictures. It’s a baby album.”

“Who’s the baby?” Adam asked, moving around the table to see what Brandon was looking at.

Hell. Cameron reached for the book. “I’ll take that.”

“I don’t think so,” Brandon said and whipped the book away.

Adam pierced Cameron with a look. “Was there something you wanted to share with us?”

“I’m not playing this game.” Cameron held out his hand and waited calmly until Brandon gave him the thick scrapbook. “Okay, I’ll see you guys later.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Brandon said, both hands fisted on his hips. He turned to Adam. “I saw a shot of a pregnant woman. And an ultrasound photo.”

“So what?” Cameron said. He wasn’t about to let his brothers see anything else in the book before he’d had a chance to thoroughly view every page.

“What’s going on, Cam?” Adam asked quietly.

Feeling cornered but knowing there was no way out, Cameron sat back down at the table. “Fine. I was going to tell you anyway.”

“Well, let’s hear it.” Brandon pulled out his chair and sat.

“I have a son.”

Stunned silence greeted his announcement. Brandon blinked a few times, opened his mouth to speak, but ended up saying nothing.

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “Mind repeating that?”

Brandon folded his arms across his chest. “I knew that was an ultrasound.”

Cameron glared at Brandon. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did.” Brandon lifted his shoulders philosophically. “I’m smarter than I look.”

Adam and Cameron both laughed, easing some of the tension in the room.

“I think you owe us some explanation after dropping that bomb,” Adam said.

They’d only torment him until he spilled everything, so he gave them the abbreviated story of Julia and baby Jake.

“You never read the rest of her email messages?” Brandon said incredulously. “Weren’t you curious? I would be.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got more control than you,” Cameron said, his tone slightly defensive. “Control issues, you mean,” Brandon replied.

Adam chuckled. “I think we should check out some of those messages.”

“I told you I erased them all,” Cameron said, not willing to add that he’d also taken steps to recover them. By now, they were probably waiting in his email inbox.

Adam grabbed Cameron’s shoulder and said, “Maybe so, but you’ve got the baby book. Let’s check it out.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Dude, we’re your brothers,” Brandon said. “We can add some objectivity to the situation.”

He had a point. They both did, as much as Cameron hated to admit it. In fact, it seemed fitting that they were there with him, considering that bits of their sacred brotherhood pact were crumbling to dust by the minute.

Against his better judgment, he opened the book. His brothers pulled their chairs up close to look at the photo on the first page. It was of Jake, taken in the hospital within an hour after he was born.

“He looks like a grizzled old man,” Brandon said.

“No, he doesn’t,” Cameron argued.

Adam sat back. “Babies always look like that. You’ve got to consider where they just came from.”

“Oh, man,” Brandon said, flinching. “That’s just rude.”