Falling For Zoe (The Camerons of Tide's Way #1) Read Online Free Page B

anything painted dark green at Michael’s place. A half a gallon of white. A fraction of a pint of the sky blue his front door sported! And then . . . an unopened quart of exterior yellow enamel. “Yellow it is,” she said, straightening, then bent again to rummage for a brush. Up against the side of the box, behind the brushes, she found a sheet of orange gerbera daisy decals. You both win, she thought, shoving the sheet of decals into her shirt pocket. I wonder what possessed Michael to buy a bunch of flower decals or yellow paint, for that matter? Neither was his style. Must have been his wife Connie and whatever she’d had in mind, she’d abandoned for something else.
    JAKE LEANED against the fender of the minivan with the hood up, contemplating his twins who sat on the bottom step of the front porch. They were communicating in the brief half-sentences that they often finished for each other and hand signals known only to themselves.
    They’d always been close, but Jake had been told that twins often were, and until recently he hadn’t worried about their preference for each other’s company. But last week he’d gotten a letter from the elementary school asking for his decision on separate classrooms when they began kindergarten in the fall, and it suddenly seemed like it might be something he should have thought about.
    Maybe he should have been making an effort to invite friends from their day care center over for play dates. Or setting up opportunities for each of them to spend time at other girls’ houses on an individual basis. But it had just never occurred to him until the letter from the school arrived.
    Jake made a mental note to consult their doctor. Another social issue he knew nothing about. With a sigh, he lowered himself onto the brand new mechanic’s creeper his girls had given him for his birthday and returned to the task of changing the oil in the five-year-old minivan Marsha had abandoned along with her family. He’d long ago sold his beloved pickup truck with its big off-road tires and a roll bar in favor of keeping the only vehicle that could transport his entire family.
    For several minutes, with his body half under the van watching the oil drain into an old dishpan, he thought about the women in his life and the nagging feeling that he was living on a tightrope, never quite understanding what any of them needed or wanted from him. Only his mother had always been there for him and never asked for more than he had to give. But maybe all men felt that way about their mothers? Finally, the slender column of dirty oil spluttered and stopped. He screwed the plug back in and backed his creeper out from under the van and into the sunlight.
    Wiping his hands on a rag, he pulled himself to his feet and grabbed a new jug of oil. He glanced up and noticed the twins had disappeared from the steps. With a start, he looked toward the tree house, then spied them intently watching their new neighbor paint her mailbox.
    Zoe smiled at them as she dipped her brush into the paint can. As Zoe spoke, Lynn cocked her head to one side, Lori to the other. Neither appeared to have anything to say in response. Zoe continued the one-sided conversation, her paintbrush steadily coating the mailbox. Once the box itself was newly and brightly yellow, she knelt and went to work on the post. When she was done, she gestured with the brush toward the twins, then toward her house. Eagerly the twins nodded and turned to run back in Jake’s direction.
    Jake started to ask the girls what they had been talking about, but they dashed past him without stopping, tripped up the stairs, and disappeared into the house. What on earth had Zoe said to send them off with such single-minded determination? With a shrug, he upended another can of oil into his engine.
    Whatever Zoe had said was probably based on years of experience. Ava had found an instant cohort and sympathizer when Zoe had revealed that her mother had died giving birth