Healing A Hero (The Camerons of Tide’s Way #4) Read Online Free PDF

looked at the childish rendition of a Raggedy Ann doll sitting on the lap of a Marine in his dress blues. His niece had been a toddler when she drew it.

Chapter 6
    August 2001
    Tide’s Way, North Carolina
    WHILE HIS BROTHER cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, Philip sat back in his chair and invited his niece, Ava, to climb up into his lap. From behind his back, he produced a brand new Raggedy Ann doll and made the doll dance on his knee. Ava giggled and reached for the doll.
    “I bet you’re ticklish,” Philip squeaked in his best little-girl voice. Then he shoved one of Raggedy Ann’s plump cloth hands into Ava’s armpit.
    The little girl shrieked with laughter and tickled the doll back.
    “You’re good with kids,” Philip’s brother Jake commented as he rinsed a fry pan and began drying it.
    “Ava’s good with me,” Philip replied.
    “I’ve got a secret,” Raggedy Ann whispered loudly into Ava’s ear.
    “Secwet, secwet,” Ava responded, grabbing the doll by both arms.
    “If you put your jammies on, Uncle Philip will read you a story.” Philip’s squeaking voice put words into the doll’s mouth.
    “Down,” demanded Ava.
    “Put me down, please,” Jake admonished his daughter.
    “Pease.”
    Philip set his niece on the floor and patted her bottom as she scurried off toward her bedroom.
    “Too bad things didn’t work out between you and what’s-her-name. Do you ever hear from Tommy?” Jake shoved the fry pan into a cupboard and grabbed a fistful of silverware which he began drying and dropping into a drawer.
    Philip sighed. “Her name was Holly. And I do hear from Tommy now and then.”
    Jake lifted his brows. “How’s he doing?”
    “He’s growing like a weed and into soccer, so I hear.” The infant Philip once thought was his son wasn’t a baby any more, and Philip learned more about his doings from Tommy’s real father than he did from Tommy himself. The crushing sense of loss had faded to aching regret, but he was glad things had turned out the way they had. It wouldn’t have been fair to Lawrence if he’d never known about Tommy.
    Philip looked in the direction Ava had disappeared, then back to meet his brother’s gaze. “You’re a lucky man.”
    “You didn’t used to think so.” Jake leaned back against the counter and frowned down at Philip.
    “Getting married in haste didn’t work for me. I didn’t want you to regret having to get hitched before you were ready to settle down. But—” Philip sighed. Jake had gotten his high-school sweetheart pregnant and done the honorable thing. “But I envy you. I envy that.” He pointed down the hall.
    The disillusionment Philip had felt at Holly’s betrayal was echoed in his brother’s face. They were nine years apart, he the oldest in the family and Jake the youngest, but they were the closest in heart and soul. He could tell Jake anything. And had.
    “Maybe things will be different with Elena. Maybe you just needed to wait for the right woman.”
    When Philip hesitated, Jake laughed. “Don’t try to tell me you aren’t in love with her.”
    “We’ve only been seeing each other for two weeks.” Philip hadn’t even used the word love in his own mind. Until Jake did.
    “And you’ve spent just about every waking moment together.”
    “We like a lot of the same things. She’s home from college. I’m on leave. We’re just . . . having fun. We’re friends.” Can’t fall in love in just two weeks .
    “I’ve seen the way she looks at you.” Jake wagged his eyebrows. “I don’t think she thinks you’re just friends.”
    “She isn’t even twenty yet, for Pete’s sake. Maybe she’s just dazzled by the uniform.”
    “I’m guessing it’s the man inside the uniform she’s dazzled by.”
    “Or my motorcycle.”
    “If it was just a motorcycle, a uniform, and a Cameron brother, then she’d be after Will. He’s got both, and he’s not deploying back to the other side of the world in another couple of