Page 73 of Love At The Shore
Ally lifted her head from her pillow and squinted. “He promised he’d be back.”
“Beback?” Jenna’s heart beat so hard and fast that she could hear it pounding in her ears. “From where?”
Where could Nick possibly be?
And why, oh why, did she have the sinking feeling that once she knew his whereabouts, she’d feel even less in control of things than she already did?
Chapter Sixteen
Lucas woke tangled in hisbed sheets, feeling as if half the sand from Tybee’s pristine shores had been poured into his eyes. He blinked hard and tried to figure out why he felt so terrible. Why was there such a ferocious pounding in his head?
Then he remembered.
He remembered Tank lounging on the sofa in Jenna’s living room. He remembered Nick’s sad expression and the look of complete and utter disappointment in Jenna’s eye. He remembered feeling like he’d failed at something fundamentally important.
All he wanted to do was squeeze his eyes closed and shut everything out, but then he realized the pounding he kept hearing wasn’t coming from inside his head. It was real—and coming from the patio.
Someone was banging on his door, and that someone sounded a lot like Jenna. “Lucas!”
The knocking was constant, her voice piercing. But beneath the fog of sleep, Lucas heard a desperation in her tone that made him drag himself out of bed. She yelled his name three more times in the seconds it took for him to pull on a pair of jeans and make his way to the door.
“All right. All right,” he said. “It’s too early for drama.”
He’d hoped after a good night’s sleep, she would decide to accept his apology and they could end the summer on a good note. Clearly that wasn’t the case.
But he took one look at Jenna and knew she wasn’t there to rehash the events of yesterday.
She stood on the patio, pounding on his door with a glimmer of wild panic in her eyes. Then she said the words that made the floor feel like it was about to fall away beneath his feet.
“What is Doran’s Cove?”
He blinked. Doran’s Cove was the secret spot by the Cockspur Island lighthouse—the place where he’d taken Nick the day they’d gone for a bike ride instead of swimming laps at the pool. Even more significantly, it was the spot where Lucas had forced himself to swim through a riptide current to the lighthouse and back when he’d been Nick’s age. He’d done something monumentally stupid in order to prove himself when he’d felt like he couldn’t swim fast and hard enough…when he’d been let down and afraid.
Just like Nick had been last night.
No.
Lucas had told Nick that story so he would understand that he hadn’t always been the surfer and strong swimmer he was today. Lucas had simply been trying to identify with him and give the boy some inspiration. He certainly hadn’t meant for Nick to follow in his ill-chosen footsteps.
The next few seconds passed as a blur as Lucas sprang into action. He helped buckle Jenna and Ally into the Jeep, then ran to the driver’s side and guided the car onto Tybee’s Main Street in a cloud of dust and gravel. As they sped down the road that ran parallel to the bike path and the island’s historic trail, he tried to figure out how he was going to explain to Jenna why Nick would sneak out for an early morning swim in choppy waters. All she knew was that he’d told Ally he was headed to Doran’s Cove and he’d be back before breakfast.
Lucas wished he could convince himself that he was wrong and that Nick had just gone there to ride his bike. But that didn’t make sense. In his heart, he knew exactly what Nick was doing down there. Jenna, on the other hand, had no idea.
“I don’t understand why Nick would do this. He’s never snuck out before.” She stared hard out the window, as if she thought she might be able to see all the way to Doran’s Cove if she tried hard enough.
“I’m sure he had his reasons,” Lucas said quietly.
He had to tell her the truth. All of it. But he wasn’t sure how, because there were other things he had to say too. Important things—things that would lead to goodbyes.
“How did he even know about this place?” She shook her head.
Lucas couldn’t put it off any longer. He turned to look at her and then refocused on the road, swallowing around the dry lump in his throat.
In the rearview mirror, he could see Ally glancing back and forth between them. Her eyes swam with unshed tears.
Jenna went still. “What?”
Somehow, Lucas forced the words out. “I brought him here.”
