Read Online Caught in the Current (Pacific Shores Book 2) by Lynnette Bonner - Free Book Online Page B

excited about the prospect? I’ll get there. She just needed to give her heart a little more time to catch up with what her mind knew was a good choice.
    Reece shuffled his feet, and Marie noted the bare burger waiting for condiments on his plate. Poor guy couldn’t even get a bite to eat at his own welcome-home party.
    “Oh! I’m so sorry! Me and my big mouth.”
    Marie detected true embarrassment from Dakota and knew she hadn’t made the gaffe on purpose to humiliate her as some people had in the past. “Don’t worry about it. So, tell us about Africa. But why don’t we all grab some food while you do?”
    Reece gave her an appreciative look.
    “Oh, I just loved working there. I wanted to stay, but I’ve been battling malaria fairly regularly lately, so they sent me home for a while for some rest and recuperation.”
    Marie grabbed an extra plate for Alyssa and tried not to think too hard about what perfect timing it was that Reece and Dakota had returned home at pretty much the same time.
    Dakota chattered on about how fulfilling it was to serve the needy in Africa, and Marie pondered the fact that the most significant thing she did each day was take care of her three-year-old.
    Yes, Reece, who had served the last several years as a counselor to troubled youth, and Dakota, who had served in Africa, were definitely perfect for each other, and it was best she remember it.
    Plates filled, the group headed for one of the wooden picnic tables. Marie stuffed her and Alyssa’s plastic ware into her back pocket and managed to balance both plates, two cups of punch, and the bread roll she knew Alyssa would want, but only if it didn’t touch any of her other food beforehand. Dan settled Alyssa on her knees on the bench, and Marie set her plate before her and handed her a fork from her pocket. “Oh, Mom forgot napkins. I’ll grab you one and be right back, okay?”
    Reece started to rise. “I’ll get you some.”
    She waved him back into his seat next to Dakota. “No. No. I’ll get it. This is your party. You eat.” It only took a moment to grab a few napkins, but when she returned to the table, it was to find that someone had given Alyssa the squeeze ketchup bottle. A little bit of panic swelled inside her. Alyssa could be pretty dangerous with those things! The ketchup never came out easily at first, and Alyssa always tended to use overpressure. Marie couldn’t count the number of times she’d cleaned ketchup off the walls and even the ceiling one time. She rushed toward Alyssa.
    But even as she did so, her daughter complained, “Mommy! The ketchup won’t come out again!” Tongue held firmly between tiny teeth, Alyssa tipped up the bottle to examine it even as her little hands trembled with the force of applied pressure.
    That was when the nozzle gave way. A stream of red sauce splatted in an arc across the front of Marie’s blouse. Marie gave a chirp of dismayed shock and stepped back, closing her eyes. Some of it had hit her chest and slid into regions there would be no way to clean in public.
    Silence settled around the table, only broken by Alyssa’s “Oops! Sorry!”
    Marie opened her eyes to find Reece standing, the ketchup bottle now firmly in his grasp. Dakota had disappeared, but everyone else at the table was staring at her, or more pointedly at the front of her shirt.
    “Uh…” Marie held her hands out to the side and looked down to assess the damage. Oh, it was bad. She could probably pass as an extra corpse on any Halloween slasher movie, right about now. How could such tiny hands squeeze that much ketchup out of a bottle?
    Still, she had to look on the bright side. At least it was only her who had been tagged.
    Dan turned back to his plate. “That’s bad.” He picked up his burger and took a huge bite.
    Marie’s jaw jutted off to one side. She met Reece’s look.
    A small smile played at the edges of his mouth, and he leaned over to squeeze some ketchup on Alyssa’s burger.
    Dakota