Read Online Changing Tides (Kill Devil Hills Book 2) by Sarah Darlington - Free Book Online

male specimen.
    Getting an idea in my head, I pulled my phone from my pocket. The internet will tell you anything—like a celebrity’s home address. I quickly searched Google to find out if Nate West was being honest about where he lived. Because what if he was a crazed-psycho stalker instead and I’d been stupid enough to let him drive?
    Turns out he was being honest. His home address was where he’d claimed it to be—two houses down the street from Ben’s old lady friend . Okay then, not a stalker. I pushed my phone back in my pocket and went back to staring out my window, unsure what to think.
    It took us almost an hour to drive back across town. At least, as the time passed, my body began to relax. I let myself watch Nathanial drive. He had such a calm way about him and it helped calm me down too. I forgot for a moment that he was Nate West—Hollywood Hunk, TV Heartthrob, and Dropper of Women’s Panties Everywhere—and for a brief second thought of him as a regular guy, as only Nathanial.
    “How long?” Noah suddenly asked. “How much further?”
    “About ten more minutes,” Nathanial’s deep voice answered. “If we could get through these traffic lights maybe less. Sorry. Just how it is around here. You learn to live with it.”
    Noah blew out a long breath.
    “You okay, dude?” Nathanial asked. “You’re shaking.”
    I bit my tongue, afraid at how Noah might respond. He’d been dead silent the whole ride and surely lost somewhere inside his own head. Who knows what he thought of my new ‘man friend.’
    “I’ll be okay as soon as I’m with Georgina,” Noah muttered, saying no more.
    Then it happened. We were stopped in traffic and Nathanial’s eyes connected with mine in the rearview mirror. I’d managed to avoid this for an hour, but couldn’t prevent it any longer. I’m not sure what I’d been so afraid of…because there was no judgment reflected back in his dark eyes. Only care. Which was pretty damn surprising coming from this beast of a man.
    “I know who your brother is,” he said to me. “It makes sense now. This past February, a young man in the Coast Guard fell overboard. I remember because the story was all over the local news. The crew members on his ship hunted for him in the water, but he never resurfaced. He had on something like sixty pounds of gear and it happened at night so they figured he’d drown. After he went missing, boats combed the water and volunteers searched the shore line for days. Nothing. They found nothing. So they claimed him dead—lost to the sea. That wa s you r brother, wasn’t it? Except he wasn’t lost at all. He’s been in Malibu this whole time.”
    “Yes,” I answered in a gasp, amazed and fearful at how quickly he’d connected the dots.
    Nathanial’s gaze returned to the road as we started moving again. “So what happened?” he asked as he drove. “Ben washed up on the shore next to Mrs. Stone’s house, knocked on her door, and asked for a place to stay? Then he decided he wasn’t going to leave or tell anyone he was alive? Just hide out at her house forever?”
    Noah turned around in his seat to glare at me. “Seriously? Is that how it happened, Ellie?” he demanded.
    “In a nut shell…yes.” I grimaced. “Everyone thought Ben died, but he was perfectly fine. And when he made it to shore, Mrs. Stone took him in. Exactly like Nathanial guessed. Mrs. Stone offered him a chance to start over. He took that chance. I don’t have a fucking clue why he wanted to quit his family. Because that’s what he did. He quit us.”
    Oh Christ. Now I was crying. Not just tears lingering in my eyes, but full out ugly crying.
    “Don’t give me that look,” I snapped at Noah as he watched me.
    “I’m not giving you any kind of look, Ellie,” he said softly. “This is how I always look.”
    I groaned. He totall y wa s giving me a look, whether he meant to or not. “It’s not like I knew Ben was alive thi s whol e time. I went to his