Read Online Song of the Surf (Pacific Shores Book 3) by Lynnette Bonner - Free Book Online

actually biting it. When she’d gotten pregnant she’d hoped that would make Nate quit smoking – in the car with her at least. But he had neither stopped smoking or drinking and—
    A pain twinged through her arm, and she closed her eyes. Stay present. Stay focused. Now was not the time to revisit the nightmare that had been her life.
    One day at a time she needed to walk into the future. She just wished it didn’t look so bleak and gray.
    “Take a right at the stop sign.” She congratulated herself on the small victory and tried to relax into the seat. She could do this. Today was all she had to worry about now. Only today. Only herself. Only one more breath. Then another. And another after that.
    And somehow, for the first time in her life, she’d found herself in the company of people who actually cared. They were kind. Loving.
    There was that.
    She pulled in another cool lungful of air. “Left here.”
    One day, one hour, one moment at a time. She could do this.

    Dakota directed Justus to the florist’s shop, and they loaded all the flowers carefully into his trunk so they wouldn’t get smashed.
    Justus had seemed a little nervous and jumpy all morning since Marie’s announcement that they would have to dance together, and Dakota couldn’t deny her own apprehension. Especially since he didn’t know just how in jeopardy his toes were going to be yet.
    He sank into the driver’s seat and glanced over at her. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but no sound emerged, and after a moment he snapped his jaw shut and thrust the keys into the ignition.
    “Did you want to say something?”
    He slapped one arm behind her seat and craned his neck to see behind them as he backed from their space. “It’ll wait.” He checked his side mirror, studiously avoiding her scrutiny.
    She frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”
    “No. Why would you say that?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because when someone starts to tell you something and then stops it’s usually because they don’t know how to say it and that’s usually because you’ve done something inappropriate.”
    “You haven’t done anything wrong.” He pulled onto the main road.
    She waited for more, but he didn’t even offer a hint at what he’d started to say. She propped her cast on the ledge of the door, and tamped down her irritation. Soon the main part of town was behind them and they were driving through the residential neighborhood near the church.
    After several long silent minutes she let loose a sigh. “Justus, we do need to talk about your toes—” The last word emerged more like a screech as a dog, followed by a boy, darted across the road in front of them and Justus slammed on the brakes. Rubber screeched against pavement. She thrust her cast against the dashboard to keep from slamming into it.
    The boy had stopped smack in the middle of the narrow road!
    Her panic swelled. In less time than it took for one heart beat, the similarities to the night of her wreck back in high school slashed through her.
    When the car skidded to a halt, they were only inches from the wide-eyed frozen stare of the freckle-faced boy. His dog was sitting obediently by the other side of the road, tongue lolling.
    Justus loosed one short breath, and then he scrambled from the car. Judging by the look of anger chilling his eyes she wasn’t sure what he had planned for the kid and scrabbled out her own door. “Justus!” She hopped on her one good leg toward them at the front of the car.
    But Justus had only squatted down in front of the kid and gently turned him by the shoulders to face him. “Are you hurt?”
    The kid shook his head, but he was trembling from head to toe.
    Dakota begged her lungs to function and wiggled her fingers in her ears to chase away the shriek of brakes still resounding through the silence.
    Justus jutted his jaw off to one side, but there was kindness in his expression as he studied the boy’s face. “I could