Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Ten minutes after leaving the restaurant, I pulled up at Braxton’s house. It was a small, two-bedroom Nantucket-style cottage. The gray clapboard gave it that New England look. Of course, Braxton’s sisters had had a hand in helping him decorate the house when he’d first moved in. The front of the house was landscaped with beautiful flowers. The small front porch held two white rockers and a small table. The inside of the house had white beadboard all throughout. I was also positive Braxton hadn’t picked out a single piece of furniture, leaving it all up to Palmer and Sutton. And boy did they have fun spending their brother’s money furnishing the house.
I lifted my hand to knock on the door, but it opened before I could. “Hey, did you bring beer?” Brax asked.
Laughing, I walked into his house. “No, was I supposed to?”
“Dude, you never come empty-handed. I thought that was an unspoken rule.”
I rolled my eyes and started for the kitchen, where Gannon was sitting. The entire first floor was open so you could see everything. The small living area had white, beachy-type furniture. In between the living room and kitchen was a large wooden table with white chairs. The kitchen cabinets were all white with touches of blue to give the space a more masculine vibe.
“How much more do you guys have to do?” I asked.
“We need to board up the front of the house, and then we are good,” Braxton said as he tossed me a beer. “My mom called and said you stopped by the restaurant. Thanks for doing that for me. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. You know your mom and dad are like my second parents.”
“You’re not staying at the beach house, are you?” Gannon asked.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’ll be at Mom and Dad’s.”
“What about the fishing hut?”
“Taken care of,” I replied before I took a sip of beer.
Braxton sighed. “I hate storms. That’s the only thing I hate about living on the coast.”
“What about your boats?” I asked.
“All secured. Hopefully the swells aren’t too bad, but with the new floating docks they should be okay regardless. As long as they actually stay secured.”
Silence filled the room as the three of us glanced at each other. I looked down at the beer in my hand and exhaled the breath I’d been unconsciously holding in.
“Gannon—” I started before he interrupted me.
“I’ll be fine, Brody. This isn’t my first time doing my job during a storm.”
“Hurricane,” Braxton interjected.
Gannon shot him a side-eye look. “A hurricane that will most likely be downgraded to a tropical storm.”
“The swells will still be pretty bad. I want you to be extra careful,” I said.
Braxton laughed. “Yeah, my sister will kill you if you end up dead.”
Gannon shook his head. “I have no intentions of letting that happen. You on call tomorrow?”
Braxton nodded. “Yeah, for the next three days.”
Braxton and I were both on the search-and-rescue team in Seaside. We all rotated shifts when there was a major storm coming in. If anything happened—like say, my brother slipped and fell off the ladder while boarding a cargo ship—then we would be called in along with the Coast Guard. The search-and-rescue team was created fifty years ago after a fishing boat started to take on water. The Coast Guard was on another rescue and couldn’t make it to them fast enough, so the pilots’ association, along with a few others, put together this volunteer group. It was a pretty intense training program.
Gannon glanced at me, and I shook my head. “Not on call this time.”
He simply nodded. “Well, I need to get to the station. You guys got this?”
Brax nodded. “We’re golden here, dude. Head on out.”
Gannon stood and grabbed a backpack he’d placed on the floor.
“Gannon,” I said quickly as I stood. “Be careful.”
He smiled and pulled me in for a hug and a pat on the back. “I’ll be safe.”
Braxton and I both watched my brother head toward the front door. Before he walked out, he looked back and waved his hand. “Don’t get too drunk, Brax. Don’t need you having a hangover tomorrow.”
“That, I can promise you, will not happen.”
Once the door shut, I turned back to Braxton. He lifted his brows and gave me a questioning look.
“What?” I asked with a soft laugh.
“Have you talked to Sutton yet?”
My smile faded. “I wish I never told you what happened.”
He scoffed. “It wasn’t hard to piece together, Brody. You and my sister disappeared off that beach, and you both came back looking like something happened between you. And then she locked herself in her room for days to cry, and you didn’t come home for your whole allotted leave. I knew she wasn’t crying over Jackass.”
I sighed and pushed my hand through my hair. “We’re friends, Brax. Things are good between us now. I’m not sure bringing up the past is a good idea.”