Sailing in Style by Dana Mentink

Author:Dana Mentink
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AS HE ADDED a carton of tape to the back of the truck, Cy tried to clear his mind. Piper, he had to admit, was occupying his thoughts. His sister’s advice to run in the other direction was not working, as Piper’s life and his own now intersected in multiple ways.

The question was, how to untangle the threads? He knew there was no future for them. She would go to New York, no matter the cost. He would...what? Stay in Tumbledown? Was Piper right that it was the easy road, working with his sister, tending to the Pelican, instead of chasing his goals? Opening his own design studio one day? Starting a family and relishing every tiny moment?

He’d thought Piper would be the answer to the latter. All his enthusiasm and passion had gone into their relationship; at least, he’d believed that at the time. Women had to go and make things so complicated. He slammed the back of the truck closed.

An odd sound drifted to him on the wind. The cry of a gull? The feathery scavengers worked best in the daylight hours. This would be an odd time for them, but maybe gulls were just as incomprehensible as women.

It came again, high-pitched, filled with fear.

Bitsy was his first thought. He sprinted back to the Pelican. Stopping in front of the old inn, he caught the sound again, but not from inside. He ran up the path, then down, toward the beach, until he lost the sound in the noise of the surf. Heart thudding, he listened.

“Cy,” Piper shrieked.

He reached the beach, plowing to a halt next to Piper.

Piper was up to her knees in the water, propped awkwardly on her crutches.

“What are you doing?” he panted. “Trying to drown yourself?”

Her face was ghastly white, eyes enormous. “There,” she pointed to the ocean.

“What?” He scanned furiously.

“Your father.”

He’d misheard. “What are you talking about?”

She gestured so wildly at the waves, she dropped her crutches. He fished them out of the water before they could float away. As he did so, he saw a pile of clothes on the beach. His father’s flannel shirt.

Fear electrified him.

“Where?” he asked.

She took his face in her freezing hands and guided his gaze toward the ocean.

He saw a dark shape in the water. Horror twisted his stomach, and he began to pray as he careened into the surf. The water was rough, working hard against him. When he was in up to his thighs, he started to swim. Waves broke over him as he pushed on, and he lost sight of his father. He lifted his head and there was Piper, on the beach, steadfastly pointing the way.

He reoriented and battled his way through fear and foam until his fingers grazed the clammy skin of his father’s bare arm. Was he dead? Had he drowned?

Manny pulled against his grip, and Cy was never so grateful for anything in his life. He would not be forced to tow his father’s lifeless body back to the beach.

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