Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Getting Oberon’s yacht out of the inlet would be easy, though. It was so small it could barely be considered a yacht. Hell, Oberon couldn’t even afford his own captain. He had to do it himself. Yet, he felt all special that he could afford a yacht.
“No, I’m just sitting here, looking pretty.” She grinned, answering my previous question, as if that made her something special.
Newsflash. It didn’t.
It made her seem tasteless.
“You are indeed, sweetheart,” Oberon cooed to her. “How are you?”
My mother, who wasn’t paying attention to her sixty-five-year-old boyfriend flirting, looked over at me with a smile. “When are you going to settle down, honey?”
When was I?
Never.
At least, that was the plan.
I’d seen the kind of heartache that my mother had lived through.
The sheer hell that she’d gone through the day that my family perished in that accident.
That night, they’d been coming home from one of my college football games. My mom had stayed with me because I’d had a possible hairline fracture in my wrist.
We’d already been there when my family had been brought into the hospital. All but one of them DOA—dead on arrival.
My little sister was the only one that had been brought back to life. But she’d succumbed to her injuries eight days later in the ICU.
The crash was known as one of the deadliest crashes on any Florida stretch of highway. Because, not only had my family died, but nineteen others had died in a deadly eighteen-car pileup.
We were still getting a stipend from the state due to their negligence.
Apparently, a state vehicle had pulled out in front of an eighteen-wheeler. That eighteen-wheeler had then swerved to avoid the vehicle and plowed into a guardrail. The guardrail had given—when it wasn’t supposed to do—and had taken out all of the cars before hitting the trees.
Technically, my mom was rich.
Richer than Oberon.
Not that Oberon knew that.
But it was fun to see him flaunt his money to my mother when my mother could easily do the same right back.
Turns out, I didn’t have a hairline fracture in my wrist. The fracture happened later, in my heart.
But it also helped me learn a few things.
One, you couldn’t be hurt if you didn’t give your heart out to someone to take care of.
Two, if I stayed away from entanglements, they stayed away from me.
That’s why I’d never pursue anything that even remotely looked like I could catch feelings for.
It bothered my mother.
She wanted grandbabies to love. She wanted a daughter-in-law to shower affection upon.
She wanted it all, all over again.
Meanwhile, I wanted to make sure that love never got anywhere near me.
“Oh, I volunteer!” Jaycee cried in response to my mother’s question to me.
Her loud, exuberant exclamation causing Alice, who was now on boat two since I’d arrived there and started watching her, to look over.
Our eyes caught, and it took everything I had to drop my gaze.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Mom,” I said. “But I’m not settling down for a while.”
“You just love your job too much. One day, you’ll find someone better than your job.” Mom waved away my words.
She was wrong.
The excitement of my job didn’t overpower the need to stay away from anything that might one day hurt me.
I did love my job, though. And didn’t see a point in not showing it.
Our small inlet was one of the worst inlets in the world. Mostly because of the topographical terrain, the width of the inlet, and the choppiness of the water where the gulf met the ocean, caused the waters to be turbulent at times.
I’d traveled all over Florida doing what I love best, but my favorite place was my hometown of Blue Ridge, Florida.
My mom was born here. My dad was born here. My sisters and brothers were born here, just like me. It was in my blood.
So there was no wonder that I’d want to work here. To make a home here.
Though my dad and all of my siblings were gone now, I still loved everything about this place.
And the view wasn’t half bad, either.
“Do you want a top off?” I heard the sweet, husky voice of the girl that’d held all my attention every time I came to this damn station say.
“I do,” Oberon tutted.
He wasn’t talking about his vessel, though. He was talking about the beer he was about to consume.
I took a bite of my pizza and ignored Oberon.
I also ignored my mother who continued to talk about me one day finding love.
My gaze, however, continued to stray to the girl working her ass off in the hot Florida sun.
If I could have anyone… it would be her.
• • •
“Hello?” I answered the phone before I’d even realized that it was in my hand.
“Cassius,” my friend with the Coast Guard, Tim, said. “Something’s happened.”
I was instantly awake.
“What?” I asked.