Caught in the Current (Pacific Shores Book 2)

By Lynnette Bonner

More books in the

PACIFIC SHORES SERIES

by Lynnette Bonner

— Contemporary Christian Romance —

Beyond the Waves
, Book 1

Caught in the Current, Book 2

Song of the Surf, Book 3

Coming Winter 2015

Written in the Sand, Book 4

Coming Spring 2015

Other books by Lynnette Bonner

ISLANDS OF INTRIGUE: SAN JUANS

— Christian Romantic Suspense —

The Unrelenting Tide
—
Lynnette Bonner — Also available in
audio

Tide Will Tell
— Lesley Ann McDaniel

Deceptive Tide —
Janalyn Voigt

Coming Summer 2015

THE SHEPHERD'S HEART SERIES

— Christian Historical Romance —

Rocky Mountain Oasis
— Also available in
audio

High Desert Haven
— Also available in
audio

Fair Valley Refuge
— Also available in
audio

Spring Meadow Sanctuary
— Also available in
audio

HEART'S OF HOLLYWOOD SERIES

— Contemporary Christian Romance Novellas —

My Blue Havyn

Find out more at
LynnetteBonner.com

Caught in the Current

PACIFIC SHORES, Book 2

Published by, Serene Lake Publishing

Copyright © 2014 by Lynnette Bonner. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Lynnette Bonner of Indie Cover Design -
www.indiecoverdesign.com

Images ©

   http://www.bigstock.com, File: #26250143, Beach.

   http;//www.peopleimages.com, File: #ID396421, Couple.

   http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/, File: #blue-sky-and-clouds.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Caught in the Current
is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination.

Published in the U.S.A.

2 Corinthians 5:17–19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new

creation has come: The old has gone,

the new is here!

All this is from God, who

reconciled us to himself through Chris

and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God

was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not

counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of

reconciliation.

Chapter 1

“Alyssa Anne Sinclair, you come back here right now!” Marie dashed down the cereal aisle after her precocious three-and-a-half-year-old.

“But Mommy, I want the chocate kind. Wif mashmallows.” Alyssa stopped directly in front of a box at kid eye level with enough cartoon characters on it to start a new animation network.

Marie sighed and squatted down next to her daughter. Running one hand over her little one’s disarrayed hair, she pondered several things all at once. First, how did Alyssa’s hair always end up in so many tangles only an hour into the day? Second, how was she going to talk her out of the chocolate cereal that should come standard with a vial of insulin? And third, and certainly not least, what was she going to do if she couldn’t find a sitter?

She certainly couldn’t afford to take time off work. And Taysia was already much too kind to her when it came to taking time away from the gym to be with Alyssa. The problem was, she’d known for several months that Mrs. Hernandez was moving to Arizona to live near her daughter. Just…procrastination had gotten the better of her—again. Now she had a week to figure this out, or she’d be forced to request time off.

Beside her, Alyssa pooched out her lower lip and gave her a good dose of the best pleading expression she could apparently muster. Marie bit back a grin. She had to have a heart of stone, because the look wasn’t doing much for her.

“Honey, I know Aunt Taysia and Uncle Kylen let you have that kind sometimes when you go to their house, but it’s really not good for you. Mom grabbed you the crunchy kind with raspberries that you like so much.” She resisted the urge to stick her tongue into her cheek and prayed Alyssa would fall for it.

“But I only like that kind when the chocate kind isn’t in the cupboard.”

“Well.” Marie stood and tried another tactic. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough money to buy both, so we have to leave this one here today.” She cringed, knowing how ineffective that argument would be, since her three-year-old had no understanding of income versus expense.

“But Mommy!” Big tears pooled on Alyssa’s lower lids.

Oh boy, here we go. “Hey, how about if we go pick out some yogurt for you to pack in your lunches this week, Superwoman?”

“Yogurt! Yum!” With one blink, and not even a telephone booth in sight, the transformation from pout to glee was complete, and Alyssa dashed down the aisle.

Swinging the cart around, Marie called, “Wait for me, sweetheart. And no running in the store, please.”

Alyssa obediently slowed to the fastest “walk” she could possibly muster.

Yogurt. Who knew? Marie tucked that little weapon into her mommy arsenal for future reference.

Alyssa disappeared around the end of the aisle, and Marie picked up the pace, even though she wasn’t really worried. Marinville was a fairly small, quiet town, and almost everyone knew and loved Alyssa, who’d never known a stranger.

But before her cart had even reached the main section by the yogurts, there came the loud crash of breaking glass, a masculine grunt, and a three-year-old gasp.

Marie cringed to a halt and held her breath, sure more damage loomed. She could envision a whole endcap display crashing to the ground.

Thankfully, only Alyssa’s voice broke the silence. “Uh-oh! Sorry!”

Alyssa did sound truly sorry, but her repentance didn’t ease the stone of dread that dropped into Marie’s stomach. Whatever had just broken sounded expensive, and she was going to have to pay for it. Why hadn’t she insisted Alyssa sit in the cart, like a normal mother would have?

Well, the only thing to do was to go see what had happened. She started forward.

“Hey there, Superwoman. I’m sorry—I should have been watching where I was going more carefully, I guess.”

Marie jerked the cart to a stop with such force her stack of soup cans toppled.

That voice. He really was here! Her heart lodged in her throat, and she prayed Alyssa would come looking for her so she could go down the aisle the other way and not have to face the man currently talking to her daughter. She’d known he was supposed to be coming home to help his mother run their bed-and-breakfast, since his dad’s cancer had taken his strength. Still…maybe it wasn’t really him? She froze and listened with all her might.

“Hey!” Alyssa’s tone rang with indignation. “How did you know I am Superwoman?”

Marie heard the sound of glass tinking together and some scuffling like he was using his foot to scoot the shattered shards into a pile. “Well, by the big S on your pink shirt, I guess.”

“You’re tall.”

The man chuckled.

A sweet sensation like a drizzle of honey on sourdough toast settled into the pit of Marie’s stomach. How long had it been since she’d heard that oh-so-familiar, gentle laugh? Reece Cahill. Marie’s eyes dropped closed. It really was him.

“I guess I am tall, now that you mention it.” A boot squeaked on the tiles, and this time when Reece spoke, his voice seemed to be coming to her from a drastically de-elevated level. “How’s that? Better?”

“You have eyes like grass. My mommy likes grass eyes.”

Reece’s chuckle again, full of curiosity this time. “Grass eyes?”

“You know, the color of grass.”

“Oh!” Reece’s boots squeaked on the tiles again. “Speaking of your mommy”—his voice emerged slightly muffled—“is she around here someplace, tyke? Do you know her name?”

Marie jolted into action. Great. Now he would think she was a terrible mother who couldn’t even keep track of one little girl, on top of all the other things he already knew about her. She forced one foot in front of the other and rolled her cart out into the open.

Reece squatted on the balls of his feet before Alyssa. His typical attire of cowboy boots, jeans, T-shirt, and Stetson hadn’t changed over the years, she noted. What had changed was his lankiness. The man was no longer tall and straight. He was tall and…chiseled. There was no other way to put it. He’d always been strong and athletic, but now…muscles stretched his T-shirt in all the right places to mouthwatering degrees.

She swallowed and focused on her daughter, who stood right in front of the man with his cheeks cupped in her chubby hands as she closely—very closely—examined his eyes. Eyes Marie well remembered, and likely the reason green was her favorite color.

Reece must have caught sight of her shoes, because he tipped his head ever so slightly and peered around her daughter. His gaze started at her grimy, Saturday-chore tennis shoes and traveled all the way up past her jogging shorts and paint-splattered T-shirt to her face.