Beach Colors by Shelley Noble Read Free Book Online

thanks to the army. Some of it was incredible, some of it horrific, but he’d never found a place he’d liked more than here.
    “You know, the whole time I was in the army, I hardly ever thought about Crescent Cove. It was exciting to see new places. Meet new kinds of people. I was lucky, I saw very little action.” Luckier than his brother had been.
    He finished peeling the label off his bottle, trying not to think of Ben, dead. Trying not to remember him in happier times before all his trouble began. He crumpled the label in his fist.
    “Cut it out.”
    Nick glanced at Jake. “What?”
    “When you get that look, I know you’re thinking about Ben and blaming yourself. You should get over it. It wasn’t your fault. He was a hero. He gave his life for his country. It was his choice.”
    “No it wasn’t. I forced him to go.”
    “You did what you thought was best. Ben was on a collision course with disaster. You were gone those last couple of years and didn’t see how wild he’d become, but the rest of us did. You had two choices: enlist him or let them send him to jail.”
    “Maybe jail would have been better.”
    “You think he would have come out a better man? Think again.”
    “At least he would be alive.”
    “He re-upped when he could have come home. He said himself that the army had made a man out of him. Sending him may have been your decision, but staying was his. Respect that.”
    Nick’s throat was tight.
    “You were barely more than a kid yourself. Faced with some heavy choices. Why don’t you cut that kid a break?”
    Because that kid was as dead as Ben.
    “Ben was a soldier. He died with honors. You can be proud of him.”
    “You’re right. Thanks.” Nick forced a smile, though his heart was wrung dry. He’d never told Jake the real story behind Ben’s death. He hadn’t told anyone. Not even his mother.
    “So stop obsessing about the past. Start thinking about the future. And if opportunity knocks . . . I hear Margaux Sullivan is back in town.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Why the hell not?”
    “I don’t even know the woman.”
    “You knew the girl.”
    “Only from a distance. She didn’t exactly hang out with the likes of you and me.”
    Jake shrugged. “Times change.”
    “Yeah, they do. I gave her a ticket on her way into town.”
    Jake barked out a laugh. “Damn, you are a glutton for punishment.”
    “I’m an idiot.”
    “That, too. You want another beer?”
    “Thanks, but I told Ma I’d be by for dinner. And I thought I’d get in a quick swim down at the cove before I have to be there.”
    “Swimming, huh? Maybe do a little spying on a certain girl who just came home like we did in our misspent youth?”
    Nick gave him a sardonic smile. “Just swimming. Want to come?”
    “Hell no. It’s still May; it might feel like summer, but that’s because there’s a storm coming. Always gets hot and muggy right before it hits. The water will still freeze your balls. Ask me again mid-July.”
    “I’ll be too busy to swim in July.”
    “Then go for it.” Jake’s eyes twinkled. “Maybe it’ll get your . . . mind off a certain person who just blew into town. Or if that doesn’t work, go for it.”
    “In my dreams.” Nick snagged a towel out of the truck and cut across the lawn to the woods where a path led down to a secluded cove. He knew he’d have it to himself. Hardly anybody swam there, even when it was warm, even when he was a kid. Mainly just the local boys and most of them had moved away.
    When he reached the tiny pebbled beach, he sat down, unlaced his boots, and pulled them off. He dropped his watch into his shoes and tugged his T-shirt over his head.
    With the woods on one side of the shore and the rock jetty on the other, separating the cove from Little Crescent Beach, he was completely alone. He stepped into the water and sucked in his breath. Cold all right. Bracing. Just what he needed.
    M argaux had completed several pages of sketches when a