Beyond the Waves (Pacific Shores Book 1) by Lynnette Bonner Read Free Book Online

gentle.” One lid dropped in a bold wink, and her heart gave a little flip.
    She grinned and clacked the tips of the tweezers together with an evil pump of her brows.
    He chuckled, and she was tempted to join him, but the sight of Daddy moving slowly through the kitchen turned her thoughts to more serious matters. He had finished sweeping and was now filling a mop bucket at her sink.
    She forced her eyes to the bottom of Kylen’s foot and bent to the task of getting the shards of glass out. “I think you might need to go to the emergency room.” She pressed on the cut she had just pulled the glass from. “Did I get it all?”
    “Feels like it. I’ll be fine.”
    Outside, a car crunched across the gravel drive, and Taysia glanced up, wondering who it could be.
    “That will be the police,” Kylen said.
    Daddy began to mutter and swish the mop with more vigor. Taysia glanced at him as she stood to get the door. He was blushing! She stopped and arched her brows. “Daddy?”
    A loud knock sounded at the front door. “Police! Open up!”
    Daddy just kept mopping, face pointed at the floor.
    Taysia moved to the door and opened it. Two policemen stood on the porch, guns drawn. “Hi. Please come in. Everything is fine. It was just my dad.”
    “Ma’am, I’m Officer Wilkes. This is my partner, Officer Rogers. You’re sure everything is fine?”
    “Please come in.” She stepped back out of the way and motioned them inside, not at all sure everything was fine.
    Officer Wilkes immediately noticed the bloody footprints. “What happened here?”
    Kylen spoke up from where he sat. “Hi, Carl.” He dipped his head. “Tim. I cut myself on some broken glass when I came over to check on Taysia. Dispatch called me, since Taysia told them I lived right next door.”
    Apparently convinced the situation was under control, both officers sheathed their weapons.
    Rogers pulled out a pen and notepad.
    Carl Wilkes took in Daddy silently mopping the kitchen. “Is this the man who broke into your house?”
    “Yes—uh, no.” Taysia wanted to pull her hair in frustration. “Well, yes, he was the intruder, but…oh, Daddy, will you just tell me what you are doing here, please? Did you use your key to get in?”
    “So you did lock your doors when I told you to earlier?” Kylen interrupted.
    Taysia spun toward him in aggravation. “Yes, I locked the doors.” She sighed and rolled her eyes with a “What? Do you think I have a death wish?” glare.
    Kylen raised his hands and shrugged.
    Everyone in the room looked at Daddy, who turned redder than the apples in the bowl on the counter.
    Taysia stomped back to her chair and snatched a Band-Aid from the box.
    “Sir, we need to know what you were doing in your daughter’s house in the middle of the night.” Officer Rogers tapped his pen against the notepad.
    Taysia held her breath. Daddy leaned the mop handle against the wall and rubbed his palms down the front of his shirt. “Well…” He licked his lips. “I was at the beach with a…friend.”
    Taysia sat up straight. Daddy at the beach at this hour of the night? The Band-Aid dangled from her finger, momentarily forgotten.
    “And it got kinda late…and I needed to…so I came here instead of going home.”
    Taysia narrowed her eyes. Was he even speaking English?
    “Your car is still idling out front, sir,” Officer Rogers said.
    “Yeah. I wasn’t planning on being here this long.”
    “Daddy, what are you saying? You just wanted to stop in and check on me? At three thirty in the morning? You’re not making any sense!”
    Daddy scuffed a toe across the floor. “I didn’t say that.”
    Taysia threw an exasperated glance at Kylen. His face suddenly held a light of understanding. She looked to the other two officers. Both men were doing their level best to suppress grins of mirth. What was she missing? She was now the only one who had no idea why her father was here, right now, at 3:47 a.m., in her living room. Irritation