Caught in the Current (Pacific Shores Book 2) by Lynnette Bonner Read Free Book Online Page A

anticipated. Now he needed to call Justus at Deschutes Rejuvenation and let him know he wouldn’t be back. At least for the foreseeable future.

Chapter 5
    With her hand encased in one of the tight rubber gloves they’d given her at the hospital, Marie hurried through her shower and into a pair of jeans, her favorite blue peasant blouse, and a pair of cubic zirconium–studded flip-flops. She worked some mousse into her hair and hoped her curls wouldn’t frizz too much because she didn’t have time to baby them with the hair dryer. After a quick application of light makeup, she grabbed one of Alyssa’s little jackets from her room and headed down the hallway to the living room.
    Reece had made himself right at home. He was hugging one of the denim pillows and lying on his stomach on the floor next to Alyssa, laughing at the antics of Daffy Duck. He’d hung his Stetson on the same hook he’d used earlier that afternoon, she noted. She also noted the rugged day’s worth of beard shading his jaw.
    She swallowed and fiddled with the zipper on Alyssa’s jacket. “Alright, you two. I’m ready.”
    Reece was still laughing when he turned on his side, but when he saw her, his laughter died away. He swallowed and tucked part of his lower lip between his teeth as he scanned her quickly. It wasn’t the hungry, predatory look she’d received from so many men, but an assessment of such awe that it stole the moisture from her mouth.
    And then just as quickly as it was there, it was gone, and he leapt to his feet and ruffled Alyssa’s already mussed hair. “Ready to go ride in my big blue truck, Superwoman?”
    “Yes!” Alyssa scrambled to the old TV and pushed the off button and then pressed stop on the DVD player. “Ready!”
    Marie smoothed a hand of uncertainty down the side of her jeans. “Pillows.”
    “Pillows!” Curls bobbed as her daughter snatched up the denim cushions and chucked them at the couch. One tumbled off and she dashed after it, then crammed it into one corner with the command for it to “stay.”
    Reece chuckled and grabbed his Stetson, settling it on his head, and they headed out the door. But instead of going straight to Thrift and Save, he pulled into the parking lot of the pharmacy.
    She fisted her hands and tried not to look as sick as she felt. The check for the groceries had taken her account down to under twenty dollars, she still had to pay for the pickles, and payday wasn’t for another week. She could just deal with the pain in her finger, and the chances of getting an infection in the cut after all the antibacterial treatments they’d done at the hospital were next to nil, so she wasn’t too worried about needing the antibiotics they’d prescribed. So she hadn’t planned on paying for the pills. But she couldn’t just out and tell Reece she couldn’t afford her prescriptions, could she?
    Beside her Reece leaned forward and dug into his back pocket.
    She glanced over at him.
    He lifted a hundred-dollar bill up between his first and second fingers and swung his chin toward the entrance. “Alyssa and I will hang out in the truck while you run in and grab your prescriptions.”
    She angled him a stern look. “I can’t let you do that.” She’d never even let Dan pay for anything for her or Alyssa. Not that he’d ever offered, now that she thought about it.
    He matched her stern expression, even copying the angle of her head. “Consider it my first order as your new boss. I can’t have my newest employee getting sick on the job. Look at it as an advance. I’ll take it out of your first check.” He winked and stretched the bill closer to her.
    She glanced down and studied his hand, brown and broad with long, blunt fingers. Her focus honed in on the number in the corner of the bill.
    He was offering to help her. She couldn’t remember the last time someone other than Kylen or Taysia had offered to help her. She was the all-sufficient single mother who worked full-time and