Ex on the Beach by Kim Law Read Free Book Online Page A

he stated passionately.
    She nodded. “I believe that. And I believe it was time for you to finally seek her out. Fate and all. But it doesn’t mean hurting her can’t happen. You may both need closure, but you take very good care, son, to make sure it happens in a way that doesn’t leave that child brokenhearted over you ever again.”
    With her words, she turned and marched back the way she’d come. Mark watched her go. What he wanted to do was shout after her that it had been he who’d been left brokenhearted. Andie might have been upset when she’d quit her job to get away from him, but it hadn’t been the loss of him that had destroyed her.
    He, on the other hand, had been a ridiculous mess. In a way he didn’t care to ever be again. Which had been part of his and Beth’s final discussion.
    He only wished he knew what to do about Andie now. He had two weeks, and he’d be a fool not to use them wisely. But he’d be damned if he knew what the wise path was.
    Not to mention that the thought of seeking her out scared him to death. Just seeing her for the brief moments he had earlier that day had made one thing clear. There was still something between them. She’d felt it too.
    Which did not bode well for closing that door and moving on with his life.

    Andie pulled her arm back and released the Frisbee, watching it sail through the air before a small arm reached up high to snag it. The little girl who’d caught it laughed and bounced up and down.
    “You’re the best Frisbee thrower in the world, Andie,” little Maggie Walker shouted as she pulled in the disc and readied to send it back across the beach.
    “Me! Me!” Roni Templeman and Ginger Atkinson, Andie’s best friends since she’d met them on the very same beach over twenty years ago, both shouted and jumped up and down just like the kids they were playing with.
    Maggie giggled and slung out her arm, sending the Frisbee in a crooked arc heading straight for the ocean.
    “Geez, Maggie,” said Hunter, her twelve-year-old brother. “You’ve got to use your wrist.”
    Hunter clomped into the water since the Frisbee had landed nearest him, shaking his head at his little sister’s poor aim. Andie made a habit of playing with several of the local kids on the evenings when there wasn’t an event she had to attend. She looked forward to this time of the day. It was relaxing, fun, and just pure pleasure.
    And far better than sticking around some party where one of the main attendees had been shooting her dirty looks, and another had been silently watching. She hadn’t wanted to give either Rob or Mark the opportunity to corner her, so she’d talked Aunt Ginny into fulfilling the hostess duties for the evening.
    Hunter flicked his wrist like a pro and sent the green circle flying, and Roni ran for it.
    “So …” Ginger started, both of them watching Roni as she splashed along the edge of the water. She made quite a picture in the fading light with her short bob and cut-off jeans. She could almost pass for a teenager instead of twenty-eight. “Mark, huh?”
    Ginger had lived on the island her whole life, and had taken over the ferry business when her dad passed away. She’d been working hard at growing the business ever since, adding boats for dinner cruises and dolphin watches. And she’d been Andie’s other maid of honor at the wedding that didn’t happen. Given the three of them were such good friends, Andie knew that Roni would have spent the afternoon filling Ginger in on everything that had happened at the bar earlier that day.
    Andie nodded, knowing they had to have the conversation, but regretting the stress she could already feel returning to her shoulders at the thought of it. “Yep,” she said. “Mark.”
    Roni squealed, and Maggie clapped when Roni’s toss went sailing perfectly to Hunter.
    “Roni said he showed up at Gin’s today, unaware you were there.”
    “But not unaware she was here on the island, apparently,” Roni