Forever Beach by Shelley Noble Read Free Book Online Page B

chair. Dollars to doughnuts this rat bastard was hiding money somewhere, and she had just the forensic accountant to nail his ass to the wall.
    S OONER OR LATER you met every coffee or tea drinker in town at the Ocean Brew. After Sam died and before Leila came, Sarah looked forward to the morning rush just like the people getting coffee there were her best friends. Truth to tell, Sarah didn’t make friends easily. It was even harder to keep them. She’d been out of the system for more than ten years, but the barriers she’d erected there had been built to last.
    Sarah could be abrasive when she was scared, which these days seemed most of the time; she also could be standoffish if she was concentrating on something or if she wasn’t sure of herself.
    She stood on the sidewalk outside the Brew and took a couple of deep breaths. She’d walked Leila down to the school bus stop, then had called Danny Noyes, Leila’s adoption caseworker.
    She left a message for him to call her. Same with the advocate ad litem. Sarah knew they were busy. But it was hard not to feel paranoid, like everyone was avoiding her because they didn’t want to give her the bad news. But then Reesa called her, and Sarah was so relieved that she’d agreed to meet her at the Brew before she remembered that everyone she knew would probably be there. Wyatt would be there.
    She needed to apologize to him and she planned to, but she didn’t relish doing it with half the town watching.
    â€œCoward,” she said and pulled the heavy door open.
    The Brew was a low ceiling L-shaped coffee bar. The floors, walls, and ceiling were dark stained wood and reminded Sarah of the hold in some nineteenth-century sailing ship. Not that she’d ever been in any kind of ship.
    She shivered at the mere thought. Or more likely because it was always overly cold in the coffee bar during the summer,possibly to counteract the steam machines. And the coffee. There was a line at the counter—there usually was in the mornings—but she saw Reesa sitting toward the back, which would give them at least a nod to privacy. Except as soon as Sarah made out Reesa, she saw Wyatt sitting at the table beside her.
    Damn.
    Reesa held up a cup, letting her know she’d already ordered for Sarah, so there was no way out there. She walked toward the table.
    Wyatt stood and picked up his cup. He seemed to fill the space. “Morning, Sarah. I know you and Reesa have business to discuss, so I’ll leave you to it.”
    Sarah opened her mouth, couldn’t think of what she wanted to say. Smiled awkwardly. She knew it was awkward because she felt awkward.
    â€œWyatt,” she blurted.
    He hesitated, looked at her.
    â€œI’m sorry for . . . yesterday . . . I was upset.”
    â€œI know you were. Reesa, good to see you.” He nodded and walked over to talk to the two guys who had just bought the cheese shop two stores down.
    Sarah stared after him, then she sat down. “Do you think he knows that was me apologizing?”
    â€œProbably,” said Reesa. “But you might want to do it more formally when there is less of an audience.”
    Sarah nodded. She didn’t get why anyone would like her. She’d never learned grace or finesse. She was prickly when she felt insecure, outspoken when she was angry, and had way too many knee-jerk reactions.
    It had been different when Sam was alive, but now thathe was gone, it seemed like she was regressing to those days when she had to protect herself every second. And that just made her doubly nervous that she would blow the chance of keeping Leila. Which made her even more prickly . . . which made her—
    â€œSarah?”
    Sarah jumped, almost upsetting her mug. “Sorry. So did you find out anything?”
    Reesa wiped the foam off her mouth. She was wearing a light gray suit with a white blouse. Completely out of sync with the shorts and T-shirts, cover-ups, and trendy