How Do I Love Thee by Lurlene McDaniel Read Free Book Online

their apprehension when it came time to leave. He wanted to assure them he'd take good care of Shayla but didn't know how.
    “First-date jitters,” Shayla sighed when she and Brett were driving away. “I don't think they ever expected me to have a boyfriend from the daylight world.”
    “They'll just have to get used to me hanging around, because I plan to make a habit of it.”He reached over, took her hand, and held it for the long drive to the Cape.
    Just as twilight descended, Brett and Shayla found their friends sitting around a small campfire on the beach. “Just in time,” Dooley said, using tongs to dig through piles of seaweed for clams, lobsters, and corn on the cob from the heated pit. “Let the feast begin!”
    Brett watched Shayla, shy at first, slowly warm to the others and them to her. Brett wanted to protect her, put his arms around her, ward off any hurt that might come her way, and he would have challenged anyone who treated her badly.
    The night turned chilly. Dooley rebuilt the fire. Soon couples began to pair off and wander farther down the beach. Those who didn't sat around telling ghost stories.
    “Come on,” Brett said, taking Shayla's hand and leading her to a spot away from the others. He spread their blanket and stretched out beside her. Together they studied the stars. She pointed out the constellations, named them, and made him wonder why he'd never spent the time to learn about the night sky. He vowedhe would learn all he could because night was her home in the universe, and he wanted to be where she was, live wherever she did.
    “Are you having a good time?” He rose up on his elbows and gazed down at her moonlit face.
    “I'm having a very good time. I never expected to be here, with them, doing this.”
    “You mean having a clambake?”
    “No … belonging,” she said.
    His heart banged hard in his chest. The scent of her hair made him light-headed. “It's just the first of a hundred things I want to do with you.”
    “Beginning with—?” Her eyes seemed clear as glass, and he imagined that he could see into her very soul.
    “Beginning with this.” He leaned down, touched his lips to hers. She welcomed his kiss and allowed it to deepen. Suddenly it was as if a thousand fireworks had gone off in his head. Colors exploded and ricocheted in his mind; his body felt as if it were on fire. She was moonlight and starlight to him, a night vision he wanted to hold on to forever.
    “I love you,” he whispered into her ear.
    Shayla's arms slid around his neck. “And I love you,” she whispered back.
    Two days later, Brett was still flying from his night on the beach with Shayla. So this was what love felt like—a rocket ride, with his heart so full of joy that he thought it would spill out of him or seep through his pores. He was humming as he prepared to go to work, when the phone rang. He picked it up and heard a woman's teary voice ask, “Is this Brett?”
    “It is.”
    A pause. “This is Cynthia Brighton, Shayla's mother. I got your number from the information operator, thank God.”
    Brett felt his stomach tighten. Why would Shayla's mother be calling him?
Unless—?
“What's wrong? Is it Shayla?”
    “She's in die hospital,” came the answer. “It seems she went out in her boat late last night. She must have experienced engine trouble because she was stranded out in the sea for hours.”
    Brett felt sick. “And what happened?”Maybe her boat had overturned. Maybe she had gotten caught in a storm.
    “She was alt right… for a while. And then…”
    He could hear that Mrs. Brighton was having trouble controlling her voice. “And then
what?”
    “And then the sun came up.”

Ten

    hayla had been found unconscious, drifting out to sea in the open boat, in the hot summer afternoon. Three fishermen from a passing cabin cruiser had captured the dinghy, taken Shayla onboard, and radioed for an ambulance. Back onshore, an emergency medical team had pumped her dehydrated