Out of Time (Out of Line #2) (Volume 2) by Jen McLaughlin Read Free Book Online

watchmen.”
    Finn flinched. “Please tell me you weren’t kidnapped.”
    “I wasn’t.” I smiled at him. “But I didn’t answer my dad’s texts and he freaked the hell out. I mean, catastrophic panic.”
    Finn tapped his fingers on his board, playing a tune I didn’t recognize. “I would’ve been away then. I missed the show.”
    “You’re lucky. I hear it was quite ugly.” I sighed and tore my eyes from the water, looking back at my other favorite sight—otherwise known as Finn.
    “Where did you go? In Italy?”
    “I wanted to flirt with that guy I told you about when we first met. The Italian guy I mentioned. Remember him?”
    His brows slammed down. “I do. But do I want to hear anything else?”
    He was glowering at me now, but at least he looked more alive than he had for a while. Ever since he asked me on a date he’d been acting weird. Brooding, almost. I could tell something was bothering him, but I had no idea what it was or if it was even related to our date later tonight.
    “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I never even got close to him. My dad’s guards found me and took care of it,” I said, lifting my hands and doing air quotes. “But for those thirty minutes when no one knew where I was? Dad texted me every single second, I kid you not. I’d ignored him because I knew he was being his normal spaztastic self, and I told him as much. But after that, he promised to only text me twenty million times if it was an emergency.”
    Finn pressed his lips together. “So you’re telling me this to make sure I don’t panic like him, or what?”
    “Pretty much.” I reached out and caught his hand, squeezing it tight. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”
    “I know.” He lifted my hand and kissed my fingers, making my stomach clench. “With you at my side, how could it not be?”
    My heart melted at that sentence. Combined with the way he looked at me—his eyes soft and his lips even softer—I wasn’t sure I had the muscle power to surf right now.
    “You catch the first wave,” I said, my voice practically a whisper. I cleared my throat and tipped my head toward the approaching wave. “It looks pretty big.”
    He nodded once. “And you’ll wait till I come back to catch another one.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” I waved a hand at him impatiently. “I remember the rules, master of the sea.”
    He looked over his shoulder, more than likely calculating the time it would take for his ride to arrive. He had a few seconds at most. He shot me a look and started paddling forward, his back muscles bunching and rolling flawlessly. “You can give me all the attitude you want, but I almost lost you once—I won’t do it again.”
    “I know,” I called out, splashing water at him. The drops barely reached him. “Now go before you’re too late.”
    He grinned and flawlessly caught the wave, riding it to shore like the pro he was. He sliced in and out, doing moves I didn’t even know the names of, never once tipping off balance. He was mesmerizing and beautiful to watch out here.
    Well, anywhere . But especially on the water.
    I watched him with awe, quite certain I’d never get to that level of skill, but I was okay with that. I just liked coming out here, hanging out in the water and enjoying the time with Finn. For the most part, we were left alone. There were a few surfers out this morning, but it was much emptier than on a weekend.
    A blond man prepared to catch the next wave a few hundred feet over, and past him a woman with black hair bobbed in the water. It was a perfect, peaceful morning.
    But I felt anything but peaceful.
    Finn swam back to my side and I forced a bright smile. If it was the last thing I did, I would hide my anxiety from him. He didn’t need my baggage sinking him down to the bottom of the Pacific. “That was a good one.”
    He climbed back on his black board and shook his hair like a wet dog, spraying me. “It was. Next one’s yours, though.”
    “As long as it’s