LITMIR.BIZ

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Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Chapter Twenty-One

       Chapter Twenty-Two

       Chapter Twenty-Three

       Dear Reader

       Extract

       Copyright

Chapter One

      Bone weary after sitting up half the night with Max, Amelia closed her eyes with a sigh. The gentle blue-green waters of the tidal creek lapped against the sides of her small fishing boat. Rocked her in the soothing cradle of the waves she’d known since birth.

      She savored the silence broken only by the skritching of the sand crabs on the nearby barrier island. A breeze wafted past her nose, smelling of sea salt and brine. She’d hurried this cold April morning for the chance to anchor in the crystal cove overlooking her favorite spot among the ruins of the deserted coastal village.

      Amelia loved her family, her life, her home. And especially her motherless nephew, Max. But sometimes she craved the isolation of this forgotten shore. Here in the rhythm of the tide, where God most often rejuvenated her soul, she could be just Amelia.

      She’d stolen this opportunity to photograph the migratory birds in their yearly stopover on the barrier island. Images she’d transfer to her sketch pad while her charter boat clients fished during the upcoming flounder season.

      Amelia had spent most of her life fishing and swimming in these waters. But Max hadn’t. It’d be July before the water truly warmed. And her five-year-old nephew wasn’t robust enough for even the shallow drifts of the channel.

      Gripping the camera strapped about her neck, she scanned the marsh for signs of life. She peered through the cordgrass across the channel that separated the wildlife refuge from her home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The air hung thick with early-morning fog snaking above the dark waters of the wetlands.

      Amelia’s hand caught hold of the railing of the Now I Sea as a gust of the ever-present wind buffeted her against the side of the boat. Beyond the dunes on the other side of the island, ocean waves churned. Churned like her thoughts these days about what the doctor’s report would say. About whether she and Max had another summer ahead of them to comb the beach for sea glass.

      Or if time had run out.

      A gaggle of birds darted upward, cawing to each other. She jerked. Her eyes swept over the rotting stumps of the island dock and the long-abandoned husks of boats moldering on the beach. She gazed across the remaining stone foundations on the sandy rise. Like the village, she’d suffered so many losses.

       Please, God, not Max. Whatever You want from me, I’ll do. Just please don’t take Max, too.

      Her Wellingtons squelched on the fiberglass deck as she padded over to the controls. She gripped the helm and, turning the ignition, brought the engine to life. Above the chugging of the motor, she pointed the bow once more toward her home in Kiptohanock. To where chores awaited, where Dad needed reminding to take his medicine, where Honey needed to be straightened out about returning to college next fall. And since Amelia’s fiancé, Jordan, had died, back to the bleakness of her own possibilities.

      She cast one final glance over her shoulder as the barrier island receded. One fine summer day she and Max would return here. Fourth of July, maybe. They’d have a picnic. Hunt for shells. And she’d paint the landscape to her heart’s content while Max ran up and down the dunes. Happy, healthy. Whole.

      One fine day... God willing. She lifted her chin and headed home.

      * * *

      Borne aloft on the prevailing winds, seagulls whirled in graceful figure eights above the cab of his truck. Braeden Scott kneaded the wheel, glancing out the window over the railing of the bridge, where the Chesapeake Bay sparkled like glittering diamonds in the sunshine. He gazed upward at one lone bird whose shadow hovered above his windshield.

      “Just so long as you don’t—”

       Splat.

      Great. Story of his life.

      “And welcome to the Eastern Shore of Virginia to you, too, my friend.” He grimaced at the whitish excrement dotting his windshield.

      His Ford F-250 bumped and jolted over the last hump of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which spanned the watery distance between Virginia Beach and the Delmarva peninsula composed of parts of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. A string of islands, shoals and spits dotted the ocean side. An archipelago, he’d been told, of uninhabited isles.

      At one point in a narrow stretch along Highway 13 heading north, he sighted the bay to his left and the Atlantic on his right. Leaving Northampton County and the signs for Coast Guard Station Cape Charles behind, he crossed into Accomack County. A few miles later, he veered off the main artery at Nassawadox toward Seaside Road, per Seth Duer’s instructions.

      Passing fields, barns and farmhouses, he crossed the small bridge at Quinby. He skirted the hamlet of Wachapreague, hugging the shoreline, and headed toward the coastal village of Kiptohanock. He’d report for duty tomorrow to the officer in charge at the small boat station.

      He drove around the village square occupied by a cupola-topped gazebo. Not much to the fishing village. A post office. A white-steepled clapboard church. Victorian homes meandered off side lanes lined with beginning-to-leaf-out trees.

      So this was Kiptohanock...

      Braeden steered the nose of his truck into an empty parking slot designed for vehicles towing boats. He threw open the cab door and got out. Hands on his hips, he surveyed the marina with its aging pier, the bait store, the Sandpiper Café and the boat repair shop where he’d meet Seth and get the key to his rental. Coast Guard Station Kiptohanock hunkered just across the parking lot, with rapid-response boats tied and at the ready on an adjacent dock.

      Not exactly like his last digs in Station Miami. Or even Kodiak before that.

      Braeden slammed the cab door shut to silence its dinging. He consoled himself with the promise that this smaller, isolated CG station was a chance to grow his leadership skills and continue the stellar trajectory his career had been on since he’d enlisted in the United States Coast Guard a dozen years ago. A matter of killing time here before rotating out to bigger assignments.

      He filled his lungs with the bracing sea air. Not so bad. Not the most exciting place he’d ever quartered, but as long as he could hear the crash of the waves, he’d do fine. And there was the added bonus of finding a furnished cabin for rent by Seth Duer, who offered free docking for his boat since the station didn’t offer housing for unmarried personnel.

      Braeden’s first love, the sea, remained the only love in his life that hadn’t let him down. Give Braeden his boat, the rhythm of the sea and, as one poet had phrased it, “a star to steer by,” and he was good. Better than good. Women were trouble he didn’t need in his life.

      Pushing off from his truck, Braeden caught sight of an older man in jeans and a plaid shirt tinkering with a boat engine in one of the garage bays of the repair shop.

      Braeden strode forward, hand outstretched. “Mr. Duer?”

      The man straightened. His bristly gray brows constricted before easing as recognition dawned. His thick mustache curved upward and he thrust his hand, hard with calluses, at Braeden. “You must be Braeden Scott.” Seth Duer laughed, a gravelly smoker sound. “I mean Boatswain’s Mate First Class Petty Officer Braeden Scott.”

      Braeden smiled and shrugged. “Since you’re not a Coastie and I’m not in uniform, I think we can let that bit

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