And Then Forever Read Online Free PDF

on her arm, the one on her neck that made Kincaid want to throttle someone himself, and he thought he’d waited too long to take Abby away. For years, she had insisted everything was okay, and it had been, from time to time. Then last week, her husband’s dark side had resurfaced, and for the first time since she got pregnant, Abby had realized her life was in danger—and so was her baby’s. She’d called Kincaid and he’d spirited her off to a hotel for a few days, while he made other arrangements to keep her safe. Now, finally on the island, he could see contentment and hope in Abby’s face, and that was good. Very good.
    “Let’s put the crib against the far wall,” Abby said. “That way, when the sun sets, she—“
    “Or he.”
    Abby stuck her tongue out at him. “ She can watch the sunset.”
    He was about to argue back, tease her about how baby boys weren’t interested in sunsets, but Abby’s face was so serene and sure, he couldn’t do it. Instead, he unboxed the crib and set it up, right where his sister wanted it. After all his sister had been through, he figured she deserved to feel that way, as long as possible. He didn’t want to tell her he knew that eventually, no matter how far they ran, the storm she was avoiding was going to catch up to them. There’d be time for that, later.
    Abby wandered off to unpack in the kitchen while Kincaid worked on the crib. Every so often, his gaze went to the window, to the beach he could just see beyond the trees. For a moment, he was nineteen again, walking on that beach when he heard a deep, throaty laugh, and turned to find one of the most stunning girls he’d ever seen in his life, leaning against the lifeguard station and drinking a beer. Darcy being Darcy at her best—thumbing her nose at the rules, ignoring the posted signs about No Alcohol , the danger of being a few feet from the lifeguard.
    That was who she was. Wild, uncontrollable, a girl who did what she wanted when she wanted to do it. He’d been hooked from that second, wrapped up in her so quickly, the whole relationship was like racing the wind. They’d been inseparable, falling hard and fast. Before he knew it, he’d started contemplating forever. A life away from the rules and expectations that had governed him from birth.
    Then he’d woken up one day and Darcy was gone. She’d left him a simple note, reading only, It’s Over, I’m Sorry. I Wish You Well , as if he was a friend moving to a new state. When he’d called her, she hadn’t answered, and when he’d gone to see her at The Love Shack, she’d disappeared in the back and let someone else finish her shift. When the ferry left in the morning, Kincaid had stood on the bow, his back to The Love Shack, Darcy and the entire island, so he wouldn’t have to watch it all disappear.
    For years, Darcy had been not just the one who got away , but the one he measured all others against. He’d dated some very nice women, but none of them had had that…spark that Darcy had. He’d often wondered about her, whether she’d stayed on the island, if she’d gotten married. But most of all, he’d wondered if in hindsight he’d painted their relationship with a rosy brush, seeing her as someone more perfect than she was.
    He told himself that a hundred times, and tried to put her out of his mind. But she had lingered at the fringes of his thoughts, the one woman he never moved past. And now she was here, just a half mile away. Not wearing a ring, but not giving him the time of day, either.
    The screwdriver in his hand slipped and sliced a gash into his opposite palm. “Shit!” Kincaid dropped the screwdriver, thumbed pressure on the wound, then went in search of some bandaids. He unearthed a few sketchy looking Scooby Doo bandages in the rusty medicine cabinet hanging in the one bathroom at the back of the cottage.
    “You okay?” Abby poked her head into the bathroom. “Whoa. You’re bleeding.”
    “I’m fine. Fine.”
    “Here,