Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

story.
    “Pretty sure that’s Uncle Sam’s fault. Or are you still going to try and convince us—” Ward poked Joel’s sneaker with the tip of his oar “—that your recent surprise trip, where you gave your boss no notice and left in literally the dead of night, was a vacation?”
    “What he said,” chimed in Gray, the boss in question. He managed the Mayhew Manor hotel where Joel was the executive chef. Gray had been caught off guard when Joel vanished. But his fiancée, Ella, who owned the joint, had assured him that it was just something they had to put up with every so often to keep the CIA-trained kitchen wizard around. And Joel always used his vacation time for the missed days.
    Joel plucked his sunglasses from where they hung at the collar of his shirt and shoved them onto his nose. “No comment.”
    “Thought so.” Ward would get it out of him someday. Probably wouldn’t succeed unless he interrogated Joel under laughing gas at his next cavity filling, but he wouldn’t give up. Curiosity, sure. But also because Ward was certain the man deserved the kind of heartfelt thanks for his service that a paycheck, or even a slew of medals, never covered.
    “The point is, we’re going on a date. Our first date.”
    Whoop-de-fricking-do. First dates were only scary when you didn’t know the person. When you weren’t sure if they’d laugh at your jokes or share your addiction to buffalo chicken pizza. “No big deal. You’ve been friends since the day you came to town. She’s literally cried on your shoulder, gotten drunk with you and cooked you dinner a hundred times already. What’s left to be nervous about?”
    “Everything.” Joel jabbed his oar at the water. “Everything will be different. Everything will matter more.” He jabbed twice more, turning them in a complete three-sixty.
    Yeah. Ward knew the feeling. Or at least, he could imagine it. If, by some miracle, Piper ever quit holding her grudge against him and gave Ward a second chance, it would
so
matter.
    “Don’t be a pansy.” Gray swished them back around with short, hard swats. “The only thing that’s different is that you get to kiss her at the end of the night. If a fourteen-year-old virgin can muster up the balls to get through a first date, so can you.”
    Normally, Gray was easygoing and fun. Exactly the kind of person you’d want out in a boat with you predawn. This short-tempered version might as well be a clone of Ward himself. And
nobody
wanted more of that. Ward reached out to bat the brim of Gray’s cap. “You really woke up on the wrong side of the bed, Locke.”
    “That’s assuming I slept in a bed, Cantrell. Which I most assuredly did not do.”
    “You guys go nuts and sleep out on the balcony?”
    “No. There was a girl emergency last night.” Gray curled a hand around his neck and rotated into it. “Piper called after midnight, all worked up. She and Ella were on the phone for God knows how long. I finally gave up and slept on the couch. Which is not actually a couch, but a love seat. Only two cushions long. Misery.”
    Zane sucked in air between his teeth. “Ouch. On the bright side, rowing this morning is probably great for you. It’s stretching out all those kinked-up muscles in your back.”
    “I’m not feeling that particular silver lining just yet.”
    Were they really talking about stiff muscles? Everyone in the boat loved Piper. Was Ward really the only one with his stomach up in his throat right now? “Can we get back to the emergency? Is Piper okay?”
    “Isn’t she always?” Joel noted with an approving smile. “That’s one cool customer.”
    “Gray just said she had an emergency. Don’t dick around with me on this.”
    “Chill,” Gray ordered, his voice with a sharper edge than it had all morning. “You know if there was truly something wrong, I would’ve rallied the troops last night.”
    He stared off at the silver flash of a fish jumping, and the glimmering ripples it left