Barefoot in the Sand Read Online Free PDF Page B

it always did on this subject. “He just texted the other day, and she’s only like three weeks pregnant.”
    “I’m so glad you’re here now,” Lacey said.
    “It really was Zoe’s idea. But I was on it in a heartbeat.”
    “And, miracle of miracles, you got Jocelyn to set foot on Mimosa Key again.”
    “Yeah, sort of.” Tessa eyed Jocelyn and shook her head. “Of course you can’t get anything out of her she doesn’t want to give, but one thing is clear: She won’t go south of that road that cuts across the middle of the island.”
    Where her dad still lived, Lacey thought. “Hey, she’s here, Tessa. We’ll work around her issues.”
    “Like that control freak would give us a chance to do otherwise. And, speaking of issues, have you heard from David lately?”
    “Oh, Lord, please. Last I heard he was on an icing expedition in Antarctica or maybe he was trekking in Tibet. I lose track.”
    Tessa rolled her eyes as they reached the Jeep. “So he’s still Peter Pan.”
    “He sends money and Christmas cards,” Lacey said, the odd urge to defend Ashley’s father and her former boyfriend rising up.
    “Hardly enough.”
    “Enough for me.”
    “Anybody at all in the romance picture?” Tessa asked.
    Lacey just snorted. “What picture? I’ve dated the few single men on Mimosa Key and I don’t feel like bar hopping in Fort Myers with a teenage daughter at home.”
    “Maybe we can join an online dating service together.”
    “Get real, Tess.” Although Lacey had certainly considered it when she’d looked at the calendar and faced facts. She was going to be thirty-seven, and if she were ever to have another baby… No way she’d bring that up with Tessa now.
    Thankfully, Jocelyn ended the conversation by waving her phone. “I need to check into the hotel,” she announced. “Client emergency. Why don’t you guys put your bags in Lacey’s car and ride with her? I’ll take the rental.”
    Next to her, Lacey could feel Tessa tense for an argument, so Lacey jumped in, unwilling to ruin this perfect reunion. “Do what you need to, Joss. I’m just glad you’ll be close by.”
    “Oh my God, Lacey, I was supposed to give you these.” Hanging over the driver’s seat of the Jeep, Zoe held up a few long cylinders. “They better have Hot Surfer Dude’s phone number on them.”
    Lacey’s heart hitched as she took the tubes of paper. “What hot surfer dude?”
    “Somebody named Clay Walker.”
    She almost dropped the rolls. “You saw him?”
    “Zoe practically ate him,” Tessa said.
    “Like you wouldn’t have taken a bite,” Zoe shot back.
    “He was the guy Mom totally dissed on the beach,” Ashley said.
    “I didn’t dis him.” Lacey swallowed, the paper sticking to her damp palms. “What did he say?”
    “Nothing,” Zoe said. “He just gave us those to deliver to you and told us to tell you they were from Clay Walker.”
    “No,” Jocelyn corrected her. “He said
the
Clay Walker, the sign of a massive ego.”
    “He should have an ego, ’cause that dude was smokin’ hot.” Zoe elbowed Ashley. “And kinda nekkid, too. I’d like to take a ride on those shoulders.”
    Tessa covered Ashley’s ears. “Nice in front of the kid.”
    “I’m fourteen, Aunt Tessa.”
    “I don’t give a damn about his shoulders.” Lacey snapped the band holding the papers together so hard it broke. “He came here under false pretenses, probably some kind of impostor who hacks e-mail to get work.”
    Zoe choked. “Yeah, there’s a lot of that on the Internet. Like he couldn’t get work as a male pros—model.”
    Lacey spread open one of the rolls on the hood of her car. “We’re going to get a lot of con men down here after the storm… so…”
Good God in heaven
. “We should be…”
    “We should be what, Mom?”
    A slow, prickly chill climbed up her arms, raising the hair on her neck.
    “We should be careful,” she whispered, staring at the simple ink sketch that took everything she