Oh Damn One Night of Trouble Read Online Free PDF

stumbling as he walked, carrying a wine bottle and smoking a cigar. His shirt was unbuttoned and the tails of it flapped in the breeze. His pants were rolled up over his muscular calves and Josh walked along, barefoot in the sand.
    She went toward him but he didn't seem to notice. He had stopped and was staring out at the ocean. “Hello!” she called out. “Do you need rescuing?”
    He laughed. “Do I need rescuing?”
    “ Yes,” she said, standing beside him. She hadn't realized how tall he was until now. She looked up at him. “Do you?”
    He fell silent for a few moments. “I think you're the first person to ask me that question,” he said.
    “ Where have you been staying? I haven't seen you in a long time.”
    “ I'm living on the beach.” He sat down in the sand and Kailani sat next to him. “Beautiful, isn't it?”
    “ Yes it is,” Kailani agreed. She wrapped her arm around his and snuggled closer. The night brought a cool breeze.
    “ California is that way,” he said, pointing with the wine bottle in his hand.
    “ That's where I thought you went,” she said.
    “ No,” Josh said. “I don't have enough money to travel that far.” He looked at her. “I gave up my business Kailani. I gave up on my dream. I gave up...everything.”
    “ What was your dream?”
    “ I was going to ask the state if I could turn my place into a wild life sanctuary so I could keep my animals,” he said. “There's no point in it now. It's gone.”
    “ Maybe...you could start over.”
    “ I can't,” he said. “It's too much of a risk. If they turn me down, I'd have to send away whatever animals I manage to find. No, it's over. I can't do that again.” He paused and drank from the wine bottle. He offered her some and smiled when she shook her head. “I don't blame you. It's pathetically warm.”
    “ You can't live on the beach,” Kailani told him.
    “ Yes, I know. That's what the police said.”
    “ The police?”
    “ They arrested me for public intoxication and locked me up for a few days,” he said.
    “ You were in jail?”
    “ It's not the first time,” he said, glancing at her. “I was picked up a few times when I lived in California too.” He leaned back and drank from the bottle, emptying it. “I have...a problem.”
    “ Oh,” Kailani said.
    “ Working with the animals kept me busy,” he said, “and when I was working as an escort, it was difficult because everyone around me was drinking. I looked at it like a challenge. If I could be that close to it and not drink, I felt like a winner.”
    “ That's good,” Kailani said.
    “ I haven't won anything in life Kailani,” he said, “not ever. I lose everything.”
    “ What about your family? Where are they?” Kailani asked.
    “ I don't have one,” Josh explained. “I'm sure they're out there somewhere but I don't know who they are. I was abandoned as an infant and I grew up in foster homes.” He shrugged. “When I was fifteen I tried to find out who my mother was but the records said she was never found. There was a newspaper article and a photograph of the dumpster but...”
    “ The dumpster?” Kailani asked.
    “ That's where she left me.”
    “ She threw you away?”
    “ Like an old pizza box,” he said, with a grin. “In fact, I hear that was what saved my life, kept me from falling to the bottom.” He chuckled and nudged against her.
    “ It's not funny,” Kailani said.
    “ I know it isn't,” he said in a soft voice. “I guess that's why I care so much about the animals people throw away. I...I've never been able to connect with anyone, not really, but with the animals...it's easy for me.”
    “ You are good at taking care of them,” Kailani said.
    “ I found Burt,” he said.
    “ You did?”
    “ Yes, but I had to send him away too,” he said, leaning back in the sand. “I sent them all to San Diego. Someday, I might visit them.”
    “ Did Honey go too?”
    “ Yes, you definitely saved her,” Josh said.