Shoreline Drive Read Online Free PDF

spilling from the open doors. A brisk wind rustled through the evergreens that surrounded the barn, the whisper of pine needles almost drowning out the chirruping song of the frog who lived in the stable yard.
    Ben hitched Alex in his arms so that the baby faced the night sky, his butt supported on Ben’s muscled forearm. Merry turned to look up, too, and caught her breath at the stillness and quiet, the velvety softness of the autumn night. A harvest moon glowed golden and bright, outlining the tips of the tall pine trees against the star-studded expanse of midnight blue.
    “Nothing important.” Ben shrugged. When she looked up at him, his dark gray eyes were shadowed and searching. “You wanted to get out of there. So I got us out.”
    A lump thickened in Merry’s throat, something like fear squeezing tight. This man saw too much, made her feel too much …
    She shook her head, but she couldn’t deny Ben was right. Breathing in a gasp of chill night air, Merry felt as if she were sucking in the right amount of oxygen for the first time all day. It was enough to make her light-headed.
    Ben was still watching her, studying her as if she were a specimen on a slide under his microscope. It made her want to squirm … but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
    She shook her head. “I don’t … what are we doing out here?”
    “You’re unhappy.” The blunt force of his words hit her like a hammer. “Living with Jo Ellen. You need to move out.”
    Winded, it took everything Merry had to force a laugh. “That’s ridiculous. What gives you the right—”
    “I have no right,” Ben said, looking impatient. “I know that. But someone has to say it, since you won’t.”
    “I want a relationship with my mother,” Merry protested. “That’s the whole reason I came to Sanctuary. It’s why I decided to move here permanently.”
    “No,” Ben corrected her. “You stayed for Alex. Because you want to raise him here, and you’re smart enough to take help when it’s offered.”
    Merry had the feeling that this entire conversation was happening on multiple levels—but she could only follow one. “I guess that’s partly true, but—”
    “And you didn’t expect help from Alex’s father.” Ben pronounced it like it wasn’t a question, but the way his searching gaze bored into her soul told Merry her answer mattered, for some reason she couldn’t fathom.
    Still completely at sea, and definitely not wanting to get into the whole Ivan mess, Merry looked up and connected the dots of Orion’s belt to give her time to steady her voice. “Alex’s father is out of the picture.”
    The words sent the familiar sharp stab of regret lancing through her. She knew what it was like to grow up missing a parent, and she hated the idea of Alex wondering what he’d done to make his father abandon him.
    Giving a short, satisfied nod, Ben muttered, “Thought so. Good.”
    “Good?” A roil of emotion choked her for a blinding instant. “You don’t think my kid deserves to know his father?”
    Ben’s jaw tensed above Alex’s downy head. “Not if that father is a worthless loser.”
    Merry’s mouth dropped open at the sheer, galling presumption. But before she could hiss that Ben didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, he sighed hugely and lifted Alex in his arms. Staring up into the baby’s cooing face, Ben muttered, “I’m saying this all wrong, aren’t I?”
    Crossing her arms across her chest, Merry demanded, “What are you saying, exactly?”
    Visibly gathering himself, Ben folded Alex in close to his chest, where her baby pressed his little face and rubbed a wet spot on the shoulder of Ben’s hunter-green thermal knit shirt. Merry struggled to hold on to her indignation while her heart melted into a puddle of goo.
    Ben took a deep breath and met her gaze directly. “I’m saying, Alex does deserve a father. And you deserve the chance to build a relationship with your mother that isn’t mired down in