Barefoot Summer Read Free Page A

wasn’t about to worry her with them now.
    Her mom gave her a long, knowing look. The kind that made Madison realize that she could shutter off her heart to the outside world, but Mom would still see right through.
    “You know, Madison . . . if it’s peace you’re looking for, you won’t find it on the regatta course.”
    Madison put the platter away, the old cupboard giving a familiar creak. Was that what she was after? Peace? Did a person ever find such a thing after losing someone they loved so much? Someone so innocent and undeserving of death?
    Mom took her hands, which had begun wringing the towel. “I wish I could help. I can’t, but I know Someone who can.”
    “I know, Mom.” She’d heard it often enough. From her parents, Pastor Adams, even Ryan. If showing up at church could fix what ailed her, she’d have been healed long ago. She was as regular as the pianist. All the McKinleys were.
    Mom’s eyes turned down at the corners and glimmered with sadness.
    “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Really. Learning to sail will be . . .” She squeezed the word past her lips. “Fun.”
    “I don’t know how you’ll have time with the play and all. You know how busy you get every summer with all the rehearsals.”
    “It’ll be a lot, but I can handle it.” It wasn’t like she had a husband and kids. Or even a boyfriend.
    Madison hung the towel on the oven door, and they meandered outside and sat on the concrete stoop. Mom grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds from the bag she kept there and tossed them onto the dirt path near the birdbath.
    “I should’ve gotten you a birdfeeder for Mother’s Day.”
    Mom tossed another handful. “This is just as easy.”
    “It’s a wonder you don’t have a sunflower forest out there for all the seed you’ve thrown over the years.”
    “The ground’s too hard. Besides, the birds snatch it up as quickly as I scatter it.”
    A sparrow fluttered to the ground, picked up a seed, and made off with it.
    “See what I mean?”
    On the court, PJ whooped. “That’s an R. So that’s H-O-R for all of you.” She might be small, but the girl could shoot. The men groaned as she sank another shot.
    “I finally heard from Jade today,” her mom said.
    Madison turned. “Why didn’t you say something?”
    Joanne shrugged. “I told the others before you arrived. She only left a message. Didn’t say where she was. I don’t think she’s coming home anytime soon.”
    Madison’s lips pressed together. Beckett. What did he do to her? “She didn’t say what happened?”
    “No. It’s been a long time coming, I think. Jade’s always been restless, and I’ve had a feeling she’d leave sooner or later. I just wish I’d said something. I hate the thought of her out there all alone.”
    Madison put her arm around her mom. “She’s an adult, Mom. She can take care of herself.”
    Neither of them said what they were both thinking. Jade might be an adult—she wasn’t even the youngest sibling—but she was the most vulnerable of all the McKinleys.

CHAPTER THREE
    B ECKETT GUIDED THE TWENTY-FOOT B AYLINER C AROLINE into the narrow slip. The river was fast and high today from the late spring rain, but now the sky was clear, the setting sun bright as it dropped behind the hills.
    His boss met him on the dock as he tied off the boat . Carl Dewitt was short and thick with a paunch that strained his shirt buttons. “Hey, you fixed it?” he asked.
    “Yep.”
    Carl nodded, his bushy gray brows lifting toward his receding hairline. “Good, good. Our customer will be thrilled. His mechanic in Tampa couldn’t figure it out.”
    Beckett shrugged, handed over the keys. “Been at this awhile.” He’d been fixing motors long before he was legally employable, more from necessity than anything else.
    They parted ways at the shop entrance, Carl going inside to shut down for the night, Beckett heading for his truck. He turned over the engine, and it purred smoothly. Friday night,