Gypsy Beach Read Free Page A

could ever access again. Everything had all washed away
with the tides.
    He shook one of the long sturdy wooden poles
that held up one of the upper decks. It gave far too much for his
liking, and Ryan stared up at the footings of the deck, trying to
determine how much longer it would remain attached to the house.
Giving it at least another six weeks, he allowed himself to enter
his new home.
    The smell of the beach house at the beginning
of each summer always took him back. His family had been happy
there; well, happier there than they ever were anywhere else.
    A tinge of mildew and musty sea air assaulted
his senses. He moved to open a few more sliding doors and windows
in an effort to rid his nasal passages of breathy memories.
    He tried to shake the visual assault of her
from every location in the house. They’d made out on that couch all
summer long. She would hop up on the kitchen counter with that
sassy smirk and the fire in those hazel eyes that he swore held the
mysteries of the entire universe.
    No one had stayed at the house for any length
of time in the last ten years. He or his father would send men out
to check on it occasionally. John had brought a few girls out there
for long weekends, but the Gypsy Beach house had been left as a
mausoleum of memories, a tribute to a life that might have been if
everything hadn’t gone so horribly wrong.
    Having no luck ordering the recollections of
the last ten years away, Ryan gave in. He took the stairs in a slow
death march and traipsed to the bedroom where he’d spent every
summer from the age of ten to seventeen.
    Squeezing his eyes closed to dam back the
tears, he could still see her beautiful body splayed out under his.
She’d been nervous. She’d been downright terrified, but she stared
into his eyes with such belief in him the feeling had been utterly
intoxicating.
    God, he’d tried to be so gentle, but the
absolute magnetic force between them had him pushing himself into
her long before he’d properly readied her. He’d been a
seventeen-year-old idiot. Bitter regret ate him alive as he turned
and threw his bags into a different bedroom. He may have been a
miserable asshole, but he was a little tired of his own self-abuse.
Sleeping in the same bed where he’d held the one woman he could
ever have seen himself with for an eternity was masochistic as
hell, and that was not his thing.
    He stomped back down the stairs, relieved
that the interior of the house wasn’t quite as bad as he’d
expected. It was dated and the decks and siding would all have to
be replaced, but it was livable, and he could turn it into a great
house for himself and Evie. That was what mattered anyway.
    It was late afternoon, and he needed to get
some groceries. Bright and early tomorrow morning, he’d head to
Montgomery’s and find out who was looking to hire a contractor.
He’d work day and night until he’d earned back some of what he’d
willingly given away, until he had enough to take care of his baby
girl.
     
    *****
     
    “Yay!” Sienna bounced on her toes when she
finally got the oven to light. She was careful not to be too
abusive to the hardwoods since her boot had gone through the front
porch. Successes had been few and far between that day.
    She needed more help with the Inn than she
would’ve allowed herself to believe since she was saving every
penny she could to get her Grandmother’s house out of probate.
    This was where she belonged. This was what
she wanted to do, and her mother and her stepfather and everyone
else that thought she was insane could just take their thoughts and
walk right off the pier. She was going to make this a success just
like Nana had. Sienna helped her grandmother run the Inn every
summer. She knew how to do this, and dammit, no one was going to
stop her now.
    She spun and unloaded the groceries she’d
picked up in town after a restorative cup of coffee and slice of
cherry pie from Montgomery’s.
    With no conscious decision to do so,