Persuaded Read Free Page A

private community—not just anyone could wander onto the
beach. There were only two ways to gain access: own a home there or be invited
as the guest of someone who did. In a nutshell, it was the ideal situation for
him.
    Derick
had only begun to wonder which house could be Sophie’s when she flew out the
back door of a brown house with a white porch. Her excitement was evident in
the way her arms flailed as she ran toward him, her shoulder-length auburn hair
flying out behind her. Even though Sophie was several years older than Derick’s
thirty, she had always been young at heart. She would have made a wonderful
mother, but it seemed that fate did not agree. Sadness embraced Derick just an
instant before Sophie did, and then the feeling evaporated.
    “You
made it!” Sophie declared, breathless.
    Derick
picked his sister up off the sand and squeezed her before setting her down.
“Were you worried?”
    “Not
necessarily. I just thought it might take a bit longer.” She paused, looking
around. “Where’s your stuff?”
    “On
the Laconia . I wasn’t sure how much room you had.”
    Sophie
gave him that look —the one that mothers and teachers universally
employed to drive fear into the hearts of their charges. “You’re not living on
your boat this summer, Derick Wentworth. You’re going to spend it in a
stationary structure with indoor plumbing like the rest of humanity.”
    Derick
grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Good
boy. It took Adam at least a decade to learn that phrase,” Sophie informed him
as she scaled the rickety stairs and pried open the screen door. What Derick
had thought was a covered porch turned out to be a bedroom. Sophie beamed at
him. “Welcome to Kelynch! Go ahead and tell me you’d take your cabin on the Laconia over this.”
    It was
a modest-sized room with gleaming hardwood floors, a puffy-looking queen-sized
bed flanked by end tables, and a large flat-screen TV. The tattered exterior of
the house completely masked the posh standard of the interior, camouflaging
Derick’s whereabouts nicely.
    “Kelly-lynch?”
Derick asked, stumbling over the bizarre name.
    “Kel-inch,”
she corrected. “Every house here has a name. There’s no street name or house
numbers, so it’s how they differentiate. You have your own bathroom, too,”
Sophie continued, gesturing to a door on the left. While smallish, the space
reflected the updated nature of the bedroom. The counters were marble, the
faucets curving gracefully, and the tub and shower, while occupying the same
space, were of the same elegant standard. From the look of the shower head,
Derick wouldn’t have been at all surprised if it sprayed numerous colors and
scents of soap.
    “This
is my room?”
    “Don’t
worry, we took the best room. Come and see.”
    Sophie
hadn’t exaggerated. The master bedroom made his room look Hobbit sized.
The bedroom was a large-scale version of his, with a king bed, giant flat screen,
and lots of square footage. The bathroom was bigger too, with a massive jetted
tub and a separate shower, big enough to fit several people.
    Derick
whistled. “Not too shabby, sis.”
    Sophie
looked smug. “Did you want to go grab your stuff now, or go back for it later?”
    “I’ll
wait awhile. Where’s Adam, anyway?”
    “He
ran to the grocery store—one of the neighbors is having a barbeque tonight.”
    Derick
tensed. The last thing he wanted was to be around a crowd of people who might
or might not recognize him.
    “You
don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Sophie told him gently. “I’m sure
you’re tired anyway.”
    Finding
himself oddly touched—and subsequently speechless—by his sister’s words, Derick
just nodded.
    “We’ll
bring you home a plate,” Sophie said decidedly, stretching up onto her toes and
planting a kiss on Derick’s cheek before walking out of the room. “Hungry? I
could make you a sandwich.”
    “I can
make it, Soph. You don’t need to baby me,” Derick said, following