Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) Read Free

lips.
    It was all Sunny could do not to stare with her mouth wide open as the muscles of his throat worked the liquid down. She barely managed to clamp her lips together before he shot her a sardonic look over the top of the bottle.
    “Root beer?” he mused. His chuckle rumbled across to her again.
    “The best to had in Murphy’s Point. I make it myself,” she said. She was glad there wasn’t a hint of awkwardness in her speech.
    “You mean Sea Glass Point?”
    “No, Murphy’s Point. I know that gazillionaire developer is trying to turn the beach out here into some kind of playground for the rich and famous. I’ve heard all I want to hear about him, thank you very much. The folks at the café are all agog to meet him. But he’s too high and mighty to come down here and mingle with the common horde. If you ask me, he’s just taking advantage of a poor economy and a wide spot in the road that’s not too far off the highway.”
    “He sounds like an asshole,” John said without looking her way.
    Now he was staring out at the ocean with what she’d once heard described as a ‘thousand-yard stare’. Maybe the poor guy was a veteran with PTSD. She’d met more than one at the café. They were always drifters. And most of them were hard and lonely, like John seemed to be.
    “I don’t know him personally. But I do know he came to Murphy’s Point a few years ago and bought up the beach for pennies on the dollar. Then he built those two monstrosities over there.” She pointed to the massive multi-storied towers.
    “Monstrosities?”
    She heard the bite in his voice. But Sunny was so caught up in her narrative, she didn’t quit talking. She probably should have. “Yeah, those things are probably taller than the Empire State Building. What does he think is going to happen the first time a hurricane wipes the beach?”
    “They’ll keep standing? The emergency generators will crank up? The towers will provide shelter for the whole community?” He bit out each hard word.
    Sunny had a faint sense that she’d offended the man. But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out how. “Maybe McIntrye is altruistic. Who am I to say? You could probably find work over there. Just about everybody in town works for him now.”
    “So you know the man’s name?”
    “Yeah, everybody does. He’s JD McIntrye. According to the gossip, he was born into oil money. But that’s just a fraction of what he’s worth now. He probably paid for the beach and the towers out of his petty cash fund. If you’re into that kind of thing, the man’s a legend.”
    “He must be an old guy.” There was a speculative tone to John’s words. He quietly took another sip of root beer. It wasn’t the hundred-year-old Scotch he’d been sipping earlier in the evening. But the company was a lot more entertaining.
    “Yeah, I guess. Aren’t most billionaires really old? Doesn’t it take a while to cheat other people out of that much money?”
    The man choked on the drink. He was probably only ten years her senior. He’d skirted the raw edge of legality a time or two in his business dealings. But he’d never knowingly cheated anyone.
    “You’re an idealist.” His words were more accusation than compliment.
    “Not really. I know everybody needs money. I just don’t think it should be your god. Some people just want enough to get by. They just want enough money to pay their light bill and raise their kids. Other folks just want to do more noble things with their lives.”
    “Like you?”
    “Me?” She shook her head. “No, I’m not noble. Far from it. I want to be a ballet dancer. And I will be. That’s one of the reasons I’m celebrating tonight.”
    “ This , is your idea of a celebration?” He swung his arms wide.
    “Yeah, of course,” she answered emphatically.
    “So you’re out here in the dark, alone, with a bottle of home-brewed root beer celebrating your eighteenth birthday?”
    It didn’t sound much like an occasion