Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze Read Free Page A

to be away from the pain.
    Once in her car, she understood exactly where she wanted to be, and she drove out to Christie’s house. It was January and a new snow had blanketed the roadsides and rooftops with the pure sparkling white of confectioners’ sugar. The sun was out in a high blue sky and the air was sharp and tangy.
    Christie had a fire going in the rec room. Her children were all in school. She was knitting a sweater and listening to music—in the middle of the day! Marina couldn’t imagine living such a life.
    Christie told Marina to kick off her shoes and curl up on the sofa. She brought her hot chocolate and cookies, as if Marina were one of her children. She listened to Marina, and she cried with her—how grateful Marina was for that, to have her friend genuinely share her loss.
    “I’m so angry, Christie,” Marina cried. “I’m so
hurt.
Why me? What’s wrong with me? I know Gerry thinks I’m at fault, even though the doctors say we’re both physically fine. But it’s turning our marriage inside out. And I’m getting obsessed and bitter and angry; I’m turning into a person I don’t like being. I don’t know what to do!”
    Christie was quiet, knitting a row as she thought. “You could stop trying,” she suggested. “You could stop hoping. You could give up. You could adopt.”
    “Gerry doesn’t want to adopt.”
    “Then let it go.” Christie reached over and put her hand on Marina’s. “Just let it go. You have so much, Marina. You have work you enjoy, you have a husband you love. You’re gorgeous, you’re free. You should love your life.”
    “I want a family. I want your life,” Marina insisted. “I want your children.”
    Christie burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me? I tell you what, you stay here for the weekend with my bunch. Bob and I will go off on a little jaunt together and leave you in charge.” She saw the alarm on Marina’s face and laughed even harder.
    Marina laughed, too. She felt better already, and as she drove back home in the winter twilight, she decided she would tell Gerrythat if she wasn’t pregnant by her fortieth birthday, she was going to stop trying. They would have to move on. And she told him, and he accepted her decision.
    Perhaps Marina had secretly hoped that her ultimatum to herself—to Fate or Destiny or whoever gave women babies—would make her body sit up, take notice, and get to work. Get pregnant.
    Then her fortieth birthday arrived.
    And everything changed.
    Now Marina reminded herself:
No wallowing! Move on!
She sat up in bed, planted her feet on the cool wood floor, and surveyed her funny little loft bedroom.
    Focus
, she told herself.
    What was number five? Okay, the fifth thing she was grateful for was to be on this island. The flamboyant, generous beauty both hurt and healed her. Some days the intensity of the wild blue sea, the dense clouds of pink climbing roses, flew straight to her heart like an arrow, spearing her with emotions, so that she had to crouch to the ground, pressing her knees into her chest to keep from crying. But some days the beauty soothed her, even cheered her.
    She believed that someday, someday
soon
, she would walk on the beach, and she would smile.

3

Abbie
    “Abbie!”
    The instant Abbie stepped out of Jason’s truck onto the driveway, her youngest sister opened the front door and flew out of the house. Lily had been waiting, watching out the window, and this tugged at Abbie’s heart. Lily was twenty-two now, a grown woman, but she would always be Abbie’s little sister. And Lily
was
little, four inches shorter than Abbie, and petite.
    “Abbie, I’m so glad you’re here!” Lily was almost jumping up and down.
    “Me, too, kid.” Abbie wrapped her sister in a big hug.
    Lily was the beauty of the family, with her red hair and green cat eyes. She was sexy, too, and not unaware of her charms. Abbie felt Lily’s attention shift to Jason, the island man who had been on her plane and offered her a