The Coast is Clear (Breakaway Shores #1)

Izzy

Beep

Jack held my hand as we walked on the shoreline. The sun was shining, and the warmth was radiating through my shoulders.

“What are you going to do now?” Jack asked, but something about him was a little different. He was wearing my favorite shirt, this gray Henley that I’d bought him for Christmas last year. I couldn’t remember, but it made his shoulders look so strong.

“What do you mean?” I couldn’t remember what he was talking about, what we’d been talking about just a moment ago.

Jack scrunched up his eyebrows at me and then brought our hands to his mouth, kissing the back of mine with his lips. “I remember the first time I saw you. Do you remember?” I did. He was all lanky limbs and braces. I nodded. “You were such a breath of fresh air that summer. You guys showed up halfway through and man, freshman year had been hell. I was so glad to not be a freshman anymore and I had had my first girlfriend that year. Noelle Thomas, and then I’d found her making out with some loser under the bleachers. I was heartbroken. But I forgot all about her when you came down that hill and onto the beach. You were with your friend; I don’t remember her at all, but your hair was long. Braided so I could see how perfect your face was. And you had on such a cool outfit. Like you looked like you didn’t care what anyone else thought and I loved that about you. I still do.”

Jack’s eyes were glistening with tears, and we had stopped walking; I was just watching him talk. “Why are you crying?” I asked, wiping a tear from his cheek.

He smiled at me and shook his head, “And then I remember seeing you come down that same hill wearing Christian in that gray baby carrier so many years later. Man, I really got lucky. I don’t know how I convinced you to love me. But it was truly the greatest honor of my life.”

“Was?” I was confused.

“You’ve got to go back, Iz.” He put a hand on my face and brushed his thumb against my skin. It sent sparks through my body, and then I heard something beep.

I glanced around us, but nothing was there. Nobody was there. It was just us, alone, on the beach. Beep. “Do you hear that? ”

Jack let go of my hand and stood to face me, placing both of his hands on my shoulders instead. “You’ve got to go back.”

“Back where?” Beep.

He tilted his head to the side, and my eyes took in his face like I hadn’t seen it in ages. Years. The little spot in his left eyebrow where there wasn’t any hair because he’d been cut there as a teenager. The bare spots in his beard that he complained about endlessly, but I loved. It made it just so very him. The way his hair lay to the side at the very front and how soft it was under my fingers. “To the boys. Go.” Jack shook my shoulders, his hands digging into my skin, and the beach went away.

Beep.

The sunny sky was replaced with a blank white ceiling. To my left was a wall with a giant whiteboard and my name in the top right-hand corner. I tried to sit up, my shoulders aching as I moved. “?” Zander’s voice made a shiver rush over my skin, and there he was. Sitting in a little plastic chair to the right of my hospital bed.

The hospital.

The crash.

It came back to me in an instant. I hadn’t really been with Jack on the beach but dreaming about him. Dreaming about my sweet husband who was gone. “Are the boys okay?” My next thought was how I needed to see them. That if anything happened to them, I would… I couldn’t even finish the thought .

Zander looked tired, his hair a mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes. “They’re okay. More than okay. My mom is with them.”

“Your mom?” I asked, confused because I hadn’t known she was coming.

He nodded and stood, coming to the side of the bed. I reached out for his hand, needing to make sure this was real somehow, and he grabbed onto mine without hesitation. “It was a surprise visit and very well timed since Luke…” He drifted off, and the panic came back.

I pushed myself up on an elbow, my head dizzy. “What about Luke?”

Zander cleared his throat and there was something about his face, his eyes. He was about to cry. “Luke hasn’t woken up yet. They think he’s going to be okay, though.”

I gripped his fingers tighter and closed my eyes. I couldn’t lose my brother. “Can I see him? Can your mom bring the boys? How long has it been?” There were so many questions in my head.

Zander leaned over, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Okay, question for a question. I’m sure they’ll let you see him after they check you out. Nothing was broken or severely injured, but you were just in and out of it. A concussion is what they said. I will call her right after this and have her bring them. They’ve been enjoying being with her, just so you know. Kingston has been calling her Granny. The crash happened not last night but the night before, so it was about a day and a half.” He brushed my hair back on my head, and I never wanted him to stop. I sat up further and patted the bed, needing him to be closer. It was then that I remembered how much I’d pushed him away. I’d been so ridiculous, trying to end things with him.

He sat next to me, wrapping an arm around me, and I nestled my head into his chest. His usual smell was kind of muted like he hadn’t sprayed his cologne on for a while, which meant he’d probably been here with me the entire time. He didn’t leave. “Do you remember what happened?” Zander’s voice was soft.

“I was just driving. Then I looked over at you, and I saw the lights. I don’t remember anything after that. Do they know what happened? Is the other car okay?”

Zander ran his hand up and down my back, leaving tingles on my skin. “He was heading out from his house, which is deep in the woods from this little non-descript road. He was searching for something in his glove compartment and didn’t look up. Turns out his blood alcohol was over the limit. He is banged up, but the doctors say he isn’t too badly hurt.”

We sat like that for a moment, and I didn’t want to move. I just wanted him to hold me. “Were the boys scared?” I hated that I wasn’t able to comfort them because I’m sure they were terrified.

Terrified that the same thing that took their dad from them had happened.