A Kiss in the Moonlight (Pelican Bay #3)

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

“One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you can’t change.” ~ Anonymous

“Help, Mommy!”

Two of the worst words a parent could hear.

Maddy looked up to the spot in the backyard where her daughter had been playing catch with the puppy less than five minutes ago.

All she saw was a tattered yellow tennis ball and an overturned juice box in the grass.

Maddy jumped up from her seat at the patio table, where she had been answering emails, the chair falling back in her haste. “Dylan? Where are you, baby?”

“Mommy…water.”

The hairs on the back of Maddy’s neck rose.

Water? Dylan wasn’t allowed near water without an adult. She couldn’t be.

And yet…

Maddy sprinted across the yard and out the back gate—opened instead of in its normally locked position—and heard her daughter’s cry again.

“Mommy. Please.”

A bark from Sandy followed, along with a splash.

The bay pier.

“Dylan! Mommy’s coming.”

Maddy took off, running as fast as she could, not caring that she stepped on rocks with her bare feet as she crossed the narrow road that led to the bay beach and small pier behind the house.

The top of her four-year-old’s head bobbed as she tried to hold on to Sandy’s neck and tread water. Maddy didn’t consider her own fear of water as she leaped into the bay.

Doggy paddling, Maddy reached Dylan and pulled her to her chest.

“I’ve got you, baby.”

“Mommy,” Dylan cried, clawing to climb up her mother, which only pushed Maddy’s head under the water.

Maddy tried not to panic, an impossible feat for someone who’d been terrified of the water her entire life, and who didn’t know how to swim. Kicking her feet, she searched for the bottom, hoping the water was shallow and she could stand.

No such luck.

She broke the surface and barely had a second to draw in a fresh breath of air before going under again from the pressure of Dylan squirming.

Maddy kicked, determined to get her daughter to safety.

But she couldn’t get herself together…couldn’t get enough air to breathe.

A sudden rush of water pushed Maddy back, and then something yanked Dylan out of her arms .

The sound of Dylan’s cries and a dog barking were the last things Maddy heard as she went under and started to sink.

Strong arms grasped under her armpits and tugged her until her head broke the surface.

“I’ve got you, Mad. Stay with me.”

Tyler.

She felt herself lifted out of the water and set down. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn’t.

“Dammit, Maddy. Don’t do this to me again. Breathe.”

What was he talking about? She was breathing.

She’d opened her mouth to tell him so—or so she thought—when a pair of cool lips covered hers, blowing air into her mouth.

Tyler…her best friend’s brother…her secret crush. Lips that felt familiar on hers. She moaned and moved her lips to kiss him.

She coughed and felt herself turned to her side as she hacked up water.

“There you go, sweetheart. You’re okay,” Tyler said.

“Dylan,” Maddy said between gasps.

“She’s right here,” Tyler said, and helped Maddy to a sitting position.

“Mommy!”

The feel of her daughter’s tiny body as she launched herself into Maddy’s lap was welcome. She held her close while she tried to get herself together.

What just happened?

They both almost drowned.

And Tyler saved her.

Again.

“You’re okay?” Maddy asked, examining her daughter for any bumps or bruises .

“Uncle Ty saved me,” Dylan said.

Maddy met the blue of Tyler’s eyes over her daughter’s head. “Uncle Ty saved us both.”

She held out a hand to Tyler, who clasped it before wrapping his arms around both girls. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Tyler Erickson…an heir to Erickson Pier, president of Jersey Boy Surf Shop, certified lifeguard, brother of her best friend, Emma, and Maddy’s secret crush since childhood.

Maddy’s own hero.

Twice.

The first during the hurricane ten years ago when they were teens, and now this time.

And, as brother of her bestie, off-limits.

“Thank you, Ty. You’re always there when I need you the most,” she whispered, allowing her guard to slip briefly.

Ty pushed a loose strand of hair out of her face. For the briefest of moments, Maddy thought he was going to kiss her. Something she’d been dreaming of and hoping for most of her life.

“Ty, Maddy,” a voice called, followed by the pounding of footsteps on the pier. “Are you all right?”

Evan Carmichael.

One of her two best friends. The other man in her life. Some had incorrectly thought they dated in high school, but they were wrong. Evan was a lost soul like her. They each had little family and had struggled to figure out where they belonged. They bonded in middle school—after Maddy endured much teasing and torturing from him throughout elementary school. There’d been mild flirting, which ended after a kiss they both agreed felt like kissing a sibling. They agreed to never speak of it again and had been best friends since .

“We’re fine, Ev,” Maddy said. “Dylan was in the water. I jumped in to save her, and Ty saved us both. It’s no big deal.”

Evan panned his gaze from Maddy to Tyler. “No big deal, my ass.”

“Ooh…Uncle Evan said a bad word, Mommy,” Dylan proclaimed. “He has to put money in the swear jar.”

“You got me, princess. Come, and I’ll let you put in the money.” Evan held his arms out, and Dylan let herself be picked up. “Can you get Maddy to the house?” he asked Tyler.

Ty nodded.

With Dylan in his arms, Evan set out for the Erickson house, where Maddy and Dylan were staying until she figured out her long-term plan.

“Can you walk?” Ty asked.

“I’m fine.” She pushed off him and stood—too quickly, because as soon as she got up, a wave of lightheadedness hit her.

Ty moved lightning quick and swept her off her feet and into his arms.

Maddy wanted to tell him to put her down, but the need to put her head on his shoulder was greater, so she did just that. He adjusted her body, cradling her closer.

He was warm and solid, and Maddy wanted nothing but to lose herself in him. But those were dreams for high school girls. Not a single mom on the back end of her twenties.

Maddy had Dylan to think about. Dylan, who could have drowned.

Once at the house, Ty set her on a chaise lounge.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he said what she knew he’d been prepared to say. “The answer is no.”

Maddy glared at him, and Tyler couldn’t figure out who was more stubborn, her four-year-old daughter or the woman herself.

From where he stood, the four-year-old was likely more reasonable.

The fear of watching Maddy full-on run toward the bay dock had caused bile to rise in his throat. There’d been only one other time Ty had been as terrified, knowing she couldn’t swim to save her own life, let alone her daughter’s.

At least this time, he’d been able to get her to safety.

Leaving her on the chaise, he jogged into the house, returning with two bottles of water. Opening one, he handed it to her. “Drink.”

She met his eyes briefly before accepting the bottle and taking a long sip.

He sat next to her, and the pressure of her leg against his made him remember a night a couple weeks ago when they sat on this very chaise lounge. Only then they weren’t at odds.

Don’t think about that now, man.

He removed the hearing aid from his left ear, poured water from his own bottle on it, and tossed it on the table, hoping it would dry out.

He downed half his own water and turned to her. “Please let me give swim lessons to you and Dylan.”

“Absolutely not. She could have drowned out there.”

“Which is why both of you need lessons. If you knew how to swim, you could have easily paddled inland to the beach,” Ty said.

“Dammit, Ty. I can’t. You know this. ”

She shifted as though she were going to bolt, but he leaned forward, placing his hands on the chair and boxing her in.

“I know you’re afraid, and I get it. But there’s more than only you to consider. You need to think of Dylan.”

Anger flashed across her face. “And you think I’m not thinking of my daughter?”

“I think your fear is making you unreasonable—”

Her voice rose to a decibel level he could hear clear as day, even with his bad ear. “Unreasonable! You have some nerve, Tyler Erickson.”

“I’m sorry, Maddy. It’s just…I was terrified when I saw you jump into the bay. And seeing you and Dylan struggling out there just about took a year off my life.”

“I appreciate you jumping in after us.”

He didn’t want her appreciation. He wanted…

God, he wanted so much.

He clasped her hands. “At least let me work with Dylan.” He held up a finger to her lips to stop her from talking. “I’ll teach her at the swim club. We’ll start at the shallow end of the pool, not the ocean.”

She turned away, but not before Tyler could see the tears she held back.

This time, when she tried to swing her legs off the chair, he let her. He could see the discussion was over.

Maddy was like an island with an impenetrable barrier. No one could help her or give her advice.

He gripped her hand before she took off. “Please at least think about it.”

She didn’t look at him, but he saw her nod before pulling away and running past Evan—who had been standing inside the enclosed porch—and into the house .

Ty sighed and petted the puppy, Sandy, who had come up to him and nuzzled his leg. “Hiya, girl. You may be the most reasonable female who lives in this house.”

“You’re not kidding about that,” Evan said, and dropped into the chair next to him.

“Guess you heard everything?”

“Unreasonable? Yeah, I think they could hear her on the other side of town.”

Ty closed his eyes. “She drives me crazy, and I fucked it up.”

“Give her a chance to process.”

Tyler snorted. “I think we both know how that will go. How’s Dylan?”

“She seems fine. After she watched me put a dollar in the swear jar, I gave her a bath. She’s lying on the couch, dozing, while watching a princess movie. Asked me why her legs didn’t turn into a tail when she was in the water, like Ariel’s.”

Ty laughed. “Let’s put aside the fact that we both know who Ariel is. How’d you answer her?”

“I told her mermaids were only in TV shows and not real.”

“Did she buy it?”

“Thankfully, she fell asleep.”

“I’m sure the morning’s events tired her out,” Ty said.

“How are you holding up? I know how hard it must have been for you.”

Tyler closed his eyes and could see an eighteen-year-old Maddy refusing to jump off the Sun Jet roller coaster that used to stand on Erickson Fun Pier. He still had nightmares of the pier collapsing during Hurricane Samantha almost ten years ago, plummeting the coaster, along with him and Maddy, into the Atlantic Ocean.

He fisted his hands in his short dark-blond hair, making it stand up on end. “I was so fucking scared, man. I heard her call out for Dylan and take off for the dock. She couldn’t have been in the water even a minute before I got to them. But Dylan was crying and kept pushing Maddy’s head below the water. What if I hadn’t been here?”

Thinking about what could have happened made him feel sick to his stomach.

Evan clapped him on the shoulder. “Thankfully, you were, and they’re both fine.”

“It’s not enough, though. She needs to learn how to swim. They both do.”

“I agree. Maddy and I’ve talked about this. I had hoped after Samantha she’d take lessons, but her way of handling it has been to avoid the beach.”

“Going to be hard to do that while living in a beach town.”

“I’ll talk to her again. Maybe you can ask Emma to do the same.”

“Like an intervention? Maddy will hate me even more.”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

Tyler recalled the moment on the dock when he thought she wasn’t breathing and administered mouth-to-mouth. He swore he’d heard her moan and felt her move her mouth as though she were kissing him. It happened so fast, and then he was turning her to her side in case she needed to cough up water.

Then there was the kiss they’d shared under the moonlight a couple of weeks ago. The kiss she didn’t remember because she’d been drunk.

The kiss Tyler couldn’t forget.

Perhaps Maddy didn’t hate him…but Tyler sure as hell wouldn’t risk their already fragile friendship because he’d been in love with her for ten years.

No, the best thing he could do was focus on his work, and do his best to avoid Maddy Kinkaid as much as possible.

Maddy sat on the floor of the Erickson family room watching her daughter nap. Her long brown hair had been secured in a decent enough braid, compliments of Uncle Evan. Her eyelashes were long like her daddy’s, her eyebrows a faint brown. She had two perfect dimples in her cheeks she got from Maddy’s side of the family and a small, perfectly shaped mouth pursed in sleep. The Little Mermaid played in the background, and Dylan clutched the Ariel doll she’d gotten as a gift for Christmas last year in her hands.

Her baby was no longer a baby. She’d be five in August and would start kindergarten in September. Maddy wouldn’t always be there to protect her little girl. Once Dylan started school, she’d meet kids her age and get into Lord only knew what.

Maddy wiped at her eyes, filled with tears at what could have happened today…what almost happened.

Becoming a mom at twenty-four when her career as a pop singer had just taken off was tough. As was getting involved in the whole L.A. scene, including Dylan’s dad, rising actor/singer Reece Davis.

After Hurricane Samantha destroyed her home the summer she graduated high school, Maddy and her mom headed to the West Coast for a fresh start. Working multiple restaurant jobs enabled them to afford rent for a studio apartment in a beach town near L.A. In between jobs, Maddy wrote songs and sang, taking a few gigs as a backup singer in seedy clubs.

For over a year, she auditioned for commercials, theater groups, movies, and more. Through the connections she made there, she and a couple friends auditioned for America’s Teen Talent , a trending reality TV show. A twist of fate landed Maddy a spot among hundreds of others who were desperate to break into the music business. While the competition was fierce, Maddy landed a record contract after coming in second.

It was through her new career that she’d been introduced to Reece. Tall and sexy, with short, dark hair, he swept Maddy off her feet. Despite the publicity surrounding their relationship and eventual elopement in Las Vegas, Maddy remained true to herself. She attended the Hollywood parties but didn’t get caught up in the alcohol or drugs, unlike Reece. Two years after Dylan was born, he overdosed in a hotel room with a groupie.

Since his death, Maddy had stayed under the radar until last year, when she started writing songs again. This new album, her fourth, would be the first since Dylan was born. She’d finished recording it before moving to Pelican Bay last month and in with Emma, her fiancé, Jason Maguire, and Emma’s brother, Tyler.

Despite the arrangement Maddy had made with Pacific Records to temporarily relocate to the East Coast, her phone constantly buzzed with texts and emails about returning to the West Coast for various music-related business.

Things she knew she couldn’t ignore.

Now, watching her daughter sleep, the thought of returning to L.A. and the crazy whirlwind schedule was less and less appealing.

Dylan needed a stable home with a mom who was there, not jet-setting across the country. Plus, Maddy had promised Emma a year on Pelican Bay to help with the marketing plan focused on restoring interest and tourism on the small New Jersey barrier island.

But what happened after that? As Tyler had reminded her, she had to think of Dylan now.

Which brought her thoughts to Tyler.

He thought her irresponsible for refusing to allow Dylan to take swim lessons. Perhaps he was right, but Dylan was her child, not his. He had no right to question her parenting skills .

Still…his points were valid.

She jumped when a warm hand touched her shoulder.

“She still sleeping?” Evan asked, kneeling beside her.

“Yeah, she’s good. Thanks for your help.”

“I’d do anything for my best girl.”

“I thought I was your best girl.”

He put a friendly arm around her shoulders. “You’re my best friend.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Jason that next time I see him.”

“You’re my best female friend. And because I am, I know how freaked out you were by what happened today.”

She stood. “Of course I’m freaked.” She rose and moved into the kitchen because she knew Evan well enough to know he had a point to make.

And she wasn’t in the mood for more preaching.

Through the sliding glass doors, Maddy glimpsed Ty making his way across the lawn, toolbox in hand.

“What’s he doing?” Maddy asked.

Evan followed her gaze. “He’s securing the latch on the gate. It seemed a little misaligned, which could have caused it not to latch fully when closed.”

“I was out on the patio and didn’t even know she got out. How crappy a mom does that make me?”

“It doesn’t make you a crappy mom. I know what it’s like to have crappy parents, and you are far from that.”

“Even if the gate wasn’t latched, why would she leave the yard?” Maddy asked.

“She told me Sandy opened the gate, and she went to get her,” Evan said .

“Since there’s no way the dog could reach the latch, if the gate wasn’t properly secure and Sandy got out, Dylan would have followed her.”

“That’s what we think.”

“Makes sense. She follows that dog everywhere.” Maddy sighed. “I’ll talk to her about safety and what she should have done.”

“That’s a good start.” He paused and fixed her with a meaningful gaze. “I think you should consider Ty’s offer of swim lessons. If not for you, then at least for Dylan.”

“It’s none of Ty’s business how I raise my daughter.”

“We all look out for each other. He’s concerned for the safety of both of you.” He looked down at her. “We all are.”

“Please don’t pressure me on this.”

“We almost lost you once. Please don’t raise Dylan to be afraid of water, too. I’ll come with you to the lessons if you want. Not that Ty can’t handle it.”

Ty… Being near him made Maddy feel awkward, like a teen who didn’t know how to talk to boys. Plus, she couldn’t get over her guilt for being responsible for the partial loss of his hearing. Watching him remove his hearing aid earlier was a reminder that she’d inadvertently taken something vital away from him.

When she saw him, she didn’t know what to say or how to treat him.

Yet there was a pull she didn’t understand.

Okay, maybe she did understand the feeling of desire she’d had for him. Hell, she’d had a crush on Ty that summer of the storm. She’d flirted and worn her skimpiest bikini around him, but he never made a move. Sure, he was two years younger, but still…

And now…She thought she’d have outgrown the crush by now, but it had only deepened. Especially since she returned to Pelican Bay and saw how he treated Dylan, who loved Uncle Ty. How many ti mes had she caught him having a tea party with her daughter, even wearing a tiara and feather boa?

He was a good man.

Evan placed his hands on her shoulder, jostling her back to the present. “Please seriously think about it.”

“I will. I promise.”

For the second time that day, she promised to think about something she didn’t want to. Could she face her demons to help her daughter?

Maddy didn’t know.