Nothing Without You (Saltwater Romance #1)

Prologue

Beaudesert – 1977

E vie sucked on a lolly as she lingered in the doorway of her mother’s bedroom, her gaze moving from one end of the room to the other. The sweet chocolate filled her mouth as she bit down, her teeth crunching the orange coating of a Jaffa. She strolled into the room, picking up some items of interest before helping herself to a couple of her mother’s possessions.

A thread of guilt ran through her, but she justified her actions. It wasn’t really stealing; it was just sharing family belongings. She secreted the items into the pockets of her school uniform, her mind flitting between the stolen treasures and the impending life-changing events scheduled for that evening.

She swore as she dropped the last Jaffa meant for her mouth, the lolly bouncing on the timber floor before rolling under her mother’s bed. No one else in the house ate lollies, and the last thing she needed was for anyone to suspect she had been in this room and home on a school day. The consequence of wagging would be a grounding, which she did not need on the eve of the most important night of her fifteen-year-old life.

She bent down to see if she could rescue the lolly, no doubt its coating now covered in dust. As her eyes landed on it, the sound of a key sliding into a lock, followed by the creak of the front door opening, made her heart pound and she froze where she stood.

Her mother’s laughter echoed along the hallway. A man said something she couldn’t understand. Confused for a split second before moving into action, she slid under the bed and pressed herself against the wall. Wriggling under as far as she could, she held her breath as her mother and a man whose voice she knew but had trouble identifying, entered the bedroom.