Chapter 23 June #2
Something flickered in his face then. Relief. Want. Something older and deeper than both.
“Good,” he said. “Because then I won’t feel bad about doing this.”
Before she could ask what he meant, he kissed her.
And for a few seconds, the world simply went away.
There was no case, no town, no years of hurt, separation, or unfinished conversations.
There was only the heat of his mouth, the way one hand tightened slightly at her waist, the utterly dizzying familiarity of him, and the terrible, wonderful realization that nothing in her had forgotten how this felt.
Her heart pounded.
Her knees went weak.
The rest of the room dissolved until there was nothing but the two of them and the rush of memory and present longing colliding at once.
She had no idea how long they stood there like that before the sound finally reached her.
Their phones.
The alarms were shrill enough to cut straight through the haze.
They broke apart slowly at first, still dazed, until the sound registered fully.
Then both of them froze.
June yanked her phone from the counter.
A weather warning flashed across the screen.
Her blood ran cold as she read it.
The coastal system had intensified rapidly offshore. Severe storm warning. Dangerous winds. Heavy surge. Immediate threat to exposed coastal areas and low-lying islands.
“Oh no.” She looked up, eyes wide, and was already finding Willa’s number.
Holt had done the same and turned to walk out of the kitchen with his phone pressed to his ear.
There was no answer from Willa’s phone.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
She called Ace.
Nothing.
Then Grace.
Nothing.
Panic rose fast and ugly in her chest.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Come on, Willa, answer…”
June barely heard anything around her as she was trying to call Willa again. And again. And then Ace. And then Grace. Her fingers shook so badly she almost dropped the phone.
When Holt came back into the kitchen, she turned toward him at once.
“I can’t get hold of Willa,” June said. Terror was already rising so hard inside her that it made her voice shake. “I can’t get hold of any of them.”
“June,” Holt said, moving in front of her.
She dialed again. Nothing.
“I have to keep trying,” June muttered, not caring she probably sounded like a mad person.
“June.” Holt reached out then, not forcefully, just enough to catch her hand and make her look at him.
His expression had changed.
And the instant she saw that, whatever fragile hope she had was hit by something far colder.
“You won’t get through to any of them,” he said gently. “It’s a survival camp. They didn’t take their phones.”
Her heart dropped even farther.
“They have children with them,” June reasoned. “They would’ve had emergency phones.”
“They have satellite phones.” Holt nodded. “Rad and Ace took them with.”
“Did anyone get through to them?” Hope flared again so quickly it almost hurt.
“Zane got a call from Becky.” Holt swallowed.
June stared at him.
It took her a second to understand why that was wrong.
Becky was with the younger group.
Not Willa’s.
“The younger kids,” June said. “Are they okay?”
“Rad and Margo got them to a safe pickup point with one of the senior counselors,” Holt said quickly. “Search and rescue is already moving to get them.”
Relief crashed through her so hard she nearly sagged with it.
Then she saw his face again.
And understood that was not all of it.
“Where are Rad and Margo?” she asked.
“They went to get Willa and Ace and their group.” Holt’s voice had taken on a soft tone that June didn’t welcome at that moment.
The room tilted.
“What happened?” June gripped the edge of the counter.
Holt’s eyes softened in that way they always did when he was trying to steady her before saying something terrible.
And she hated that look.
She hated it because nothing good ever came after it.
“Grace got hold of Becky,” Holt said. “Willa went to call for help because the boat had already broken loose in the storm, and they were stranded on the island.”
June could feel her breathing change.
Too fast. Too shallow.
“While she was making the call…” Holt’s voice dropped. “A wave hit the dock and swept Willa off it.”
“No!” The scream tore out of her before she could stop it. “No!”
Her eyes filled with terrified tears so quickly that the whole room blurred.
“June—”
“No,” she said again, shaking her head wildly. “No, no…”
“Listen to me.” Holt caught her by the shoulders.
She could barely hear him over the roaring in her own ears.
“After shouting at Grace to get the kids to higher ground,” Holt told her, “she said Ace went in after Willa.”
June stared at him, tears trembling in her eyes, the world seeming to narrow to that one line, that one terrible image, that one impossible stretch of storm-dark water beyond the island where her daughter had disappeared and the man who loved her had dived in after her.
And she clung to the small glimmer of hope.
Yes, I want to read Book 5 — Secrets of Sandpiper Shores: Wildfire Hearts!