Read Three Southern Beaches: A Summer Beach Read Box Set Online
Authors: Kathleen Brooks,Christie Craig,Robyn Peterman
Tags: #Fiction, #Humor, #Novellas, #Retail, #Romance, #Suspense
Three Southern Beaches: A Summer Beach Read Box Set (32 page)
The shunning of the traitors was anticlimactic compared to everything else that had happened. The vote amongst the pack was unanimous. The findings were reported to the Council and approved without contest. The Tinas were gone and would not be missed. No pack anywhere in the world would accept them. I tried to find it within myself to feel pity, but I couldn’t. Perhaps with time I might, but it was still too raw.
The families of the missing girls were ecstatic to have them home. Hank, Junior and I were the local heroes, but Dwayne…Dwayne was the Second Coming. All the Weres in our community bowed their heads in reverence when he passed and even the more conservative Weres caught all of his shows at the drag club. The owner had to make a special dispensation for children because the Weres had insisted the young ones witness the talent of their savior.
Dwayne was in heaven.
The Council had quietly sent down a crew to clean up Hung and the deserted resort on the outskirts of town. No one even knew they were here. Apparently they had come in the middle of the night and were gone by morning. My guess was that they sent Hyenas. They would eat anything—including Dragon guts. I tried not to dwell on that…made me a little nauseous.
To make reparations for their misguided judgment,
their words, definitely not mine
, the Council purchased the old resort from the city and planned to restore it to a haven that would make people forget about its tragic history. All the proceeds would go to the pack. It was yet again the Council putting a tiny Band-Aid on a gaping wound, but my fight with the Council would come in good time…
The Dragons, much to their intense displeasure, were being investigated. Hank and I had been assigned to the case, but that too would have to wait.
***
“Oh my god almighty and Cher pre-surgery, I could live here the rest of my days and be happy,” Dwayne gushed as we watched the ocean waves crash against the rocks. “If I had hair I’d get it braided and skip along the beach while it whipped me in the eyes.”
Thankfully he was bald.
“Jamaica is nice,” Granny mused. “But I miss the rednecks.”
She adjusted her thong bikini and I closed my eyes in agony. There was only so much I wanted to see of my granny and her naked butt wasn’t one of them.
“Where’s Hank?” I asked with my eyes still squeezed shut.
No one answered.
“I said, where’s Ha…”
I opened my eyes slowly, prepared to glue them shut if Granny had decided to go topless. My tummy dropped and my heart raced. Granny and Dwayne stood quietly by the shore with their backs to me and Hank was in front of me on one knee. In lieu of screaming or passing out, I dropped to my knees and held on to him for dear life.
“I’m pretty sure only one of us is supposed to be on their knees.” His lopsided grin made me weak and I giggled like an idiot.
“My legs quit working,” I stammered. “And I thought I might make you more comfortable…then a heavy metal band started a concert in my stomach and then my legs turned to jelly and then I, um…”
“You done?”
“It would probably be a good thing if I was.”
“Probably.” He laughed and I felt heat crawl up my neck and land on my face.
He put his hand under my chin and raised my eyes to his. “Ester Elizabeth McGee, I have loved you since the moment I saw you many years ago. You are the other half to my whole. I promise to love you always and never let you go. You make me better and stronger and my life means nothing when you’re not in it.” He took a deep breath and his eyes glistened silver in the Jamaican sun. “Essie, I love you. Will you marry me?”
The screaming took me by surprise. Who in the hell was making that racket? I glanced down to the water’s edge at Granny and Dwayne. They were not screaming. Hank was not screaming. There was no one else on the beach.
It was me
. I was screaming and crying and blubbering. Hank’s laugh made me want to slug him, but I wanted to kiss him more.
“Does that mean yes?” he asked as he trapped me in a hug so tight I could barely breathe, but I didn’t care. It felt so very right—so very perfect.
I nodded my head because I was terrified I would start screaming again.
“She said yes,” he yelled as Granny and Dwayne tore over to us.
“Where’s the ring?” Dwayne demanded, possibly more excited than me.
Hank pulled a beautiful diamond ring with a cushion cut stone from a pocket in his shorts, slid it on my finger and I gasped. It was redonkulously large and real and I loved it, but I loved him even more. I slapped my hand over my mouth to stem the babbling dialogue that threatened to fly out. Tears clouded my vision and my breath came in short gasps.
In my many imaginings of this moment, I had handled it with sexy grace. Real life had turned out vastly differently, but it was no less wonderful. My joy matched my mate’s and my need to throw him to the ground and tackle him was overwhelming…so I did.
Granny and Dwayne slipped away and disappeared as I rolled down the beach tangled up in the most beautiful man in the world. The only thing that stopped me from doing something illegal was the sheer amount of sand that had gathered in my bikini bottoms.
“I will marry you, Henry James Wilson. I will love you always and next time I have a stupid idea, I will run it past you first.”
Hank held me close and pressed sweet kisses all over my face. “That works for me, Essie. You’re mine.”
“And you’re mine.”
He laughed and picked me up in his strong arms. “Yes, I’m yours. Now I’d really like to shower the sand out of my pants. You with me?”
“I am with you till the end of time and I do have some sand in some unmentionable places,” I mumbled. “Maybe you could help me out with that?”
“I think that could be arranged. I definitely think that could be arranged.”
And it was. And it was amazing. Really, really amazing…really, really.
THE END (for now)
###
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Hand Cuffs and Happily Ever Afters
How Hard Can It Be?
Size Matters
Cop A Feel
and unfortunately…
Pirate Dave and His Randy Adventure
(Career ending spoofy novella based on HHCIB)
Hot Damned Series
Fashionably Dead
Fashionably Dead Down Under
Hell on Heels
(Coming Fall 2014)
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Robyn Peterman writes because the people inside her head won’t leave her alone until she gives them life on paper.
Her addictions include laughing really hard with friends, shoes (the expensive kind), Target, Coke Zero Cherry with extra ice in a Styrofoam cup, bejeweled reading glasses, her kids, her super-hot hubby and collecting stray animals.
A former professional actress with Broadway, film and T.V. credits, she now lives in the South with her family and too many animals to count.
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