Tattered Innocence Read Online Free Page B

Her eyes caught on a dog-eared Bible. A
bizarre book for a guy who nearly axed her job for mentioning
church.
    Katie’s arms circled her and squeezed. “I
like you.”
    Rachel smashed the mommy-ache into a tiny
foil ball. Bret sure wasn’t going to daddy-up for the job.
     
     
    An hour later, Rachel could almost feel Bret
ripping from her like a scab as the Queen sliced through the
ocean, the mouth of the Intracoastal shrinking behind them. She
clung to a forestay, the salty wind stinging her wound.
    Jake came up behind her. “I need a crewman,
not a figurehead.”
    She faced him. “Excuse me for taking a
two-minute break for the first time all day.”
    “Take down the jib.”
    “You’re not paying me enough to put up with
your lip.”
    Jake’s eyes clamped on hers. “My lip?”
    Breath moved in and out of her lungs too
quickly, making her lightheaded. She’d get herself fired before the
first cruise ended.
    His jaw clenched. He turned and stalked back
to the helm.
    She wasn’t angry with Jake, only provoked
enough to zing him. Sparring with Jake was her personal World of
Warcraft— good entertainment when she could get it. She loosed
the jib halyard and brought down the sail. Sailing and the kids had
already rubbed salve into her rending from Bret.
     
     
    Two days later, Rachel sprawled on the deck,
playing “I Spy” with Katie, who was nearly swallowed up in an
orange lifejacket. Cole, his hair sticking out in tufts from under
his ball cap, kibitzed nearby.
    “Rachel!” Jake shouted against the wind.
    “What?” she yelled back.
    “Check the depth. The pole is on the
starboard foredeck. We draw six feet, but I want eight to ten with
all this seaweed.”
    Not taking time to pull a T-shirt over her
Speedo swimsuit, Rachel scrambled over the top of the cabin to
snatch the pole. She sounded for the bottom with quick jabs of
Jake’s world’s-longest-mop-handle.
    They sailed at four knots, she calculated.
She called out the measurements notched into the wood, “Seven feet…
seven and a half… seven and a half―”
    The pole stuck fast in the mud. In a
split-second reflex, Rachel clung to the stick and the Smyrna
Queen sailed out from under her feet.
    She felt the pole sink deeper in the mud
while she suspended over the ocean like a human shish kabob. “Hey,
wait! Jacob Murray, don’t you dare leave me here! You come back and
get me this minute!” She slid toward the water, her life-long fear
of abandonment freakishly played out. She could feel her rational
mind shutting down in slow motion like hitches in a YouTube
video.
    Katie jumped up and down on the deck
screeching, “Grandpa, Grandpa, Rachel lost the boat!” Rachel caught
a fleeting glimpse of Cole’s white face as her feet touched water.
“This water is freezing!” she yelled at the Queen’s transom.
“It’s your fault, Jake. Your fault. Why didn’t you tell me there
was mud down here?” Cold fingers of water climbed her ribs as she
inched down the pole.
    In up to her neck and treading water with
one hand, her foot kicked against slimy kelp fronds. No one could
hear her now. I hate seaweed. Jaws could be hiding in here. Her chest quivered. This was what alone felt like. A chill crawled
up her scalp as her hair slurped seawater, morphing into a dozen
soggy snakes.
    Water lapped into her mouth and she spit out
the salty taste and her fear. She peered over her shoulder at the
shoreline. She could swim that far if she had to. In the distance,
she saw the Queen’s sails drop. The anchor would be next. At
least Jake wasn’t going to leave her. But she knew he wouldn’t
start the motor in this shallow water and risk getting seaweed
tangled in the propeller. Did he expect her to swim for the Queen ?
    Several minutes later she watched him drop
into the dinghy and row toward her. “Hurry up, I’m freezing!” she
yelled when he rowed into earshot. She counted five seconds,
watching the muscles flex across his back and arms as he