Giving In (The Sandy Cove Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

sure what the house is
like. There are a lot of windows, that I can tell. We reach the
top, and I follow Max through a sliding glass door which leads to a
kitchen. I see Willow sitting there with our other friend, Thea.
She turns and just the way she looks at me, makes me think, yep,
I’m in big trouble. Max turns to my ear and whispers, “Certifiably
crazy. I feel bad for ya.” He winks at me and flashes a smile.
    “Harlow Hannum, where in the hell have you been?
I was ready to call the cops.” She hops up and stalks towards me,
grabbing my shoulders, and I can faintly smell the scent of hops
and barley on her breath.
    “No need, I was just with them. I got pulled
over.”
    “Why would you get stopped by the cops? What did
you do?” Willow asks in a tone a mother would use to scold a
teenager. She flips her long, blonde hair over one shoulder and
takes an autocratic stance before me.
    “Nothing. He thought I was drinking and driving,
but I bent down to get my phone that dropped on the floor of my
car. I may have swerved off the road a bit.”
    “Great, Har. You are in town for five minutes
and already have a run in with the fuzz. Am I going to have to put
a leash on you this summer?”
    “First time in Sandy Cove I take it.”
    “No, Mr. Mohawk. It’s not her first time. We
were here last summer, stayed at the Beach Comber Inn,” Willow
spews at Max, obviously annoyed with his questioning.
    “Were you invited into this conversation
what’s-your-name… Max is it?” Willow says with attitude.
    “Geez, bring it down a notch, Miss Crazy Pants.
I helped her with her suitcase.”
    “Willow, relax. The cop, who pulled me over, led
me here. I was lost, and he knew where the house was. Max was on
the deck and asked who I was when I pulled up.”
    I turn to him and out of Willow’s grasp,
surprised.
    “Max, when I pulled up, you called out to the
cop and referred to him by name. How do you know him?”
    “Cruz? Cruz lives…” Before he can finish, we are
suddenly interrupted by Porter, Willow’s cousin, as he pulls open
the sliding door and strolls in.
    “Harlow, you made it! Wills was going nutso. We
were about to send out a search party to look for you.” Porter
comes up to me, pulls me to his chest, and gives me a bear hug. I
love Porter. He’s a great guy and has been protecting Willow and me
ever since we grew boobs. Porter has the face of a noble dignitary,
someone with money, aristocratic even. Tall, well over 6’2” and
shoulders that are proportionally fitting for his stature. Chiseled
chin, dark hair, thick and wavy, perfect nose, cleft in the chin,
and a smile of epic proportions. Porter was “it”, every girl’s wet
dream, except for mine. I look at him as a brother. Always have. I
think I have serious problems.
    “I’m fine. I was lost and my phone died, and I
got pulled over by…”
    Max now interrupts. “Cruz pulled her over. He
brought her here.”
    “Oh, so you met Cruz?” Max squints his eyes,
looking at me intently.
    “Wait, you said you came here last summer? To
Sandy Cove? Your name is Harlow?” He looks confused, then nervous,
then runs his hand over his mohawk and mumbles something along the
lines of he had too much to drink tonight.
    “Porter, dude, I um, I think we better let the
girls get some sleep. It’s getting late.”
    “Wait, Max. You didn’t answer my question. How
do you know Dickcop?”
    “Dickcop?” Everyone asks in unison.
    “Yes. Dickcop. He pulled me over because he
thought I was drinking and driving, then proceeded to give me the
most farcical sobriety test in all of God’s creation, when I was
clearly sober, and acted like a total ass the whole time.” Max
looks to Porter. Porter looks to Max, then at me.
    Thea looks up at Willow, in her drunken stupor,
“She’s using the big words again, isn’t she?”
    Max asks, “What did he make you do?”
    My anger returns as the memories of what he made
me do resurface.
    “The Macarena.”
    “The