Free Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) by Sara Shirley

airport. Apparently, Josh would leave me with Dean while the two of them went to the airport. My sister was entrusting me with an eighteen-month-old toddler. What the fuck was she thinking? I heard the wails and screeching coming through the phone. I was sure to screw the kid up big time. That would teach them not to leave Dean with his Uncle Drew again.
    With a flick of the remote, I pushed myself off the sofa and headed to the kitchen to dump the beer bottle into the recycle bin. A quick check on the clock on the wall told me I should probably head down to Everett’s bonfire soon.
    I shut the lights off in the living room and left a single dimmed light on in the kitchen for when I returned. With the cooler handle in hand, I grabbed my keys, phone, and hoodie sweatshirt before stuffing my feet into my flip-flops. A quick glance around the house, and aside from the oranges from the evening sunset, the only thing reflecting off the water was the light in the lone house across the bay again.
    I suddenly halted halfway to the front door and gazed with narrowed eyes. I barely saw a boat, possibly a kayak, floating across the water away from the docks in front of the house. My eyes lingered on the image for a few seconds before I shook my head and swore I was seeing things.
    I adjusted everything in my hands and turned back to the door, the beer cooler rolling behind me. With a quick and easy toss of everything into the backseat of my Dodge Charger, I was following the GPS toward the address that Everett texted me earlier.
    As I pulled the car into the driveway, I saw at least five other cars and a roaring fire off in the distance beyond the cottage. Upon getting out of the car and unloading the supplies, I heard loud laughter between at least two girls. Everything came into focus the closer I walked to the party. I saw Everett standing near a table filled with food with a couple of other guys just chatting.
    He saw me and waved as he stuffed his face with food. Pushing through his company, he came over to greet me. “Hey, man.” He reached out to manly slap-shake my hand. “Glad you could make it.” Everett turned to the rest of the party as we walked closer to everyone. The fire pit was set out front along the small sandy shoreline that was a lot flatter and less rocky than in front of my place since he was closer to town.
    Once I was standing near everyone, Everett began introducing me. I met the guys first. Everett’s friends from the Corps could seriously do some damage to me by the size of their muscles. Deroche and Locke were bouncers at some gentlemen’s club closer to the city. I needed to inquire about that.
    Then we made our way over to the girls around the fire. All of them turned at once with smiles on their faces and red plastic cups in hand—most likely mixed drinks—except for one. I was introduced to all of them including Morgan, finally. But, the last one standing before me was the one that had rendered me speechless. The sun didn’t block her face any longer. The fire’s light danced across her skin, and I watched her with her fancy wine glass walk closer to me. I didn’t hear any other chatter around me. It was so quiet I swore you could have heard a pin drop.
    The fire didn’t crackle. The music was nothing more than a whisper. It felt like that scene in West Side Story when Tony saw Maria for the first time and the rest of the world was a blur. If it weren’t for spending months helping Sam prepare for her role in the high school musical version of that play, I would have probably seen this moment in an entirely different light. I didn’t, though, and I could feel a connection that drew me closer to her.
    Her eyes on mine sent this tingling feeling across my skin. I was burning up next to the fire, and yet I felt as cold as ice. She reached out her hand and gently wrapped it around my outstretched hand. Not quite sure when I gained my mobility back to raise my hand, but there it was linking with