Free Barefoot Bay: Castle in the Sand (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Jeannie Moon

guiding them in—his eyes fixed, his expression steady—gave her the focus she needed to get safely to the beach. At first, her instinct was to go to him, let him wrap her safely in his arms, but she resisted. She’d been forcing herself away from him since he walked back into her life, and nothing had changed.
    They’d spent a quiet dinner together, sharing small talk and speculating about how they might find the dog’s owner. That alone made her sad, because in just a few hours, the dog, who was obviously very young, had captured her heart.
    Pretty much the same way Tony had captured her heart all those years ago.
    That should teach her not to get her hopes up about the dog.
    Empty mug in hand, Josie made her way to the kitchen to make more tea, the now-awake puppy trailing behind her. She didn’t expect to see Tony sitting in the living room, reading a book. In a new twist, he was wearing glasses, and Josie’s insides went on a long, slow meltdown as she took him in.
    For whatever reason, that’s when it all hit her. The stress of seeing him again, coupled with the fear she’d felt this afternoon while out in the stormy water, rushed up and consumed her. Her breath hitched, and when he looked up, tears burned her eyes.
    “Josie?” His voice, husky and warm, reminded her of long nights they’d spent wrapped around each other.
    No amount of self-control was going to help her then. Once she thought about what used to be, all the memories, coupled with the stress of the day, everything came crashing down around her. To her horror and relief, Tony didn’t hesitate to do something about it. As soon as he saw she was upset, he was off the couch and pulling her into the safety of his arms.
    “ Mon ange,” he whispered into her hair. My angel . If she hadn’t been missing him, that again would have done it. Her heart ached for him, now more than ever. “What’s wrong? Please don’t cry. If I did anything, I’m sorry.”
    “You didn’t. I just… I don’t know why I feel this way. I’m falling apart.”
    “I’m sure it’s because of what happened with the dog earlier. That had to be draining. You need sleep.”
    “I can’t. My brain keeps running it over and over,” she said. “God, Tony, I was so scared I wasn’t going to make it.”
    “What? Oh, Josie.”
    “The surf and the currents were horrible. I kept getting pulled out. If you hadn’t been there, I’d have drowned. I was so damn over-confident.”
    Tilting her face to his, Tony’s hand came to her cheek, cupping it gently. “But I was there, and you made it out, along with our little friend. You amaze me, Josephine. You always have.”
    He said her name like she was a princess. It sounded more like Jozephine , so elegant, so not her. All Josie wanted was to be with him, but she knew they never could be. She wasn’t ever going to fit in his world. She wasn’t a princess. She was a woman who saved stray dogs and taught school.
    “You never think about yourself. That’s why you went in the water. All you could think about was Lucky.” He nodded toward the dog, who had fallen asleep on the kitchen floor. “The past three years I’ve thought about you every day. Missed you every day.”
    “Then why did you leave? Why didn’t you fight for me?”
    Stroking the hair from her face, Tony pressed his lips to her forehead and she allowed herself to lean into him, loving the feel of his mouth on her skin. “I don’t know. My life has always been about duty, about my country. I never saw my life as my own. Part of me didn’t want to subject you to it. At the time, I thought it would ruin you. Crush your spirit.”
    Ruin her? How? By having to follow the royal rules or by being in the public eye? It didn’t make sense. He never even gave her the choice. “Losing you destroyed me. And I know that I shouldn’t say that. But I believed in you. In us. I think we would have had a chance if you’d believed in us too.”
    “I wanted