Tidal Reservations (Brides & Beaches Romance Book 1)
Page 16
“I want to run the place,” Burke said, the thought of not having his morning ritual of coming to this land choking him. “I’ve lived for this place for twenty-five years, Dad. I love this land, and these flowers, and I want to take over when you retire.” He caught up to his father, strength and bravery coursing through him now.
He put his hand on his father’s arm and got him to stop. “Dad, what are you saying? That I can’t have Petals and Leis because I don’t have a wife? A—a kid?”
Desperation raced across his father’s face. There, then gone. He squared his shoulders and said, “We’d like to see you settle down before I retire. We’d feel more comfortable if you had even a girlfriend. Someone you were even remotely serious with.”
Burke felt like someone had punched him in the throat and then the stomach. So many things churned inside, and he had no idea how to respond.
Sadness passed over his father’s weathered face now, and he shrugged. “I’m not saying you can’t have Petals and—”
“I have a girlfriend,” Burke blurted, silencing his father and causing his eyebrows to fly sky high.
“You do?”
“Sure,” Burke said, turning away so the little fib couldn’t be discovered so easily.
“Who is it?”
“Ash.” Burke said the first person that came into his mind.
“Ashley Fox?” The level of disbelief in his father’s voice soared toward the heavens, and it would be a miracle if Ash didn’t hear it all the way down the hill at her cute little beach cottage
“Yeah,” Burke said. “We’ve been friends for a long time, and I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Started seeing each other a few months ago.” He pressed his eyes closed, needing to talk to Ash, stat. They were scheduled to run in another hour, and he’d have to figure out how to get her to play along with this ruse.
“Well, great,” his dad said. “You should bring her to the company barbecue in a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, sure.” He felt like he’d swallowed a whole bag of jumping beans, and now they were pinging around inside his stomach, screaming things like This is a bad idea!
You need to call her right now!
There’s no way you can pull this off!
Ash will never agree to this.
He tried to silence them, but they stuck with him for the rest of the hour, and when he showed up at the beach to meet Ash, he barely knew his own name.
Burke managed to stretch, his calves protesting at the long hold until he finally stood. Ash was late, and that only increased Burke’s anxiety.
Dolly barked from near the shoreline, and Burke turned toward the golden retriever. The sun glinting off the bay blinded him, but he thought he saw a woman jogging toward him.
Finally. He could talk to Ash and they could make a plan.
He couldn’t lose Petals and Leis. Not over something like this. He’d buy himself some time with Ash, and then he’d figure out how to move past Bridgette and find a real girlfriend.
He had to.
“Ash,” he called as he started toward her. But Dolly whimpered and darted right at him, bashing into his shins before Burke could avoid the canine.
He grunted and found himself sprawling toward the sand. A moment later, the grittiness of sand filled his mouth and stung his eyes and squished between his fingers. Pain flared in his legs and back, and his whole face felt aflame with embarrassment.
“Burke?” Ash arrived with a mouthful of giggles and bent over him. “Really graceful,” she said, offering him her hand to help him stand.
He gazed up at her, realizing in that moment how pretty she was haloed by the early morning light. Since her break up just before Christmas last year, she’d let her hair grow out, and only the bottom few inches were still bleached and silvery.
She sobered the longer he stared at her. “You okay?” She sat back on her heels. “What’s with Dolly?” She glanced over her shoulder toward the water while Burke got control of his emotions—and his hormones.
This was Ash. Ashley Fox. A girl he’d known since he was fifteen years old and she was thirteen. His running partner for the last decade.
Not his girlfriend, no matter what he’d told his father only an hour ago.
Burke pushed himself up and started brushing the sand off his body. “I don’t know, but I have something to ask you.”
Preorder TIDAL AGREEMENT, Book 2 in the Brides & Beaches Romance series, coming in October.
Read more by Elana
Want to stay in Getaway Bay and experience more bridal romance? Great! Get ready to read about Ash and her best friend Burke in TIDAL AGREEMENT. Preorder TIDAL AGREEMENT, coming soon!
Love beaches and sweet romance? Awesome. Travel to Hawthorne Harbor for great sweet romance with paramedics, cops, and firefighting heroes! Read LOVE IN LAVENDER today.
Want to try a clean billionaire romance? THE BRAINY BILLIONAIRE is just that! And bonus! It’s also in Getaway Bay, the best beach romance in the Pacific.
About Elana
Elana Johnson is the USA Today bestselling author of dozens of novels, from YA contemporary romance to adult beach romances. Check out her YA romance in JUST FRIENDS, ELEVATED, TO BE YOURS, and SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE. She is also the author of the Hawthorne Harbor Romance series, the Clean Beach Club Billionaire Romance series, and the Beaches & Brides Romance series.
Find her on Facebook, twitter, and her blog. Tap here to see all her books.
She also writes under the pen name Liz Isaacson, who is the USA Today bestselling author of the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Gold Valley Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), and the Grape Seed Falls Romance series.
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TIDAL RESERVATIONS
Book One, Getaway Bay Romances, Brides & Beaches Romance series
by Elana Johnson
Copyright © 2018 by AEJ Creative Works Inc, Elana Johnson
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover & interior design by AEJ Creative Works Inc.