Beyond the Waves (Pacific Shores Book 1) Read online

  Taysia gasped and scrambled to push Kylen’s hand away. “Marie, we are not dating!”

  Kylen barked a laugh and shook his head at Marie. “No.”

  Taysia folded her arms, tucking her hands out of sight. The nerve of the girl. Maybe a dock in pay was in order!

  Marie sighed and sat back. “I had to give it a try,” she yelled over top of the wind.

  Still amused over Marie’s temerity, Kylen turned into his driveway a few minutes later. Taysia sat stiffly by his side. He glanced at her as he turned off the key, wondering what troubled her. He caught Brice’s eye in the rearview mirror. “Brice, grab the little grill off Mom and Dad’s deck out back, would you? I’m just going to grab the cooler.” He looked back and forth between the girls.

  Taysia, arms still folded, refused to meet his glance.

  Marie, on the other hand, batted her eyelashes and stuck out her lower lip in a pleading pose, still begging for him to do something about her ticket.

  He almost burst out laughing but shook his head at her instead. “I have stuff for kabobs. Does that sound good? Or should I grab hamburger too?”

  Taysia glanced up. “Kabobs are fine. Sounds good.”

  Marie sighed, apparently having gotten the message that he wasn’t going to give in to her cajoling. It was a lesson that could save her life one day. He hoped she would learn from it.

  “Kabobs are fine.”

  “Great, I’ll be right back.”

  It was only a moment before they were on their way again, heading the couple blocks to the beach. Taking in the familiar route, he tapped the steering wheel. He and Taysia had walked this path often that first summer. Until his pride and selfishness ruined their friendship.

  He sighed and pulled into a parking spot.

  Brice and Marie scrambled out of the back, and Kylen popped the trunk. Taysia sat quietly, taking in the pulsing surf as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She had fallen into a melancholy mood. He shouldn’t have tried to hold her hand.

  Brice and Marie grabbed the lunch supplies from the trunk and headed toward the beach.

  Kylen tucked his hands under his legs lest he make things worse. He looked out over the ocean. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

  She glanced at him. “You didn’t do anything to make me uncomfortable. It’s just me. I’m so…” She shrugged. “Up in the air right now. With my worries about Daddy and…when Marie said that, I just…”

  He swallowed and dug his fingers into the leather of his seat, wishing he could reach for her hand without complicating matters. “Does that mean you are at least thinking about what I said at the gym the other day?” His heart thundered in his ears as he waited.

  There was a short pause, and then she chuckled. “No. Not at all.”

  He looked at her sharply.

  She rolled her eyes and then scuttled out of the car, calling, “What do you think has made me so confused lately?”

  A slow smile spread across his face as he followed her out of the car. Thank You, God!

  The kabobs were some of the best he’d ever tasted. Maybe because his heart was so light. He savored the last piece of meat on his stick as he watched Marie and Brice across the grill. They sat on a large driftwood log and only had eyes for each other. He glanced at Taysia. She was watching the young couple too, a worried look in her eye. As there should be. He sighed. Brice reminded him a lot of himself a few years earlier. He would have to have a talk with him.

  Just then Brice looked up. “Want to play some volleyball? There’s always a net set up just down there.” He pointed down the beach. “And I brought a ball. It’s in Kylen’s trunk.”

  Taysia’s face brightened, and she looked up at him.

  Tossing his kabob stick into the garbage, he stood. “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

  Brice and Marie formed one team; Kylen and Taysia the other.

  Marie set the ball up nicely for Brice, and he sailed into the air and spiked it into the sand just behind Taysia. Marie and Brice high-fived.

  Brice pumped his fist. “Oh yeah, baby. We’re gonna beat the ol’ fogeys.”

  “That’s right!” Marie agreed.

  Kylen shook his head in amusement, and beside him Taysia laughed.

  A moment later the ball landed out of bounds, and the serve turned over to him and Taysia.

  Marie grinned, widened her stance, and bent her knees, ready for the serve. “Don’t worry, Brice. They probably serve like pansies.”

  “Oh, it’s on now!” Taysia rested the ball against one hip and pointed a finger at Marie. “You better watch it, girl. I know your boss.”

  Marie laughed sassily and waved a hand. “She’s a pushover. In fact, I’m due for a raise any day now, so you should say something about that to her.”

  While Marie talked, Taysia served the ball right past her head. The ball landed with a satisfying thud in the sand.

  Kylen laughed at the look of astonishment on Marie’s face.

  “Hey!” Her hands settled on her hips. “That’s cheating!”

  Taysia grinned. “You should have been playing instead of flapping your jaw, girl.”

  Marie made a face and tossed the ball back.

  Taysia served again and Brice returned it. The ball sailed up high and Kylen ran for it. “Got it!” Taysia called. He tried to stop and back off, but she was watching the ball and crashed into him. Their legs got tangled.

  Taysia squeaked, and he grabbed her to him in an attempt to maintain their balance. He failed. They both went down into the sand.

  The ball landed in bounds, and Marie and Brice set to celebrating. But suddenly everything around Kylen seemed very far away. Everything except for Taysia. She lay on her back, only inches from his face, her hair fanned out across the sand, her eyes sparkling with amusement. She chuckled and punched him in the arm. “I called it, you goofball!”

  Kylen leaned onto one elbow, in no hurry to get up. He stared at a shimmering strand of her hair, remembering a similar day years ago. They had walked to the beach, teasing and jostling. He had chased her. She had fallen, and he had teased that he was going to put sand in her hair. Kylen blinked and refocused on the present.

  He took in her face. Smooth eyebrows. Large gray eyes, outlined with dark lashes, turning suddenly serious at his scrutiny. Flushed cheeks. Full, parted lips. He leaned forward. Her breathing stilled and she tensed, clearing her throat softly. Don’t go there, Sumner. He transitioned his forward momentum into reaching for a handful of sand, forcing his mind on to other avenues. Letting the grains trickle through his fingers, he gave her a wicked grin. Her eyes widened. He could see that same memory flooding her face.

  Taysia swallowed thickly. That day on the beach so long ago had been wonderful, full of fun. It had been just before school started. Just before Kylen realized she wasn’t popular and that friendship with her would mean hard times for him at Marinville High. Just before she realized how painful love could be.

  All Taysia could think was to get away from him. Once again, she was having fun with him. And too much desire coursed through her veins right now. “I really ought to go clean up the lunch things.” She struggled to sit up, but one of his legs was pinning her to the ground.

  The moment stretched as his face turned serious again, and he watched the grains of sand in his hand cascade back to the beach. Why did he have to be so easy on the eyes? He returned his gaze to her face, and she licked her lips. “Please, Ky. Let’s just clean up the lunch stuff.” She didn’t think she would have the strength to resist if he was tempted to kiss her again.

  Kylen hopped up and reached a hand down. “I’ll come help you.” As he dusted sand from himself, he called over to Brice and Marie, “We’re going to go clean up the lunch things. We’ll be ready to go in a bit.”

  Taysia hurried toward the picnic site, adrenaline making her legs tremble. She wouldn’t kid herself. There was no way she was attractive enough to keep the handsome Kylen Sumner’s attention for any length of time. Sure, he was home and claiming interest in her, but beautiful girls like Sophia Clinesmith were really more his type. And it was best she remember that. She’d forgotten it one too many times already.

  Quickly she scooped all the leftovers into the cooler and headed for the car. Kylen followed carrying the small grill and popped the trunk for her. She stuffed the cooler inside. As she pulled back, her hand got caught in one strap of her bag and her Bible fell out, spilling bulletins and notes everywhere.

  “Oh, bother!” She began to gather the papers together, placing today’s bulletin on the top. Her hands stilled as notes from Pastor’s sermon arrested her attention. Pastor had quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “And the devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.” This morning’s sermon had been all about pride, and she had brushed it aside because she knew she didn’t have a problem with thinking more highly of herself than she ought; in fact, she was quite the opposite. But was her “humility” actually pride in disguise? Was it actually pride refusing to allow Kylen back into her heart? Fear of humiliation if he decided, once again, that he’d be better off with someone else? Wanting to protect herself?

  Kylen stood behind her waiting so he could put the grill into the trunk. “Layne, you okay?” he asked.

  She quickly shuffled the papers together. “I’m fine.” She brushed past him as verses from Philippians 3 marched through her head. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

  She clenched her fists and sank down onto a driftwood log. She didn’t want to forget what he had done to her. She didn’t ever want herself to be vulnerable to him again. She had forgiven him and was pressing on; wasn’t that enough? She was serving God, doing her best to love and help others. Isn’t that enough, God? I just don’t want to be hurt again.

  Kylen eased down on the log beside her. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her chin in one hand. The waves pulsed a soothing rhythm, and she let her eyes fall closed. Lord, I don’t know if I’m being prideful or not. I do have a hard time believing Kylen could really be attracted to me. And I know I don’t want to get hurt again. And I’m so attracted to him that it makes it really hard. What if we start dating and he dumps me again? She sighed. Just help me to find Your way through all of this. And if there is sin in my heart, show me, Lord. And help me to be willing to let go of it.

  Kylen reached over with one hand and began to massage the muscles along her back and at the base of her neck. He cleared his throat. “Layne, I need to ask you something.” He paused, and she reached for a shell in the sand between her feet. “Do you think there is any chance at all that you will ever care for me again? Trust me?”

  She tensed and looked out across the ocean to the horizon, her pulse skittering like a colt in the cool morning. Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of. She swallowed and looked back down at the sand. “Kylen, I just don’t know if I can go there again.”

  He stiffened, and his hand paused at the base of her neck. Then he placed his hands on his knees and stood. “I see. I’ll go get Marie and Brice.”

  Pain clenched Taysia’s chest until she could hardly breathe as she watched Kylen walk slowly down the beach, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his shorts. She dashed at the tears on her cheeks with the flats of her fingers and headed back to the car to wait for them.

  Kylen was strong. And there would be plenty of women for him to choose from. He would be fine. And she had Blaine. They would both be fine.

  Chapter 5

  Kylen walked down the beach a way and then paused, looking out over the endless motion of the water. He sighed and rolled his head from side to side as he let his mind wander back over the years to high school.

  That first summer, he and Taysia had become friends almost immediately. Their friendship had quickly blossomed into romance, and he had finally worked up his nerve and kissed her under the grape arbor in her backyard. That night she had shared her fears with him. She had never been popular at school. She’d always just been “Chubby Taysia Green.” Earlier that year, before he arrived, she had determined to lose weight and help women do the same in the future, but she knew nothing would change at school. She told him she was afraid when school started he would turn his back on her, because no one was going to like him if he hung out with Fatty Four-Eyes. He had assured her nothing could be further from the truth.

  Kylen huffed a breath of disgust with himself and scuffed his toe through the sand. That first year, things had been okay between him and Taysia for a while, but eventually the ribbing he took at school for hanging around her got to him, and he’d slowly stopped sitting with her, walking home with her, talking with her.

  The hurt in her big gray eyes the first time he’d passed her by in the cafeteria to sit instead with the football players and cheerleaders pierced his heart. The first time she called a greeting to him across their lawns, and he merely waved and headed to the beach with his new friends, her shoulders had slumped. He’d felt like a cad, but he’d valued popularity more than his relationship with her.

  Soon, like a dog that gets cuffed every time its owner is around, she carefully began evading him. Even during the summers, she made a point of staying as far from him as possible. And, selfishly, he hadn’t given her a serious thought until the night of their senior prom.

  Taysia had been so beautiful that night.

  Her date was Darwin Schwartz, a punk rocker with a tattoo of a dragon on his neck and a silver earring that dangled down so far it bumped against his shoulder. Darwin hadn’t been at the prom for fifteen minutes before he was well on his way to being drunk.

  None of the jocks had been able to tear their eyes off Taysia, all of them wishing they’d had enough guts to be the first to break the “Taysia Green Taboo” and ask her to the prom themselves. Kylen included. Her sapphire-blue dress hung just off slender, tanned shoulders, and a small sapphire-and-diamond pendant graced the hollow of her throat. Somewhere in her high school years, Taysia had learned she couldn’t be anybody but herself, and she’d stopped trying to impress the popular people. She mingled around the room chitchatting with her friends, and everyone in the room noticed her exquisite beauty. It was a beauty that emanated not only from her outward appearance but from an inner confidence. The fact that Taysia was unaware of it only added to her allure.

  On that night Kylen knew she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever laid eyes on. His date, Sophia Clinesmith, had known it too and hadn’t liked the way Kylen watched Taysia across the room.

  Sophia waited until Taysia stopped by the punch bowl and then approached her. Filling her own cup, she angled Taysia a smile. “Taysia! You’re looking fab tonight!” She reached out as though to give her a hug and sloshed punch down the front of Taysia’s dress. Apologizing profusely, she swiped at the stain with a wad of napkins from the table. Everyone in the room knew the truth.

  Taysia’s eyes darted to Kylen, a blush staining her cheeks as she pushed Sophia’s hands away and whispered that everything was fine and not to worry. Backing away from the refreshment table, she glanced frantically around the room.

  Kylen followed her gaze and saw Darwin cavorting drunkenly on the dance floor with a girl wearing black makeup and leather. He turned back to see Taysia fleeing the room.

  He glared at Sophia. “That was cold, Sophia. Couldn’t stand the fact that she is twice as beautiful as you ever will be?” The words were hard, cutting. He meant them to be. Sophia burst into tears, covered her face with trembling hands, and flounced away. Several of her girlfriends rushed to console her with embraces and glares in Kylen’s direction. Kylen hesitated only a split second before he pushed through the surprised murmur of his classmates and ran after Taysia.

  Darwin must have driven her, because she was striding through the rain, swiping at her cheeks with one hand. He ran for his car and pulled out of the parking lot. Driving half a block ahead, he stopped at the curb and jumped out, turning to face her as she approached.

  “Go away, Kylen! You are the last person on earth I want to talk to right now!”

  “Taysia, just let me drive you home. It’s cold and raining, and it’s over two miles to your house.” By this time she was abreast of his car. She ignored him and tried to push past him, but he stepped into her path, resting his hands on her upper arms. “Come on, Layne, just let me drive you home.”

  She folded her arms, stepped back, and dropped her gaze to the sidewalk. “I can’t go home, Kylen.”

  He frowned. “Why not?”

  She swiped at a tear with the flats of her fingers, then refolded her arms without ever looking up. “I just can’t. My parents…”

  Understanding dawned. She didn’t want her parents to know. “Fine.” He took her by the arm, leading her to the passenger side of his car. “Come to my house, then. My parents are gone on business. At least you can have a warm shower and get into something dry. You can sneak home later.”

  She sank down into the seat without protest and leaned her head back. The minutes ticked off silently as he drove, the only sound that of the wipers methodically swishing across the windshield. He swallowed nervously, hating the silence. “You looked beautiful tonight.” The words were a surprise. He hadn’t meant to voice the thought aloud.

  She grimaced. “Shut up, Kylen.”

  He pulled into the drive of his dark house and glanced over at her. “Taysia?”

  She turned her head on the headrest and looked at him, her gray, tear-bright eyes shining luminously in the moonlight.

  He swallowed convulsively, his heart beginning to beat hard in his chest. He reached out and stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I mean it, Layne. You were the most beautiful girl there tonight.”

  She closed her eyes and did not pull away from his touch.

  It felt right when he leaned across the car and kissed her. Memories of their first tender kiss and that whole wonderful first summer when they had simply been two friends falling in love clouded his thinking. It felt right when they stumbled into the house and he pulled her up the stairs into his bedroom. Momentarily gone was the distance that Kylen had placed between them. It was as if they had never stopped being friends, being in love. Everything had felt right until it was over, and then he had known he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. Taysia didn’t meet his eyes as she got up and slipped back into her stained, wet gown and left. He’d been too angry with himself for taking advantage of her to stop her. Besides, what could he say?