Song of the Surf (Pacific Shores Book 3) (18 page)

Jalen complied, but not before he gave her father one last challenging look above the top of the car.

“Jalen, please.”

He sank behind the wheel then and backed them from the drive.

Riley lost her composure halfway down the hill into town. Sobs shook her like an earthquake was rolling through.

Jalen pulled off the road and stopped behind a copse of trees that lined a scenic overlook. He shut off the engine and turned off the cars lights.

A moment later the sweep of the limo’s headlights and the gliding black shadow of it against the hillside as it cruised by on the road offered her the sweetest breath of relief. And that only brought on more tears. She jumped from the car and strode over to the split rail fence that set the perimeter of the overlook. Folding her arms against the chill, she closed her eyes and pulled in a long, slow breath, attempting to regain her composure.

The crunch of Jalen’s feet were the first thing to alert her that he’d followed.

She dashed at the tears on her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” A hiccup choked off any more words.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

She turned to face him. His eyes were dark, soft, concerned. She spun back to study the lights of Marinville far below. “I purposely made him angry. But then when I thought you and he were going to fight, I was so afraid for you that I prayed.”

“And God heard you.”

Maybe
.

The cynic in her was always rising to the fore. But Dad
had
stopped. Of course, who would want to take on Jalen? He wasn’t quite six feet tall but he had a good thirty pounds on Nate which put him at about one eighty-five. And it was nothing but muscle. With the way he carried himself all lithe and quiet, Dad had probably been afraid to act further.

“Do you want to go back up to the house now that your father is gone? Make sure everyone is alright?”

No. But she did need to check on Rem. She shook her head. “They’ll be fine. I’ll text my brother.”

She climbed back into the car and Justus drove them down the hill and turned along the highway toward Serenity Shores.

She pulled out her phone and sent Rem a message.
You both okay?

Yeah.

What’s Mom doing?

Sleeping.

Riley bit her lip and then texted what she knew she needed to say.
I’m sorry I dragged you around by your arm. I shouldn’t have done that.
She didn’t add that he should not have been such a jerk in the first place.

It’s okay.

Call me if you need anything. I mean it. Night.

Night.

She put her phone away and studied the darkness outside her window until Jalen pulled to a stop in front of Serenity Shores.

He put the car into “park”, but didn’t immediately hand her the keys. He thrust one hand to the back of his neck and hung his head for a moment. She couldn’t tell if he was praying or just massaging tense muscles. But after only a moment he looked up and there was such intensity in his expression she held her breath to make sure she didn’t miss a word of what he was about to say.

He tilted his head. “Will you do me a favor?”

Without consideration she nodded.

“When you get to your room, read Romans chapter six, starting at verse twenty.”

She frowned. “In the Bible?” She felt her face heat and realized how appalled she’d sounded.

Humor softened the intensity of his features, but he didn’t laugh or even smile. Instead his gaze swept over her face as though he wanted to remember her like this. “Yes. In the Bible. Want me to show you?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ll find it.”

Disappointment flashed through his eyes but was gone again so quickly she had to second guess whether she’d actually seen it.

“Okay.” He held out her keys to her and when she took them, he captured her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Don’t let the devil give you a pay check, Riley.”

He left her in the car then, and as she watched him disappear through the front door she frowned, unable to figure out what he meant.

Once in her room, she waited till she had brushed her teeth and was in her favorite flannel pajamas, then she crawled up onto her bed and pulled out the new Bible she’d been given when she moved into House of Hope last month. She rubbed one hand over the cover. At church she mostly followed along on her phone in an app that Dakota had helped her download. This would be the first time she’d opened this book.

Taking a breath, she cracked the cover. She had no idea where Romans might be but right at the front she found an index that told her what page to turn to. She flipped through until she found chapter six and then trailed her finger down to verse twenty.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Like a cold bucket of water, the words washed over her. She thought of her family interactions tonight. Of the life she’d lived with Nate. Free from the control of righteousness, for sure. Was she ashamed of them all? Absolutely. Did it feel like they were all enslaved by their poor choices? Totally.

God wasn’t responsible, she’d known that all along. It was easier, though, to blame Him for all the pain in her life than to accept that maybe her own sinful decisions, and those of others she cared about, had brought all that pain into her life.

Death… yes, that was exactly what it all felt like.

She reread verse twenty-three.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A balance hung before her. Death on one side. Life on the other. She’d been living on the side of death for so long she was a little bit terrified to make the leap over to the other side of the scale.

Don’t let the devil give you a paycheck, Riley
.

The words suddenly made so much sense.

She bowed her head. “God. I want to be your slave now.” She clutched the Bible to her chest and sank against the pillows. She would still have to deal with a lot of the fallout her family would experience because of this night. But somehow she felt a little different. A little more hopeful that they’d all make it through.

Chapter 13

Dakota was released from the hospital Monday morning. She was feeling better, but had no energy to do anything but fall into bed and sleep the whole day through. Riley brought her a bowl of soup for dinner, and after eating it and taking another round of medicine she fell into another exhausted sleep for the rest of the night.

But when she woke up on Tuesday morning she felt like a new person. It was amazing the difference a few hours of the medicine had brought about.

She got up and showered. Dressed in her favorite pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and her faded Seahawks sweatshirt and padded down to the kitchen in her bare feet.

The coffee pot released the heavenly aroma of fresh brew into the air, but no one seemed to be around yet. She poured herself a mug and wandered into the living room.

Darlene sat in a chair near a fire crackling in the fireplace, reading her Bible. She looked up and smiled. “You are looking much better today than you did yesterday when you went up to your room.”

“I
feel
so much better. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some coffee?” She lifted her mug.

“Of course not. In fact, I was just getting up to make breakfast. Why don’t you take this chair near the fire and take it easy until I get it ready?” Darlene stood and tucked her Bible onto the side table next to her chair.

“I could help, if you like?”

Darlene waved her off. “No. No. I’m only making pancakes. That’s a one person job, really. And I already laid out the table before I sat down here, so everything is almost all set. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Dakota smiled. “Thanks.”

She sank into the chair and propped her feet up by the fire. Only a moment later, Alyssa stumbled into the room rubbing her eyes. The moment she noticed Dakota, she scrambled up onto her lap, curling into a ball against her chest.

“Hey there, Munchkin.” Dakota rubbed the sleepy girl’s back. “How are you this morning?”

“I miss my mommy.” She sniffed.

Dakota set her coffee cup down and rocked her. “I’m sorry. She’s going to be back in only three more sleeps.”

“That’s a long time.”

It probably did seem like forever to a four-year-old. “Want me to read you a story?”

“Yes!” She was off of Dakota’s lap and back in a flash with a colorful picture book full of silly monkeys and laughing hyenas.

She was reading to Alyssa in the funny voice of the jungle python when Justus walked into the room. It must have taken her a moment to notice him, because when she glanced up, he was standing with arms folded and a look of utter amusement on his face. She let the story trail off and grinned, feeling warmth steal into her cheeks.

He tilted his head, and there was something far too intimate in the way he watched her.

“Aunt Kota, the story isn’t over yet.” Alyssa reached up and patted her cheek to get her attention.

“Breakfast is ready, everyone!” Darlene called from the kitchen. “We’ll eat in here at the kitchen table.”

“Breakfast!” Alyssa leapt down and made a dash for the kitchen.

Dakota shut the book and set it aside. “Saved by the…griddle, I guess.”

Justus chuckled. His gaze swept over her. “You look like you are feeling better. Feel up to a walk on the beach after breakfast?” A hint of seriousness overtook all humor.

“Sure. It will be good to stretch my legs.” But even as she said it she couldn’t help but wonder if there was more than just a walk on his mind. He must be headed back home soon. They might have missed their opportunity for that date.

Riley and Jalen were already in the Kitchen with Darlene and Alyssa. They were all just sitting down to the table when the doorbell rang. Darlene excused herself to answer it and returned a few minutes later with Pastor Mark. “Look who showed up just in time to get some of my pancakes?” she teased.

Pastor Mark chuckled. “Actually I’m sorry to stop by so early, but I’m here to talk to Dakota and Riley. Could we find someplace to do that?”

Dread settled in Dakota’s chest even as she glanced at Riley and nodded. “Sure.” This first-thing- in-the-morning call couldn’t mean anything good, she was afraid.

She and Riley followed the pastor into the study just down the hall. The man strode to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and stood quietly for a moment massaging the muscle of one shoulder. Finally, he turned to face them. He looked haggard and tired. There were large dark bags under his eyes and grim lines of weariness etching his lips.

Dakota’s heart dropped in her chest. “You don’t have good news about House of Hope, do you?”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Is it as bad as I feared?”

“I’m not sure what you feared, but LoriMay was embezzling money from us.”

Dakota clasped interlaced fingers on the top of her head. “Are you sure?” Her voice trembled.

“I’m afraid so. We’ve had to have her arrested. And she’s confessed. She got scared when we brought you on to help her. She was worried she was about to get caught. That’s why she quit so suddenly. Unfortunately, it is going to take the church some time to recover from this. We will need to sell House of Hope to try to get the church’s funds into the black again.”

“What if Dakota and I buy the house?” They were the first words Riley had said all morning.

Dakota’s heart went out to her. Of course she was concerned. They needed a place to stay. But… “I don’t think that’s going to be possible, Riley. I won’t have a job now until I can find something.” And the only thing she was likely to find in town was not going to shell out enough to pay a mortgage and support both of them.

But Riley didn’t seem fazed by her answer. She kept a steady gaze fixed on the pastor. “How much would the church need to sell the house for?”

“Well…uh…” Pastor Mark fumbled through some papers in his briefcase. “The insurance is going to cover all the repairs and of course we’ll have to get all that done and inspected before we can sell. But with the amount she has stolen and already spent, we will have to pray God gives us top dollar in order not to be in the red on this. For that reason it’s good the house sits right along the beach like it does, it’s prime land and pricing for around here.” The sum he named made Dakota’s head spin.

But Riley didn’t even blink. “We’ll take it.”

Dakota started to protest. “Riley—”

“—I have some cash.”

Dakota’s eyebrows went up. She’d imagined Riley was penniless when she’d come to live at House of Hope.

Riley pressed her lips together and studied the ground in front of her feet for a moment, then looked up and met both of their gazes. “Can I tell you something?”

Dakota nodded and in her peripheral vision saw Pastor Mark do the same.

“Jalen had me read some verses the other day. They talked about being a slave to sin and how it pays in only death, but that we can choose to be a slave to God and He gives us the gift of life.”

Dakota’s heart began to beat faster and a spill of joy splashed over the edges of her soul.

Riley’s face softened and she folded her arms over her chest in a protective gesture. “I told God I wanted to be His slave.”

“Riley!” Pastor Mark strode over and stopped before her, his arms outspread. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all week. Can I give you a hug?”

Dakota was too thrilled to move. She stood stock still and covered her mouth with one hand.

Riley looked uncertainly at the pastor.

He laughed. “It’s okay. You don’t have to hug me. Just know that you’ve made one of the best decisions of your life and if you ever have any questions you are more than welcome to come talk to me, alright?”