It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1)

by Tessa Bailey

Remembering the importance of each member of my crew and the people waiting on shore for them is my job. That makes this town my job.

she suddenly felt … as if fate had placed her in that very spot. Their life before Los Angeles had always been a fragmented, vague thing. But it felt real now. Something to explore. Something that maybe had even been missing, without her knowing enough to acknowledge it.

“Piper, I don’t just go putting my arms around girls.” She paused in the doorway. Looked back. “What does that mean?” He gave in to just a touch of temptation, tucking a wind-tangled strand of hair behind her ear. Soft. “It means I’ll be around.”

The tide had changed, and he wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. He wouldn’t stay so firmly rooted in his practices and routines that a good thing would come along and slip away.

Brendan had always thought battling the ocean would forever be his biggest challenge. But that was before he met Piper. Maybe he didn’t know the how or the what of this thing between them yet, but his gut never lied. He’d never lost a battle with the water when listening to his instincts, and he hoped like hell those same instincts wouldn’t fail him now.

“Trying to figure out what to do when no one is watching. And wondering if maybe that’s the stuff that actually matters.”

She’d come to the hospital. In his clothes. Did she realize tears were spilling down her cheeks and she was shaking, head to toe? No, she didn’t. Based on her flirty shoulder shrugs and attempts to wink, she thought she was playing it cool, and it made his chest burn. This girl. He’d be keeping her. There was no way around it.

“When I hug you?” Fuck. His heart was turning over and over like a car engine. “My hugs are your recharging station?”

“Can you be mad at me while I kiss you, baby? It’s all I’ve wanted to do for the last two weeks.”

“You can wrap me as tight as you want around that little finger, but I won’t play games about what this is. Get me, Piper?”

And when her face transformed with pure joy and she waved enthusiastically, Brendan knew he loved her.

Captain Brendan Taggart was a man. A real one. Her first. And she could admit now that staying with him would mean giving up Los Angeles and the life she knew. But there was one root he hadn’t found despite all his digging: Who the hell would Piper Bellinger be if she stayed in Westport? That was a problem for another time, though.

“I want you. However you are, whatever you are, I want you. And I’ll fight to get inside that head as many times as it takes. Over and over and over. Don’t you dare doubt me.”

Making over the bar with her sister, standing on the deck of a boat with the love of her life’s arms around her, running through the harbor mist, making friends who seemed interested in her and not what she could do for them. Those things counted.

A sense of rightness took hold in a split second, bringing her back to herself. Back to earth. Brendan lifted her up, locking his arms around her as tight as they would go, and she melted into the embrace

If you’ll have me back, we’ll make it happen. I won’t let us fail. Just let me love you forever.”

“Everything is going to be okay now. We found our way back. I’ve got you back and I’m not letting you go ever again.” She clung to him. “Promise?” “I’ll make the promise every single day.”