Chapter 9
When the first low wave washed over his ankles, Derek flinched, expecting more pain shooting through him. Instead he felt a warmth spread up his legs, so unexpected, so at odds with the cold water swirling around his feet, that he stumbled and fell into the tide. Spray splashed his chest and throat and mouth; he licked briny water from his lips, the savory taste as heady as the first sweet drop of drink to a former alcoholic. Without thinking, he plunged his head into the water, let the waves crest over him, buried himself in the rush that struck the shore. For the first time since Kellen had come back into his life, he relaxed—letting go of the sandy bank beneath him, he let the water flow around him, pulling him along with it back out to sea.
A few yards from the shore, he br
