The Four Stages of Loving Dutch Owen - Debra Kayn Page 0,83
Around Him
For Life
His Crime
Time Owed
Falling For Crazy
Chasing Down Changes
Bantorus Motorcycle Club series
Breathing His Air
Aching To Exhale
Soothing His Madness
Grasping for Freedom
Fighting To Ride
Struggling For Justice
Starving For Vengeance
Living A Beautiful War
Melt My Heart - Anthology
Laying Down His Colors – Bantorus Motorcycle Club
A Hard Body Novel series
Archer
Weston
The Chromes and Wheels Gang series
Biker Babe in Black
Ride Free
Healing Trace
Playing For Hearts series
Wildly
Seductively
Conveniently
Secretly
Surprisingly
Modern Love – Anthology
The Sisters of McDougal Ranch series
Chantilly's Cowboy
Val's Rancher
Margot's Lawman
Florentine's Hero
Single Titles
The Sandbar Saga
The Higher You Fly
Suite Cowboy
Hijinks
Resurrecting Charlie's Girl
Betraying the Prince
Love Rescued Me
Double Agent
Breaking Fire Code
—SNEAK PEEK—
The Sandbar Saga by Debra Kayn
available at all retailers
PROLOGUE
THE LIGHTS FLICKERED from the storm. Katie hugged her stomach as another round of thunder shook the house.
"You deal with her."
"Keep your voice down."
"It's your fault Katie is here. I'm sick of being her mother. The little bitch needs her face slapped for going behind my back and calling you at work."
"For Christ's sake, she's eight years old."
The voices grew louder. Sitting at the top of the stairs out of sight, Katie covered her ears. The fight between her parents had been going on since her dad arrived home from work.
A fight like all the others, except tonight it was her fault. Her dad was late to pick her up for her piano lesson at four o'clock. She'd tried to call him at work, and her mom got mad at her for using the phone.
"I don't want to hear you speak about my daughter that way again," shouted her father.
"My daughter, my daughter, my daughter. That's all I hear around here. I can't stand it."
Glass shattered downstairs. Wetness trickled between Katie's legs, making her cry harder.
Picking up her stuffed animal, she hugged the dog at the same time the lights went out. She wished her dad would leave the house. Katie rocked back and forth. He needed to go away for a while. It was the only way to make her mother stop yelling.
If he left, her mom would eventually go to the bedroom and lock the door. That's what always happened when her parents fought.
A door slammed. She hiccupped. Her dad had left.
Katie stood and quietly walked to her bedroom.
Part One
Katie
Chapter 1
DISTANT THUNDER RUMBLED over the house. Katie jerked her hand away from the window without taking her gaze off the sandbar under the Megler Bridge. Little by little, the sand disappeared with the incoming tide.
Putting her hand on the glass again, she waited for the next vibration. The boom. The anger.
Living on the hill in Astoria, Oregon, storms were nothing new to her. The Chinook winds often blew in from the Pacific Ocean—rattling the windows and bringing big, wet raindrops that soaked her clothes as she waited for the school bus in the mornings and when she walked up the hill to the house in the afternoons.
She focused on the disappearing sandbar again in anticipation. Just once, she'd like to see someone get caught out there on the sand when the tide came in.
Her teacher, Mrs. Bernhardt, had warned the class about the dangers of the sandbar near the bridge. The tide could sweep her away and pull her out to sea.
While her teacher had lectured the class on the safety rules, Katie had raised her hand in class. It was the first time she'd volunteered to ask a question all year. Usually, she sat quietly because Alden and his group near the back of the room made fun of everyone if they were smart. She hated the attention and preferred if nobody noticed her.
The day she'd asked the question, she stopped liking Mrs. Bernhardt.
She looked up at the dark sky. Her teacher had lied to her when she'd asked if someone could die if they went out on the sandbar. Mrs. Bernhardt told her people could get hurt if they got caught under the bridge when the tide came in.
That wasn't the right answer. People had died. She knew the difference between hurt and dead.
Her dad was dead. He'd died on the sandbar when she was eight years old.
She stared at the cars traveling the bridge from Oregon to Washington, unaware of the danger coming their way.
"Katie, get away from the window. The storm is getting closer," said Ms. Gray.
She ignored her nanny. There was nothing Ms. Gray could do to her, except tell her mother she hadn't obeyed.
The older woman would soon quit, anyway. All the nannies quit. None of them would deal with her mother for long before they up and left.
Besides, she was too old for a nanny. At twelve years