“Salutem.” The strange word came from a deep voice above her. Was she dead?
She slowly lifted her heavy lids and stared up into the brilliant green gaze of a teenage boy. His eyes were a color she’d never seen before, resembling a few of the marbles she’d been recently collecting.
“God?” she wheezed.
He cocked his head to the side as if he didn’t understand.
She tried to lift her arm, but he held it down. His hands were covering hers, palm to palm. He tilted his head to the other side, and more tingling heat pulsed through her skin. The pain in her chest receded.
The boy peered down at her in open curiosity, similar to the way she’d seen her dog do when he spotted an insect crawling through the grass.
“Who are you?” Abbie whispered, realizing the boy had saved her life.
He glanced up at something in the distance before returning his gaze to her once again. She wondered if maybe he didn’t speak English, and pulled one of her hands free of his to point at herself. “Abbie.”
“Abbie,” he repeated in a strange accent.
“Yes.” She touched her finger to his chest. “And your name?”
Shouts could be heard over the crashing of the waves, and the boy suddenly stilled. Abbie watched in wonder as he sprang away from her and dove into the water.
She pushed up onto her elbows in time to see him swim out toward the sandbar with the speed of a dolphin before disappearing from view altogether.
“No, wait.” She rose to her knees at the edge of the Gulf. Her gaze flew over every wave of the rolling water, but there was no sign of her savior. Fear gripped her, and she forced herself forward. She had to find him.
“Abbie!” her father’s terrified voice shouted in the distance. “Abbie, sweetheart, don’t move! Daddy’s coming.”
How could the boy stay under the water so long? she wondered, searching the sandbar and beyond.
Henry was suddenly there, scooping her up into his arms. “Somebody call 911!”
“Daddy, we have to help him.” Abbie tried to wriggle free, but he only held on tighter.
“Help who, sweetie?”
“The boy.”
Her father turned in a half circle, scanning the beach without slowing his steps. “What boy?”
“The one who pulled me out of the water.”
“There’s no one there, honey. And don’t ever scare me like that again.”
He began to run toward the dunes where a small crowd flocked in their direction with cell phones in hand.
“Is she all right?” an older woman with bright red lipstick yelled as she stumbled along the sand. But Abbie was no longer listening.
She twisted her head around, frantically searching for the boy who had magically disappeared in the great pool of God’s tears.
Chapter One
Twenty-five years later
“You really should eat better, young lady. Your mother would have my ass if she were alive to see some of the dreadful things you consume.”
Abbie hid a smile at her father’s scolding. “I’m thirty-two years old, Henry. I doubt she would go all June Cleaver on me.”
“You shouldn’t call me Henry, you little brat. It makes me sound old and boring.”
“If the toupee fits.” They both laughed a moment before falling into a comfortable silence.
Abbie’s mother had died from cancer twenty-five years earlier, and Henry had never remarried. He hid his loneliness behind a mask of indifference and immersed himself wholly in his work.
Being the lead epidemiologist for Winchester Industries had become Henry’s proverbial crutch, and he spent entirely too much time alone at the lab.
Abbie worried about him constantly and planned evenings such as the one they had tonight to spend quality time together. It didn’t always work. She knew he saw her mother every time he looked into his daughter’s eyes. The exact replica of the only woman he’d ever loved.
The trill of a phone broke the silence and her father excused himself to take the call.
Work, no doubt, Abbie thought, taking a bite of the burger she’d just made to her liking.
He reappeared a moment later with a guilty look in his eyes. “That was the lab, honey. They need me to come back in.”
“What could be so important that it can’t wait until morning?”
He avoided her gaze. “I’m not sure, but I’ll call you later. Don’t wait up. It’s going to be a late night.”
Something in his voice kicked her curiosity up a notch. He never could hide things well, and the whole no eye contact? Yeah, he was definitely keeping something from her.
“I’ll come with you.” She pushed her plate aside and stood.
“Nonsense. Stay and eat your heart attack on a bun. You worked a twelve-hour shift at the hospital today. You don’t need to be running around behind me.”
Abbie had worked at Winchester Industries with her father for several years and often assisted him in the lab before she’d been unceremoniously laid off due to supposed budget cuts.
She knew the higher ups had purposefully kept things from her during her time working in the lab, but whatever Henry hid from her now had to be awfully big for him to outright lie to his only daughter.
And she had no doubt he evaded the truth by the way his left eye twitched. That little trademark had always given him away. “What are you not telling me?”
He pursed his lips. “Okay, you got me. I didn’t want to have to say this, honey, but you are adopted.”
A chuckle bubbled up before she could stop it. She stood on tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the chin. “That explains a whole hell of a lot.”
“You look so much like your mother, Abbigail. She had the same hazel eyes and dark hair. Her butt wasn’t quite as big though.”
Abbie playfully smacked him on the arm before stepping back. “I inherited the infamous booty from you, Henry.”
She knew he didn’t like her to call him Henry any more than she appreciated him referring to her as Abbigail. They were incorrigible teases, but it was their way.
“I really do have to run, sweetie.”
“At least let me pack up your food to take with you or you won’t eat.”
He nodded and began gathering his work paraphernalia while she bagged up his dinner.
Abbie followed him to the car and held the door open as he deposited his things on the passenger seat.
“You are welcome to stay here tonight, Abbie. Jax would love the company.”
“I probably will. If I leave, I’ll feed him before I go.”
He gave her a two-finger salute and slid behind the wheel.
Abbie stepped back as the door closed and the engine roared to life. He backed out of the drive without another glance in her direction.
She waited until his tail lights disappeared around the corner before going back inside to put food out for Jax.
He followed her around with a rubber ball in his mouth, bumping into her legs. The big German shepherd had been with Henry for nearly ten years and had become part of the family.
“You know what’s going on, don’t you, boy?”
His tail wagged in response from the attention.
“Wanna give me a clue? No? I didn’t think so. You are a male after all.” She snagged the ball from his jaws and tossed it across the room, grinning as he bounded after it.
After a quick shower, Abbie brushed her teeth and strolled to her old bedroom in search of something to wear. Henry kept the room exactly as Abbie had left it before she’d gone off to college, right down to the blue pom-poms hanging from the bedpost.
She dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tank top, pulled her long, dark hair back in a ponytail, and made haste cleaning up the mess from their earlier dinner.
Her gaze landed on the bag of food she’d packed him. He’d obviously forgotten it in his haste to get back to the lab.
With a sigh, she plucked up the bag, grabbed her keys and left the house.
Abbie pulled into the parking lot of Winchester Industries and switched off the engine.