Gull Harbor Read Online Free

out, as he gripped her fingers tightly. He held her hand for a beat too long before releasing it and gesturing toward the back of the restaurant.
    “I need to get set up. Enjoy your dinner.”
    Dan looked at her quizzically. “Are you okay?”
    “I’m great,” she said, plastering a smile on her face. The waitress came to her rescue, and Claire ordered the lobster salad instead of a whole lobster. “I’m not actually that hungry,” she explained apologetically. That was true; her appetite had disappeared as the anger boiled up inside her. And she should not have a sharp pick and a wooden mallet in her possession right now.
    The two beers they had ordered arrived in frosty glasses, and Claire tossed back a healthy swig of the bitter ale. Dan had been nice enough to bring her here, and she needed to get ahold of herself and enjoy the night. Her heart rate was just beginning to return to normal when she suddenly understood what Max had meant by “setting up.”
    He’d pushed a barstool into the center of the open space, and now a microphone stood beside it. Oh, God. He was going to sing. Just seeing him had been difficult enough. She wasn’t sure she could listen to him sing.
    “It’s Open Mic Night,” Dan explained as their meals arrived. “Sometimes other people play, but most people come to hear Max.”
    Nodding weakly, she gazed at their plates. She was stuck. Even if she swallowed her dinner whole, Dan would still be working on that lobster for at least thirty minutes. She could hardly tell him to go ahead and finish while she waited in the car.
    She’d managed to eat three small bites of lobster salad, and to actually realize it was delicious, when Max came out with his guitar. As he slid onto the barstool, a wave of applause traveled through the room. His fingers found the chords, and he began to play.
    She knew the song, recognized it by the first few notes. He’d written it when they were in college; it had been one of her favorites. When his deep voice joined the music, a jagged spike of desire ripped through her.
    This wasn’t fair. First Max had betrayed her; now her own body was following suit. She tore her gaze away from the makeshift stage, but it didn’t help. The familiar lyrics wound themselves around her, conjuring up powerful memories. Warmth pooled in her belly even as an ache bloomed in her chest.
    Maybe she couldn’t escape, but she could certainly ignore him. He wasn’t going to drag her into the past without a fight. Gripping her fork, she pushed food around her plate as she battled back the memories that flowed with the music.
    ****
    She dropped into bed, exhausted. What a night. An angry ghost had left a pile of dirt and sticks on her comforter while she had suffered through dinner. The man who had promised to love her forever had pretended not to know her. And now her traitorous body was burning with need for him as she lay alone in the darkness.
    It was the fault of both her father and her economics professor that she and Max had crossed paths at all. Judge Linden had insisted that she take certain pre-law courses, and Professor Hamilton was a terrible economics teacher. When she realized she needed a tutor, she was told to meet Max at the university library.
    She had walked right by him at first. He hardly looked like he belonged in the library; he certainly didn’t appear to be the economics genius assigned to help her. To this day, she was ashamed of the way she had judged him initially.
    He was sitting at a study table, his long dark bangs hiding his face as he scribbled something on a scrap of paper. The ripped jeans and battered leather jacket he wore were not the standard of dress at the prestigious university. When he called her name, her mouth fell open in surprise.
    “I’m Max. Your tutor,” he clarified.
    “Of course,” she replied, trying to conceal her shock. She slid into the chair across from him with her head down, rifling through her backpack while her