Page 1 of The Lighthouse at the Cove
Chapter 1
A warm sun was shining as Kaiah Ross rolled down the windows of her Land Rover Discovery to breathe in the salty air that held a fresh hint of early spring. She curved her hands around the wheel of her SUV as she studied the open road hugging the coast that stretched ahead, a ribbon of possibilities that made her heart flutter with excitement. On the radio Taylor Swift began to softly sing about a Romeo and Juliet who were blessed with a much better ending than the original pair had, and Kaiah tapped the Volume Up button a few notches so the promise of the song could fill her ears and perhaps drown out her doubts that a love story could have such a happy ending, even for her.
Hey, Ky, knock it off. The vibes are immaculate right now. Just soak in this glorious day!
And glorious it was. As a native New Yorker, Kaiah had never visited coastal North Carolina, but she could tell from the sparkling blue water that matched the cerulean sky that perhaps thisvisit wouldn’t be her last. She was on her way to Edisto Beach in South Carolina, the subject of an article in a series she’d been writing about hidden gems where people should spend time on the East Coast. From Maryland to Florida, she was documenting places off the beaten path forThe Traveler, an online magazine. The assignment was one many travel journalists would snatch up in a heartbeat—a fun series of articles to write on someone else’s dime, and...
Uh-oh.
Small, flashing lights dotted her peripheral vision. Her gaze locked on her SUV’s dashboard where two red lights illuminated. She was sure they weren’t there earlier. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a light glowing there—not since before her last tune-up.
But there they were, two red symbols glowing ominously in front of her. Wait, was one of them a thermometer? Kaiah shifted her attention to her temperature gauge and felt a jolt run through her chest. The needle had entered the red zone and was rising—quickly. She looked back at the dash and saw the dreaded Check Engine light shining like a big, scary warning beacon.
Oh no. No, no, no.
Her sister Kamryn had warned her about trusting the fifteen-year-old SUV on another long trip, and she’d tried to convince Kaiah to buy a newer vehicle. But Kaiah just shook her head at the warning. She had faith in Daisy, her trusty four-wheeled companion. Besides that, a new car wasn’t in her budget.
Well, Kam, looks like you win. I should’ve listened earlier.
The muscles in Kaiah’s shoulders felt like boulders as she guided the car to the shoulder and turned off the radio to assess her situation. She was alone on a road trip in an unfamiliar state, driving an overheating vehicle. What should she do? She could call Kam, butwhat did her sister know about fixing a car? And her brother-in-law was an accountant, not a mechanic, so he probably couldn’t help much either.
“Okay, Ky,” she whispered. “You’ve got this. You just have to find an auto shop. We’ll take it easy until we get back into civilization.”
She turned her key and shifted into Drive as she pulled back onto the road. Surely someone could fix her SUV in a jiffy, and then she’d be on her way. She still had five more hours to drive before reaching her destination in South Carolina.
But all she saw was an endless two-lane highway—blacktop and nothing else. She was somewhere in North Carolina, but where?
Before she could pull out her phone and check Google Maps, she spotted a sign up ahead, and hope surged through her.
“Come on, Daisy,” she whispered to her car, gently patting the dashboard. “You can do this, girl. Just a little bit more, and then you get to rest.”
The temperature gauge continued to rise.
Oh no. If the needle kept moving forward, the engine would burn up, right? Hadn’t she read that somewhere? There was no way she could afford to replace the engine in this car. She’d opted for a used Land Rover, thinking the trusted name brand would yield a more reliable car. But the tune-ups on the foreign car were pricey enough, let alone replacing an engine. And as a freelance writer, her budget wastight.
The sign came into view:Coral Cove Next Exit.
Yes! A town! All was not lost!
“Coral Cove,” she muttered. “Let’s hope they have a mechanic close by.”
She merged onto the off-ramp and held her breath, praying the sign for a repair shop would appear right in front of her, like a mirage in the desert.
Instead, an adorableWelcome to Coral Covesign featuring a sandy beach and colorful umbrellas filled her vision.
“Nice,” she whispered to herself. So there’s a gorgeous beach. What else do they have? Any mechanics?
And then a postcard-perfect little town came into view. Kaiah slowly drove down Main Street and spied several small shops, a town hall, and an elementary school. Everything looked like it belonged in a coffee table book of Americana. In the distance near the shoreline, she spotted a tall column wrapped in black-and-white stripes. It took her a second to realize she was staring at a real-life lighthouse.
She’d found civilization! And not only that, a storybook beach town. Surely she’d end up okay in this place, right?
She felt the boulders begin to roll off her shoulders... until she noticed steam beginning to drift out from under Daisy’s hood.
“Seriously?” she groaned. “This can’t be good.”
Although a new car wasn’t an option, she should’ve at least taken Daisy into the shop before she’d left New York, just to be sure she was ready for another long trip. But she’d been in a rush to get on the road. And look what that got her.
“In a town this small, there’sgotto be a mechanic nearby,” she muttered, trying to ignore the lights glowing on the dashboard and the steam pouring from the hood.
