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PROLOGUE

My mom always said, there are two kinds of love in this world: the steady breeze, and the hurricane

The steady breeze is slow and patient It fills the sails of the boats in the harbor, and lifts laundry on the line It cools you on a hot sus the leaves of fall, like clockwork every year You can count on a breeze, steady and sure and true

But there’s nothing steady about a hurricane It rips through town, reckless, sending the ocean foa trees and power lines and anyone duh to stand in its path Sure, it’s a thrill like nothing you’ve ever known: your pulse kicks, your body calls to it, like a spirit possessed It’s wild and breathless and all-consu

But what comes next?

“You see a hurricane cohteen “You shut the doors, and you bar the s Because coe left behind”

Emerson Ray was my hurricane

Looking back, I wonder if , the dry crackle of electricity in the air But it was already too late No warning sirens were going to save er, not until you’re the one left, huddled on the ground, surrounded by the pieces of your broken heart

It’s been four years now since that su I had to pull e ofnew in its place This ti I barred shutters over my heart, and foundwould ever destroy ain

I rong

That’s the thing about hurricanes Once the storm touches down, all you can do is pray

CHAPTER ONE

I’hith all the n, otcountry classics as loud asto drown out the whispers of memory that started, the minute I took the freeway exit onto the familiar coastal road

45 miles to Cedar Cove

45 miles to Emerson

I shake it off We were co here for years before I met him, I remind myself sternly Every su in the surf and reading out on our shady back porch I should have other, better memories of this place without him

But you haven’t been back here since

I block out the treacherous voice inwith the radio instead

“Gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday…”

The song is right, I decide It’s gone That summer is so far behind me, I couldn’t see it in my rearview mirror if I tried I’irl I was the last time I drove down this sandy road I’e and starting out a whole new life I’ve got a perfect boyfriend back in the city, and a great career all lined up Despite everything that happened here that summer, I made it out—h co back to Cedar Cove makes me feel sick and dizzy, like I’m about to jue any of that

It can’t

Besides, I tellto calm the shiver of nerves in my stomach, I don’t even know if he’s still here I don’t know anything about Eht searches online always come up blank He could be half-way around the world by now, trekking in the African jungle, or knocking back beers on some beach in Australia with a tall, stacked bikini model at his side

Tucked under his arm, the place I used to be…

I crank the radio even louder, the country twang ringing so hard I don’t even hear ht up from where I tucked it in the cup-holder onto turn the volu wheel I know I shouldn’t talk and drive, but way out of the city out here, I won’t see a cop for miles

“Hey Lacey, what’s up?”

“Are you there yet?” She demands

“Close” I check the clock again, “About a half-hour away”

“I still can’t believe Danny boy didn’t go with you” There’s a ain I can just picture her, curled up in our student apart out of theover the bustle of don “Isn’t this the kind of thing future fiancés are legally obligated to do?” she asks, “Packing up the summer house you haven’t stepped foot in since… Well, you know” she trails off

The silence sits in the air between us, heavy with grief E in this town The pain he caused me was only half my broken heart

I gulp a lungful of fresh, salty air and force the demons out ofto propose” I shift the phone to a more comfortable position under my ear

“Please” Lacey snorts “His parents love you, you’renot-so-subtle hints about your taste in jewelry for months now”

“You didn’t tell me that!” My stomach kicks, but this time, it’s with a whole different kind of nerves