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Prologue

All you need is love But a little chocolate

now and then doesn’t hurt

Lightning sent a jagged bolt across Ty Garrison’s closed lids Thunder booht up in bed, gasping as if he’d just run a odda like a leaf, he scrubbed his hands over his face Why couldn’t he drea free of the covers, he limped nad to theand yanked it open The cool ht the urge to close his eyes If he did, he’d be back there

But thein ten," the pilot announced as the plane skiht

In eight, the plane began to vibrate

In six, lightning cracked

And then an explosion, one so violent it nearly blew out his eardru the rain slash at his body through the openHe could hear the Pacific Ocean pounding the surf below the cliffs Scented with fragrant pines, the air smelled like Christmas in April, and he forced hier a SEALon the knowledge that he was the only one still breathing, that he hadn’t been able to save a single soul He was in Washington State, in the small beach town of Lucky Harbor The ocean was in front of him, the Olympic Mountains at his back

Safe

But hell if at the next bolt of lightning, he didn’t try to jump out of his own skin Pissed at the weakness, Ty shut theHe was never inhaling an entire pepperoni pizza before bed again

Except he kneasn’t so as siiness that ca idle His as still special ops, but he hadn’t gone back to being a first responder trauned up as a private contractor to the governh adrenaline rush Plus it suited hin shot, and had reinjured his leg

Stretching that leg now, he winced He wanted to get back to his job Needed to get back But he also needed clearance froed a shirt off the back of a chair and left the rooh the big and nearly ee A fast drive in the ht would have to do, and ht diner

But this first

Flipping on the lights, Ty sucked in a deep, calreased tools, and rubber tires On the left sat a ’72 GMC Jimmy, a rebuild job he’d picked up on the fly He didn’t need the money As it turned out, special ops talents ell-compensated these days, but the repair as a welco on the right wasn’t a side job She was his baby, and she was calling to hiainst the wall toward the classic ri down his proble his own cal, and no one gets hurt

The lightning flashed bright, h the dark rainy night from her car to the front door of the diner

One Mississippi

Two Mississippi

On three Mississippi, thunder booround A vicious wind nearly blew her off her feet She’d forgotten her u, which was just as well or she’d have taken off like Mary Poppins

A second, brighter bolt of lightning sent jagged light across the sky, and Mallory gasped as everything momentarily lit up like day: the pier behind the diner, the churning ocean, the ain, and she burst breathlessly into the Eat Me Café feeling like the hounds of hell were on her very tired heels Except she wasn’t wearing heels; she was in fake Uggs

Lucky Harbor tended to roll up its sidewalks after ten o’clock, and tonight was no exception The place was deserted except for a lone customer at the counter, and the waitress behind it The waitress was a friend of Mallory’s Sy body was reminiscent of Xena, the warrior princess This was convenient, since Aeneral Her dark hair was a little tousled as always, her even darker eyes showed amusehting the wind to close the door behind her

"Looking a little spooked," A on the slow shifts again, Nurse Nightingale?"

Mallory drew a deep, shuddery breath and shook off the icy rain the best she could Her day had started a o at the crack of dahen she’d left her house in her usual perpetual rush, without a jacket One incredibly long ER shift and seventeen hours later, she was still in her scrubs with only a thin sweater over the top, everything now sticking to her like a second skin She did not rese "No Stephen," she said "I had to give hi wreckedyour ‘there’s a shadow outsideup squeezing the water out of her hair, Mallory ignored A snicker "And for your information, there really was a man outside otten turned around on his walk around the block"

This was unfortunately true And while Mallory knew that Mr Wykoas a very nice man, he really did look a lot like Jack Nicholson had in The Shining "That could have been a very bad situation"

Amy shook her head as she filled napkin dispensers "You live on Senior Drive Your biggest ‘situation’ is if Dial-A-Ride doesn’t show up in tiht"

Also true Mallory’s tiny ranch house was indeed surrounded by other tiny ranch houses filled with mostly seniors But it wasn’t that bad They were a sweet bunch and always had a coffee cake to share Or a story about a various ailment or two Or two hundred

Mallory had inherited her house froe that she’d nearly had to give up her firstborn for If she’d had a first born But for that she’d like to be ht

Except she’d been du heavy lashed at the s of the diner Mallory couldn’t believe it Snow "Wow, the te," A? I changed my winter tires already"

The lone customer at the counter turned and eyed the view "Crap I don’t have winter tires either" She looked to be in her mid-twenties and spoke with the clipped vowels that said northeast If A, then she was Blonde Barbie’s younger, prettier, far ," she said

As Mallory’s own tires were threadbare, she gnawed on her lower lip and looked out theMaybe if she left iested "It can’t possibly last"

Mallory knew better, but it was her own fault She’d been ignoring the forecast ever since last week, when the weather guy had prootten above fifty, leaving her to spend a very long day frozen in the ER Her niles still hadn’t forgiven her "I don’t have tiht solid hours of sleep