But of course, it wasn’t. Holly couldn’t believe how nervous she was as she waited for Kris to arrive. Since the morning she’d seen him sitting in the store’s Santa chair, he’d been in her thoughts. If she wasn’t watching him between customers, she was thinking of him when she came home and saw a...
Without asking, Sam drove to the same place they’d dined on their first date.He liked the place because it sat on a low hill, right next to the foamy wash of the ocean and because it reminded him of happier times with Christie. The boardwalk passed its front door and beachgoers mingled with diner...
He’d scrubbed the blood and gore away once, twice, a dozen times, but still he felt it. Warm and sticky. A blanket of shame; a cape of pleasure. He’d liked the killing, the violence, the dirty mess of it. No amount of soap and water could wash that away. When he finally gave up, shut off the wate...
At least that’s how it felt, driving through the flooded streets to her grandmother’s house. Or perhaps the storm was inside Gracie, swamping her hopes and dreams for her daughter, dredging the past from the valleys of her mind, and floating it to the surface. In the backseat, squished in with th...
As he moved toward the line of cabs, he heard his name and for a brief instant thought his dream-woman might be calling him; then he recognized the voice, but not from his dreams. He hesitated, briefly toying with the idea of pretending he hadn’t heard. Of jumping in the first cab and racing away...
Carly thought it a bad sign in a day that had been filled with them. The storm had started an hour after she left Phoenix behind and with each mile it became fiercer, more determined to make the simple three hour drive from Phoenix a harrowing passage. When she’d left her apartment, it had been ...
"Don't doubt that for a minute. Before, he didn't know how things were between you and me, Molly. He does now. He'll respect it." "How can you be sure?" "I'm his big brother," he said simply. "You've got to trust me on this. You have to. Please, trust me." Though deep inside a frightened voice wa...