Out Of The Blue

Better yet, give him all of the above.

But he had to get there first, to Avila, before the exhaustion claimed him.

Ten years ago he’d left that town as the wild rebel. Today he was going home, still a rebel at heart, but now he was a cop as well.

He’d never thought it would happen, but after so long, he was really going back.

Home.

More figuratively than literally, since his childhood house no longer belonged in the family. It’d been sold long ago, his elderly parents having retired to Arizona. But in his mind, the popular beach town of Avila would always be the place to come home to. The place of sun and surf, fun and laughter.

God, he was exhausted, his body aching, and in the tight confines of his Jeep he stretched his travel-weary limbs the best he could. Every inch of him protested the four-hour drive north.

No doubt, working undercover all year, tracking a drug ring in the armpits of Los Angeles, had been tough on his body.

So had getting shot.

But thankfully he was healing, more and more every day, and the case was over. Bad guys in jail, lawyers’ pockets full, and his Chief one very happy man.

Off to his left, the Pacific Ocean sparkled a deep jade as the sun touched the horizon. With all the windows down, he could smell the salt air, could almost hear each individual wave as it hit the shore.

Home, he thought again with a rueful smile. Once upon a time, he hadn’t been able to get out of the small, sleepy town fast enough. There hadn’t been enough excitement and thrills to be had, but for now, while he was healing, slow and lazy was exactly the speed he craved.

Maybe after he’d slept for a few days he’d test his still-sore side and go surfing, something he hadn’t done in years.

One thing he didn’t have to do was work, not for one more week, when his leave time would be up. He’d already had nearly two months off, but he could drag it out even longer if he needed; everyone would understand. Being shot took a lot out of a cop.

But Zach loved his work, and wanted to get back to it. It was his life. His only life, he admitted ruefully, given the hours and energy he put into it. Besides, the wild, hustling, packed L.A. still gave him a rush.

At the moment though, even his bones hurt, and he had to wonder if he’d really be ready to go back so soon. A ruptured liver and two shattered ribs were harder to get over than he’d even imagined.

Maybe he was just tired. In fact, his eyes were so gritty he could hardly see, and just concentrating on driving was almost more than he could handle. All he wanted right now was a good meal and a bed.

Actually, skip the food, he’d head straight for the sheets, with or without the warm female body.

The Norfolk Woods Inn sign finally came into view, just seconds before the quaint, character-ridden old lodge did. At the sight, a burst of pride went through Zach for what his baby sister and her friends had created. The log cabin itself was beautiful, warm and inviting and cozy—the very thing he’d run from so many years ago.

Alexi. He missed her. They visited too infrequently, and only when she made the trip to Los Angeles around his work schedule. It’d be good to see her. She’d give him a room and let him sleep around the clock, the entire week if he felt like it. He could contemplate the cosmos, catch up on television.

Hell, he could watch the grass grow.

After the life he’d led for the past year, it sounded decadent. Slow. Leisurely. That it was the opposite of everything he’d ever wanted didn’t escape him, but for now it was perfect.

As he pulled up, half dead on his feet, he realized that things were not going to go quite as planned.

The No Vacancy sign was lit.

CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_624bd27c-9718-55ee-88d5-9e4db6b9951e)

BUSINESS AMONG FRIENDS was rumored to be a bad idea. Before today, Hannah Novak would have denied this, but now, in her third attempt to bring order to a very important goal-setting meeting, she had to wonder. “Come on, guys. Let’s do this.”

Alexi, her best friend and business partner, nodded and bit back her laughter. “You’re right, let’s get serious.”

“Only if we have to.” Tara, second-best friend and also business partner, sighed dramatically.

“We have to.” Hannah was their voice of reason. She had been since childhood. She couldn’t help herself. She liked order, liked a good plan. She had one for every aspect of her life...well, except for the romantic part.

Much to her private vexation, she’d failed miserably there.

“Okay, then.” Alexi sent her an innocent smile, which should have immediately raised Hannah’s suspicions. “The goal for this summer is to lose our single status.” Grinning, she held her pen poised above the pad balanced on her knees. “Correct?”

Tara laughed. “Oh, definitely correct.”

Hannah groaned. Lose her single status? In twenty-four years she hadn’t managed to lose so much as her virginity. “No. This is not our goal—”

“At least get one really good date,” Tara decided. “With a rich guy. Yeah, now there would be a nice change.”

“I’d settle for him being employed,” Alexi muttered.

Hannah would settle for having any other conversation. She loved her friends, loved them as if they were sisters, but she didn’t want to talk about her pathetic lack of dates. “Hey, what happened to our business goals? You remember, the Norfolk Woods Inn? The lodge we run?” It was their pride and joy. It’d been their dream ever since Tara had inherited it right out of high school. “We’re going to maybe add on a room, buy new dishes for the kitchen, give the staff a raise...that sort of thing?”

“Nah, catching a man is far more important.” Tara fluffed her perfectly sculptured chin-length blond hair. “Three of them to be exact, one for each of us.”

“Absolutely.” Alexi shoved her own darker, longer, unruly curls out of her eyes and grinned, reminding Hannah that she wasn’t nicknamed Rebel Junior—her brother was the original rebel—for nothing. “Men. Pronto.”

Hannah tried again, because honestly, catching a man was completely out of her realm of expertise, and they really needed to have this business meeting. “Look, the lodge is completely full, more than full, and we only have a little while here. We really need to—”

“I know. I know,” Tara said mournfully. “It’s just that I’m in the mood for a good romance, that’s all.” If Alexi was the rebel, then the willowy and elegant Tara was easily the sophisticate of the group.

Which left the goody two-shoes position for herself, and Hannah filled it all too well. “No thanks on the romance. It’s too...complicated.”

The understatement of the year.

“Complicated, yes. But lots of fun.” Alexi looked to Tara for support. “Right?”

Wrong.

For Hannah, romance was too much work to be anything other than agonizing. From the beginning she’d been hopeless at it. Maybe it had been her home life, so different from all her mostly upper-class fellow students. Maybe it had been her own shyness. Whatever the reason, it had started in sixth grade, when she first became truly aware of boys. Fool that she was, she’d fallen hard for Alexi’s older brother, Zach, and it had been nothing but humiliating because he thought she was the dreaded “cute.”

No boy her age had compared to him, but she’d given it a try. In seventh grade she’d nearly drowned Eddie Bachman in the pool during swimming class because he’d tried to kiss her and she’d panicked.

In eighth grade she’d given Peter Horn a black eye when she accidentally fell on him as he tried to maneuver her beneath the mistletoe during a Christmas dance.

By the time she’d wanted a boy to make a move on her, she’d garnered the reputation of hurting any male unfortunate enough to give her a second glance.

The bad rap had stuck.

She’d had dates since then, but exactly one per guy. Just enough to warn them their life was in dire danger if they dared ask her out a second time.