1 Chapter 1

The storm had come on suddenly.

Jordan Freidman hadn’t really expected it. Maybe he should have. Weathermen had been predicting rain for days, but Haydon Cliff never got a lot of rain. And nine times out of ten, the weathermen were wrong.

Sure, it was February, which was as likely as any month during the winter season to get rain, but it had been a dry year, with the area not even coming close to average rainfall.

It hadn’t even been cloudy. Okay, a little cloudy. But a sky not covered by them or anything.

So when he headed to the beach house, Jordan figured he was safe.

He’d been tinkering around in what used to be the living room. Would be again someday if he got the work done on it.

The front window that overlooked the ocean was loose. The whole frame would have to be replaced. Smudged, stained, cracked glass and all. Everything.

Jordan had been able to get the house for not much more than a song. Weird saying, actually. With the roof leaking in several spots and it needing a lotof work, most of his family and friends thought he was a moron for spending thatmuch on it.

But it had been Jordan’s lifelong dream to have a house on the beach and he would never be able to afford a place in Malibu or even Sutter’s Bay.

Haydon Cliff it was.

The old beach house had been built in 1925 by a fisherman who’d decided Haydon Cliff was the perfect place to retire. The dude had lived there for the next twenty years, dying there in the very living room where Jordan stood, in 1946. It had been unoccupied for the next four years until in 1950 a young couple bought it and renovated it.

That young couple lived there for about ten years, before, after having four children, it became too small for their ever-growing family. Over the next several years, the place had had several owners and numerous renovations until its most recent abandonment five years before Jordan had decided to purchase it. During those five unoccupied years, the weather and squatters had not been kind.

Still, Jordan had come to love the place, and spent much of his time—when he wasn’t actually doing the job that paid him—working on fixing it up.

He’d been standing by the loose window when the rain started. He could see it falling out the cracked old window.

“Damn it,” Jordan said aloud.

Now he wished he’d already gotten the roof fixed. On top of everything else, he was going to have water damage. Or at the very least, be covered in it.

On the floor of the living room in the corner lay bags of big plastic tarps he had bought, but had never put up. Maybe if he got them up now, the damage could be mitigated.

He put on his light jacket, then picked up several of the tarps.

Outside, the wind had picked up something fierce and chopped the rain at him from the side. Of course, it had decided to pour the moment he went outside to where he’d left the ladder.

Still, if he didn’t get the tarps up over the holes in the roof, things would be worse. So rain or not, he trudged up the ladder, toting the tarps.

He lost track of time, really, as he worked, uncomfortably aware he was getting soaked through, and if he didn’t get them all in the right spots and fairly quickly, the water damage would be daunting.

Normally, Jordan would have no objection to the rain. He even liked it, sort of, because it helped things grow, and it was so rare in Haydon Cliff. And yeah, he should have planned better and put the tarps over the roof before the predicted storm.

“Jordan.”

For a moment, he looked at the sky. Expecting what? God? But of course, all that looking up got him was water in the face. He looked toward the ground and saw Lexy Wanderer standing there, holding several large reusable grocery bags.

Jordan couldn’t keep the smile from lighting his face at the sight of his newish boyfriend. Lexy was dressed in a bright yellow parka, hooded of course, pulled low over his face to protect his glasses, no doubt. And rain galoshes, also yellow.

“Hey, babe.”

Lexy, however, was not smiling. Or Jordan didn’t think he was. It was hard to tell from up on the roof and in the…dark. What the hell? When had twilight come?

“Do you know what time it is?” Lexy demanded.

“Uh. No?”

Lexy sighed. “It’s almost five. Our reservation is at five-forty-five. Something tells me you aren’t going to be ready in time.”

Jordan frowned. “Reservation?”

“OMG.” Yeah, Lexy talked like the young guy he was. Something Jordan had been getting used to. “Valentine’s Day. Dinner at Rodolfo’s. Do you know how long it took to get that reservation?”

He winced. He had forgotten. He kind of thought Valentine’s Day was stupid. Invented by card and candy companies. But he did remember now that Lexy had wanted to make a big deal of it. And he’d agreed. Apparently.