A Home by the Sea

A Home by the Sea
Christina Skye

Sometimes appearances aren't what they seem…Grace Lindstrom has followed her fiancé across three continents, starry-eyed in love and full of hope. But when Grace realizes the life she's been living is nothing but a lie, she returns home to Summer Island, the sleepy town where she grew up, to put the pieces of her life back together.By day, she perfects rare chocolate recipes for a new book. By night, she helps her father at his veterinary clinic—until the moment Sam Walker comes into her life. Just home from duty in Afghanistan, Sam has too much baggage of his own to deal with a heartbroken chef. But when a violent storm traps them together for a night, he learns there's more to Grace than he imagined—and suddenly, she's all that matters…."Complex and multi-faceted…Skye has written one finely crafted, very romantic love story." —Publishers Weekly on Bride of the Mist

Author’s Note

Thank you for joining Grace and Noah on their journey. I hope that Summer Island’s magic has touched you as it has touched me. In its fog-swept coves and quiet streets friendship runs deep, and the love of a good yarn runs even deeper.

For a detailed look at the inspiration for Jilly’s amazing desserts, try Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City’s Best Pastry Shops. Even if you don’t cook, the book will seduce you. You can almost taste the macaroons and madeleines melting on your tongue. Grace would definitely approve.

To learn more about the arduous responsibilities of a bomb disposal expert, look for Bomb Squad: A Year Inside the Nation’s Most Exclusive Police Unit. Richard Esposito and Ted Gerstein offer an unforgettable glimpse into this small, select world.

I hope you will watch for more Summer Island books coming soon. One by one old friends will be pulled back home. And, as seasons change, each one will face secrets and betrayals—along with the healing gift of love.

With warmest wishes,

Christina

Also available from

Christina Skye

Summer Island

THE KNITTING DIARIES

Code Name

CODE NAME: BIKINI

CODE NAME: BLONDIE

CODE NAME: BABY

Draycott Abbey

TO CATCH A THIEF

DRAYCOTT ETERNAL

DRAYCOTT EVERLASTING

BOUND BY DREAMS

And coming soon

THE ACCIDENTAL BRIDE

A Home by the Sea

Christina Skye

www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)

To my wonderful editors,

Tara Parsons and Tracy Martin.

Thank you for helping me bring Summer Island to life.

And to Debbie Macomber.

Thank you for all your suggestions,

wit, kindness and generosity.

CHAPTER ONE

NOAH MCLEOD TOOK A DEEP BREATH. Wind gusted up the street, stabbing at his face. He hunched his shoulders, facing the icy gale. The cold air was actually a relief after the horrible day he’d just had.

It always took time to shrug off the work. You didn’t forget, but at least you managed to move on. If bad dreams and explosions haunted your sleep, then you shrugged those off, too.

Slowly Noah flipped up the collar of his leather coat. He focused on the cold, slipping into the moment and letting the hard edge of duty and responsibility fade, repeating the rule he had learned years before.

You have to move on. If you can’t leave the work behind, it will drive you over the edge and one day you’ll snap.

Noah had seen it happen too often. In a job where you fought mayhem and horror on a daily basis, balance was everything. He tried to remember that rule now.

After the savage day he’d just finished, he was entitled to bury his work deep and forget about responsibility. He’d been fielding emergency calls every night for a month now, and emergency calls came to his department for just one reason.

Because everyone else had failed.

His department was the place you called when you could smell the bitter edge of your own fear. You called Noah’s unit when you had an improvised explosive device or a nasty set of wires shoved into what could be a brick of Semtex. Noah was the man who always knew which wires to pull and when to back away.

Far, far away.

But tonight had been too close. He had nearly become a splatter on a concrete wall, thanks to a close encounter with a new device no one in D.C. had ever seen before. For thirty mind-blurring seconds he had looked death right between the eyes. Then he’d remembered seeing something similar in Afghanistan seven months earlier. Once Noah had seen the interior wiring, he’d made the connection. But it had been a close call.

He closed his eyes, feeling the wind pick up, rattling the windows behind him. The building where he worked was surrounded by high fences and concrete walls. For security reasons, there was no sign or business name posted. The black trucks parked outside didn’t have government plates. As far as outsiders could tell, they belonged to a civilian waste-disposal company.

But the disposal Noah did was far more dangerous.

A weight dug into his shoulders as he looked up at the top window of his lab. Inside that secure room, computers were updated nightly with data about every new model of explosive device made anywhere in the world. Each morning his team pored over that data and integrated the knowledge into their disposal procedures. No detail was ignored. His team trained hard, and Noah was proud that they were the best—and that they still had their lives to prove it.

His brother hadn’t been so lucky.

Frowning, Noah ran a hand through his dark hair.

You can’t go back. Matt is gone. The remote car bomb that took him is a footnote in your government training manuals now, and you all learned from it. But Matt didn’t have the resources you have.