The second book in the Ty and Hunter series, 2007

MOLLY GIFFORD PACKED the last of her suitcases and boxes into the trunk and slammed it shut tight. Another door closing, she thought. Her life here in Hawken’s Cove was over. Finished. Time to move on. She spared a last glance at the house she’d lived in for the last year, a year she’d spent grasping for that elusive thing called family that was always just out of reach.

She should have known better. Shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up that this time would be different. That her mother would marry, settle down and make a family that included Molly instead of excluding her. And at the ripe old age of twenty-seven, Molly should be way past caring. But she wasn’t. She was still the kid shuffled from boarding school to boarding school, the quality of which depended on the size of her mother’s current husband’s checkbook. Her real father wasn’t good for more than a couple of cards a year, her birthday and the punch-in-the-gut Christmas card with the photo of his family.

Just a week ago, her mother had broken her engagement, then dumped her suddenly broke, scandal-ridden fiancé and taken off for Europe with barely a goodbye to her daughter. Molly finally got it. She was on her own and always would be. So she was leaving in search of herself and a life that didn’t include unrequited hopes and expectations weighing her down.

“Molly? Molly, wait.” The voice of her landlady, make that ex-landlady, Anna Marie Costanza, called for Molly’s attention.

“Don’t worry, I was going to say goodbye,” Molly assured the older woman and headed up the driveway to meet her.

“Well, of course you were.” Anna Marie’s faith in Molly was unwavering.