Dear Reader,

Sometimes, after a gloomy day of relentless rain, suddenly the clouds scuttle away and the sun just bursts through.

It’s that “experience,” that feeling, I was reaching for in this story. My heroine, Erica, deeply loves her husband…yet she sees and feels him pulling away from her, day after day, week after week. She’s losing him. She doesn’t know why, and he either won’t or can’t tell her.

It’s up to her to fight for her man…for that sunburst of love again.

Hope you enjoy the story!

Jennifer Greene

Dressed in a threadbare T-shirt and paint-spattered cutoffs, Erica McCrery blew a strand of strawberry-blond hair from her eyes and rocked back on her heels to survey her project. The oak roll-top desk was an absolutely delicious prize, intricately scrolled and radiating four generations of character…but restoring it was giving her fits. A previous owner had covered the fine oak with a dark mahogany stain, which the customer wanted removed-a job that was not easy.

Finally, she had discovered the right stripping agent, and now she took up the cloth again, her concentration total. The day was still hot; the late afternoon May sun dappling a diamond pattern on the back of her kerchiefed head. Her long legs, coiled under her, were gradually beginning to ache from their cramped position. There was a splotch of stain on her turned-up nose and another on her chin, and her slim hands were covered with it.

“Erica? What’s for dinner?”

“Ice water,” she said absently. “Fresh-baked air and an extremely nutritious casserole of nothing…” She turned to the doorway with an impish grin for her husband.

Kyle chuckled. “You know I hate leftovers.” Leaning against the doorway with one arm, he used the other to wipe a thin film of perspiration from his forehead. Then, hands on hips, he surveyed first Erica and then her project, with suddenly narrowed eyes. His smile abruptly faded. “What have you taken on now, lady?”