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was what they needed. Some uninterrupted time together, just the two of them, doing ordinary things.
    And, though she hated to admit it, even to herself, she wanted to see Jim too. She missed him. Missed the sound of his deep voice, missed the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed. She missed the all’s-right-with-the-world feeling she used to have when he took her hand in his. There had been many sleepless nights over the past months, and Cassie had yearned to reach out and find him in the bed beside her, ached to feel the warmth of his strong arms wrapped around her in the dark.
    The cruel things they had said to each other at the end were fading in memory, replaced with flashbacks to the happy times they’d shared. She’d first spotted him in that Advanced Shakespeare class back at Georgetown, the earnest expression on his handsome face as he listened intently to the professor expound on
Romeo and Juliet
. She’d watched as he took notes and raised his hand to enter the discussion. His comments impressed her. The next week Cassie casually took a seat near his. By the end of the spring semester, they were inseparable.
    Oh, what a spring that was. Falling in love in Washington as pink cherry blossoms popped around the tranquil Tidal Basin, as balmy breezes caressed their faces and ruffled their hair on their long walks together. The hours they’d spent talking over cups of coffee, the alleged study dates that had turned instead into make-out sessions behind the library stacks.
    Cassie treasured those sweet memories, and the ones that came after. The cramped apartment with its futon and old theatrical posters dotting the walls. The fun they’d had going to tag sales and used-book shops, trying to save money. Their budget might have been tight on Jim’s initial teaching salary and Cassie’s paltry income from her first job as a desk assistant at
The Washington Post
, but they’d felt confident about their future. Back then, it had all stretched before them.
    From the newspaper Cassie had gone on to a researching job at KEY News, which led to an associate producer’s spot. The fact that she was talented and bright was complemented by the fact that she was also very pretty. Within a few years she was doing on-air pieces for the weekend news broadcasts.
    The joy of finding she was pregnant was tempered by worries about what it would do to her career. Yet her heart had felt as though it would burst through her chest at the sight of Hannah’s damp head in the hospital delivery room. Yes, she had been torn about going back to work after her too-short, six-week maternity leave. But Cassie could also not deny the large part of herself that was hooked on the television news business, enjoyed the office and the stimulation and camaraderie she felt there.
    It had been a fine, but flawed, balancing act, juggling the demands of family and career. She should have seen it coming, should have known that something had to give.
Please, please, please
, she thought.
I’ve paid my dues. Paid them over and over and over again. Please, no cancellations this time. Don’t let this thing turn into a hurricane
.

CHAPTER 5
    A cupful of coffee from 7-Eleven in his hand, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Gregg let himself into the small office in the pavilion on Siesta Public Beach. The start of another hot day in what promised to be another hot week.
    In his late twenties, good-looking and solidly built, the young officer was very pleased with the career path he had chosen. His job as one of the ten sheriff’s deputies assigned to Siesta Key offered Gregg a somewhat flexible schedule, a variety of experiences, and for the most part, a feeling of satisfaction every day. At the end of a shift, he always had an answer when Colleen asked him what had happened at work. A shoplifter caught in Siesta Village, a traffic accident at the approach to the causeway, a child temporarily lost on the beach.
    Danny liked that he had