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  Callder nodded proudly. “No problem. Mrs. ’Brose. So maybe, next time I knock on your door, you’ll let me go up to your daughter’s bedroom and hang out with her. I promise we’ll just be watching movies. Really loud movies.”

  Brynne sighed and placed a hand against her face to hide her embarrassment.

  “Sorry, my friends,” Mr. Ambrose said with a frown. “I must have missed something crucial while incarcerated. Is this man my daughter’s boyfriend?”

  “Oh, that can’t be true,” Mrs. Ambrose said in dismay. “She would never…”

  “Yes,” Brynne answered, feeling compelled to be decisive about the matter. “I’m with Callder.”

  Callder turned to her with surprise and pleasure on his face. He slipped an arm around her back and squeezed her waist in gladness.

  “Well, I couldn’t be happier to hear that!” Trevain said, hooking his thumbs in his belt buckles with a satisfied nod. “My brother has never had a girlfriend before.”

  “Brynne…” Mr. Ambrose began with concern.

  “He saved you, Daddy,” Brynne said, moving forward to clasp her father’s hands. “He helped me get home. He got his brother to bail you out. He’s a good person; he’s good to me.”

  Mr. Ambrose nodded, frowning ever-so-slightly. “Thank you for what you did for me, son. I promise that I won’t forget it.”

  “While it’s fresh in your memory, sir,” Caller said cautiously, “can I please have your permission to fly Brynne down to Vegas with me so we can get married in this adorable little chapel near my favorite casino…”

  “What?!” Brynne barked in horror.

  “No,” Mr. Ambrose said firmly. “I’m not that grateful.”

  Everyone around the room chuckled lightly.

  * * *

  Brynne sat by herself in her bedroom, petting her cat. “I missed you, Tara,” she told the little fluffy white feline. The deep, satisfied purring of the beast rumbled through its tiny body. She could not help remembering the words that Trevain had said to her in private.

  “I think you’re good for him.” The man had looked at Brynne thoughtfully. “Many people don’t understand Callder. He’s a bright boy, with a good soul, but he’s had a rough life.”

  She had smiled in response. “I think I’m starting to understand him. He’s a bit too playful sometimes, but he always means well.”

  “He really does,” Trevain had insisted. “He needs something—someone to keep him grounded. He doesn’t have many friends—for someone so sociable, you’d be surprised if you knew how isolated he really was. He just acts out, acts crazy, and immerses himself with the wrong people in an effort to kill the silence. He really hates being alone.” Clearing his throat, the sea captain had implored her passionately: “Please don’t break his heart, Brynne. Just try to exercise a little tolerance with his careless ways—just be patient with him. He really can’t stand to be hurt any more than he already has been.”

  Brynne had nodded and promised. Now, as she sat alone in her room, she wondered where her life would take her. She wondered if she would be able to keep those promises. She knew that she was at the cusp of some great change, and that she wanted to do something brave and drastic. She wanted to find a new and exciting career based in her home state, and close to the people she loved—but she also wanted to travel wildly. She considered joining the Coast Guard, or the Navy, or perhaps settling down as a fisherman, like her father and his father before him. Like the Murphy brothers.

  She knew that she owed an immense debt to the people that had shown such kindness to her family. In sticking their necks out for her during this low moment, they had established themselves as more than friends, more than neighbors, and more than regular customers. Callder and Trevain Murphy were now family, and Brynne would always consider them to be so. She hoped that she could someday pull her own weight and give something back to these men, something even a fraction as valuable as what they had given her.

  In the past few days, she had learned a valuable lesson about herself, and her identity. There was no shame in being a fisherman’s daughter. It was as proud a profession as any, with many noble men at the helm of those worthy vessels.

  The sound of a pebble hitting her window distracted her from her thoughts. Leaving her cat on the bed, she bolted to the window and shoved it open, a smile spreading over her face at the sight below.

  Callder was sitting below her window on a black Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He held up a helmet to her with a large grin.

  “He said I had to return the Ferrari, but he didn’t say I couldn’t get a new toy!” Callder declared triumphantly.

  Brynne released a sigh of mock exasperation.

  “Let’s get out of here!” he shouted up at her window. “While it’s still high summer, and the sunshine never ends. Let’s go camping like we used to when we were kids.”

  “Calzone, you’re officially insane,” she told him with a smile, but she was already climbing down her drainpipe to grab the helmet from his hands.

  “I want to go camping in the woods, somewhere far away from civilization,” Callder told her. “I want to swim in a clear blue lake, and make love to you on the beach all night, under the warm sunshine. Does that sound like a good plan?”

  Buckling up her helmet, she straddled the bike and slipped her arms around his waist. Her lips curled into a smirk underneath her visor.

  “I guess I can clear my schedule.”

  Thank you for reading this novella by Nadia Scrieva! To read more books about Brynne and Callder and their families, check out the Sacred Breath Series.

  Nadia also writes as Loretta Lost.

  The first book in her Clarity series is available for free on all retailers: