Free Summer Rain (Lightning Strikes Book 3) by Barbara Freethy Page B

for justice and truth-telling. You just do it through your writing. How did you get into journalism?"
    "I studied it in college. When I left school, I got some reporting and editing jobs at various papers and online magazines, and I even worked in TV news for a while, but I really enjoy writing. Some stories just can't be told in an article or a sound bite. You need more pages."
    "Will you stick with books now?"
    "I'll mix it up depending on the topic. Fortunately, with the success of the book and the movie option, I have some time to work on things I really want to work on."
    "Lucky guy."
    He glanced over at her, curious to know more about her. "What about you, Dani? Do you take after your mother or your father?"
    "Not my dad. I probably have some of my mother in me, although I hate to admit that, because she can drive me crazy. I love her, but she can be very critical."
    "You mentioned siblings earlier…"
    "Yes. I have an older brother Jake and a younger sister Alicia. I'm the middle child."
    "Ah, so that's why you try harder," he said with a laugh.
    She smiled, and he liked seeing the humor in her eyes, the more relaxed gleam in her eyes. It was a nice change from her constant wariness.
    "It's probably part of it," she admitted. "I've always wanted to stand out."
    "You definitely don't fade into the woodwork," he said, his gut clenching again as her pretty green eyes met his.
    Something passed between them, that inexplicable acknowledgement of attraction. Then Dani looked away, turning her gaze on the passing scenery.
    He felt a sense of loss…which was odd and unnerving, and he couldn’t help wanting to get her attention back, so he launched into conversation again. "What was your dad like?"
    "He was…a lot of things," she said vaguely.
    "Like…" he pressed.
    She turned her gaze back to him. "He was a pilot. He started out in the Navy. Then he flew private planes." Her eyes turned reflective and a little sad. "He was a bigger-than-life kind of man. Everyone in Corpus Christi knew him. Some thought he was nuts, especially in the last year before his death."
    "Why? What happened then?"
    "He claimed that he saw things in the sky—lightning bolts and dancing sprites and stuff like that. And he was obsessed with storms, especially electrical storms. Some of his family members were of Mayan descent. They lived in the Southern Yucatan in Mexico. He spent some time there as a child, and he was raised with some of their beliefs."
    "That's interesting."
    "My dad was caught between science and magic, because the paternal side of his family was made up of a lot of Texas engineers. So combine that with Mayan magic, and…well, I don't know what you get…but that's my family."
    "What exactly do you mean by magic?"
    "They don't call it that, but my great-grandmother, who we called Mamich, believed in layers within the universe. She thought there were different realms between the living and the dead. And there's some sort of spiritual journey that souls take after they die. That's why they built so many pyramids and underground caves that would take the souls on the next part of their journey."
    "It sounds like you know a lot about it."
    She shook her head in denial. "No. We're quickly coming to the end of what I know, but it will put into context why my dad talked about lightning so much. In the Mayan culture, lightning is a god. It has supernatural power. According to my great-grandmother, lightning shows you what you need to see. It's silly, I know. But you asked."
    "I wouldn't say it's silly. Who am I to question someone's beliefs? The truth is that none of us really knows the story of the universe or what happens after death."
    "That's true. Anyway, in the last year of his life, my father became obsessed with lightning. Every time he flew, he seemed to come back with a new story. And he wouldn't just tell the family; he'd talk about it all over town. The locals began to call him lightning man . He became a joke. My mother