Free Blaze of Winter: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance by Elisabeth Barrett

housing. She’d relapsed and overdosed, and Avery had no idea why. After her mother’s death, the little girl was permanently placed with her father, whom Avery suspected of domestic abuse. Luckily, Faith had a good relationship with her grandmother, who’d taken her to the meeting, but Avery couldn’t even look at the child without seeing her own failure. Not a day went by when she didn’t think about Mia and Faith, and how she could have done things differently.
    Avery hated to admit it, but she wasn’t half as good at compartmentalizing her emotions as she’d like to be. If she cared about someone, she couldn’t help but be fully invested in that person. It was in her nature. Ironically, it was probably why she’d chosen her current profession. But it also meant that it all came crashing down when bad things happened to the people she cared about.
    Hoping to make herself feel better, Avery went to get a cup of hot chocolate from the kitchen. But even her favorite drink couldn’t help her get rid of the sickening feeling of loss in the pit of her stomach.

    “Heya, Theo,” a warm voice spoke. Theo didn’t need to look up to see who it was. Shutting his book—a tome on eighteenth-century piracy he’d borrowed from the Star Harbor Historical Society—he lifted his head to smile at Lexie, who was standing behind the counter at the LMK.
    “Hi. What’s up, Lexie?”
    The small woman leaned her elbows on the counter. “You give new meaning to the phrase ‘lost in a book,’ you know that? Anyway, I hate to interrupt you, but it’s almost closing time.”
    Theo glanced at his watch. “Wow. Eight-thirty already? I had some pie at what, three o’clock?” He looked around at the almost empty dining room. “The kitchen’s closed for dinner orders, isn’t it?”
    “Yes, but you know what the best thing about me marrying Seb is?” she asked.
    “Other than the fact that you’re going to make him insanely happy?”
    “You’ll be family. And that’s a good thing, because being a family member has its privileges.” She held up a pan and grinned. “Another slice of apple pie before I close up?”
    Theo grinned back. “You know it.”
    As he tucked into his slice, he couldn’t help but think how lucky Seb was to have found his match. Lexie was Seb’s equal in every way, and a good woman, to boot. Theo himself was thrilled that he now had not one, but two people to make him delicious food. He couldn’t cook worth a damn, a source of much embarrassment considering that all of his brothers could cook and Seb was a celebrity chef. In San Francisco, Theo had pretty much subsisted on takeout and the kindness of friends.
    With a mouthful of ambrosial pie, he realized how easy life was here in Star Harbor. Family, friends, food, and now, inspiration in the form of the delectable Avery Newbridge. It was enough to make him consider staying in his hometown, if not forever, than at least for the immediate future. Though he couldn’t deny the charms of California, to his mind, winter in Star Harbor beat summer in San Francisco any day. Both were freezing, but at least Star Harbor got snow, a plus in Theo’s eyes. He hadn’t been lying to Avery when he told her that winter agreed with him. He loved the season. It was the best time of year to get good writing done, too. Nothing to do but hunker down and search inside himself.
    At least, that’s how it had been until he came up against that brick wall. But he was finally regaining some momentum. He could feel it.
    Theo could see now that his privileged life in San Francisco had made him much more focused on people’s accomplishments than on who they really were inside. It never used to be that way. Not here in Star Harbor.
    But every moment he spent in town—and in the company of a certain flame-haired woman—he was forced to reexamine everything he thought he knew. It was more than the emotional connection he was starting to build with her; it was the raw need