sky the day they laid Colonel Weston Amery to rest. Several people spoke at the service, including Hamilton. Their words gave proof of the incredible man her father had been—not an overly loving dad, but a leader who had selflessly given to his nation.
With full military honors, the ceremony included a flag-draped casket, pallbearers in dress uniform and a highly impressive twenty-one gun salute. As the flag lowered to half-mast, “Taps” played, giving respect for a fallen comrade.
In military fashion, step by step, the pallbearers folded the flag into a neat triangle. Hamilton held Liv’s hand, giving her his support, his love, during the very moving moment when the men knelt before her, their heads bowed.
They handed her the flag. “Our deepest regrets, with the thanks of a grateful nation.”
Warm tears slid down her cheeks, and an invisible fist squeezed her heart. Yes, regret clouded her past. But her future was with Ham. He was her hero, and he was the hero for a vast number of unknown citizens, in America and around the world. They were the people he’d sworn to protect. The people for whom he’d willingly endangered his life.
No finer man existed, and she wouldn’t regret one single second of being his wife, no matter what risks the future brought.
As he’d said, life was always uncertain.
But Hamilton’s love and loyalty weren’t. She had him, she loved him—and that meant she had it all.
BLOWN AWAY
Donna Kauffman
Dear Reader,
Ever since the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz, twisters have fascinated me. As I grew older and learned more about them, I was also fascinated by the men (and women!) who actually go out and chase those monsters. So I was thrilled to finally get to write a story about one of my passions. Cooper Harrison and Marty McKenna have a passions for twister chasing, too. And each other!
It was exciting to take these former lovers and drop them right smack-dab into the middle of a dangerous storm, with twisters coming down right and left. What better way to force them to deal with each other and expose their innermost wants and desires than to trap them in the middle of one of the wild and volatile storms they love to hunt? They might be chasing a storm, but what they want to catch is each other’s heart!
Happy reading,
Donna Kauffman
CHAPTER ONE
M ARTY M C K ENNA was having a very bad day.
“I should never have left the goddamn airport. For that matter, I should have stayed in freaking Kansas.” It wasn’t the first time she’d had that thought since leaving Detroit in the wee hours of the morning, after a storm there had grounded her connecting flight to Cincinnati. She just hoped it wasn’t the last thought she’d ever have.
Teeth gritted, she wrapped both hands on the wheel of her rental car, and fought desperately to keep the little compact on the road. If you could call the dirt and gravel cow path she was on a road. But staying on thatcow path was preferable to landing in the flood-filled ditch that separated the road from the field that ran parallel to it.
The ditch she was rapidly swerving toward.
Fighting the muddy, branch-strewn road and the blown-out tire turned out to be more than Marty or the little compact could handle. Every second felt like a slow-motion movie, and yet barely a blink later her compact had left the road, spewing gravel, before tipping over sideways as it careered off the embankment, down into the gully.
Marty’s seat belt was the only thing that kept her from being flung downward against the passenger side door. She hadn’t struck anything, so her airbag remained intact, but escaping possible facial burns was of little comfort at the moment. The instant her heart slowed down enough so she could hear anything past the thumping beat of it, she heard the slurping, sucking sound of her car sinking into the muck. Muddy water was rushing around either side of her car. The narrow gully was probably nothing more than a
With full military honors, the ceremony included a flag-draped casket, pallbearers in dress uniform and a highly impressive twenty-one gun salute. As the flag lowered to half-mast, “Taps” played, giving respect for a fallen comrade.
In military fashion, step by step, the pallbearers folded the flag into a neat triangle. Hamilton held Liv’s hand, giving her his support, his love, during the very moving moment when the men knelt before her, their heads bowed.
They handed her the flag. “Our deepest regrets, with the thanks of a grateful nation.”
Warm tears slid down her cheeks, and an invisible fist squeezed her heart. Yes, regret clouded her past. But her future was with Ham. He was her hero, and he was the hero for a vast number of unknown citizens, in America and around the world. They were the people he’d sworn to protect. The people for whom he’d willingly endangered his life.
No finer man existed, and she wouldn’t regret one single second of being his wife, no matter what risks the future brought.
As he’d said, life was always uncertain.
But Hamilton’s love and loyalty weren’t. She had him, she loved him—and that meant she had it all.
BLOWN AWAY
Donna Kauffman
Dear Reader,
Ever since the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz, twisters have fascinated me. As I grew older and learned more about them, I was also fascinated by the men (and women!) who actually go out and chase those monsters. So I was thrilled to finally get to write a story about one of my passions. Cooper Harrison and Marty McKenna have a passions for twister chasing, too. And each other!
It was exciting to take these former lovers and drop them right smack-dab into the middle of a dangerous storm, with twisters coming down right and left. What better way to force them to deal with each other and expose their innermost wants and desires than to trap them in the middle of one of the wild and volatile storms they love to hunt? They might be chasing a storm, but what they want to catch is each other’s heart!
Happy reading,
Donna Kauffman
CHAPTER ONE
M ARTY M C K ENNA was having a very bad day.
“I should never have left the goddamn airport. For that matter, I should have stayed in freaking Kansas.” It wasn’t the first time she’d had that thought since leaving Detroit in the wee hours of the morning, after a storm there had grounded her connecting flight to Cincinnati. She just hoped it wasn’t the last thought she’d ever have.
Teeth gritted, she wrapped both hands on the wheel of her rental car, and fought desperately to keep the little compact on the road. If you could call the dirt and gravel cow path she was on a road. But staying on thatcow path was preferable to landing in the flood-filled ditch that separated the road from the field that ran parallel to it.
The ditch she was rapidly swerving toward.
Fighting the muddy, branch-strewn road and the blown-out tire turned out to be more than Marty or the little compact could handle. Every second felt like a slow-motion movie, and yet barely a blink later her compact had left the road, spewing gravel, before tipping over sideways as it careered off the embankment, down into the gully.
Marty’s seat belt was the only thing that kept her from being flung downward against the passenger side door. She hadn’t struck anything, so her airbag remained intact, but escaping possible facial burns was of little comfort at the moment. The instant her heart slowed down enough so she could hear anything past the thumping beat of it, she heard the slurping, sucking sound of her car sinking into the muck. Muddy water was rushing around either side of her car. The narrow gully was probably nothing more than a
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