An unexpected surge of anger rose up in her, and she blurted, “So it’s like a trade? You take my virginity and fifteen years later you fix my house as repayment?”

He went pale, and she could tell by his pained expression that she’d hit him where it hurt.

Good.

She wasn’t finished.

Screw Kinsei’s advice. She was pretty sure telling Ryan Quinn to go to hell was exactly what her soul needed to heal from the past.

“That’s right, asshole! I was a virgin. Did you even know that? Would you even have cared? I gave you my virginity, and you repaid me by treating me like I didn’t exist for the rest of the school year.”

“Lorelei, I’m really, really sorry. I deserve whatever you’d like to say to me.”

She knew she was supposed to be gracious in the face of his heartfelt apology, but did he really think he could show up here fifteen years later with a sad little bouquet of flowers and a chagrined look and make all her pain go away?

She’d never felt so angry in her life. It was as if all her teenage angst was welling up again, only this time, she was strong enough to do something about it.

She thought of Kinsei again. He’d never steered her wrong. She was suddenly sure of what she wanted to do. She’d let him make amends, if that’s what he wanted to call it-he could amend his way right into her bed and relieve all the sexual tension that had been building up in the months since she’d last gotten laid, and then she’d drop him like a hot potato, and this time let him sit around wondering what the hell had gone wrong.

Some little adolescent voice that dwelled deep in her heart let out a victorious battle cry at that thought.

“Wow,” she said. “This is certainly an unexpected turn of events. I never thought getting stuck on the roof would lead to this…”

“I know an apology and a bouquet of daisies can’t begin to make up for what I did to you, but-”

“I appreciate the gesture,” she forced herself to say without sarcasm. “And…what the hell. I’d be happy for you to help me with the house repairs, if it would make you feel like we’re, um, even.”

“Thank you,” he said, nodding solemnly. “I’d love to help.”

“Why don’t you stay and have some coffee with me, tell me what you’ve been up to all these years, and I can tell you what needs to be done to the house.”

He smiled. “I’d like that a lot.”

Lorelei led him into the kitchen, where a pot of coffee had just finished brewing. At least the gas stove was still working, even if the electricity wasn’t. With its own fireplace that she’d gotten going as soon as she’d woken up, the kitchen was the warmest room in the house.

On the far side of the room, her pet rabbits, Thor and Lucia, were huddled together, taking in the warmth of the stove from a safe distance. They had free rein of the house, since they were litter-box trained, but they tended to like staying in the kitchen near their food.

“Have a seat,” she said, nodding to the table. “Have you had any breakfast yet?”

“Actually, no. I came straight from the end of my night shift, to the flower shop, to here. I wasn’t planning to, but…” He paused awkwardly, as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he should. “But I really don’t want to trouble you.”

Lorelei ignored him as she put the daisies in water then started pulling out ingredients to make a breakfast frittata with mushrooms, peppers and cheese. She’d never been good at this small-talk stuff. She much preferred getting to the heart of matters. It made her bedside manner alternately loved and hated, depending on the patient.

“Hey, you have rabbits.”

“Meet the new king and queen of the household. Thor is the brown one with the ever-disdainful expression, and Lucia is the white one.”

“You just got them after you moved in?”

“Yep, from the local bunny rescue place.”

He crossed the room, knelt down and attempted to pet the rabbits, who studiously ignored him until he came too close, and then they fled into the imaginary safety of their litter box.

“They don’t like strangers. Ignore them and they’ll come check you out in their own sweet time.”

He smiled and sat down at the table again. “I always thought you’d become a veterinarian.”

“I thought about it, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a doctor. I still love animals as much as I did as a kid, though.”

“I always liked that about you. Didn’t you have a python or something in high school?”

“Yep, and a couple of lizards, and the rats, of course, and a scorpion and…”

“You must have driven your parents crazy.”

“They made me find new homes for most of the animals when I left for college. It was devastating.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel. I had a dog until last year when she died of old age. It’s like losing your best friend.”

Lorelei went silent as she found all the ingredients she needed, thinking of the animals she still missed. The rabbits were a good fresh start though. She loved their bratty little personalities, and they kept her company in this drafty old house, their presence a constant fuzzy reminder to be Zen about all things.

“Want to hear something totally crazy?” Ryan said as she began shredding parmesan cheese with a grater.

“How could I not?”

“When I picked up those flowers for you at the flower shop in Santa Rey? There was this Christmas tree with little cards all over it, and a sign that said if you buy a card, the proceeds would go to charity.”

“Oh, yeah, I think I heard about that on the radio the other day.”

“So I bought one of the cards, and…this is going to sound really weird, but…I think you’ll understand why I felt like I had to come here right now and apologize when you hear this. And I swear, I didn’t know what was on the card before I bought it.”

“What was it?”

“It’s a gift certificate to Linden Rock Hot Springs.”

Kinsei’s face appeared in her mind. That sneaky little man…She might be a doctor with a scientifically trained mind, but the medicine man had taught her to believe in the inexplicable.

In a soap opera, this would be the part where Lorelei would halt the cheese grating and turn slowly to stare at Ryan. A weighty, emotional moment would pass between them as they contemplated the significance of his words, of the way fate-and one wily old Kenyan medicine man-had twisted and turned to make their lives intertwine again.

Linden Rock Hot Springs was where they’d had sex all those years ago. Back then, it hadn’t been the luxury spa and retreat it was now. It had just been the hot springs located on undeveloped private property where teenagers and hippies loved to hang out naked. But its location overlooking the Pacific, among sheer cliffs down to the ocean and majestic cypress trees, had guaranteed that sooner or later it would be commercially developed.

But of all the cards for Ryan to have picked…Yeah, she could see why he’d come straight here, looking all earnest and sorry.

She felt the cheese grater slip from her hands as she looked back at him.

“Wow, weird coincidence, huh?” she said casually, as if she didn’t already know it was the hand of fate telling her to get laid and overcome her past.

“Totally weird. I have to admit, it kind of freaked me out.”

Lorelei turned her attention back to the cheese. She scooped the shreds up in her hands and dumped them into a bowl. Then she began washing and chopping vegetables.

“I guess, being a doctor, you probably don’t believe in anything mystical,” Ryan said to her back.

She shrugged, thinking again of Kinsei. “Back in medical school, I would have said no, but being a doctor, I’ve seen all kinds of things I can’t explain. The only thing experience teaches me is that there’s a lot I don’t understand.”

She mixed eggs with the frittata ingredients, then greased a pie pan, poured everything in, and put the dish in the oven to bake. It was her lazy-cook’s method for making a frittata, since it didn’t require her to stand over the stove and watch anything.

Once she’d poured them each a cup of coffee, she set the table with sugar and cream, then pulled up a chair across from Ryan.

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you believe in fate or ghosts or UFOs or anything?”

“I’m probably in the same camp as you. Experience has taught me to be open-minded.”

“So,” she finally dared to ask, seeing now how easy her resolution with the past might be. “Do you think fate is telling us we need to go back to the hot springs?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice sounding a little odd. “I feel silly saying it, but I do.”

6

RYAN COULD hardly believe his luck. He’d never expected his apology to Lorelei to go so smoothly, and better yet, to end with her asking him to the hot springs. It would be the perfect way to make up for the past. He’d show her-and himself-that he wasn’t the jerk kid he used to be.

As he sipped his coffee, he relaxed. With the heat from the kitchen stove and the morning light pouring in through the big picture window, the room felt cozy and intimate. If he closed his eyes, he’d have felt like he was home.

But with Lorelei sitting across from him, the last thing he wanted to do was close his eyes. He could hardly stop staring at her. She held such familiarity, this nearly forgotten piece of his past, like an old beloved toy that had slipped from his memory until he’d stumbled upon it by accident. Except, of course, she hadn’t been sitting around in an attic waiting to be rediscovered. She’d been wandering the world, having what had no doubt been an interesting life, and he wanted to know what had filled the space between then and now.

Not that she owed him any such information. They’d had sex exactly once-he’d even been her first lover, which kind of blew his mind now that he’d had the fact confirmed-but everything he knew about her was based on his very limited perspective of who she had been fifteen years ago.