Katie woke before the sun, the taste of Kaiden's kiss still on her lips and heavy on her mind. It wasn't the first time he had touched her but the intensity of it blew her away. If he hadn't left when he did she probably would have torn his clothes off.

The house was silent. Clara and Kaiden were likely both sound asleep. She rolled over and switched on the little lamp on the bedside table. She loved the room. Everything about it warmed her soul. The rich colors were as calming as they were brilliant. She couldn't even describe the way the bed felt when she first climbed into it the night before. The sun was barely up but she had slept soundly—better than she had in months. She missed her view of the ocean though. Katie's absolute favorite thing about Virginia Beach was the view of the water early in the morning as the rising sun turned the horizon from magenta to red to rusty orange.

After Kaiden arrested Nathan and they put a stop to whatever plot he was involved in, Katie could take a little time to really explore her feelings for Kaiden. She couldn't deny they had chemistry between them. She felt it from the very first moment she met him after his shooting. She had just started her evening shift and ducked into the room of her first patient, only a few hours out of surgery, groggy and in obvious pain. But when he smiled at her, Katie felt the sharp jolt of electricity that arced from him to her. Of course, ethics rule number one says don't get involved with your patients so she tried to keep her focus on her job. Each day, Kaiden improved. He flirted with her while she ignored what touching him, even to take his vitals, did to her insides. Then one day he left. Discharged early in the morning and sent to rehab for a week. Since she was dating Nathan at the time, she forced the handsome cop—that's what she chalked him up to at the time—from her mind. At least during the day. He haunted her often while she slept.

Now she curled up in his cousin's bed in his mother's house and honestly, if he had invited her to share his bed, she would not have been able to say no.

She was too exhausted the night before to thoroughly snoop through the room so Katie rolled out of the bed and padded her way across the bedroom and into the bathroom. She really needed one of those toothbrushes Kaiden had spoken of.

"Wow." The bathroom took her breath away. The same warm tones extended in to the wash room. The lush walk in shower filled more than half the space. An array of shower heads strategically arranged offered the promise of nirvana to tired muscles. How she longed to tear off her clothes and stand under the hot spray.

"It's early. I don't want to wake anyone, right?"

Wrong. What she wanted was to feel hot water surrounding her on all sides while someone soaped her back with lavender scented body wash.

"Get a grip girl. Brush your nasty teeth and then go find some coffee." When did she start talking to herself? Oh right—around about the time her fiancé left with her best friend. When they returned to Virginia Beach she really needed to see about getting a pet.

The bathroom cabinet held a diverse stock of toiletries as Kaiden promised. In actuality there was enough mouthwash, toothpaste, and other essentials to last someone a good long time.

Years.

After brushing her teeth, Katie pulled on a pair of jeans, a long sleeve top, and her shoes. She was in the center of the kitchen trying to figure out where Clara might store her coffee maker when she heard foot steps behind her. Katie turned around to find Kaiden, wearing nothing but a low slung pair of flannel pants and a smile. Her breath hitched and her heart raced. That man looked so fine without a shirt on it took every last ounce of self-restraint not to run her fingers over the hard muscle and trace the line of the scar on his shoulder.

"Looking for something?" Kaiden asked.

Nope. She had already found it.

Her head told her mouth to speak but all she could manage was "the coffee pot…"

"Right. Mom keeps that in the pantry with a selection of her favorite beans. What do you favor?"

"Just coffee." When did she become so stupid? One half naked man and she lost the ability to string words together in an intelligent sentence? It's not like she hadn't seen naked men before. Hell, it's not like she hadn't seen this man naked before. Or at least mostly so.

"Right this way, ma'am." Kaiden waved her over to a door that Katie had assumed was a closet. He opened it and disappeared inside. Katie followed.

"What is this place?" she asked as she looked up and down the neatly organized rows of shelves. Floor to ceiling the shelves were lined with food—canned goods, packages of pasta, cereal, and bottled water.

"You've never seen a pantry before?" Kaiden chuckled as he led her to the end of one of the rows.

"This isn't a pantry. It's a damn supermarket!" Katie replied. "It's the size of my living room at home."

"Bigger, actually." Kaiden stopped in front of a unit that housed a coffee maker, a bean grinder and at least fifty varieties of coffee beans. "Mom likes to have plenty on hand. Cold storage is in her basement."

"I… I don't even know… I mean… how is one little woman supposed to eat all of this?" She motioned to the shelves as she turned in a circle. "This is crazy."

"One word of advice," Kaiden said as she selected some coffee beans and poured them into the grinder, "don't tell my mother you think she is crazy."

"Yeah, because I might start to believe it!" Clara called from the kitchen.

"I wasn't saying—I mean I didn't mean she was crazy. But this? This is crazy. It must have taken months to build this stock."

Clara stepped into the room and joined them in the coffee section. "Not months. I have a membership to one of those warehouse clubs. I just bought in bulk." She turned and grabbed a bag off the shelf. "Kaiden, grind up some of these for me when you are done, please? Thank you."

Katie watched the older woman walk away before speaking again. In a hushed voice, she leaned in and asked, "Is this all a part of your mom's conspiracy theory thing?"

Kaiden poured the first ground coffee into the automatic maker and ground his mother's beans before answering. "Yes," he finally replied. "I guess you could say it is. After my dad died, Ma became very worried about making sure she could provide for us and later Logan, no matter what. The house, everything—it's all the product of my father's life insurance. We lived off the social security money we received when he died while Mom poured everything else she had into this mountain. This is the outcome."

"Well, when the bomb hits you all won't starve, that's for sure!" Katie joked but Kaiden eyed her with a very serious expression.

"Her prepper friends take these things very seriously. And honestly, I have worked for the government long enough to see the value in a little preparedness. This is not a happy world we live in."

"So, you worry about the world ending?"

"Not in the terms you are speaking but I am concerned about the fragile state of the world and realistically anything could happen. Best to be ready for it and meet it head on, right? I mean you don't show up to a gun fight with a knife."

"Speaking of gun fights, what time are we going after Nathan?"

Kaiden removed the freshly brewed coffee and placed another pot on the burner. He dumped the coffee for his mother into the machine and hit brew before he answered her.

"We aren't going after Nathan. You promised to wait in the truck, remember?"

"Yes, I remember but it doesn't mean I am not hoping you will change your mind."

He winked at her. "I wouldn't expect anything less either. Come on, let's see what we can rustle up for breakfast. Keegan will be here soon and he is always hungry." She followed Kaiden out of the pantry and waited while he set the coffee pots on the counter.

"I hope you're hungry," Clara said as she pulled egg cartons and packages of bread and bacon from the fridge.

"The coffee is enough for me, really," Katie replied.

"Poppycock! You can't start your day without a hearty meal to get the metabolism rolling."

Poppycock? Who says that anymore?

Clara obviously wouldn't take no for an answer so Katie nodded as she held the cup Kaiden offered to her. "I suppose I could eat an egg and some toast."

Clara shot her a look. "You're not one of those girls always on a diet, are you? My boy here likes a woman with a healthy appetite and a little meat on her bones."

"Leave her alone. She'll eat."

"I don't want her having a fainting spell and have people in town think I don't know how to take care of my guests."

"Since when have you cared about what people think?"

"Well, boy, you got a point there. I guess I really don't." Clara set about cracking eggs in a bowl while bacon sizzled in the cast iron frying pan.

"I like food. I don't diet. I just don't want you to go to any trouble on my account," Katie said.

"Cooking a decent meal is never a bother, dear. Why don't you have a seat? Kaiden—pull the chair out for her."

"Yes, Mother."

Katie loved the banter between mother and son. It made her homesick for her own family while it frightened her a little how comfortable she felt among the James family. Like she was always meant to be there.