Tag Archives: Publisher

Uniform Fetish Anthology Blog Tour

Welcome to the Uniform Fetish Blog Tour! Thank you for helping all of the authors to celebrate this newest Anthology from Evernight Publishing. I was truly flabbergasted to find out my story was accepted to be a part of this amazing collection of authors, and their stories. If you haven’t yet gotten around to reading my story in the anthology, or even if you have, here’s a little insider information on my hero…

Elegant young handsome man. Studio fashion portrait.
Name:  Douglas Burrows
Job:  FBI Special Agent
Stats:
– 38 years old
– Short sandy brown hair
– Grey eyes
– 6′ 2″
– 234lbs
– 15 years with the Bureau

 

The following interview with Special Agent Douglas Burrows
takes place at an undisclosed, secure location.

Moira:  Thank you for taking the time out of what I’m sure is a very hectic schedule to chat with me today Special Agent Burrows.
Douglas:  The pleasure is mine, but please call me Douglas.

Douglas it is then. Can you tell my readers a little about yourself? Perhaps why you got into the FBI, and what you might hope to achieve with the work you’re doing with them?
Well, I’ve been with the Bureau for almost fifteen years now. For a time in my early twenties I have to admit to being adrift in life. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with myself. On a whim I took a criminology class in college, I needed the credits, and it appeared interesting. It ended up drawing me in, and making me want to learn more. I could have become a police officer, but I didn’t think I’d be happy staying in one place all the time so I explored my options, and ended up applying to the Bureau. My goals are relatively simple actually. Do everything within my power as a representative for the laws of our country to keep good, honest, and innocent individuals safe from those that prey on what may be considered a weaker person. It doesn’t matter to me what their crime is. If they are breaking the law, and hurting someone in the process I’m going to do my damnedest to see they are brought to justice, and pay the steepest penalty we can manage within the system.

With the capture, and hopefully extended jail time for the man you recently apprehended, what are your immediate plans?
As you know I got to meet, and spend some time with a very special lady. We got to know one another somewhat in an extremely stressful situation so now we’re going to go about getting to know one another better, and at a slightly more regular pace. Whatever “regular” actually means.
(looks over his shoulder and winks at the woman he’s discussing)

I’m sure you’re both happy for the downtime. I have a couple of questions here from my readers if you have the time to answer them?
(adjusts his suit jacket, and gives a nod)
Absolutely, shoot.

Liz C. would like to know, what was your “worst stake-out location”?
My personal worst stake-out location has to be at the dump.

You can’t leave it there! You absolutely have to explain this to all of us.
(tips his head back, and laughs)
We had a suspect in a string of robberies whose day job was working one of the bulldozers at the dump. My partner and I had the pleasure of sitting on a hill out in the blazing sun for days watching him. It also happened to be one of the worst heatwaves the area we were in had ever had. We were out there every day he was on shift logging his movements, and who came round to chat with him all private like next to his machine. The truly horrifying part of it all was the fact the wind would shift around lunchtime to blow that stench right at us.

Oh lordy that sounds nasty! I think we need to get to the next question, so here goes. Evita would like to know, and I’m paraphrasing slightly, “how do [agents] handle being away from family for long periods of time, especially if married and with kids”?
I personally don’t have experience with this yet, so I’m in no way an expert on the subject. But from what I’ve heard discussed by other agents in a situation where they have a family it’s just like any other job that takes someone out of town. You talk on the phone when you can, or Skype I suppose would be much more popular these days. In our line of work we’re never sure where we’re going, or for how long so it does take a toll. A colleague told me once that when she is home during the down time her entire focus is on her family. Anything to do with the job that isn’t an immediate or pressing concern is put on the back burner. Her husband, and boys both know her job is hard both mentally and physically. But they also know that when she’s home they are getting all of her. Her attention isn’t split between them, and the job. Everything is focused on them, and them alone.

Sounds like a balancing act of sorts. I suppose like any marriage with, or without travel of this sort it’s all about communication, and making the time spent together count.
(he smiles)
In my line of work any relationship at all from dating to marriage can take a hit without open lines of communication.

Thank you again to Special Agent Burrows for taking the time to talk with me. It was a true pleasure to have him here. Now let’s take a look at the story…

* * * * *

Magdelaine “Maggie” Dubois has found herself at the wrong place at the worst possible time. When a man is killed before her she only has one viable option. Go to the police. What she never expected in the aftermath of complete terror, and fear was to meet a man who awoke something so sexually primal within her.

Special Agent Douglas Burrows of the FBI is in the business of putting those breaking laws behind bars. He’s questioned dozens of witnesses over the years, and held more than a few hands. None of them have ever affected him quite like she does with nothing more than a look.

Douglas will do whatever is necessary to protect Maggie. While watching over her is his sworn duty, his need for the passionate witness is all together very personal.

And to close this post out, a look between the pages just for you…

* * * * *

A-Passionate-Witness(banner)

Five hours later a hotel employee was opening the door to the room the FBI had secured for her. Special Agent Burrows was right behind Maggie. He thanked the man and presumably gave him a tip before sending him on his way. Stopping in the middle of the room she listened as he shut and locked the door.

She was nervous all of a sudden and didn’t know why. No, actually she did. She was alone in a hotel room where no one knew her to be with the sexiest man she’d ever met. And he was only there to protect her.

Which was really a downer when she thought about it. Kicking off her shoes she wiggled her toes in the high end carpet, and took a long look around. “The FBI must have quite the budget,” she commented.

His soft laugh did fantastic things to her body. “Not really. We get great deals on rooms though, so we can splurge a little as long as it qualifies as official business. Besides, after the night you’ve had, a little luxury wasn’t amiss.”

He had a point there. Crouching she collected her shoes and then moved to check the space out a little better. The bedroom was in a separate room off the sitting area they were currently standing in. She peeked in to take in the king sized bed and the open doorway to the side. Most likely the bathroom. One bed, one bathroom, well this was going to be interesting.

Douglas moved around her and set on the end of the bed the bag he’d sent a female officer to collect from her home. “Why don’t you try and get some sleep? I’ll be in the outer room the entire time if you need me,” he said.

All Maggie could do was nod. She didn’t know what to say. She knew what she’d like to say, but she wasn’t quite that brazen. Though with him she truly wished she was. “Douglas,” she said before he fully closed the sliding doors between the two rooms.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. For doing this. I know it’s an imposition, and must be tough on your loved ones, so thank you.” Subtle, Maggie, real subtle.

His smile said he knew exactly what she was digging for. “Well since it’s only my retired parents that might possibly be affected by this, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Get some sleep, Maggie.”

“Right.”

Once the doors were shut she let out a low groan, and smacked her forehead with a fist. “Dumb, dumb, dumb,” she muttered. “Why didn’t you just ask him if he was available, Mags? That you want to rip that too perfectly starched shirt off his body, and do nasty things to him. Un-fucking-believable.” Letting out another groan she headed for the bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would clear out some of the cobwebs making her an idiot.

* * * * *

One more thing to do before you head onto the next stop.

Don’t forget to enter to win a $25.00 Evernight Publishing Gift certificate.
Click HERE TO ENTER the Rafflecopter giveaway.

* * * * * * * * * * *

And don’t forget to check out Bridging the Gap’s page for more places to visit…
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Release Day!

uniformantho1lIt’s here! The Uniform Fetish is live. I have to give a big shout out to the other nine amazing authors I’m honored to have been teamed up with for this anthology. I’m one very lucky author to be among such esteemed company. This is my first anthology, and I was very excited to have been picked to take part.

When I submitted my entry I had no idea if it would fit into what the EP team envisioned for the anthology. But hey, I had to give it a shot right? It all paid off too much to my surprise, and delight. Lots of delight actually. Oddly enough I sort of forgot about it to be completely truthful. Too many things going on between submission and that first set of edits I suppose, it just slipped my mind entirely. Right up until the moment someone made mention about it, and then there were a few jitters.

I also want to give a shout out to the nine authors of the Uniform Fetish: Manlove Edition. This is a day to celebrate, but it doesn’t stop here. Next week, March 2-7 2015, is a huge blog book tour. We’ll all be participating as well as several fellow authors, and bloggers helping us get the word out even more. It should be a blast!

For buy links, and peek into my story from the Uniform Fetish you can check it out on the A Passionate Witness page. For now I’m off to do some writing, have a lovely night ~ Moira

Release Day!

dangerouspastsHere we go again! It’s release day for book 5 of the C&M Security, Dangerous Pasts. This book features the very Special Agent Zachary Parker, FBI that was introduced in the last book. He gets to know the secretive receptionist of C&M Security, Chandra Devons. Her past has come back to haunt not only her, but potentially destroy her future with Zachary in the process.

After this book there is only one more planned at this time. It is one of my current WIP’s actually, and one that is proving to be even more challenging than book 5 was. This one explores deeper into the past, showing how C&M came to be, and who the other owner of C&M is before we ever met her in book 1 of the series. It’s one that has to be very carefully written so as to not do anything that screws up anything in the books already out. But it’s one I had always planned to write so hopefully all my notes are accurate, LOL!

Buy Links for Dangerous Pasts, C&M Security 5 – Now Available At:

Evernight Publishing – http://www.evernightpublishing.com/dangerous-pasts-by-moira-callahan/

Bookstrand – http://www.bookstrand.com/dangerous-pasts-mf

All Romance – https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-dangerouspasts-1733451-149.html

Amazon USA & Canada both appear to be delayed. As soon as I have the links I’ll put them up in a post.

More links to follow in the weeks to come from the other sites that are a little slower in getting it together. Watch the Dangerous Pasts page for those as they filter in all over the map.

Have a fantastic day ~ Moira

Here comes book five…

dangerouspastsYet another amazing cover from the talented Sour Cherry Designs. These keep getting better, and better each and every time I see one. I fear I may very well pass out on the next one if it’s any better than this newest cover. Look at that, it’s fucking HOT!

This book is going to be live on January 28th, 2015 – that’s this Wednesday. I’m pretty excited about this one, it’s a little different from the other books in how it gets started, and the trouble that is brewing up. It gave my many headaches, made me grind my teeth a lot, and the cursing likely would have had any sailor or trucker blushing brightly. These are two very strong characters, but only one of them has a secret that may very well be deadly.

Since that’s all I have to share at this moment, here is an excerpt from Chapter One for a little bit of filler. Have a great Sunday ~ Moira

CHAPTER ONE ~ Excerpt

Her wrists burned from the restraints, her face felt two times too big, and her breathing was labored. Chandra knew she’d been worked over real well. Now if only she could remember some of the details.

She remembered dinner out. There had been dancing at a club, some drinks, and then nothing. Absolutely nothing. All she had was a big ass blank spot in her memory.

No, wait. A voice asking questions over and over again. Pain, she definitely recalled some pain. Nothing like the training she’d gone through to withstand interrogations of course, but it had made it onto her radar.

With care, she worked at prying her eyelids open. When that didn’t work, she went with a little more force. Didn’t really help, but she did gain a tiny slit of a view. Not that the view was worth writing home about. Concrete walls and floor, a solid-looking door with a chair sitting next to it, and her. There appeared to be some form of light, likely a single bulb given how weak it appeared to be.

Then again, it could be her shitty eyesight, and all those little dancing spots. Trying to tip her head back for a look at what had her hands caught proved too much. She was weak and sore, her mouth was parched, and her head swam. Which meant she’d been there for a damn long time. Not good, not good at all.

The door creaked open, just like in all those good old-fashioned horror movies, giving a nice squeal at the end. Set quite the mood for whatever was going on.

“Wake her up,” a voice said. Male, eastern European accent, cultured with a smooth edge of brutality. Her host was her guess.

A wave of icy cold water hit her body causing her to jolt, and gasp. It also told her that she didn’t have a hell of a lot of clothing on, her strapless bra and panties would be her assumption. Damn. That seriously sucked, especially when she couldn’t remember anything of importance. She’d been out of the game long enough to probably be considered archaic.

Someone grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back. Oh, hey, she was dangling from some sort of hook that reminded her of those used for hanging beef. Not a great comparison, but her brain was a little sluggish. Her hands were cuffed with some sort of leather banding, that then was looped over the hook, and kept her up on her feet. Nifty little setup, really.

Having a great weekend

Have a good weekend. EPS 10 of a blurred nature background.Hope you’re having a great weekend! I definitely am so far. Just got back from having a late lunch with a bunch of friends. It was filled with laughter, lots of joking, a bunch of teasing, and a horde of innuendos being tossed around. On the up side, I think we’ve found our bi-annual meeting spot of choice. Mainly because we weren’t getting shushed by the staff every time we dared to laugh, or got a little loud. It was a blast and a half to see them all again, and play catch up as well.

In other news, first rounds of edits for my story in the Uniform Fetish Anthology have been completed, and submitted back to my publisher for the second look. They were extremely minimal, and I only had a couple of things I actually needed to fix. Beyond that it was adding in a little more detail on a key point of the story per my editors suggestion. Didn’t take all that long once I figured out where the hell to put it in. Only problem with a short story of this nature, you don’t always have a lot of room for additions. I was relatively smart and kept myself a bit of room when I submitted it originally. Now though with the addition, I’m sitting a little more snugly in the word limit so hopefully there isn’t too much more required on round two otherwise I may need to consider a bit of fat trimming.

Great news to also share is that book 5 of the C&M Security series, Dangerous Pasts, will be out this Wednesday. That’s January 28, 2015 for clarification. I’m waiting on the cover to look over, and approve anxiously, and hopefully I’ll be able to post that up soon as well. For anyone that’s interested I’m also running a contest on my Facebook Group site for 1 of 2 free copies of the book. If you’re interested you can join the group HERE or just enter on the post if you are already a part of the group – I’m only accepting entries on FB. It’s super simple, and a little bit of fun all rolled into one.

Other than that I’m planning to get some writing done this weekend. I’m hoping it will be on book 6 of the C&M series but only if the characters feel like talking. They’ve been quiet of late so I’m rather fearful they have something planned I may not like. I never know with this group what might suddenly pop out of my brain to throw a wild twist into my stories. Things I then need to figure how to get them back out of to get the HEA ending required.

I know for sure I’ll be working a bit on my paranormal story, I’ve had little twinges of ideas of where to take them next. Likely I’ll probably do a bit more on my other still unknown what the hell genre it falls into story. Seriously, I have zero clue where these characters are leading me, but it should be interesting to say the least. They seem to enjoy butting heads, and basically doing everything in their power to annoy the other. Makes it a never ending roller coaster for me as the one writing it, I never seem to know what they next plan to do to the other character.

Well, that’s all the updates I have currently. So I am off to work on whatever WIP comes to me first as needing some more written in. Have a great weekend ~ Moira

Thank goodness it’s Saturday

wake upHappy weekend to everyone! Hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am. The last week was brutal attempting to get back into the swing of things after a much needed break over Christmas. Still not fully back into it all yet but I’m getting there slowly. The worst of it all was that first Monday morning alarm that went off. I am such a natural night owl that having to pry myself from the warm depths of my bed is a chore and a half. But I managed it, and then had to repeat it four more times until today. I admit, I did sleep in a little more than I normally would but it’s the weekend – WHO CARES?! LOL!

MFAntho-001-07012015-evernightpublishing-JayAheer2015-3DrenderBut there was one particularly amazing shining spot in my week I must share. Got home on Thursday to find a great little surprise in my inbox. The covers, and some other visual goodies for the Uniform Anthology that I’m honored to be a part of. They are so damn pretty, so a huge thank you to the artist Jay Aheer for these. They are truly stunning. It took me a while to finally pry my eyeballs off the bloody things, and then only because I realized I was drooling and had the nearly uncontrollable urge to lick my screen.

It’s pretty amazing to see it all begin to come together. It won’t be out for a while yet, projected release is in February but a date hasn’t yet been finalized. Depends on our poor editor for the books, and how quickly we all get through whatever changes are required of us I think. But as soon as I know more I’ll definitely be sharing the news.

On other fronts the final edits for C&M Security 5, Dangerous Pasts, along with the teaser/dedication have been submitted back to my publisher for the last look through on their end. Should hopefully be seeing a cover draft in the next few days. Can’t wait to share that with everyone. In the meantime though I need to get to work on book 6 of the series. I have a lot of ground still to cover before the big finale of that one that will tie up the last little threads left dangling in a couple of the other books.

After that who knows what I’ll be working on. I know what I should be working on, the two WIP’s I have in my docs, or even the new “something” that’s tickling my brain. But for now it’s all about focusing on the one to get it done and submitted. Easier said then done with a case of attention jumping going on right now. My brain is all over the map, twitchy, and may or may not have something to do with all the coffee I’ve pumped into my system. Oh well, eventually I’ll come down from whatever’s got me and my thoughts all over the map. In the meantime maybe I’ll just randomly open up a WIP and see what pops out. Until later ~ Moira

Here we go…

Well it’s been a very chilly start to 2015 so far. We had a huge blizzard blow in yesterday, dumping a lot of snow onto the city, and brought some very unnecessarily cold weather with it. I know it’s winter and all, but it really wasn’t nice of Mother Nature to do that.

SnowyDayThankfully I haven’t had any reason to go outside beyond sticking my nose out my balcony doors to see just how chilly it was. It was damn chilly I’ll tell you right now. So I pulled the blinds, turned on the TV to the Holiday Fireplace for some ambiance, grabbed more coffee, and got down to some writing. Or attempted to. Apparently all my characters went off on an unauthorized bender over the holidays, and still haven’t fully recovered.

I did manage to get in some stuff on my C&M Security book, but definitely nothing of significance. Which is okay I guess, the brain isn’t back into full gear as it is anyway so getting back at this slowly isn’t a horrific plan. Especially since I’m still figuring out my new laptop, and the fact it has a few interesting quirks I’m having to work around. Like a possessed mouse pad. Which raises another question, who was the bloody brainiac that though increasing the size of the damn mouse pad on a laptop was a good idea? Like I don’t have enough problems with the things, no-no, lets make the space even bigger and ten times more sensitive than all previous models. Great plan there.

In other news my place has never been so spotless. I’ve had more than a bit of time to clean, obviously since the characters went off on hiatus. Not even complaining a little. Before the holidays I was too busy running around like a crazed lunatic to give it more than a quick once over, so it was nice to do the down and gritty cleaning. Though my knees may hate me for a few more days from scrubbing my floor by hand lol!

EPHolidayHangoverHopAnd before I completely forget to mention this. There is still a few hours left to my publishers Holiday Hangover Blog Hop. I’m hosting on my blog, A Great New Read, and there are also many other great spots to get in on the action as well. You can start right [HERE] on my publisher’s site.

Well that’s it for this rambling blog post. Hope everyone’s having a great start to the New Year. Have a great night, a great weekend, and I’ll post again soon… ~ Moira

Ringing in 2015

It’s that time yet again, the time to say bon voyage to yet another year. While I wouldn’t say that 2014 was a completely smooth year – it had more than a few bumps along the way – it was definitely an interesting one.

It started like any other year. Too little sleep, a little too much alcohol, and a desperate need to get some form of caffeinated beverage into my body. There was a mild familial crises to deal with, some time off the day job to tend to that, and then there was some brutally cold weather.

Amid all of that I was working on my very first book. A novella I’d call it given the word count. After showing it to a long time friend, who was an author in her own right, she advised that I send it into a publisher. Then came the big choice. Who the hell to send this to? A few late night discussions, a lot of pros and cons lists later my friend helped me to make the decision. Evernight Publishing was the top of the pile. There were a couple of other really close runners on the list, but from what we’d dug up, and generally discovered I thought that EP was the best fit for who I am as a person, and who I’d like to be as an author. So off I sent that very first submission.

What my friend neglected to tell me about was the gut clenching terror that immediately takes hold the moment you hit the send button for your submission. The doubts that creep in: Did I forget one of the items on their checklist? Did I attach the right file? Did I actually read the file I sent to them at any point? And then, the worst in my opinion, did I spell my own name right? ARGH! Quickly into the “sent” folder to review exactly what was sent. While this relieves a bit of the terror, it definitely does not ease it fully. Because now I’m a part of that dreaded “waiting game” I’ve heard her talk about, and read about from other author type people I’d friended on the various social networks.

The good news was, EP accepted the story, put me and it under contract, and the terror eased. Right up until that first round of editors. Again from various author folk I “know” you never knew what type of editor you may end up with. I was truly blessed with an amazing woman, Laurie Temple, who instantly relaxed me with her very first comment bubble on page one. She gave me a little information about herself, her general rules of thumb when she’s editing, and then gave me her impressions on the story itself. She was helpful, polite, and at times even threw in a wickedly amusing comment that made me actually LOL in my living room. I don’t know if I’ll forever be blessed with her awesome self, but I can definitely dream. I truly don’t know what I’d have done without her gentle, but firm, handling during that first book.

All through the C&M Security series I was again blessed to have Laurie as my editor. She became as invested in the characters as I was. And it quickly became apparent she was keeping track of what I was, and wasn’t sharing with readers in books. She started looking for things in the next ones, and keeping me honest along the way. The woman is a rock star in my books, and deserves a huge bonus. Ahem! Hear that Evernight admin people – give that woman a raise! LOL!

Thankfully my personal life was relatively calm, mundane even for the balance of 2014. It allowed me to have time to focus on my writing, finding my groove with my series, and left me time to actually interact with my readers. I have readers, fans even. Freaky right? But apparently this happens, or so the great mystics proclaimed. I’ve even had more than one reader adopt a character from my books. Now if I could only get him back from her 😉

Now, here I am, heading into a whole new year – 2015. Fresh, unknown, open to all sorts of possibilities. While there will always be challenges, personal and professional, I can only continue forward one day at a time. I’m not one to make resolutions since I know myself too well. All I can say is that I will be writing every day, I will be who I am and let no one change me, and I will come through it all the better for hopefully having learned something new and amazing along the way.

champagne glass - 2015 - bokeh background - shot 1

So to all my website readers, my book readers and fans, and everyone out there on the web. Happy New Year, may it be bright, wonderful, and may you too learn something new and amazing this year. Until next year ~ Moira

Holiday chaos

christmas treeEvery damn year I swear I’ll do all my shopping early. Every damn year I’m down to the line to get it done in time. This year is absolutely no different sadly. Maybe next year I’ll actually start early. HA! Yeah, I don’t believe it either. But it’s a truly nice thought.

I went out on the hunt for a few items today, and must brave the masses again tomorrow for even more things. It wasn’t too bad today, did what I needed to do, and even found a few extra bits to add to the gift bags for the family. Tomorrow will be a slightly grander experiment in patience. I hate crowds. I despise people who can’t seem to walk a straight line from point A to point B. And I truly hate the fact that when someone stops to talk to another person they must stand out in the flow of bodies so that everyone needs to squish around them. Really? How is that necessary?

But I know exactly what I’m going for. I will get there at an appropriately early hour so I can complete my shopping prior to the mad crush of people who leave their brains at home, yet bring the attitude. Yes, it should be a rip roaring fun day in the mall. Ugh!

In much happier news I have the edits for book 5 of the C&M Security series. Took a quick look through some of it, and there’s definitely more than a few things I need to tend to. Some are very quick fixes, others are much more complicated but I should be able to get through them before I depart for the familial gathering. At least that’s my hope. Given when it was sent to me I’ll be out of town when it needs to be sent back – not exactly the best of timing I fear on my publisher’s part, but these things happen so I will roll with it, and figure it out.

Book 6 of the series is progressing, though the characters appear to have run off for a time. My trip to the shops may have had something to do with that. Christmas madness isn’t conducive to a creative mind. A homicidal one perhaps, but definitely not anything of a creative nature LOL! I haven’t had any new inspiration on my paranormal story, or the other one that’s in bits and pieces in a Word doc. I’m hopeful that once the crazy time has passed my characters will come out of hiding again and I can get back to writing.

Well, that’s all I have to say today. So I hope you enjoy your evening, and the balance of your weekend. ~ Moira

Here comes book four…

dangerous-circumstancesI have an awesome cover (thank you Sour Cherry Designs!), I have a date, and my publisher has the finished, smoothed out version of the book. Life is awesome! Don’t really have a lot to say except that Dangerous Circumstances, C&M Security 4 will be available December 17, 2014 for purchase at a bunch of places. And then a few more about a week later when they finally catch up with the cool kids.

So, please enjoy the fan-freaking-tastic cover, I know I am, and here’s a little something to whet the appetite…

***************     ***************     ***************

It wasn’t so much a sound that woke him. There was a sound, but it was so soft he really shouldn’t have noticed. It wasn’t like he was a light sleeper or anything, but he also knew when he wasn’t in his own bed.

Cracking open an eye, Mack peered around.

He recognized the furniture around him. He was on Denise’s sofa. What caught his eye was Denise. She was in the kitchen of her condo, puttering around while the heady scent of coffee teased his senses.

With a groan, he pushed up to a sitting position and rubbed his face. When he dropped his hands, a coffee mug was in front of his face. Taking it automatically, he looked up to see Denise’s worried face staring down at him. Yeah, she likely had a reason to be worried given how and when he’d shown up at her door.

“Thanks,” he croaked out.

She just nodded and went back to the kitchen. “Breakfast will be ready in ten.”

“What time is it?” Taking a sip of the strong brew Mack let out a sigh. Another sip helped push the caffeine into his system.

“Uh, it’s almost noon. So technically it’s lunchtime, but whatever. We’re having breakfast,” she told him.

Shit, noon? Fucking hell. He hadn’t expected to sleep so late, normally wouldn’t have if he hadn’t wandered around San Francisco in the wee hours of the morning. Pushing up from the sofa, he stretched and winced at the aching muscles.

“Let me hit the bathroom and I’ll be right out,” he said. Another gulp of coffee, and he set the mug aside as she flicked a hand in acknowledgement. Not sure what else to say, he went to the bathroom.

When he came back out she had the food on the table, mugs refilled, and was wiping down the stove. Unsure what to do, not for the first time around Denise, he waited on her.

“Sit down, Mack,” she said. Tossing the sponge she’d been using into the sink, she came around the island to the table and sat.

Well, all right. Frowning, he went to one of the chairs with a plate set before it, and sat down. Pancakes, eggs and bacon. Not exactly the healthiest of meals but it was great comfort food, and just what he needed.

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Have a wonderful night! ~ Moira