Beautiful Storm (Lightning Strikes Book 1) by Barbara Freethy Read Free Book Online Page A

flew charter jets. But even with all his knowledge of weather, the one thing that still amazed him was lightning. He would tell me stories about things he'd seen in the sky; blue dancing sprites, orange balls of fire. He got as close as anyone could get to a power unmatched in nature. His stories made me want to see what he saw."
    "Why didn't you become a pilot?"
    "Fair question. It never interested me. My brother Jake is a pilot. He, however, does not believe there's anything mystical about lightning."
    "Interesting." Michael stared back at her in a thoughtful, speculative way.
    "What are you really thinking?" she asked as the silence went on.
    "Really?" he asked with a smile.
    "Yes, I can see something going on in your eyes."
    "To be honest, I was thinking that your father's story reminded me a little of myself. I think of my life in three parts: one with my mom, one without her, and then the life I lived after I left Miami. I'm also a mix of cultures—half-Cuban, half-Caucasian. My fair-haired, blue-eyed mother died when I was eight."
    "I'm sorry," she said, understanding now where he got his striking blue eyes.
    "I've always felt like I had one foot in each world, but I never fit perfectly well into either one."
    "My dad used to say that, too." It was odd that her father's background ran parallel to Michael's. Besides the clash of cultures, they'd also both lost their mothers at an early age.
    "You know what else struck me about your story?" he asked.
    "The Navy connection?" she returned.
    He nodded. "Your dad was in the Navy and so was Liliana."
    "When I first saw her ID in the dirt, I was taken right back to my father. It's the one thing I still have of his."
    Michael sat back in his seat. "I'm surprised that you're not afraid of lightning, considering what happened to your father."
    "I know. But don't you feel something powerful and inexplicable when you look at these photographs?" She tapped her fingers on the picture in front of him. "I actually felt the heat of this strike. And it was shocking in its intensity. The lightning calls to me. I don't know if it will always be that way, but right now I can't resist the call."
    He stared down at the picture, then looked back at her. "I don't know if you're crazy, but I can say that I've never met anyone like you, Alicia."
    She smiled. "Good. I like being one of a kind. And you can call me crazy. My father was nicknamed Lightning Man. It made him laugh, but my mother hated to hear the locals call him that. He was a decorated fighter pilot before he retired. But hardly anyone remembered that when he started talking about dancing blue sprites in the sky. He became a joke, but he wasn't a joke, and I don't believe he made anything up."
    "It sounds like he wasn't just a Navy hero; he was your hero."
    "That's true. We were very close. I was the youngest of three kids, and my dad and I probably spent the most time together. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago, and sometimes it feels like just yesterday."
    "Are you still close to your mother—your siblings?"
    "No. They're all in Texas. I came to Miami four years ago because I needed to build a life somewhere new, and Florida has the highest number of lightning strikes. I figured I could do photojournalism anywhere, so why not here?"
    "Texas?" he queried, his brows drawing together.
    "Corpus Christi." As she said the words, shock flashed through his eyes. "I know. Liliana lives in Corpus Christi, Texas. It's another weird link between us. Sometimes I wonder if anything really happens by chance."
    Michael frowned at her words, then lowered his gaze and flipped through the rest of her photographs without saying another word. She didn't know what he was thinking, but she was grateful to have a minute to gather her own thoughts.
    "Where are the others?" Michael asked, slipping the photos back into the envelope.
    "What are you talking about? There are no others. This is the roll I took in the park."
    "You didn't shoot anything when