Page 55 of Ground Zero (Lantern Beach Blackout: Detonation #3)

T he morning sun painted the Lantern Beach sand gold as Sheridan waited at the spot where everything had started. She’d placed her surprise on the sand underneath a couple of beach towels behind her. Her heart raced with anticipation.

She saw him before he saw her—walking down the beach in board shorts and a T-shirt, looking more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. The bruises were fading, the exhaustion gone from his eyes.

When he spotted her, his face lit up with a smile that made her stomach flutter.

He paused in front of her. “Morning, Agent Mendez.”

“Just Sheridan now,” she said. “I’m officially on vacation.”

“It suits you.” He stopped a few feet away, and his eyes caught on what she was hiding. “What’s behind you?”

“A surprise.” She turned and jerked the towels away, revealing a surfboard.

She watched his expression transform from curiosity to shock to something that looked like joy mixed with tears.

“How did you . . . ? My father’s board. I thought it was gone.”

“Jimmy James helped me track it down. Some kids found it washed up two miles south. They’d been keeping it, but when they heard what happened, what you did . . .” She shrugged. “They wanted you to have it back.”

Maverick ran his hands over the worn surface, tracing the dings and repairs that told the story of years of use. “This was the last thing my father and I did together. Surfed these waves the weekend before he died.”

“I know,” she said softly.

He set the board carefully in the sand and pulled her into his arms. “Thank you. This means . . . everything.”

“You saved thousands of lives. Finding your surfboard seemed like the least I could do.”

“You know what you did.” His hands framed her face. “You believed in me when no one else did. You risked everything.”

“So did you.”

“No.” His thumb traced her cheekbone. “I was trying to save myself. You were trying to save me when you didn’t have to.”

“I had to,” she whispered. “I couldn’t let them frame you for something you didn’t do.”

“Is that the only reason?”

She looked into his eyes—those green eyes that had haunted her dreams since that first day. “No. There’s more than one . . .”

“Sheridan . . .” He leaned closer. “That day on the boat, when you said?—”

“I meant it.” The words came out in a rush. “I love you. I know it’s crazy, we barely know each other, but?—”

He kissed her, cutting off her rambling. It was different from their first kiss on the boat—slower, deeper, full of promise instead of desperation.

When they finally broke apart, both were breathing hard.

“I love you too,” he said. “Have since you pointed that gun at me and demanded I stop running.”

She laughed. “That’s when you fell for me? When I was arresting you?”

“That’s when I knew you were different than anyone I’d ever met. You looked at me and saw something worth fighting for, even when all the evidence said otherwise.”

“So what now?” Her arms remained around his neck.

“Now?” He glanced at the surfboard, then at the perfect morning waves. “Now I teach you to surf. Then breakfast. Then we figure out the rest of our lives.”

“Together?”

“If you’ll have me. Former suspected terrorist and all.”

“Former?” She grinned. “I don’t know. You still look pretty dangerous to me.”

He kissed her again, there on the beach where it all began. “Only to people who threaten the ones I love.”

“I’m glad I fall into the right category then.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he agreed.

As he picked up his father’s board and took her hand, leading her toward the water, Sheridan realized that sometimes the worst moments in life led to the best ones. She’d come to this beach to arrest a terrorist and instead found the love of her life.

The conspiracy might not be completely unraveled, the mysterious leader of Sigma still out there somewhere, but for now, in this moment, they had each other.

And that was enough.

“Ready?” Maverick asked, holding the board.

“For surfing or for us?”

“Both.”

She squeezed his hand. “Absolutely.”

The waves rolled in, perfect and patient, as they walked into the water together, ready for whatever adventures came next.