Page 60 (1/2)

CHAPTER ONE

MAC PRESSED THE heels of his hands to his eyes and counted to five before pulling theain He reread what he’d written of the recipe so far and fisted his hands What came next?

This steamed mussels dish was coround his teeth together The words blurred and danced across the screen Why couldn’t he remember what came next?

Was it coconut milk?

He shook his head That came later

With a curse, he leapt up, paced across the roo the dish He visualised hiredients arrayed around hi caredient and the importance of the sequence His chest swelled and then crato be back at work A black well of longing rose through hiht the darkness would s him whole

It’d be a blessing if it did

Except he had work to do

He kicked out at a pile of dirty washing bunched in the corner of the roo for the bottle of bourbon on the floor beside it It helped to blunt the pain For a little while He lifted it to his mouth and then halted The heavy curtains drawn at the full-length s blocked the sunlight froly per

Grinding his teeth, he screwed the cap back on the bottle

Finish the damn recipe Then you can drink yourself into oblivion and sleep

Finish the recipe? That hat he had to do, but he couldn’t see at the closed curtains, picturing the day just beyond theht and the cool of the fresh airthe smell of the sea

He kept himself shut away from all that temptation

But it didn’t stop hiine it