Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

radio so she could hear it throughout the house and pulled out her laptop, taking it through the hallway to her kitchen.
    Blessed coffee was the only answer to idiocy. She started the coffee while she listened to the radio spitting out local news. She dropped into a chair, stilling to concentrate when it came to the weather. She wanted to know what her mistress was feeling this morning. Calm? Angry? A little stormy?
    16

    She stretched as she listened. Calm seas. Little wind. A freaking tsunami drill?
    Not again. “What a crock,” she muttered aloud, slumping dejectedly.
    “We don’t need another one.”
    They’d just had a silly drill. Everyone had complied. How had she missed the report in the local news that they had scheduled another one?
    When they conducted drills of this magnitude, it was always advertised heavily. Then again . . . Rikki sat up straight, a smile blossoming on her face. Maybe the tsunami drill was just the opportunity she’d been looking for. Today was a darned-perfect day to go to work. With a tsunami warning in effect, no one else would be out on the ocean, and she would have the sea to herself. This was the perfect chance to visit her secret diving hole and harvest the small fortune in sea urchins she’d discovered there. She had found the spot weeks ago but didn’t want to dive when others might be around to see her treasure trove.
    Rikki poured a cup of coffee and wandered out to the front porch to enjoy that first aromatic sip. She was going to make the big bucks today.
    Maybe even enough money to pay back the women who’d taken her in as part of their family for the expenses they’d incurred on her behalf. She wouldn’t have her beloved boat finished if it weren’t for them. She could probably fill the boat with just a couple of hours’ work. Hopefully the processor would think the urchins were as good as she did and pay top dollar.
    Rikki looked around at the trees shimmering in the early morning light.
    Birds flitted from branch to branch, and wild turkeys walked along the far creek where she’d scattered seed for them. A young buck grazed in the meadow just a short distance from her house. Sitting there, sipping her coffee and watching the wildlife around her, everything began to settle in both her body and mind.
    She’d never imagined she would ever have a chance at such a place, such a life. And she never would have, if not for the five strangers who’d entered her life and taken her into theirs. They’d changed her world forever.
    She owed them everything. Her “sisters.” They weren’t her biological sisters, but no blood sister could be closer. They called themselves sisters of the heart, and to Rikki that’s exactly what they were. Her sisters. Her family.
    She had no one else and knew she never would. They had her fierce, unswerving loyalty.
    The five women had believed in her when she’d lost all faith, when she was at her most broken. They had invited her to be one of them, and although she’d been terrified that she would bring something evil with her, 17

    she’d accepted, because it was that or die. That one decision was the single best thing she’d ever done.
    The family—all six of them—lived on the farm together. Three hundred plus acres, which nestled six beautiful houses. Hers was the smallest structure. Rikki knew she’d never marry or have children, so she didn’t need a large house. Besides, she loved the simplicity of her small home with its open spaces and high beams and soothing colors of the sea that made her feel so at peace.
    A slight warning shivered down her body. She was not alone. Rikki turned her head, and her tension abated slightly at the sight of the approaching woman. Tall and slender with a wealth of elegant blonde hair untouched by gray in spite of her forty-two years, Blythe Daniels was the oldest of Rikki’s five sisters and the acknowledged leader of their family.
    “Hey, you,” Rikki greeted. “Couldn’t sleep?”
    Blythe flashed her smile, the one Rikki thought was so endearing and beautiful—a little crooked but providing a glimpse of straight white teeth that nature, not braces, had provided.
    “You’re not going out today, are you?” Blythe asked, and nonchalantly went over to the spigot at the side of the house and turned it off.
    “Sure I am.” She should have checked all four hoses, darn it. Rikki avoided Blythe’s too-knowing gaze.
    Blythe looked uneasily toward the sea. “I just have this bad