Chapter One

Bar Harbor, Maine

Summer 2003

The day Frannie Luttrell saved Marianne from drowning, she also fell in love with Dax Cordrey.

The whole thing played out in slow motion. A splash, a bloodcurdling scream, and everything stopped. No one moved. On the deck of the yacht anchored closest to the pier, people stood frozen.

Frannie stripped off her shorts and tee and dove off the pier. She didn't know that behind her, Dax had leapt into his speedboat to follow her; she was only aware of people pointing to where the girl had disappeared.

She didn't think -- she grabbed a deep breath and went down, immediately seeing the slack body of a slender girl descending toward bottom. Grasping the girl's arm, she pulled her hard and explosively up to the surface. As she broke, she heard a commanding voice -- "Here!" -- and a strong hand reached out to her and hauled the victim up into the motorboat.

She nearly fell on board next to the girl's limp body and felt for signs of life. There was no breath, no pulse, and she immediately began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as if she were on auto-pilot.

The commanding voice was speaking into his cell phone. "Almost there," she heard him say through her panic. "They're on their way."

No breath, no breath -- but just as the boat veered toward the dock, the girl suddenly choked and spewed seawater. Frannie thought her heart would stop.

Only then did she look up at her savior, her hair bedraggled, her eyes tearing up, her mouth vulnerable. She wore no makeup, her face was burned and freckled, her bikini plastered to her slender, boyish body, and she looked right into his intense blue gaze -- and her heart stopped.

The rest wa