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an exaggerated impersonation of my most passionate moments.
    “Let’s talk about the bed and breakfast project. We’re down to one room left to decorate. This drab kitchen. I have some color ideas I’d like to go over.”
    Randy didn’t give in that easy. He was just about to carry on his childish antics anyway, but before he could get started, a dragon’s roar rattled the kitchen walls. “Olaf! God, that friggin’ dragon is so damn loud.”
    “That’s his happy howl. Brad must be home.” I ran for the front door and sure enough, Brad stepped in. I had really been enjoying having Brad around more since he’d moved down to the plantation, but I wasn’t a big fan of the fire department’s rotating swing shift business.

Chapter 2
    A New Calling
    A s soon as I wrapped my arms around him, my sixth sense detected something was amiss. I knew he had something to tell me, but he wasn’t sure about how to go about bringing it up. That is never a good combination.
    “Might as well just say it,” I whispered, nuzzling my face into the familiar little dip in the center of his broad muscular chest.
    “Whatever it is.” I swallowed—dryly, and with some difficulty. It felt like I just choked down a cactus. I was certain I was about to be served with heart-wrenchingly awful, terrible news of the first degree.
    Brad scooped me up in his arms and kissed me. “Sunshine? What’s going on?”
    “You know I can feel things. You know I have special witch senses.”
    “Oh, you don’t really believe in that kind of stuff, do you?”
    “Of course I do. You of all people should know. Take, for example, the time I knew you were about to fall down the stairs. I said, ‘Watch your step, Brad. You’re about to trip and fall down the stairs’. You fell all the way from the top to the bottom, bouncing your head off of every tread.”
    “Well…sure. After all, you let those baby dragons run up the stairs while I was carrying those boxes into the attic. I actually think those little demons tripped me on purpose.”
    “Maybe, then how about the time I knew Randy was about to fall? I said to him, ‘Watch out, boy, you’re going to fall from that ladder’, and then sure enough, he fell twenty feet. Broke his clavicle and bruised his scrotum.”
    Brad winced at the painful thought of it. “Oooh, yeah. That was ugly. But, Sunshine, anyone with eyeballs could see that he was about to fall. He was too lazy to move the ladder, so he tried hanging on the side of it to paint the rest of that window frame. Randy’s an accident waiting to happen anyway.”
    “Still, I was right about those things. You can’t argue with the facts. And now I can tell you have something to say to me, but you don’t want to. I want you to get it over with. So just say it.”
    I forced my eyes shut, like I awaited a firing squad to carry out their order to execute me. “Okay, I’m ready. Fire!”
    Brad cleared his throat, a sure sign of bad news, or maybe even worse, a confession. “Remember when I told you about all of the search and rescue training I’ve completed? Turns out I’m now the most qualified search and rescue team leader in the Parish, possibly in the entire state of Louisiana.”
    “Oh. Well, that’s a good thing then. You can search and rescue me anytime. Do you get to wear a special patch or something?”
    “No, well…maybe, but what it means is that I’ve been asked to set up an emergency global response team of volunteers. The goal is to have a team who can respond to disasters, anywhere in the world, at a moment’s notice. Think how important it could be to have something like that, especially with all these earthquakes lately. We could really save some people, Gertie.”
    Brad’s eyes sparkled, like a little boy who had just dreamed up a tree house adventure. His smile was absolutely contagious. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone so happy about anticipating a cataclysmic disaster!”
    “Oh. Sorry. It’s not the