Sunbreaks

Book excerpt: After losing his beloved wife to a drunk driver, fifty-three year old Tom Walker retreats into dark clouds of depression, isolating himself from friends, family, and the things he loves. Gloomy days turn into years and just when it seems there will be no break in the clouds, a light appears, in the form of a dazzling young woman named Erika Stevens. Tom is old enough to be her father, but he refuses to let their chance encounter in a rain-soaked city parking lot go to waste, and as the two strangers move from public coffee dates to something more, they make a surprising Valentines Day pact friendship at all costs. But can men and women really be just friends? And is age really, as Erika says, just a number? Set in the vibrant (and famously rainy) city of Portland, Oregon, Tom and Erikas story serves as a potent reminder that even the seemingly endless storm clouds of life have breaks sun breaks that seem to come in the most unexpected places.