He stopped laughing but his smile remained. “I confess I’m simply using every advantage I can to make you want to spend time with me. I promise I’m not a stalker, nor a mad man on a killing spree.”

Her world darkened and she sat back in the car with Daniel.

He peered at her, his smile gone and a frown forming. “I’m joking. Sorry, did I say the wrong thing?”

She stared through him, the flashback so heartbreakingly real she almost checked her wrists for ties. She’d not had an episode for a long time, but he’d stirred her emotions and now only Daniel filled her head.

Concern showed in his eyes, and she swallowed down the urge to hide and never show her face again. Get a grip, he’s not Daniel. Breathe, relax her white knuckled fingers grasping the edge of the table, and locate her smile.

She found her voice. “If you were either of those and searching for victims, I guess you’d be queuing for tickets to next month’s horror convention.”

Humour. Her constant saviour helping to keep things in perspective, especially through those dark, desperate months when life took a forever change for the worse. His deep laughter greeted her words, and then his contagious enjoyment swept away Daniel’s memory and she joined in.