A Certain Hope and A Perfect Love by Lenora Worth

Author:Lenora Worth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mack Riley stared over at the assertive, no-nonsense woman sitting in his truck. She was a looker, no doubt about that. He’d heard enough about Summer Maxwell to know, though, that all that long blond hair and those bright-blue eyes couldn’t hide the fact that she was also very intelligent and sharp.

Too sharp. And right now, not too trusting, either.

What was he supposed to tell the woman? That he knew her grandparents on a first-name basis. That he also knew her rich, jet-setting parents, through conversations with Jesse and Martha, and through having met them on the rare occasions they decided to drop in and check on Summer’s grandparents. That he recognized her now, from the many pictures of her growing up that Martha had displayed in her living room. And that he knew enough about Summer herself to fill a book and his own needy imagination.

Mack wasn’t ready to open up and have a heart-to-heart with this intriguing woman. Not yet. So he did what he’d always been so very good at doing. He tried to avoid the issue.

“I’m waiting,” Summer said, causing him to glance over at her.

He tried to deflect that in-your-face-look. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say, or where to begin. Okay, I do know your folks—real well. Is that a crime?”

“Oh, no,” she said, folding her arms as she stared at him. “The crime would be in you withholding information from me. And I think you are. You said you’d explain things. So start talking. Just tell me—is one of them sick? Has something happened, something terrible, that I don’t know about?”

Mack made a turn onto yet another long highway. “They’re both just fine,” he said. “But…a lot has happened over the last few months. When was the last time you talked to them?”

“I saw them at Uncle Stuart’s funeral,” Summer replied, her blue eyes going dark. “They invited me to come home for a visit. I told them I’d think about it. I did, and so here I am.”

“That funeral was over two months ago,” he said, reasoning that she might not know all that had happened since then after all.

“Yes. But they both seemed fine, in good health. Of course, we were all upset about Uncle Stuart.”

“So you didn’t call ahead, to let them know you were coming?”

She squirmed a bit. “No. I didn’t want them to worry since I decided to drive across the country. I wanted to take my time, do a little sightseeing.”

Mack got the feeling she hadn’t noticed the scenery on her long trip home. Maybe she’d just needed some down time.

He could understand that.

“Well, they’ll be surprised, that’s for sure.”

Then he witnessed some of that famous temper Martha had told him about.

“Listen, mister, I’m getting very bad vibes here. You’re scaring me. If there’s something I need to know about my grandparents, good or bad, then you’d better spit it out.”

Mack stopped the truck in front of the old two-story white farmhouse that had been the Creswell home for many years.

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