Beach Lane by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781459205239
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2011-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

When Susie woke again, there were shadows in the room and someone was sitting in a chair near the window. Even though she couldn’t make out the features, she knew instinctively that it wasn’t Mack.

“Suze, are you awake?”

It was her brother. “Matthew, what are you doing here? Mack didn’t recruit you to babysit me, did he?”

“Are you kidding me? He wouldn’t dare. You’d never let him live to tell the story.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I just wanted to check on you,” he said. He walked over to the bed. “You mind?” He sat down on the edge before she could reply. Susie flipped on her bedside lamp, took one look at his haggard expression and demanded, “What’s happened? Is it Mom or Dad? Luke?”

His lips curved slightly. “Everybody except you is just fine.”

“Well, I’m going to be fine, too,” she said. “Now, tell me what’s wrong. You look as if you’ve lost your best friend.”

He gave her a wry look. “Leave it to you to nail it on the first guess.”

Susie tried to recall who the love of her brother’s life had been last week, or the week before, for that matter. Matthew changed girlfriends as frequently as he did shirts. She’d always thought he was trying to model himself after Mack.

Eventually she gave up and asked, “Which one was it this time?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t really say.”

“That’s going to make the conversation a little tricky, don’t you think? I need details if I’m going to help.”

“We’ve kind of been flying under the radar. It’s probably better to keep it that way.”

“Is this someone I know?”

“Sorry. I can’t say.”

“Which means it is,” she concluded. “Why were the two of you keeping it a secret?”

“It seemed wise, that’s all. Under the circumstances, I guess she was right about that.”

“Is it over, then?”

“She says it is,” he said, his expression miserable. “What happened?”

“That’s the hell of it,” he said heatedly. “I have no idea. One minute everything was fine. Better than fine, in fact. The next it was ‘Thanks for a good time. See you later, pal.’”

“I see.”

“Do you think it was only about the sex for her?” he asked, sounding like a lost kid rather than the relatively sheltered but otherwise fairly experienced twenty-six-year-old man he was. “I mean, I know guys are supposed to always be about the sex, but I didn’t think it was like that for women.”

She gave him a rueful look. “I’m probably not the best person to ask about this. Mack was always the one for me. I didn’t date a lot, and my sexual escapades could be counted on one hand.” She touched his arm. “Do you really care about this woman, or is your ego just bruised?”

Heat flared in his eyes. “I was falling in love with her,” he replied. “I told her I was.”

Ah, Susie thought, maybe he’d set off a panic attack. It usually happened in reverse, with the man running off in a tailspin, but she supposed women could freak out, too.

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