Copper Lake Secrets by Pappano Marilyn

Author:Pappano, Marilyn [Pappano, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-12-05T06:00:00+00:00

“I wondered how Grandmother got along with her great-granddaughter,” Reece commented as she settled more comfortably on the bench. “It doesn’t surprise me that she doesn’t.”

“She’s not big on displays of affection.”

She shook her head. “The first time we visited here, she was waiting for us on the patio. She air-kissed my mother, gave my father a stiff little hug, then looked down her nose at me, told me I was to refer to her as Grandmother—not Grandma, MeMe or anything else—and recited the rules for residence at Fair Winds, however temporary the visit might be. No running, roughhousing, loud play, interrupting, picking at food, raising one’s voice, disturbing the adults…”

“So the first thing you did was go inside and shriek, ‘Where are the ghosts, Daddy?’”

She smiled, unaccountably pleased that he’d remembered her comment from the morning before. “I can’t tell you how many times during that visit he had to say ‘She’s just a kid’ to all of them—Grandmother, Grandfather and even Valerie. And it wasn’t an acceptable excuse to any of them.”

Jones’s features softened, reminding her again of how handsome he was. Watching him sitting there across from Mark, she’d been struck by their differences: total opposites, hard versus soft, tough and indulged, independent and very dependent, easygoing and quick to rile. By Howard standards, Jones was surely nowhere close to Mark’s exalted status, but by this Howard’s standards, he was head and shoulders above.

He was drop-dead-sexy handsome. He loved his dog. He’d been nothing but friendly to her and respectful to Grandmother. And when he smiled…

He did it now, well aware of her scrutiny and amused by it. “You want to sit here while we wait for the garage to call, or would you prefer to see more of the town?”

“Let’s hit the town.” Maybe she would see something or someone that would jog loose another memory. And it would be harder for her to stare at him while they were moving.

Though he offered to pay her tab, she did so herself and he let her without arguing. She liked that.

Back outside, they turned west, strolling along the sidewalk toward the river. She gazed at storefronts and into offices, wondering if she’d ever walked this sidewalk before. Had she played in the square or been inside that beautiful house Jones had pointed out? Had she accompanied Grandmother on shopping trips to any of these stores?

The questions made her head hurt. For the thousandth time, she wished she were like most other twenty-eight-year-old women: average, everyday, with total recall of an average life. And for the thousandth time, she reminded herself that she wasn’t.

Realizing that they’d covered nearly a block in silence, she grabbed at the nearest sight—twinkling diamonds in a jewelry-store window display. “Are you married?” The minute the question was out, it struck her as odd that she hadn’t asked sooner. She’d just assumed he was single. Something about him—she couldn’t even say what—gave the impression that he didn’t have a wife and kids waiting back in Kentucky for him, that he wasn’t missing a part of himself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.