Lover's Lane by Jill Marie Landis

Author:Jill Marie Landis [Landis, Jill Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, General, Erotica
ISBN: 9780307415905
Google: 3JC-oi0TmikC
Amazon: B000XU8D60
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

28

“SO YOU BECAME CAROLINE.”

Jake had sat down again, listened while staring at the top of the trunk where all her magazines were neatly arranged, as if life could be as perfect, easily altered by moving the furniture or choosing the right paint for the walls.

“If she’d lived, Caroline would have been eighteen a month after we ran away. I figured I could fend for myself using her identification. Wilt offered me a room at his place.” She shrugged. “At first I thought he felt sorry for me, but when I got to know him better, I realized he’d been looking out for me. He told me more than once how lucky I was that he’d stopped to pick me up before somebody else did.”

“Did you ever tell him the truth about Caroline and the accident? About who you really were and what you’d done?”

“No. When it all started, I never wanted to be Carly Nolan again. My own life hadn’t been worth finishing. I tried to be like her. I wanted to be her. Caroline was as wild as she was beautiful. When she walked into a room, everyone turned to look at her. To think that she was gone . . . well, it was too much. Maybe, maybe somehow she’d live on, if I took her name.

“She already had her Social Security card and she’d gotten a driver’s license after one of her boyfriends taught her to drive. She’d been working at Lotta Burger close to Dennie and Nola’s after school and on weekends. I figured I could get a job right away if I just pretended to be her.”

Jake began to pace, unwilling, unable to remain still any longer. Carly crossed her arms protectively, watching him almost warily whenever he moved close.

He paused a few feet away, stared down at her, wishing he hadn’t heard any of it. Not wanting to know she’d been through so much in such a short life. Amazed at how she must have had to work to become the woman she was now. She’d done it all on her own.

“So, by simply becoming yourself again when you left Borrego Springs, you were able to start over with a clean slate.” He shook his head. “It was ingenious, really. No one ever put two and two together.”

“You did. You found me.”

“Only because my partner, Kat, was reading a travel article about Geoff Wilson’s gallery and saw the painting that reminded her of one I have in my office. One that I bought from Wilt Walton.”

“What?”

“Right after Rick died, I went out to Borrego to find you. The Saunders’ story had run in all the local papers, claimed they were despondent, not only over the loss of their son, but their grandson. They accused you of being on drugs. You had disappeared with the baby. They feared for his life.”

“I’ve never had anything harder than pot and not even that after Caroline died. I’d never, ever let anything happen to Chris, and you know it.

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