One Summer: A Shelter Bay Novel by Joann Ross

Author:Joann Ross [Ross, Joann]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780451234001
Google: gT9rNQEACAAJ
Amazon: 0451234006
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2011-07-04T22:00:00+00:00

28

Charity was out on the porch when Gabe showed up at the house. She was not alone. Her mother, looking as if she’d been shopping for safari wear on Rodeo Drive, was with her.

While Charity wore what appeared to be her usual uniform of jeans and T-shirt, this one reading A Vet Is a Dog’s Best Friend, the older woman’s khaki silk shirt sported little wooden-button-tabbed epaulets. Her fabric belt was a leopard print that matched the frames of her oversized sunglasses, and her cuffed shorts showed off legs that a woman half her age might have considered killing for.

Instead of going with more practical running shoes, as her daughter was wearing, she’d opted for the type of brass-studded brown leather sandals a gladiator might have worn. Her auburn hair had been pulled back into a ponytail that stuck through the back of a black Prada baseball cap.

“Gabriel!” He was enveloped in a fragrant cloud as she hugged him, air-kissing both his cheeks. “It’s so lovely to see you again!”

“Good to see you, too, Mrs.—” Damn. He’d forgotten which of her many husbands’ names she was currently going by.

“Oh, call me Amanda, darling.” She patted the side of his face as she backed away. “Having a handsome Marine call me Mrs. makes me feel like I’m ready for a nursing home.”

“Hardly.” Since she was not so subtly fishing for a compliment, he gave her a slow male perusal, from the top of her bright head down to her toes, tipped in a grass green lacquer, which Gabe thought looked kind of weird, but guessed must be in style since he doubted that this woman had ever had an unfashionable day in her life. “You look terrific.”

“Thank you.” She flashed a satisfied smile. “I do try. To be perfectly honest, I feel like moping beneath the covers and feeling sorry for myself, but decided that the least I could do, since I was in town, was to help lift the spirits of those poor children out at the camp.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, trying to imagine Charity’s mother roasting marshmallows over a campfire.

“Mother’s going to be doing makeovers,” Charity revealed. “Here, let me take this little guy out to join the others.”

She held out her hand for the leash. When their fingers brushed, Gabe felt a familiar zing. Damn. He was in danger of, as Cole used to like to say whenever one of their team would tumble into the lust pit, becoming toast.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Charity, which he did, but Gabe decided to go along with her, just to check out the other dogs in the day care. The mutt wasn’t all that bright. What if he tried to pal up with some huge, badtempered dog that could eat him for lunch?

Which didn’t turn out to be the case. The moment he was let into the yard, he took off racing across the emerald green grass toward the polar bear, who let out a huge woof in recognition and immediately fell over, like a tree chopped down by a logger’s ax.

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